The Genocide in CAR: More Than Just A Blog Post

Over the course of this semester, my blog group and I studied the Genocide in the Central African Republic. Although the conflicts have been going on for quite a while, we primarily focused on the major developments this semester, and analyzing their impact on the rest of the CAR. We discovered that the bulk of the conflict is based in the Christian population’s need to rid the country of Muslims. The government lost all power towards halting the rising death count when the capitol was taken by extremist groups. At this point, it looks as though there is no stopping the genocide. The Central African Republic, a poor and developing country, is already suffering from a lack of resources and is completely reliant on international help. No life is spared, with children being forced to join the rebel coalitions, and each citizen constantly threatened by the likelihood of rape or murder. This genocide is more than just a feud between religious extremists, it is the Central African Republic self destructing. The conflict within has affected every aspect of the CAR’s civilization, from governmental structure, to the country’s economy, to the devastating loss of lives within, and without humanitarian aid, it is hard to see an end to the violence in sight.

(An armed anti-balaka militiaman poses on the outskirts of the capital Bangui in the CAR.)

When working on a project, I prefer working alone to lugging around my partners any day, but my group on this project may have changed my mind. Because of the research heavy nature to assignment, we split up our topic into sub topics, and each researched just one area. By doing this, I feel we were able to learn about the Genocide in the Central African Republic more thoroughly. Rather than each member touching on the main details, we were able to look deeply into each particular area, and formulate a summary that allowed us to both learn and express more information. Another way that we completed our work was through splitting up the ‘publication jobs.’ For example, I was in charge of taking everyone’s notes and turning them into a coherent paragraph format. This was helpful to me because not only did I end up with a strong grasp of all of the information, but I was able to practice writing, something that I truly do enjoy. I used primarily the Al Jazeera and BBC to find my information, as they seemed to cover the genocide best.

(Typical feel of our group meetings as shown by google images)

Before starting this project, I knew literally nothing about the topic other than that ‘Genocide in Central African Republic’ sounded like something with a lot of dimensions and the possibility of developing over the course of the semester. And boy, was I right. By studying this topic, I got the chance to learn and study in depth the happenings of a common day genocide. Being raised in the american schooling system, I feel that high school students are often censored from the true violence and pain occurring outside our perfect ‘nation under the stars.’ This project really allowed me to research a topic with no blocked off borders, and no teacher telling me I can or cannot present certain information. On top of this, the Genocide in CAR really exemplifies the topics we have been learning in class. From identity politics, to humanitarian aid, to violence within previously colonized countries, the Genocide in CAR was a strong example of the Global Political system from a view other than the American. I enjoyed participating in this project and working with my group despite the 'to be expected' yet random miscommunications. Overall, this project was more than just your standard blog post, it was a way to apply the material of this class to real events happening now around the world, and a chance to study something I never have.