Ali B. Ali-Dinar
Who he is: Associate director of the University of Pennsylvania's African Studies Center and grandson of Sultan Ali-Dinar, the last king of Darfur.
Who he is:
Associate director of the University of Pennsylvania's African Studies Center and grandson of Sultan Ali-Dinar, the last king of Darfur.
How he's helping Africa:
As president of Philadelphia's Darfur Alert Coalition, Ali-Dinar has helped raise donations to buy about 600 solar cookers for women who have fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur province and are now raising their families in refugee camps in Chad.
Why that matters:
In addition to easing the physical burden of collecting firewood, the solar-powered "CooKits" help protect women from being raped when they leave the secure camps to search for wood to cook their children's meals.
More good works:
When the United Nations or the BBC or a local high-school class needs an expert on the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Ali-Dinar is the go-to guy. The Darfur Information Center, which he founded, is a respected on-line resource.
Still more:
In Pennsylvania politics, he's advocating a law that would divest state pension money from companies doing certain types of business in Sudan (like selling weapons) that imperil civilians. The intent is to pressure the government there to end the genocide that's killed an estimated 200,000 civilians in Darfur and displaced millions.
Africa cred:
Ali-Dinar was born in El Fasher, Darfur's biggest city and his grandfather's former seat of power. While he wasn't brought up in a palace, he had a good life. "I just grew up like any normal kid in the city," he says.
He came to Philly in 1987 to earn his doctorate in folklore at Penn and has been one of us ever since. This summer he visited El Fasher — and in six weeks both met and married the girl of his dreams, a high-school math and physics teacher. The new Mrs. Ali-Dinar's first name is Farha. "It means joy," he says, adding that 3,000 guests attended their four-day reception.
In Philly:
The grandson of African royalty lives in a rowhouse in the Far Northeast, near the intersection of Roosevelt Boulevard and Bustleton Avenue.
When he's not out helping to save the world ...
He's answering congratulatory — often mystified — calls and e-mails from his Philadelphia friends about his whirlwind romance in Africa. "That is the difference between here and there," he says. "There, people can be very content without a long courtship. Sometimes that's how marriage is. I hope I'll be lucky."
To get involved in his cause:
Go to
» READ MORE: http://go.philly.com/teamafrica
and click on the Darfur Alert Coalition. A $25 donation will buy one solar cooker, and the site has ideas for lobbying your state legislator to back the divestment law. *
— Becky Batcha
