March 29, 2007
The Forgotten War?
Magnum Photos
Central African Republic. February 2007. Anti-government rebels living in the bush. Same area as makeshift camps for displaced civilians, suspected of harboring or sympathizing with the rebels, who fled after their villages were torched by government forces. Thomas Dworzak/Magnum Photos
In the 1983 movie "Under Fire," an American weekly news magazine publishes a photo of an African conflict with the headline "The Forgotten War." In response, the writer jokes to the photographer that the headline is a way for the editors back home to feel less guilty about not knowing about the war themselves.
With neighbors such as Chad, Sudan and the DRC, the tiny Central African Republic has not received intense media coverage, as Thomas Dworzak commented on his return from the country.
On his first trip to the continent, Dworzak spent some time in the Central African Republic and later commented on how unstructured his time spent with the rebels was. His experiences covering other stories have been significantly different. Access is often used as a strategic tool to control how conflicts are portrayed.
In the Central African Republic, he said, the rebels seemed pleased to receive any attention from the outside world.
Published on the Magnum Blog on March 29, 2007
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