Lost Boy, Lost Girl : Escaping Civil War in Sudan
Dau, John Bul & Akech, Martha Arual with Sweeney, Michael & Kostyal, Karen ; Lost Boy, Lost Girl : Escaping Civil War in Sudan. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2010. $15.95, ISBN 9781426307089 / 142630708X.

Note: "John Bul Dau and his wife, Martha, describe the hardships they experienced, including violence, famine, and war, while growing up in the Sudan and explain how they escaped the region to start a new life." Publisher's Note

Review

This is the beautifully written story of two Southern Sudanese (Dinka) children who survived the hardships and war in the Southern Sudan and now live as a married couple with children of their own in the U.S. The story begins in 1983, when the civil war between North and South Sudan broke out again, after an eleven-year period of peace. The book consists of six chapters and moves from Peace (Chapter One) to War (Chapter Two) to Refuge (Chapter Three), that is to say, temporary refuge in a refugee camp in Ethiopia. However, when the camp itself is attacked, its residents, including Martha and John, have to flee again. This is chronicled in three more chapters: War (Chapter Four), which shows the children on the move once again; Refuge (Chapter Five), which describes their lives in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, and Peace (Chapter Six), which relates Martha and John's resettlement in the U.S.

There already exists a substantial body of books and films that deal with the Southern Sudanese lost boys. This book, however, offers something new. First of all, it does not just focus on the boys but includes the story of one of the girls who survived the hardships of flight and refugee camp life. Martha's voice adds significantly to that of John in this book. It is a gentle voice and shows, among many other things, how the people around her tried to protect and shield Martha in spite of the difficult circumstances. Second, it is written for a younger audience (12 years old and up). Third, it is wonderfully concise and is both evocative and restrained (and thus not overly sensationalized) in its style and tone. Martha and John emerge from these pages as kind and courageous human beings, from an economically and technically simpler, agrarian world, who are grateful for the opportunity to raise a family in the U.S.

This reviewer is disappointed with one aspect of the book, namely its almost complete lack of explanation of the causes of the war. One of the few references to why the war came to the Southern Sudan and its capital, Juba, occurs on p. 27. The authors correctly blame the national government, dominated by Northerners, for the imposition of Islamic law on a country that is only in part Muslim and for an aggressive military response to Southern resistance against the abrogation of earlier agreements that this implied. However, the authors appear to suggest that the causes of the war were exclusively cultural. Their juxtaposition of the Muslim Arabs of the North with the non-Arabic speaking, non-Muslim (Christian and other) [b]lack-skinned tribes of the South implies that cultural differences in themselves cause war. The authors could have made it clear that it is not cultural differences that cause wars but how political and military leaders manipulate the cultural identities of groups that have historically had a differential relationship to state power. That both Northern and Southern Sudanese are Black by American standards; that many Southerners are Muslim and Arabic-speaking; that some Northerners are (Coptic) Christians, and that many Northern Sudanese opposed their government in its oppressive policies are nuances that fall by the wayside as a result of the authors' approach. To the mind of this reviewer, the lack of attention to the causes of the war represents a missed educational opportunity of serious proportion.

Nevertheless, even in the absence of a better explanation of causes, this is still a beautiful and worthwhile book. Young readers will marvel at the violence Martha and John witnessed and survived; their courage and faith, and the disinterested kindness of those who helped them; the simplicity of their original lives; the fierceness of nature and the animals of the wild, and the greatness of a United States that provides a safe home to these noble and grateful refugees.

Copyright 2011 Africa Access



Rating: R Grade: M / H Type: Book

Reviewed by: Lidwien Kapteijns Wellesley College

Subject: North Africa / Sudan / Biography / Refugees