The Northwest Voice

By: Marjorie Bell, Community Contributer

    Tent painting, films, a Fair Trade bazaar, and a book discussion will all be part of a special Ode to Africa weekend Nov. 9 through 11 at First Congregational Church, 5 Real Road (at Stockdale Highway). 

    The tent is one at at least 40 nationally that will  raise awareness for the plight of people in Darfur in Sudan.  It will be delivered to Washington, D.C. as part of the Tents of Hope campaign on the National Mall Sept. 5-6 of next year.

    “The tents are symbols of hope and compassion,” said First Congregational/UCC youth director Nancy Bacon, who met  Rev. Tim Nonn of the Tents of Hope organization (tentsofhope.org) at the UCC national synod meeting this summer in Connecticut. Bacon said that Nonn, a UCC minister in Petaluma, will be in Bakersfield that weekend as part of the educational activities at the church. 

    Tents of Hope is a yearlong event recently endorsed by the National Council of Churches USA (NCC) to encourage community-based responses to events in Darfur.  Rev. Nonn has been an important figure in the movement to educate Americans about the crisis in Darfur.  Founder of the humanitarian group Dear Sudan, he is also project director of Judgment on Genocide, a symbolic international citizens’ tribunal that will convene in New York City on Nov. 13 to try Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in absentia for crimes against humanity.

    Rev. Nonn, in an article in a recent “Petaluma Courier,”  describes the al-Bashir regime “criminal to its core, led by men responsible for 500,000 deaths of innocent civilians and 3.5 million displaced persons.”
   
    The Bakersfield event will also include a discussion of the book “The Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” about  children in Sierra Leon, who have been abducted and consigned to the military there. 

    “Similar situations exist in various places in Africa and other parts of the world,” Bacon said.

    Starbucks, which is selling the book, will donate $2 for each book sold to UNICEF.  The discussion group at the church will be on Saturday at 11 a.m. led by Cal State Bakersfield University lecturer in botony, Anna Jacobsen, who has lived in sub-Saharan Africa.  The public is invited to participate.

    In addition to the tent-painting event on Saturday, the church is sponsoring a Fair Trade bazaar selling baskets, jewelry and various  gifts from Third World countries. 

    “A large portion of the profits go back to the original artisans,” Bacon said.

    The award winning documentary, “God Grew Tired of Us,” will be shown at 4 p.m. at the church.  “It shows the true life stories of some African boy soldiers who were rescued and brought to the U.S.,” Bacon said. 

    UCC volunteer and film editor Peter Keller from Los Angeles will also speak on Saturday about the Aid Africa organization.  Keller travels to Africa regularly to assist wherever needed.  “He’s such an inspirational person,” Bacon said.  “He takes little kids to get shots and medication when they’re ill.  Many of these children would die without the 60 cents worth of medicine that volunteers such as Keller could help provide.”

    The Ode of Africa weekend will culminate in the Sunday morning worship service at 10 a.m. with a drum circle.  Rev. Nonn will be participating in the service.

    “This should be a great event for all ages, but we especially encourage high school and college students to come to learn how to become advocates for the youth of Africa,” Bacon added.

     For more information about any of these activities, call the church at 327-1609.