In this two part blog entry, I’ve decided to split two different but very important perspectives from the genocide in Sudan because in my opinion, they both deserve equal time and coverage.
This semester in my ASTU 100 class we have read excerpts from various academic writers such as Hillary Chute, Kay Schaffer and Sidonie Smith. They have explored similar concepts of trauma, loss as consequences of war and the impacts associated with memory and remembering.
In reading What Is the What by Dave Eggers, these reoccurring concepts are easily connected and applicable. In this memoir, the reader is taken on a heartbreaking journey narrated by one man’s experiences as a lost boy in Sudan. This lost boy, Valentino Achak Deng shares his very personal account, with help from Dave Eggers, of his continuous struggle to survive his life’s journey from war-torn Sudan, to the Kakuma refugee camp, and later years in the United States.
Over time, the thousands of lost boys in the refugee camp of Kakuma developed friendships into families and communities. Similar to the story of Valentino Achak Deng in What Is the What, in the film God Grew Tired of Us, other lost boys were given the opportunity to share their stories while being followed and videotaped making the transition from refugee camp in Kakuma to an apartment in the United States. Several lost boys lost their fathers, mothers, siblings, neighbors, and friends to the war. Having survived together through horrific circumstances and tragic odds, their bonds became very strong. One of the boys in the film, John Dau, opened up about missing his friends who are still in the refugee camp, the community he was a part of, and the guilt and responsibility of leaving them behind.
While reading What Is the What, I was continuously shocked and emotionally overwhelmed. The traumatic events in this book and the thousands of stories that will be left untold are moving beyond words. Upon seeing real footage of hundreds of young, thin boys walking together in God Grew Tired of Us, I was taken to a whole other emotional level. Having read about it was difficult, having seen it was haunting. As Chute writes about the “ethical verbal and visual witnessing” (94) impacted by the graphic narrative genre in Persepolis, both What Is the What and God Grew Tired of Us combines are powerful in the same way.
As I learned more about the lost boys, it occurred to me that I know very little about the “lost girls”. Stay tuned for part two of this topic in my next post where I explore what this lack of lost girls coverage suggests.
Citations:
Chute, Hillary. “The Texture Of Retracing In Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.” WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly: 92-110. Print.
God Grew Tired of Us: The Story of Lost Boys of Sudan” National Geographic Films, 2007. DVD.
“Former “Lost Boy” of Sudan, Genocide Survivor, Social Entrepreneur and Humanitarian, John Bul Dau.” Welcome To DanaRoc.com. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.
Schaffer, Kay, and Sidonie Smith. “Conjunctions: Life Narratives In The Field Of Human Rights.” Biography 27.1 (2004): 1-24. Print.