The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Gretchen Steidle Wallace (Author)
Key Phrases: sector commander, monitoring team, been torched, Nuba Mountains, Major Joseph, African Union (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This impassioned memoir is a cry of conscience and an informative, if politically and historically limited, analysis by a former U.S. Marine. Steidle began work in Sudan in 2004, as a military contractor with the two-year-old Joint Military Commission to monitor the fragile cease-fire agreement in Africa's longest civil war between the Arab-dominated government of Sudan in the north and the rebel SPLA representing black African tribes of the south. As his career advances, Steidle is drawn into the province of Darfur, where government troops and government-backed Arab militias (known as Janjaweed or "the devil on a horse") operate against a 2003 uprising of black African tribes (overwhelmingly fellow Muslims) in a campaign whose virulence and destruction clearly amount to genocide. Steidle, who eventually became an unarmed American military observer for the African Union's cease-fire coalition, composed this account with his sister, an activist and founder of Global Grassroots, in conjunction with their documentary film of the same name and a traveling photo exhibit and college lecture tour. Drawing heavily on notes and e-mails home, Steidle's personal and fluent account effectively channels an idealistic, adventuresome young man's growing frustration and horror in the face of ongoing crimes against humanity and international complacency. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Former U.S. Marine Steidle was part of an unarmed team sent to Darfur, Sudan, by the African Union to monitor compliance with a cease-fire agreement between rebel groups. Armed with a camera and notebook, Steidle chronicled his six-month mission, witnessing the harrowing aftermath of violence and the ongoing genocide. He found himself in the line of fire, was taken hostage, and ultimately morphed into a correspondent as he unburdened himself via e-mails sent home. He recounts the ineffectiveness he felt in his role as observer and his frustration that the international community has done so little to intervene in the massive killing of non-Arab citizens. More than a firsthand account of the horrors of genocide, this is a stirring account of one man's transformation in the face of the inhumanity of senseless death, and the occasional moments of humanity in the midst of violence. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs; 1 edition (March 26, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586484745
• ISBN-13: 978-1586484743
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #105,757 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #14 in	Books > History > Africa > Sudan
  #20 in	Books > History > Africa > North Africa
  #26 in	Books > History > Africa > East Africa

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling First-Hand Descriptions of the Darfur Crisis, May 10, 2007

By	John Uniack Davis (West Africa) - See all my reviews

Former U.S. Marine Brian Steidle signed on to go to Darfur on an African Union ceasefire monitoring mission, but standing idly by while "African" civilians were massacred, mutilated, and raped by predominantly "Arab" tormenters in the service of the Sudanese Government was not what he had bargained for. In his eyes, he gained a small measure of redemption by meticulously documenting everything he saw, heard, and experienced, and then trying to stir the world's conscience, though this was certainly not his initial intention.

This book's greatest strength comes from the vivid and detailed descriptions of the author's often-harrowing experiences. The Devil Came on Horseback pulls no punches in describing the slow-motion tsunami that the Khartoum regime is inflicting upon its people. Steidle provides great descriptions of events and sequences of events, and these are supported by a very good map of Darfur, which enables the reader to follow the evolution of events on the ground.

What is often lacking in the book is a detailed analysis of the complicated social, cultural, and political context of the Darfur conflict and genocide, though in Part Three ("Genocide") he provides more of this kind of information than he does earlier in the book. His outrage and passion are palpable, but analysis is often lacking. A novel aspect of this volume is that the author is a military observer, but he unfortunately does not look very deeply at the political constraints or other factors that hinder the effectiveness of African Union forces. Steidle's military background would have given him an interesting vantage point from which to examine the pros and cons of peacekeeping forces led by the African Union as opposed to the United Nations, for example, but he never goes into much detail on these important issues.

Nevertheless, Steidle's first-hand witnessing of actual events in the Darfur tragedy is a valuable addition to the existing emerging literature on Darfur. This book is a great companion volume to works that focus on the social, political, and historical context of the Darfur humanitarian crisis, such as Gerard Prunier's The Ambiguous Genocide or Julie Flint and Alex de Waal's A Short History of a Long War.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read to understand Darfur, May 3, 2007

By	M. H. Bixby "Lives in the Balance" (DC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur by Brian Steidle and Gretchen Steidle Wallace is the story of Captain Steidle's year as an observer with the African Union Mission in Darfur. The book is an earnest account of attacks Steidle witnessed and investigated, and the photographs section is particularly powerful. It's a must-read to understand what life on the ground for Darfuri civilians was like during some of the worst of the genocide in 2004. There are some very disturbing descriptions of attacks but there are also heartwarming moments of international (and local) understanding that will someday help end the crisis.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GENOCIDE IN PROGRESS..., January 3, 2008

By	Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This is an eyewitness account of the genocide in Darfur. In 2004, former marine, Brian Steidle, signed on with the Joint Military Commission (JMC) for a position as a Patrol Leader in the Sudan. The JMC was created to oversee conflict in central Sudan and monitor a ceasefire. His job was to consist of investigating ceasefire violations. Steidle accepted the position with the JMC totally ignorant of the area in which he would be working and its political issues and conflicts. By the time he arrived in the Sudan, a full blown genocide was in progress.

Steidle's role was that of reporting what he saw, and what he saw was a Sudanese government that stood idly by as innocent black African civilians, rather than rebel forces, were routinely killed and tortured by Arab civilians known as "Janjaweed" (the devil on horseback) with the seeming blessing of the Sudanese government based in Khartoum and the aid of its government troops. Frustrated by his watchdog role, Steidle carefully documented all that he saw in order to bear witness to this large scale genocide that was taking place and alert the world to it, as he was stationed where journalists were nowhere to be found.

His is a compelling birds-eye view of a regional conflict that degenerated into a full scale genocide of its native people. The shortcoming of the book is the author's ignorance of the area and its historical and political conflicts. Thus, nothing in the book is grounded into any particular context, causing it to be a somewhat one dimensional account. While the author's outrage is palpable, so is his ignorance. Still, it is a harrowing account of the suffering of the Sudan's black citizens and an indictment of the Sudanese government and the international community.