The Mission of Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy

Through non-partisan research, analysis and public education, Damanga promotes the human rights of the people of Darfur, Sudan and elsewhere in the world. We educate the people of the region, the United States of America and beyond about their rights to freedom, equality and participation in government. Damanga seeks to aid the disempowered, including the victims of the Darfur conflict, through charitable work supporting education and livelihoods, so these people can work for the preservation of their communities.

Damanga works toward these objectives through publication on our web site of non-partisan research and analysis and presentations based on this research and analysis. Damanga makes these presentations at academic institutions, faith-based groups, human rights events and responds to invitations from concerned individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds.

Furthermore, Damanga seeks to protect the people of Sudan whose lives have been violated and marginalized because of their ethnicity, religion, gender, culture or language. Damanga wishes to improve the lives of the 5 million Massaleit, Fur, Dajo, Zagawa, Bargi, Tama, Gimir, Berty, and other displaced peoples in the Darfur region of Sudan. Damanga will continue to contact people in cities, in villages, and in refugee camps, to advocate in the world community on their behalf, and to establish a center for the purpose of gathering and disseminating information about the current crisis in Darfur.

By creating and maintaining a link between the oppressed people of Darfur and Western organizations, governments, and the media, Damanga hopes to coordinate a movement to end the genocide in Darfur, stop the oppression, and to establish the foundations of democracy. In order to accomplish this the founders of Damanga recognize that the following conditions must be met:

• An international tribunal must be established to prosecute all those who have committed war crimes against the people of Darfur;
• All internally displaced persons must be guaranteed the right to return to their towns and villages, they must be given free and full access to humanitarian aid, even in the most remote areas of the region, and they must be compensated for lives and property lost;
• Once the people of Darfur are returned to their land they will need basic resources in order to build houses, schools, hospitals and other basic necessities of life;
• Finally all of Sudan's people must be allowed equal political rights, which includes sharing in the power and wealth of the country.

The History of Damanga

Damanga is a new organization that works on human rights and advocates for peace and democracy in Darfur and Sudan. Mohamed Yahya, Damanga’s volunteer Executive Director and one of Damanga’s founding members, is the Chairmen of the Representatives of the Massaleit Community in Exile (RMCE), a human rights Group that was founded in Egypt by Yahya and others in 1995 to alert the world of the abuses unfolding in Western Sudan. Mr. Yahya and Damanga’s other founding members have established Damanga to expand upon the human rights work and support efforts undertaken by RMCE in the past.

As a student living in Cairo in 1995, Mohamed Yayha started to receive first hand reports of the terrible crimes that were being committed by the Sudanese government and its Janjaweed pro-Arab militias. It quickly became apparent to Mohamed Yahya that Sudan’s NIF Regime was engaged in a policy to rid Western Sudan of its Black African ethnic population. Mohamed Yahya and other Sudanese students living in Cairo sought to alert the international community of the humanitarian crisis that had begun to unfold in Western Sudan so they started an organization called the Representatives of the Massaleit Community in Exile (RMCE). Since that time the RMCE has been dedicated to ending the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Sudanese government against the people of Darfur.

RMCE’s founding members came form many different ethnic Sudanese backgrounds including the Massaleit, Fur, Dajo, Zagawa, Bargo, Gimir, Tama, Berty, Barno, Meme, people from the Nuba Mountains, South Sudan, and other parts of Sudan. Believing that the pen is mightier than the sword, the members of the RMCE sought to protect the people of Darfur through peaceful means such as advocacy and education. With no financial resources, Mohamed Yayha and other members of the RMCE began this work by writing reports and circulating them, on foot, to all the Embassies in Cairo, Egypt. Their first major open letter to the international community was distributed in this way in 1995 and within weeks of its distribution it was widely referenced by the international community, including the UN General Assembly Publication. Kofi Annan has often quoted this letter in his speeches. In this way the RMCE was the first group to alert the world to the genocide that was unfolding in Darfur. Since this time the RMCE has been working relentlessly, and with no outside funding, to continue distributing the information it receives from those living in Darfur, and the refugee camps in Chad, in order to focus attention on the continuing atrocities unfolding daily in the Sudan.

Working in Cairo with the office of the United Nations High Commission of Refugees (UNHCR), RMCE was also able to sponsor nearly 95% of refugees fleeing Sudan. Mohamed Yahya helped ensure that these refugees received political asylum and resettlement in many countries around the world, including the USA and Canada, Europe and Australia. In 2002, fearing reprisal from the Sudanese government for the humanitarian work that he was doing, Mr. Yahya decided to apply for political asylum to the USA. He has continued to lead the RMCE and advocate for the people of Sudan while in exile in the USA. The Damanga Coalition of Freedom and Democracy was founded to expand on the work of RMCE here in the USA.

Click here for a timeline of RMCE activities.

The Meaning of Damanga

The damanga is the most important part of a family's home. Sometimes written "Damanka" or "Dabunga," it is a large storage vessel used by Sudanese farmers to preserve food. It takes women between three days and a week to build a damanga, made from mounds of a mixture of clay, water and dried grass, because each layer needs to dry before the next layer can be piled on. After the damanga is completed, it is left for two weeks to bake in the sun until it is completely dry. When it hardens, the damanga becomes very heavy and cannot be moved or carried. A hut is usually built over the damanga so as to protect it from the torrents of water during the rainy season.

Damangas are used to store crops (e.g. maize and corn) to keep them from spoiling, and these provisions can be lifesaving rations in the event of a famine. Farmers sometimes hide their money or other valuables in the bottom.

This unique aspect of Sudanese farmers' daily life gave birth to the Arabic adage "al-donya Damanka derdogo Beshaish" ("the world is like a Damanga, roll it carefully"), which essentially means that life is precious and the world is filled with danger and risk, so be careful and take it easy, or it could be destroyed (like a fragile damanga that will break if rolled hastily).