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In Darfur, a Journalist Branches Out
Awatif Ahmed Isshag, with her newspaper, Al Raheel, which she posts on a tree near her house in El Fasher. It may be the only independent local reporting on Darfur, where most media are controlled by the government.
(By Stephanie Mccrummen -- The Washington Post)
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For now, though, she is consumed with Al Raheel. Recently, she found financial supporters abroad who had heard about her work and sent a computer and printer. In the next week or so, she plans to launch a printed newspaper that she will distribute around town for free.
For now, her articles sometimes appear in a newspaper about Darfur published by the African Union, which has troops deployed in the region to enforce a failing peace agreement.
"People know me now," she said.
Isshag's sister originally started the newspaper on the tree, writing articles about El Fasher but with an emphasis on women's rights. When her sister died in 1998, Isshag took over. She was 15.
She had some experience working on a student radio program for children, for which she would interview people around town. "From the beginning, I liked journalism," she said. "I wanted to discover those who are intelligent and have talent, and I wanted to talk to them."
Isshag's father, a policeman, is supportive. Her mother relieves her daughter of chores so she has time to write the paper, the latest issue of which included stories about security in El Fasher, a famous Sudanese lawyer, general wishes for love and peace, and a poem criticizing government officials who pretend that everything is okay.
In another poem, she referred to the local governor derisively as "the sultan."
Her younger brother told her to be careful about saying such things. During a trip in January to Khartoum, Sudan's capital, Isshag received a harassing phone call that she believes came from someone in the government.
"He said to stop writing and to take care of your studies," she said, adding that the call hardly had its intended effect. "I'm not doing something wrong that I should be afraid. I'm doing something right."
Around Isshag's neighborhood Saturday afternoon, people passing by said they often read the news on the tree, or at least skimmed the headlines. Some said they preferred not to read about war; others said they considered it more truthful than what they hear on the government-run television and radio.
"This is a magazine that shows exactly what is happening in Darfur," said Mohamed Ali Hassan, 23. "The TV, sometimes they don't tell everything."
Readers are welcome to write corrections and criticisms along the margins of stories, Isshag said, and they often do.
Recently, a friendly government official in town offered her the office, and on Friday, Isshag was working on the next issue.
She said it would probably include local reaction to a recent announcement by the International Criminal Court, which named a high-ranking government official and a militia commander as war crimes suspects. And perhaps also an editorial.
"A message to people who are attacking," she said. "Don't send fire, send words. Words connect people."
