Table of Contents
TWO - SMALL TALK BRUTAL EVENTS
NINE - FINDING A BROTHER MAKING A NEW FRIEND
ELEVEN - “SEEDS OF THE NEW SUDAN”
FOURTEEN - CROSSING THE GILO RIVER
SEVENTEEN - BLOOD SMOKE AND EARTH
EIGHTEEN - “HOW ARE WE TO LIVE?”
TWENTY - FAMILIES LOST AND FOUND
TWENTY-TWO - VYING FOR A LOST LOVE
TWENTY-THREE - HEALING EMOTIONAL SCARS
TWENTY-FIVE - THIRSTY FOR KNOWLEDGE
TWENTY-SIX - KNOCK AND IT SHALL OPEN
TWENTY-SEVEN - PAINFUL FAREWELLS
TWENTY-EIGHT - U.S.A.: DREAMING AND REALITY
THIRTY-ONE - AMERICAN LIFE, SUDANESE DREAMS
DEDICATION
This story is dedicated to those who sacrificed their lives in Sudan’s 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 crisis—particularly children—looking 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 world’s 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 Sudan’s barren land, menaced by starvation, disease, wild animals and shrapnel from their own government’s helicopter fire. The world community made little effort to relieve their suffering. Though the peace accord was signed in 2005, a similar crisis