Their talk should be of special interest for MTU's first-year students, who have been reading the book this summer as part of the Reading as Inquiry program and who will discuss it Wednesday morning in their Orientation teams. MTU faculty and staff members will lead the group discussions on campus. Two students, an Orientation Team Leader and a Residence Life student staff member, will assist with each discussion group.
The Lost Boys who are the narrators in this book are now young men living in the United States. Benjamin Ajak and his two cousins, Benson Deng and Alephonsion Deng (two brothers) join in recounting the harrowing adventures of small boys struggling to survive the dangers of enemy bombs, land mines, disease, lions, insects, hunger and thirst as they flee their village, mostly on foot, across the Sudan to refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. Co-author Judy Bernstein encouraged the boys to write down their stories, which soon became this book.
The Reading as Inquiry program is sponsored by the Michigan Tech Department of Humanities and the Center for Orientation, Mentoring, Parents, and Academic Student Success (COMPASS).
The selection of They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky for the Reading as Inquiry program is a follow-up to a previous visit to MTU by one of the Lost Boys of Sudan and another book on this fascinating subject.
Last spring, students in some MTU classes read What is the What, by Dave Eggers. This book is a partly fictional account of the experiences of another of the Lost Boys, Valentino Achak Deng, who visited MTU and spoke to students in their classes and in a public lecture in the Rozsa Center. What is the What relates Valentino's experiences in the United States as well as his memories of fleeing the violence of that same civil war. (See April 2, 2007, article on Keweenaw Now)
Last April MTU student Nicholas Deming wrote an article about Valentino's visit and the book What is the What. We are publishing it here since Valentino's story has many affinities with the stories in They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky, the subject of Wednesday's lecture.
A Visit from Valentino Achak Deng: April 2007
By Nicholas Deming
On Tuesday, April 3, Michigan Tech, through the efforts of Professor Matt Seigel, received a visit from Valentino Achak Deng. Mr. Deng is a refugee from Sudan, who now resides in the United States and is also the real-life hero in Dave Eggers’ new novel, What is the What. This book tells the story of Valentino Achak Deng’s trip across Sudan to Ethiopia and then his trip back into Sudan and on to Kenya during the second Sudanese Civil War. To better understand the book, one should first take a look at the actual experiences Deng had in Sudan.
Valentino Achak Deng (Photo courtesy Valentino Achak Deng Foundation)Deng was born in the Sudanese village of Murial Bai in 1980. He lived here with his family, growing up as any child would -- helping his parents around the house, going to school and playing with neighborhood friends. In 1985, the Murahaleen, now known as the Janjaweed in Darfur, attacked and burned Murial Bai three times. In 1987, Murial Bai was attacked again separating Valentino from his family. He fled, not knowing the fate of his family for 16 years; nor would he return for many more years.
It was then, at age seven, he joined many other boys led by elders on their way to Ethiopia. Having no idea of the distance, Valentino assumed it would be only a few days before they arrived. However, as he soon realized, this trip would turn into many months as the boys trekked for thousands of miles. There were many of these groups like the one in which Deng traveled. The boys in these groups became known as the "Lost Boys of Sudan." During this migration, Deng would endure traumatic event after traumatic event.
He would go weeks with little food and days without water. He would be under attack from the bombs of the Khartoum government forces, lions and other creatures of the Sub-Saharan Sahel, the diseases that run rampant throughout Africa and the mental strain from these circumstances. As a result of this endless barrage, Deng would lose many close friends and see many others whom he did not know fall to the same fate. He somehow pushed forward.
Upon his arrival in Ethiopia, where he expected food, dry beds and school, he found everything the same. In time, that place became the Pinyudo refugee camp. For three years Deng resided at Pinyudo. In 1991, Pinyudo fell under attack and he was forced back into a chaotic Southern Sudan. He endured another hectic trek, this time on his way to Kenya. He suffered the same hardships as before although the trip was shorter.
Upon the arrival in Kenya, Deng entered the Kakuma Refugee Camp where he would spend his next 11 years of his life. During his time at Kakuma he was able to attend school, where he became involved in drama. He participated in educational performances aimed at teaching refugees about HIV and sexually transmitted diseases. His involvement in drama led him to become a youth leader at the camp -- a position where he led 5000-6000 youths. Then, in 1999, the US began accepting refugees from Kakuma. It was still two more years before Deng would begin his journey to America -- another journey that would prove to be a test of endurance.
On September 9, 2001, Valentino flew into Nairobi on his way to New York. He was scheduled to arrive on September 11. It was then he learned that America had been attacked and he would not be going. He would spend two more weeks in Nairobi before flying into the U.S. and eventually ending up in Atlanta. Here he received three months of paid rent and then had to begin fending for himself. In 2003, Deng began speaking at colleges and high schools in the Atlanta area. A nationwide tour is what brought him up to Michigan Tech.
What is the What
What is the What is a book describing in vivid detail the hardship, perseverance, determination, elation and sadness that was required of Valentino Achak Deng over the course of his life. What is the What is split into two books. The first begins here in the United States at his Atlanta apartment as he is being robbed at gunpoint. Valentino is held captive in his own home for an extended period of time while it is ransacked and looted. In the novel, the protagonist, who is based on Valentino, tells the robbers everything they do not know about his previous life in Sudan and his present life in America. Although directed at the robbers, the stories are not spoken out loud, but just played through in his head. The second book is set up in the same fashion. In the waiting room of the hospital and at the desk where he works, he tells his story the same way to his friends and people he does not know.
While on campus, Valentino spoke and answered questions about the novel by Dave Eggers and about the current Darfur conflict, which is an offshoot of the civil war that he lived through. Although the book is a novel, he explained that only 10% of What is the What is fictional and that the remainder recounts his experiences as he remembers them. One reason it was decided to make the book a work of fiction was that Valentino believed the vast number of names that enter into his story would have made a work of non-fiction confusing and hard to follow.
One issue that he brought up -- which many of us here in America do not understand -- is that the civil war that began in 1983 has lingered on into the Darfur region of Sudan today. Over four million Sudanese are currently displaced in the country, while one million Sudanese have been forced out of Sudan.
Valentino believes that if the U.S. became politically involved in Sudan there might be a hope for peace. He is not asking for a military presence, but rather for the White House to apply pressure on Khartoum to stop supplying the Jangaweed militia.
Many students at Michigan Tech were impressed by the vast knowledge this man held about Sudan and even the world. This knowledge extended far beyond what he experienced and what he understood while he lived in Sudan and the refugee camps. Valentino’s harsh reality of life and how he handles what is thrown at him left audiences in awe. His perspective on life in general is one that should be revered by many.
Valentino's long-term goal is to work for the United Nations. He is also currently working on an autobiography and a book on the future of women in Sudan. He plans to return again to Murial Bai in Southern Sudan to begin work on a complex, which is planned to feature a library, a women's center, a youth activity center, a community-gathering center and a sports program through the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation. The proceeds from the book What is the What will go to Sudanese in America and Sudan.
Editor's Notes: In July 2007 Valentino did return to his village of Murial Bai in order to meet with the community and local officials about his plans to build an educational center in the village. Read more about this and other projects of Valentino's Foundation and see a slide show with photos of his trip to Murial Bai on his Web site: http://www.valentinoachakdeng.org/
For a map of Sudan visit http://i.infoplease.com/images/msudan.gif.
Nicholas Deming, the author of this article on Valentino Achak Deng, is from Saint Charles, Mich. He wrote the article while in his first year at Michigan Tech, where he is majoring in Civil Engineering. Nick's activities include MTU Army ROTC, Pavement Design, Construction and Materials Enterprise.
