My Story
I was born in Jikow, which is located in the southern portion of Sudan near the
Ethiopian border. Our village was a station for the northern Sudanese Army.
For the
longest time I thought that Jikow was a huge state because it was the only place I had
ever been. Growing up in Jikow was quite different than the United States. We had a
lot of small shops, but no running water or electricity. You could make phone calls, but
you needed to go into town to do so. Despite this, it was a wonderful place to live. We
played on the beach and did anything we could imagine.
When the SPLM reached our
village, we thought the army would protect us. People from surrounding villages
flocked to Jikow for protection, bringing very few items with them and things they knew
the soldiers wouldn't take from them.
One of the refugee camps close to where
we lived was one of the first attacked and still the Army did not protect them or fight
back. One day, many village people were attacked on the riverside and most of the
victims were children and the elderly. Those that weren't killed by gunfire drowned
in the river. We were forced to flee our home and we ran for three days. Any time that
we stopped to rest, we would hear gunfire.
One day during a stop to rest and eat, we
heard gunshots very close to us. We walked and ran without stopping until the next day,
and then stopped and slept in the bushes. We camped in the middle of nowhere for
about three months.
When we decided to try and return to our village,
Jikow, everything had been burned and ruined. We began to dig into the ground to
rebuild homes and mines and in the process uncovered countless dead
bodies.
Hunger was rampant in the village. With such little food, my sister and I were
forced to live on fish and milk, even though we were both allergic to fish. My family
had one cow so I had to share my meal with my 3-year old sister. My father would be
gone from sunup to sundown just find anything to eat to feed the two of us. Children
in our village cried for food every day; if you had a cow to milk you were very lucky.
Once when my sister and I had our first real meal in 3 months, my father told us to eat
slowly and eat small meals until our stomachs could get used to it again.
Eventually, our
village was rebuilt and refurbished. Things began to look up in our village until 1986
when my father, along with seven other men, were murdered. My sister and I lived with
my stepmother after my father's murder. It was very difficult for us. My
stepmother was very old (my parents were divorced when I was 3) and she had 2
young children to take care of.
The next month my older brother and cousin were
killed on the battlefield. Many nights my stepmother would tell us we had to sleep in
the bushes because she had heard that the enemy was coming to attack and burn the
village again. When our village finally was attacked, we had to run for our lives. We
were being shot at. We ran for a very long time.
The remaining members of my family
were separated. It was not until the next morning that we realized that we had left
my sister back at the village.
We returned to the village and were relieved to find that
my uncle had found her and protected her until we returned. The cattle had been
taken, women and young girls had been raped and beaten and the village had been
burned again.
We decided to flee our home for good. We relocated to a refugee
camp in Ethiopia where we lived for a few years. Life there was better than it
ever had been. We had food to eat, milk to drink, clothes to wear and we felt safe.
In
1991, however, the Ethiopian government went to war and we were forced to flee for a
second time. Our new refugee camp was located in Kenya where we lived until we
received grants that would allow us to move to the United States.
Once in the U.S., we settled in Iowa. My
sister and I began our lives in our new home and graduated from North High School in
Des Moines, lA in 1998.
It is my life story, my experiences, that motivate me to want to
help others. I want to ensure that other children will not lose their homes and families,
but gain opportunities and have a bright future.
Brief History of Sudan
The British government, in collaboration with the Egyptian government, maintained north Sudan and south Sudan as two separate regions until 1946.
The British government merged the two regional governments into a single administration. That caused contention between the regions. The first Sudanese Civil War broke out in 1955.
The Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972 ended the conflict and allowed the southern region of Sudan to have a few defined powers. In 1983, President Nimeiry declared all of Sudan an Islamic state, effectively ending the South Sudan Autonomous Region.
The Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) was a rebel group that was formed that same year to reestablish autonomy. The second civil war broke out between the northern and southern regions with the main conflict lasting until 2005, killing more than 2 million people and displacing another 4 million during its 22 years.
Despite the official end of the conflict, pockets of fighting continued. Jets from the Moslem-controlled North bombed roads, bridges, Christian churches and the few hospitals in the South. Armies from the North burned crops and took slaves from the South.
The southern portion of Sudan sought independence for many years from their northern neighbors. Finally, in January 2011, a vote to declare South Sudan as its own, independent nation took place, encouraged by the United States. The referendum passed and on July 9, 2011, the dream of a free South Sudan became a reality.
But violence did not end. The RSS (Republic of South Sudan)Constitution lacks an effective Separation of Powers such as the United States has; it lacks the power to restrain the executive. It lacks a mechanism for tribes to resolve differences by law, so they resort to civil war. But at least jets from the North no longer drop their bombs on the South.
The new government faces extreme challenges ranging from malnourishment to lack of education to rampant disease, much of it caused by continual war.
We do not despair, though, we have hope that we can make a difference in South Sudan.