Valentino Achak Deng was forced from his home in Marial Bai, Sudan amid a civil war that ravaged the country for 22 years. He was 7 years old.
Deng’s saga is chronicled in renowned author Dave Eggers’ latest novel, What Is the What, which was chosen as the 2009-2010 First Year Book in line with the university’s semester on peace. Eggers introduced Deng to more than 500 students and faculty members in a packed Tydings lecture hall last night.
Deng, who is now 29, spent 9 years in East African refugee camps. In 2001 Deng fled to the United States with the help of the Lost Boys Foundation. He settled in a Sudanese community in Atlanta — one of 4,000 Sudanese to immigrate to the United States that year.
Soon after arriving, Deng decided to find a way to tell his story.
“I wanted to tell a complete story people could read and identify with that I could not do in a 40-minute speech,” Deng said. “We needed to get the word out and tell the full story of the war.”
A founder of the organization connected Deng with Eggers, sparking a four-year project for the author, who previously wrote of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and co-wrote the screenplays for Where the Wild Things Are and Away We Go.
The result was Eggers’ best-selling account of Deng’s struggles after fleeing his homeland and the challenges Deng endured in the U.S.
“The struggles don’t end [for immigrants] after a few weeks in the country,” Eggers said, adding that the stories of hardships immigrants encounter in the U.S. are often left untold.
“I could not just blend into a peaceful society,” Deng said. “That is just not something that I was ready to do.”
The obstacles Deng faced ranged from the serious — he was attacked and held hostage in his home in Atlanta, a scene that opens the novel — to the darkly comedic — he was in two car accidents within 30 minutes of getting his driver’s license.
The two speakers recapped trips they took together to Sudan, where Deng recently erected Marial Bai’s first secondary school “with a staff of one,” Eggers said. He added that Deng got the school built within a year, an accomplishment the audience cheered.
But the recent success Deng has found in his home country follows years of distress, Eggers said.
It was after these trips that Eggers decided all proceeds from What Is the What would go to rebuilding Southern Sudan.
The two speakers closed by urging audience members to look to the future with optimism but to never forget the past. Deng encouraged attendees to pressure federal government officials to continue monitoring the situation in Sudan.
“Write to your senators and congressmen,” Deng said. “Write to President Obama.”
In April 2010, Sudan will hold democratic elections for the first time in more than 20 years. This resolution came as part of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement — an effort to end the civil war in southern Sudan.
Junior English major Johnnie Simpson said he recognizes the importance of remembering the story of southern Sudan.
“The fact that they are not letting us forget [about the war in Sudan] is important,” he said. “Something like wearing T-shirts just isn’t as valuable as the literature that they put together.”
Free copies of What Is the What are available at the Mitchell Building as part the university’s semester on peace.
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