Sudan: Darfur’s Beauty, Peace Negotiations & The Complex Sudanese Dating Scene · Global Voices
SudaneseDrima

To many people, the name Darfur is synonymous with terror, death and hopelessness. Darfur, as we will soon see, is a very beautiful place despite the human suffering.
We'll start this round up with some wonderful pictures of Darfur posted by Precious, a Sudanese girl in her early 20's who works for an NGO in Sudan:
Last week in the NGO where I work, they needed someone to go to our office in Darfur for some IT job, (Not that I am at the IT Department) but anyway, I suggested I would go.. I've always wanted to see other places in Sudan, including Darfur, Juba, Kassala and Kadugly..
Unfortunately, My mum did not agree, I begged and plead for hours, no use! I was so dissapointed!
The next days when I told my colleagues at work bout my dissapointment, one of them showed me these pics taken from his last trip to Kadugly and Abu Jebaiha..
Daana Lost in Translation also has another picture of Darfur.
She also blogged about movies about Africa and commented specifically on Leonardo Di Caprio's use of the phrase “God forsaken continent” to describe Africa in the movie Blood Diamond:
Also through out the movie he keeps referring to Africa as the God forsaken continent, but I call it a man forsaken continent. God did not forsake Africa; on the contrary God has embraced Africa, and nourished it with many gifts, but man has failed that land with his selfishness and foolishness.
Nomadic Thoughts, a Sudanese living in Tanzania chose to blog an excellent and amusing post about the complex world of dating in Sudan:
Already the dating scene in Sudan is more complex than politics, once you’re seen with someone from the opposite sex on what qualifies as a “date”, know that in that moment you have just made history. I have visions of myself when I’m a great grandmother and people will still be able to recall the names of my ex’s. Taking into account the number of times you had to blow off the date because you didn’t want to seem too available/easy, and then while you’re on the date you’re recalling all the “do’s and don’ts” that your girlfriends made you memorize because in our society you don’t want to break the set/acceptable social rules of behavior.
Black Kush brought Luol Deng, a Southern Sudanese Dinka who plays professional basketball with the Chicago Bulls, to our attention:
Luol Deng had 26 points, five rebounds, six assists, two steals and one block in the Bulls 107-89 game two win over the Heat on Tuesday 24th April.
Aperadosini wrote an interesting post about choice Vs predestination:
…believing in fate/destiny would make life seem somewhat pointless if your path in life was already set for you, and ultimately would mean that we have no freewill since that will is controlled by a supreme being. This was one of my issues with the concept of God already knowing if we were meant to go to heaven or hell. If He already knows then what's the point in creating us?
Last but not least, Drima, The Sudanese Thinker commented on the recent Libyan talks on Darfur:
The heat is on and I believe there is genuine concern. One of the things that can really complicate this is the fact that during the last year or so, rebel factions have continued to split up into various sub factions, each with their own and sometimes conflicting agendas. The rebels need to reach a common goal. Fingers crossed.