Diamonds in the Shadow

Primary Source photos

Historical Accuracy

Primary Source Documents

• What are they?
• What is another name commonly used for blood diamonds?

Blood Diamonds

• Who were the rebels?
• Why were they given that name?
• What did they believe?

Rebels

• What caused it?
• Who was fighting in it?
• How did it affect people in the United States?

Darfur Conflict

Major Concepts

Civil War Timeline

http://warindarfur.weebly.com/timeline.html

• Who were the child soldiers?
• What were they forced to do?
• Who were the Rebels?

Dowden, R. (2007). Blood, bullets and ice. New Statesman, 136(4829), 18.

Gainbari, I. (2012). Time to Consolidate Peace in Darfur. International Affairs: A Russian

Journal Of World Politics, Diplomacy & International Relations, 58(5), 149-153.

Reyna, S. P. (2010). The Disasters of War in Darfur, 1950-2004. Third World

Quarterly, 31(8), 1297-1320. doi:10.1080/01436597.2010.541083

Child Soldiers

Reflective Narrative

Other sources that verify historical accuracy

Diamonds in the Shadow was very interesting for me to read. I think it demonstrates how Americans can often be ignorant and insensitive to other cultures and countries. We can’t fully understand where environment people come from and what problems they may bring when they come to the United States. The plot in this book connects with me because the Finch family is Christian which is a big reason why they felt called to sponsor the African refugees. The Celestine and Andre Amabo also have very strong faith in God. I can relate to the faith aspect of this book because my faith is a major part of my life. The Finch family dynamics are also similar to mine because I have four people in my family and an older brother. The book is written in modern times so I can imagine myself going through a similar situation. The main character, Jared, undergoes an attitude makeover throughout the book. I have learned from personal experience that there is growth whenever a person experiences an event like Jared did.

• What is a refugee?
• What were the requirements for refugees?
• What is the environment of a refugee camp?
• Where were the refugees sent to?

Refugee Camps

http://www.darfurdaily.blogspot.com/2005/12/darfur-genocide-goes-on-and-on.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17DARFUR.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1362685454-y0Xilb2in4KZSOVQ5L1JzQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Darfur

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2004-05-23/news/0405230515_1_rwandan-genocide-sudan-darfur

Save Darfur Button

Blood Diamonds

http://julia-panter.blogspot.com/2011/05/janjaweed-and-genocide-in-darfur.html

http://www.cafepress.com/+sudan+ornaments

Darfur Region

http://cofcc.org/2010/02/news-blurbs/

http://www.informafrica.com/breaking-news-africa/west-africa-sees-highest-number-of-refugees-report/

Refugee Camp Chad

Number of Reported Battle-Deaths from Armed Conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2002-2006

http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/ud/kampanjer/refleks/innspill/afrika/cilliers.html?id=533452

A member of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army

Sudanese rebels walk past dead Sudanese government soldiers through a temporary military camp near the Darfur-Chad border.

http://www.gmmb.com/work/view/save-darfur1

http://www.eyesondarfur.org/crisis.html

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/world/kidnapped-peacekeepers-freed-in-darfur-unamid/story-fnd12peo-1226546840106

Save Darfur Coalition

• Africa Civil War called the Darfur Conflict
• Global Events- Mattu acknowledges the similarities of the Germany Holocaust to the Darfur Conflict.
• Movement of People- There were many refugees that fled the Darfur conflict to build a new life.
• Perspective- Mattu's perspective of American culture was that they have everything.
• Perspective- Jared's perspective at the beginning was that Africans wouldn't be able to speak much English.
• Cultural universal- everyone wants a loving family.
• Culture- Celestine wheres an African head wrap that shows the African culture.
• Cultural Universal- Alake shows the universal love for animals.

http://photonuke.blogspot.com/2011/06/darfur-conflict-2003.html?zx=52e19a44392491e7

Boy Soldiers

Global and Cross Cultural Connections

Mopsy Finch

Diamonds in the Shadow Timeline

During the time of the Darfur Conflict, the U.S. was in the Iraq War

• Jared's 11 year old sister
• Playful and immature
• She is very excited to have the family live with them.
• She believes it is her duty to take care of the female refugee, Alake.

• Blood Diamonds
• Refugee Camps
• Child Soldiers
• Darfur Conflict
• Genocide
• Rebels
• Refugee Aid Society

• 15 year old female African refugee
• She does not talk or make eye contact with anyone.
• The reader learnss that she is scarred because she was forced to become a child soldier and kill two of her teachers.

Alake Amabo

• 17 year old male African refugee.
• He can speak English well and he looks forward to getting an education and a part-time job in America.
• He was forced to smuggle diamonds into the U.S. by Victor.

Mattu Amabo

The Amabos start their lives in Connecticut. Celestine starts her job, Mattu learns how to drive, and they go to church with the Finches.

Jared's class has a discussion about how their ancestors got to America. This is the start of Jared's change of heart towards the Amabo family.

Jared realzes his ignorance about people from Africa.

Jared discovers the diamonds in the boxes that Mattu brought from Africa.

Jared shows affection to his father. This shows he has truly developed as a character.

The Amabo family arrives in America and meets the Finch family

Jared comes to the marina to find Victor. He saves Mopsy and Alake. The Amabo family gets to stay in America and start new lives in a new apartment.

The representative from the refugee society, Kirk Crick, comes to Jared's house to explain what the Amabo family's life was like in Africa.

• Mrs. Finch is excited to teach the refugees all about America.
• Mr. Finch is often distracted by work and problems at the church.

Historical Events and vocabulary

2005

Sept.

2005

• 17 year old American male.
• He has a very negative attitude toward sponsoring the refugees at the beginning.
• His character develops throughout the book
• He gets to know the Amabos and becomes fond of them.

Nov.

2002

Oct.

Mr. and Mrs. Finch

Jared finds out the Amabo family of four will be living with his family.

Jared Finch

• Jared suspects Celestine and Andre are not the parents of Mattu and Alake.
• 1st day of school with the refugees.

Jared confronts his mom about his suspicions of the Amabo family being imposters.

Alake has a flashback to when her sister was murdered in front of her by Victor.

Victor comes to Connecticut in search for the diamonds.

The families arrive at home and are bonbarded with publicity. Celestine and Andre get anxious and frightened by the photographers.

Victor

"Diamonds or no diamond, papers or no papers, Jared could not turn his family in. Because somehow, the Amabos had become his family." P. 122

"It had never crossed Jared's mind that the Africans would actually converse, and certainly not about important things like suffering. I'm a total racist, he thought. I figured they'd have a ten-word vocabulary. " p.32

• They pretend to be Mattu and Alake's parents.
• Celestine takes care of Andre because his hands were cut off in Africa.
• They are very thankful to be in America.
• Both have strong faith in God.

• Often referred to as the "fifth refugee"
• Killed the real Amabo family and forced the refugees to lie about their identies so he could smuggle the diamonds into America.
• Victor also killed Alake's sister and forced her to murder her teachers.
• Throughout the book he searches for the Amabos to get his diamonds back.

Andre and Celestine Amabo

Main

Characters

Significant quotes

"I'm already an American, thought Mattu. In Africa, you pray for one meal. In America, you pray to have it all."

"Often when a village is attacked, the boys are out in the fields watching the cattle. So parents get caught, killed or maimed, girls get raped and killed, villages get burned to the ground, but you boys get rounded up. They're forced to use machine guns and machetes on their own neighborss." P. 10

Diamonds in the Shadow, by Caroline B. Cooney, tells the story about the Amabo family escaping from their lives in Africa during the civil war in Darfur. The Finch family live in Connecticut in the 21st century and they sponsor the Amabos. Jared Finch is a teenage boy who does not like the idea of this family of four refugees staying at his house. However, his sister Mopsy, is excited about the possibility of having a new sister living with her. None of the Finches could have predicted that the Amabo family is not who they say they are. Diamonds in the Shadow tells the story about how these refugees try to forget about the horrors of war they left behind and try to start a new life in Connecticut. The families begin to live together and the Amabos learn more about the American culture. Eventually the reader learns that a man named Victor killed the real Amabo family and forced these people to smuggle diamonds into the United States. Victor comes to find them in Connecticut so he can sell the diamonds. In the end, Celestine and Andre embrace Mattu and Alake as their own children.

Students can relate to the book because the characters are young adolescents who live in the 21st century. The Darfur Conflict is a terrible civil war with mass genocide. Throughout the book, the refugees have several vivid flashbacks of their life in Africa. The young girl, Alake, remembers when she was forced to murder two of her teachers to save the life of her sister but her sister was killed anyway. Because of the somewhat violent content and the length of the book, I think it would be appropriate for 7th or 8th grade students. This book addresses several thematic strands of social studies. It would cover the first strand, culture, because the Amabos adapt to the American culture by learning American behaviors and sharing the Finch’s way of life. The book also addresses the similarities between the Holocaust and the Darfur genocide so this would include the 2nd strand of social studies because students can study the past to understand human history. The last strand of social studies this book addresses in the 4th one called individual development and identity. The characters develop throughout the book because of their lived experiences with each other.

C3 Standards for 7th grade: 1. Integrate visual information in order to describe specific political regions of the Eastern Hemisphere, and identify on a political map the major urban areas and countries including E. Africa – Cairo/Egypt, Nairobi/Kenya, South Africa, Libya, Sudan, and Nigeria. 5. Compare and contrast the major political systems of representative governments (democracy, republic, and constitutional monarchy) and authoritarian systems (dictatorship and absolute monarchy) including the role of the citizen in the selection of government officials, lawmaking, and the liberties guaranteed under different forms of government.

This book would be a great way to explore the recent atrocities of our world. The genocide in Darfur is a lot like the Holocaust so the students could do a project that would describe the causes of both events. Another lesson plan activity could be to analyze the many characters in the book. The students could break up into groups and be assigned a character. They would have to explain how the character changed from the beginning to end. A third activity could be to describe the American culture using the evidence from the book. This book could be integrated into math by exploring graphs, maps and the data from the Darfur Conflict. Another discipline it would include is Language Arts because students are encouraged to use their literacy skills by reading the book and writing a reflection of what they learned.

Cooney, C. B. (2007). Diamonds in the shadow. New York: Delacorte Press.

"Their culture and lifestyle, and the destructive qualities of war and long-term displacement in foreign countries have alienated them. It is our task to provide a warm, welcoming atmosphere in which they are not judged." P. 108

Synopsis