More than 300 students from five Archdiocese of Louisville Catholic high schools pulled an all-nighter last Friday night — not to study for exams, but to learn about violence in Africa and what they can do to help end it.

One of the event’s speakers, Father Lawman Chibundi, a native of Zambia and a Louisville priest, praised the students for “lighting a fire of knowledge” about the violence.

The “Light the Night for Africa” event was sponsored by social awareness clubs from St. Xavier, Assumption, Trinity and DeSales high schools and Sacred Heart Academy. The students spent the night under a picnic pavilion at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer Park in Eastern Jefferson County. They donned blankets between activities to keep warm in the cold March night. And they warmed up during intermittent blasts of African drumming and performances by local bands.

The night included a liturgy, speakers and three documentaries focusing on two conflicts: the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan and the ongoing violence in Uganda in which children have been forced to become soldiers.

Father Chibundi, a priest of the Archdiocese of Louisville who came here from a village in southern Africa seven years ago, praised the students for raising awareness about the genocide in Darfur — a conflict he said he didn’t know enough about until he was asked to speak at the event. He said he quickly started researching the conflict on the Internet.

“You all have exposed my ignorance about the plight of a group of people living 2,000 miles from my village,” he told the students. “How many people don’t know and don’t care about what is happening in the world we live in?”

Father Chibundi, associate pastor of St. Frances of Rome Church, said his own uncle and brother have taken part in peacekeeping missions in Darfur. But the conflict still didn’t mean much to him, he said.

“You would think I would know, but I turned it off because it didn’t concern me,” he said.

“But when 200,000 people have died, should it bother me then?” he asked them. “When 400,000 people have died, should it bother me then? When 2.5 million people have been displaced, should it bother me then? Maybe it should bother me when just one child goes without food.

“I ought to be bothered,” he noted, “because we are one world.”

“Thank you for exposing my ignorance,” Father Chibundi added. “It is my prayer that we continue to educate and expose our ignorance.”

The genocide in Darfur has been ongoing since 2003 and is being conducted by militants known as the janjaweed, who are supported by the Sudanese government. It began as retaliation for attacks by rebel groups. But the atrocities in Darfur — including killings, rape and torture — are targeted indiscriminately at men, women and children.

Students at the event last weekend signed a petition to urge Kentucky lawmakers to pass Sudan “divestment” legislation. House Bill 703 would “encourage” the state-administered retirement system and the State Investment Commission to divest themselves of investments in Sudan. The bill passed the Kentucky House of Representatives March 11 by a 97-0 vote. It is now in the Senate State and Local Government Committee.

Federal legislation — known as the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act — was signed into law by President George W. Bush late last year. It enables states to pass legislation allowing companies to divest and prohibits companies that do business with Sudan from seeking or renewing contracts with the U.S. government.

Another petition the students signed urged more support for peacekeeping forces — in particular, creation of a stronger U.N. force in Sudan — an increase in aid and access to aid for victims, and stronger pressure on Sudan to end the genocide.

The teenagers learned more about the conflict in Darfur during the screening of a documentary narrated by actor George Clooney, called “Sand and Sorrow.”

They also watched two other films that document the plight of people in Uganda. The films were produced by Invisible Children, a national grassroots organization led by young people that raises awareness and money for Uganda through film-making and student groups.

Cassie Herrington, a Sacred Heart Academy senior, serves as a representative of Invisible Children at her school. A concert she helped coordinate last year raised $3,000 for a school in Uganda. In the fall, she and her classmates helped raise an additional $3,000 with a bake sale and the showing of Invisible Children films.

Another concert — to benefit both Darfur and the school in Uganda — is being planned by several local high schools for late April. Herrington said they are still looking for a venue.

Herrington speaks passionately about the children in Uganda who, she said, are forced to stay on the move, sleeping in a different place each night to avoid capture by rebel groups who will force them to become soldiers. The conflict in Uganda has been ongoing for two decades and sprang from a post-colonial power struggle.

“This is a right to life issue,” said Herrington, urging Catholics to do something to help the children in Uganda. “These are children who deserve the same rights as children across the globe.

“Every night the children displace themselves,” she said. “The rebel army will abduct them. Ten- to 13-year-olds are most vulnerable because they can carry a weapon,” and they are more impressionable.

Dr. Sarah Watson, a faculty member at St. Xavier who helped coordinate the event, said the students at St. X came up with the idea for the “Light the Night” event and worked to get the other schools involved because “they wanted it to be bigger than we were.”

“They are passionate about the cause,” she said.

Asked about the source of their passion, Watson said, “I would call it outrage.”

She said, “They learn in history about the Holocaust, and they hear about Rwanda” where more than 500,000 people were killed over the course of 100 days in 1994. “We have promised, how many times, ‘Never again.’

“They don’t want it to be on their watch,” Watson said of the students. “They feel empowered to make some noise. They write to their congressmen. They’re not shy about telling you what they believe.”

Adam Orr, a member of St. Xavier’s social justice club, said he and other members of the group are driven by an innate desire to help.

“It’s our responsibility to help those who can’t help themselves,” he said. “If it wasn’t this cause, it would be something else. But this is at the forefront of our generation.”