Dave eggers, what is the what: the autobiography of Valentino. Achak Deng - Essay Example

?Question Soon after World War 2 ended, a number of colonized countries were granted independence. Sudan became a single, independent, unified nation in 1956. However, as seen in most newly-independent countries during post-colonization, destabilization and instability followed suit, especially in regions governed by multiple ethnic, communal and religious factions. It is in this setting that Achak Deng began his epic journey across borders. According to Marshall (2006) in his report for Africa Conflict Prevention Pool, armed conflicts and ‘forcibly displaced populations’ escalated in sub-Saharan Africa between mid-1950s and mid-1970s1. During the First Civil War in Sudan, fearing dominance by the Muslim north, southern Christian rebels formed a secessionist movement (of which Achak’s father was a member), struggling with internal factionalism and instability. In the 1980s after the discovery of oil in the south, Khartoum began taking territory by force. This was the time when Achak’s friend Lino and his family were driven from their home in the Muglad Basin. The destabilized nature of decolonized Africa in the late 20th and early 21st centuries is further portrayed in the turbulence caused by Islamization Program begun by the President in 1983, that was not well-received by the southerners. Deng mentions Islamization in the appearance of a handless man in his village, who had been punished by sharia law for stealing in Khartoum2. The Second Civil War erupted and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) was formed3. Deng mentions this in the light of boys recruited to join it along his journey to safety. However, according to HRW (2003)4, the greatest devastation was caused by the Arab Baggara raiders or murahaleen who were armed by the government and encouraged to attack and drive out the rebels in the name of Islam. Male Dinka were killed, women and children kidnapped, and villages destroyed. In Marial Bai, where Deng lived with his storekeeper father and his mother, everything changed in 1987 when militiamen and the murahaleen came on horseback, camels and trucks, killing and abducting children, and burning the market to ashes5. He describes this vividly in the book, bringing into focus the instability and chaos which often follow independence in formerly colonized countries (Kaplan, 2009). He was forced to hide in an abandoned house by his mother. He never saw her after that. Later, Deng crawled out and started walking. He was joined by a friend and later a group of boys. Together, they began their long arduous walk to Kenya, becoming one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, a generation of thousands who journeyed across borders to live in refugee camps6. It took months to reach Ethiopia, where he thought he would find peace. But this was not to be. In 1990, when the Ethiopian dictator was deposed, he began another long trek to Kenya7. The destabilized nature of Sudan and other post-colonial countries torn by war and political instability is demonstrated by what he experienced and witnessed during his epic walk to Ethiopia and then to the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. He tells us of thousands of children, driven away from their villages, wandering through war zones, encountering never-ending cruelty, minefields, massacres, loneliness, fear, starvation, disease, and wild animals. 2.5 million people died of war and war-related causes in the Sudan, with over 4 million being internally displaced in the south. Death and disease were everywhere. Deng describes how he woke up one morning to find his friend dead8. As they had to leave in a hurry, the boys threw leaves on the body and left. These boys had seen their families being slaughtered, and many would never be reunited with those who lived. In another incident, Deng had to dig a shallow grave for his childhood friend, William K9. He almost fainted in exhaustion when he finished, and apologized to the boy. If someone was sick, the others kept away from him. They could not afford to catch the disease from him. He watched many boys go mad out of starvation and suffering. One traded his clothes for a little food10 and would remain naked until he got clothes at the camp six months later. Another refused to sleep for fear of being attacked11. Yet another pulled a stick behind him to mark his way home until a friend broke it over his head12. Deng represents all the children caught in the turmoil of war in unstable post-colonial nations, impoverished by the colonizers, caught between enemy cross-fires and witnessing death and horror. All through this, what kept the boys alive was the fraternity of shared pain, kindness from a passing stranger and thoughts of safety and peace in the new place. Like all little boys, they dreamed of chairs, radios, food, water, a new family. In the refugee camps, conditions were dismal but Deng learned to adjust. In Ethiopia, he studied English under a tree. In Kenya, he focused on his studies and tried to forget about seeing his parents again. He found solace in being a leader – it made him feel less of a victim. He worked for the UNHCR as a social advocate and reproductive health educator and enjoyed it. Going to America, studying there and meeting a Sudanese materialized when Deng was chosen to be relocated in 2001. Question 2 When World War 2 ended and independence was granted to most countries ruled by foreign powers, boundaries were drawn to suit the colonial powers, with little regard for the history or cultural cohesion of the colonized peoples, or local socio-political, geographical and economic conditions (Kaplan 2009)13. Conflicts of identity, cultural belonging and weak governance often led to instability and poverty. Spears (2010)14 further observes that state collapse was most frequent in Africa and linked to civil war because of the feeling of insecurity which causes people to find strength in numbers, thereby forming clans. They then become corporatized by their enemies. The Islamic government of Sudan did not differentiate ordinary citizens from the rebels, killing everyone standing in their path of realizing their agenda. This is what happens to Achak Deng’s village, which is attacked and razed to the ground. Innocent villagers are butchered. Separated from their families, Deng and several boys begin their long walk across the country to Ethiopia and then to Kenya in search of safety. They experience extreme hardship, dodging bombs, facing starvation, dehydration and illness while fleeing government militia, the murahaleen, rebel forces and wild animals. He is only seven years old, but all the boys are united in their determination to reach safety. On the way, many are recruited by the rebel army, never to be seen again. Many more give in to disease and exhaustion, dying along the way. They do not have a chance to say good-bye to their loved ones, as in the case of William K. The boys have to adapt to the circumstances, doubling in as grave diggers and burial boys. They watch the murahaleen slaughter innocent men, women and children, leaving suckling babies crying by the side of dead mothers, and more. They see friends go mad, behaving strangely, as in the case of the boy who never slept, and the boy who just sat down by the roadside to die. Through it all, they become hardened, building a resiliency that would carry them through for years. Shobna Sonpar (2008)15 compares the India-Pakistan partition and the violence accompanying them with that experienced by other impoverished, formerly colonized countries, which had also gone through turbulence after gaining independence. Millions of people had been displaced, trainloads of refugees slaughtered, and numerous women abducted or raped during the Indian partition. Only recently has focus been drawn to the trauma they suffered, their resilience, and the impact on their identities and intercommunity relations. In fact, when victims of these wars met African refugees in Johannesburg in 2003, tears flowed, but all said they had to move on with their lives, the past was past. All showed stoic acceptance of their fates, just like Deng and the Lost Boys. Only the hope of being reunited with their families and visions of safety, dreams of getting fresh food, water and other basic amenities keep them alive in their long trek. Similarly, families trekking across the border during the Indian partition must have had such dreams of safety, amidst the desolation of being uprooted from their familiar environment3. Deng’s story further illuminates the adaptability and resiliency of impoverished and often formerly colonized peoples in the modern world by highlighting the horrors in Sudan and the insecure life in refugee camps, and how he and the others coped and adapted. The Lost Boys are perhaps the most war-traumatized group of children examined, yet their resiliency can be commended upon. As in most victims of unstable political disorders, this is built as a result of what they had to face on their long trek and the subsequent time spent in refugee camps. Most of them are sustained by the hope of return. In Deng’s case, an added incentive is the hope of going to America and getting educated. Deng and other refugees in the modern world undergo three stages that help build their resistance and adaptability. During the pre-flight phase, they encounter social disruption, political oppression, violence, and loss of family and homes, triggering the need to leave (the boys’ escape). In the second phase, they face numerous hardships, witnessing cruelty and violence on others, illness, injuries and malnutrition (the trek). They worry about being reunited with their families and undergo a formal process to qualify for acceptance into another country. Deng’s story highlights all these. Deng diligently learns English and keeps unhappy thoughts away by working for UNHCR. In the final resettlement phase, Deng learns to adjust to a new place and culture. He finds out that it is not safe to open doors to strangers in Atlanta. The resilience and the attempt to learn from mistakes and rebuild lives is obvious in the 25-year Sri Lanka internal war against the Tamils which ended in 2009 with numerous reports of abuses, crimes and hardships16. Tamil militants had recruited women and children to fight the cause and become hardened to the hardship of life in the war zone. Rebuilding has only started but the resilience built through the war experiences will no doubt help them adapt and learn. Val Cilic-Peisker17 examines the strategies used by Bosnian refugees resettled in Western Australia to adapt to the new life. They built a new social identity through communal activities and employment, thereby dispelling the negative public image and stigma of being ‘refugees’. This same resilience is noted in Deng as he tries to forge a new image for himself through education, albeit with some unhappy encounters of street violence in the metropolis. Read More