If there is an event on campus this week students should try to attend, it's the debut performance of "If Thy Tongue Can Speak," a collection of monologues researched and written by School of International Service sophomore Leah Bomberger. The play, which Bomberger describes as a "snapshot" of the structural and physical violence commonplace to the Congolese, transforms technical human rights reports and speeches into emotionally engaging narratives that even those unfamiliar with the conflict will find informative and intriguing.
The real significance of the play is its emotional value. In an endless sea of official documents, news articles and academic journals that offer analyses of the Congolese conflict, Bomberger's characters are most resonant. Their monologues bypass the confusion and ambiguity that often discourage most students from studying the region, instead depicting the Congolese's struggle in a language that everyone, regardless of political, social or economic disposition, can understand: through emotions and experiences.
If anything, Bomberger's efforts largely underscore the importance of art as a form of political discourse. As we opined last semester when Fernando Botero's Abu Ghraib exhibit debuted in the AU museum, visuals personalize often distant tragedies. Art provides a way for students to comprehend how their studies - and the decisions their education informs - affects a group of people more than an ocean away.
Her timing is equally impeccable. In a week filled with visits from and discussions with important international figures, Bomberger's awareness is acute. Her play serves as a reminder of the many conflicts raging in Third World countries that we often (albeit sometimes accidentally) neglect. Not to diminish the efforts of the many students who promote human rights and equality in Sudan or Tibet, but the commercialization of humanitarian crises is a tragedy for which the world's poorest and most abused pay the price. And as last week's panel suggested, the "Darfur-chic" phenomenon has inescapable consequences for other African or Asian nations that receive little if any attention from mainstream media. Bomberger, in the most active way possible, seeks to combat that destructive correlation with her emotionally jarring depiction of the Congo.
And, of course, constructing an entire play out of documents and testimonies at such a busy time of the year indicates devotion worthy of the highest level of admiration. If there's one uniting element at AU, it's students' commitment to social justice, and Bomberger's play epitomizes that aim in a way that even the most unaffected students can understand.
Of course, we implore students to see the monologues, especially those who know little about the Congo. Bomberger's play is a rare and personal glimpse into a conflict otherwise expressed through confusing, murky and cold statistics and analyses. What it is not, however, is just another play.
