Table of Contents
DEDICATION
This story is dedicated to those who sacrificed their lives in Sudans civil war, those injured and mutilated by it and those displaced with no hope of returning to their homes. In a larger sense, we want it to bring hope to oppressed people everywhere who are in crisisparticularly childrenlooking for solutions as they remember the turmoil they endured. We pray that their dreams may become reality and the legacy of their suffering turn to happiness through that struggle. With faith in God, we hope that one day these people will find support and comfort by sharing stories of their painful journey as we have done in sharing ours.
Ayuel Leek Deng and Beny Ngor Chol
AUTHORS NOTE
These are the actual experiences and personal histories of Ayuel Leek Deng and Beny Ngor Chol, and this book reflects their opinions of the past, present and future. The personalities, events, actions and conversations portrayed within the story have been reconstructed from their memories, documents, letters, personal papers, press accounts and the memories of other participants. Events involving the characters happened as described; only minor details have been changed.
In an effort to safeguard the privacy of certain people, some locations, individuals names and identifying characteristics have been changed. Some minor characters are composites.
Map of Africa courtesy of the CIA World Factbook
PREFACE
Sometimes we look through a single window at one of the worlds many tragedies and are touched so deeply that we are forever changed. That happened to me when I met Ayuel Leek Deng and Beny Ngor Chol and heard their incredible story.
I knew Sudan was in Africa, but I had not been aware of the civil war between the North and the South, in which more than two million Sudanese had died and even more displaced. The war was still raging in 2001 when I first learned of the so-called Lost Boys of Sudan. Since I rarely miss a news cycle and am especially interested in global situations, I was shocked to learn that thousands of displaced children had walked for months across Sudans barren land, menaced by starvation, disease, wild animals and shrapnel from their own governments helicopter fire. The world community made little effort to relieve their suffering. Though the peace accord was signed in 2005, a similar crisis has erupted in Darfur. Fortunately, this situation is receiving media coverage.
In 2001, when several of the Lost Boyswho had spent their childhoods in refugee campsarrived in Kansas City, churches and community groups sought out mentors to help them adjust. I signed up. It soon became clear to me that these young men had goals in mind. Education was the first priority, followed by letting the world know about the plight of their country. They saw themselves as seeds of a new Sudan. You will understand why as you read this book. Ayuel and Beny asked me to write their story to get their message outthat there is a monumental crisis in Sudan. They and other refugees plan to do all they can, but their country also needs the resources of the rest of the world to help solve it.
This book presents the struggles of Ayuel and Beny, which, in some measure, reflect the universal experiences of millions of others.
My aim is to personalize the consequences of worldwide conflicts by showing how Ayuel, Beny and their friends dealt not only with the physical challenges, but also with the spiritual dimension of anger, revenge, faith and forgiveness.
My portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Greater Kansas City Lost Boys Network, Inc., a foundation that offers support and financial assistance to Lost Boys across the area.
Barbara Youree
ONE
GRIEF AND JOY
Somethings wrong over there, Ayuel said as he and Beny Ngor Chol Swalked down the dirt path toward the bulletin board in the refugee camp. Wonder why all those people are headed to the riverbank.
Maybe someones going to make a speech, suggested Beny, yet unaware of the anxiety Ayuel was feeling about the gathering crowd. Its probably too early for The List to go up anyway. Come, lets see whats going on.
The two young men turned from the International Rescue Committee office where they were headed and quickened their steps toward the dry riverbed. Miles of mud and straw huts dotted the vast plateau near the equator, home to orphaned children and a fewer number of intact families80,000 in all. In this desolate place in Kenya, Africa, only a few scrub trees survivedmuch like the fading hopes of the forgotten inhabitants.
Ayuel and Beny joined several people running toward the happening at the riverbank. The sound of pounding feetunaccompanied by voiceslent an eerie foreboding to the stillness. A breeze swirled dust in the warm morning air. The screech of a single hawk drew Ayuels eyes upward as he watched the raptor swoop low, flap its wings and soar again. Then, something else silhouetted against the emerging rays of sunlight. The excitement hed felt about searching for his name on The List melted into horror. Beny saw it at the same time, and both young men stopped and stared.
There, suspended from a high limb of the tallest tree on the bank, hung a body, limp like a dead bird.
A flash of light, then another, recorded what had happened. Why do they have to do that? As the cameraman stepped back, two other workers from the International Rescue Committee came forward with a stepladder.
Who is itthis time? Ayuel whispered to another friend of his, who stood at the edge of the crowd. Ayuel, a sensitive young man with fine features, felt his mouth dry and his breath come in short jerks.
Majok Bol. Hes from Zone Two Minor.
And from the Bor region where Im from. And Dinka too, like me. He remembered the tall, quiet boy with the charming smile.
As the two officers cut the rope and gently lowered the body, murmurs rose from the group of onlookers.
Majok was our best soccer player
Always a good sport.
He was the smartest in our group, a boy said through quiet sobs.
But no one asked why. They knew. All of them had thought about it at one time or another. Suicides didnt happen often, but when they did, those who had passed their childhood here in the refugee camp were left traumatized.
As the men carried the body away, the crowd dispersedsome crying softly, others hissing angry words between their teeth, or just gazing blankly into their own hopeless futures.
Ayuel and Beny stood facing each othershocked and devastatednot knowing what to say. Ayuel looked down at the spiral notebook he still carried in his hand. It contained the math notes hed gotten up early that morning to study. Why didnt I know? His after-school social work included suicide counseling to those showing signs. No one had alerted him.
Now, he recalled the day that first posting had gone up. He saw Majok leaving just as hed come to check for his own name. Majok had muttered something about it being hopeless to expect to see his name. Ayuel had tried to encourage him by saying there would be more listings and he was well-qualified.
