Female Singers Stir Blood in Darfur Women use song to incite men into conflict with neighbouring tribes.

By Blake Evans-Pritchard, Zakia Yousif - International Justice - ICC, ACR Issue 311, 4 Jan 12 Influential female singers known as Hakamat are still fuelling inter-tribal confli ct in Sudans Darfur region, despite efforts to teach them about building peace in their communities. Traditional songs which ridicule fellow tribesmen who try to defuse conflicts wi th neighbouring groups help stoke tensions in the region. In November 2011, two groups the nomadic cattle-herding Rizeigat tribe and the f arming community of Fayreen clashed on the border between Darfur and South Kordo fan region, resulting in dozens of deaths. The incident was a stark reminder of the power the Hakamat still exert within th eir communities. Although members of both groups were keen to avert bloodshed, i t was the female singers who commanded most influence. Like many clashes along this fractious border, the disagreement arose when cattl e belonging to the Rizeigat were allowed to wander onto communal farmland owned by the people of Fayreen. Fayreen tribesmen responded by slaughtering the cattle, prompting a strong respo nse from the Rizeigat. A temporary halt to hostilities was then called when the Fayreen offered to pay compensation for the loss of the cattle. The Rizeigat acc epted the offer. On returning to their village, the Fayreen men who reached the agreement were co nfronted by groups of Hakamat singing songs about cowardice. The women removed t heir Islamic headscarves to indicated their lack of respect for the men and to q uestion their manhood. They walked barefoot to suggest that the men had run away so fast that they did not have time to fasten their shoes. Faced with such ridicule, the men took up arms and returned to fight the Rizeiga t, resulting in dozens of deaths on both sides. UNAMID, the joint African Union and United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfu r, is keen to work with Hakamat women to teach them how they can help bring peac e to the region. But Saieed Salim, UNAMID public information assistant in Nyala, admits this is no easy task. It is difficult to change them to sing for peace, he said. It is possible to give t hem money and to organise some cultural events that the Hakamat can come and sin g at. But when they go back to their own tribes and communities, we see that the old values are still dominating their singing. UNAMID has participated in recent workshops to discuss peace-building initiative s with the Hakamat singers and has supported government efforts to set up educat ion programmes for them. Salim says such initiatives have enjoyed some measure o f success, but admits it is a slow process. Rasha al-Fangry, project co-ordinator in Khartoum for the NGO Peace Direct, has noticed some positive changes in the Hakamat singers recently, and says that the y are starting to understand the importance of promoting peace rather than war. It is not easy to get them involved in the peace songs, but on a community level

we see that people are fed up with taking revenge all the time, she said. These wo men have suffered a lot. They have lost their fathers and their sons. Explaining about peace can encourage them to take responsibility. In June last year, the Rizeigat and the Misseriya two nomadic tribes whose rival ry goes back generations clashed in North Darfur. Behind the line of fighters on each side stood a line of Hakamat women, using so ngs to exhort the men to wage war. Because of their encouragement, the fighting lasted more than three days and resulted in hundreds of deaths. Al-Fangry says that following this battle, some of the women got involved in a p roject to promote peace in the community. Since then, warfare between the two tr ibes has stopped. Huda Rahmatallah Moshawer, a Hakama from Nyala, recalls how her songs used to in spire men to go into battle. When I was 16 we were attacked by thieves who stole our cattle, she said. Some men went to fight to get our property back, and returned victorious with the cattle. Others fled in panic. We thanked those who returned in victory, and sang of the ir manliness. As for the others who ran away, we ridiculed them and sang about h ow they looked like men but were not really men. Moshawer says that these days, she advocates for peace and no longer provokes co nflict between communities. I still sing for my tribe and for my family, and I thank them for their presence and their generosity, she said. But I do not sing only for a specific tribe I sing for the Rizeigat, Hakamah, all of the tribes, that there may be peace among us. Omda Ahmed Ateem Osman, a tribal sheikh and coordinator for camps for displaced people in and around El-Fasher in North Darfur, explains why the Hakamat women m atter so much. The Hakamat are an integral part of the cultural management of the community, he s aid. This makes them exist right in the centre of the community, and so the singe r comes to represent the entire tribal mini-society and becomes part of the admi nistrative structure of Darfur. It is difficult to quantify how prevalent the Hakamat are, but according to Al-F angry, they remain an important component of the vast majority of tribes in Darfu r. It is not just tradition that drives the women to sing about war. Money plays a role, too. During the Darfur conflict, Hakamat were regularly used by tribal leaderships as a way of influencing communities, often in return for payment. Traditionally, women used to support men in this respect, said al-Fangry of Kharto um for Peace Direct. Recently, we are seeing them singing because they are receiv ing funds, perhaps from the tribe or the chief. If we provide them with money, t hen they wont sing about war as their major source of income. The sheikh says it is worth trying to get women to sing for peace, but he warns these efforts have to match the realities on the ground. For those who want to encourage the Hakamat to play a role in the peace process, they have to look at the problem in its entirety rather than just focus on this

part, Osman said. If they sing about peace whilst there is no real peace to speak of in Darfur, this could make them lose the support of their community. Osman also says that anyone arranging work with the Hakamat must be careful to e nsure the initiative is perceived as politically neutral, given the history of p rotracted conflict in the region. Communities in Darfur now have a greater degree of awareness [than in the past] a nd they cannot be exploited again, he said. So are these initiatives having the desired effect? Mariam Mohammed Adam Abu Alh emeira, director of a local NGO called Alrohamaa, thinks that they are working, but that it will take time to see results. She says the Hakamat are now more likely to interact with different tribes and h ave a better-informed overview of the region, rather than just having an isolate d view based around their own tribe. Today the Hakamat are peaceful not as they were before, when they were used for w ar. The Hakamat are often illiterate and uneducated. But today they know where r esponsibility towards country and community lies. They have now learned that the command go to war is not good and that that this destroys the rights of others. N ow they say, I call for peace. Blake Evans-Pritchard is an IWPR trainer. Zakia Yousif is a Radio Dabanga report er in Hilversum and an IWPR trainee.