Sudanese refugees recounted their tales of exodus during the Second Sudanese Civil War at a dinner and discussion last night at Hillel.
"While most people have heard of the 'Lost Boys' who escaped Sudan and walked through Kenya, two of our speakers walked through Egypt and their stories are not as well known," said Helaina Stein, co-chair of the PANGEA's Refugee and Internally Displaced Peoples Committee. "It's great that they are here tonight to share them with us."
After the dinner, three guest speakers from the Sudanese Education Fund (SEF) spoke about leaving Sudan during its civil war and coming to America. The SEF is a Boston-based, non-profit organization that seeks to help refugees from southern Sudan gain access to education in the local area.
Alier Thon identifies himself as one of the "lost boys," a group of over 27,000 boys who were orphaned or displaced during the Second Sudanese Civil War, which began in 1983. Although the war technically ended in 2005 with a peace treaty, conflict persists and hundreds of thousands of refugees remain
displaced.
Thon described his village being attacked in 1987 and eventually escaping to Ethiopia with a group of boys, all of whom were between the ages of 12 and 15.
"It took us one month to get to the border, and it was a terrible journey," Thon said. "We had to walk through the desert without water or food, and we had to bury our friends when they died. It's all about survival; you don't have a choice."
Conditions were not much better once the group reached the Ethiopian refugee camp, where Thon stayed until 1991. After traveling to Kenya, he was able to come to the United States, where he experienced complete culture shock.
"Coming off the plane, everything was new to us," Thon said, sharing anecdotes about elements of life in the United States for which he was not prepared. "The doors would open by themselves. I would go around to see who opened the doors, and no one was there. And of course I definitely wasn't ready for the snow."
While refugees like Thon traveled to Kenya before leaving Africa, other refugees like Achol Macham left Sudan for Egypt. Macham talked about the difficulties of waiting in Egypt for authorization to come to the United States.
"For a Sudanese woman, living in Egypt was really hard," Macham said. "If someone called you an 'unga,' or black monkey, on the bus, you could never fight back because the whole bus would attack you. It's a nice place for vacation, but not for a Sudanese refugee. It's an extremely racial
climate."
Macham also talked about not knowing how to speak English when he came to the United States.
"At first it was really confusing," she said. "I started going to the wrong ESL classes, and found out later that I was actually learning Russian." Macham said that she would learn English by watching cartoons with her sis-
ter's children.
Macham's husband, John Manyiel, also left Sudan for Egypt during the war. When he was 6 years old, Manyiel's father disappeared.
"The last image I have of him was riding his bike past our farm," Manyiel said. "It was really hard, because it wasn't like he was shot in front of us or anything, he just disappeared. I woke up in the morning and my dad was not there."
Manyiel also talked about the issue of identity in Sudan, which is religiously divided. "If you Google the Arab world, you will notice that Southern Sudan is a part of it, but many would disagree," he said.
Macham and Manyiel live in Arlington. Thon resides in Linn.
Despite a low turnout, organizers of the event were content with the its purpose and outcome.
"We're really hoping that this event will serve as a catalyst with the Sudanese community around us," said Rachel Brown, co-chair of PANGEA's Forced Migration Committee. "Everyone seems to have heard about the conflict, but we wanted people to start thinking about the dynamics
of it."
The event was a collaborative effort between Hillel's Moral Voices Initiative, PANGEA's Refugee and Internally Displaced Peoples Committee and the SEF.
