PRAISE FOR MY LIFE UNDER THE TREES

Abraham Mangars account of his journey from the South Sudan to Omaha opens the world of the lost boys who were wrenched from their families during turbulent times in their homeland. Each boy has a unique story, and Abraham tells his tale with an honest heart, placed in the historical context of the time. He survived to tell the experiences he and others faced, and we are enlightened by his willingness to tell the truth. Steve Jordon, The Omaha World-Herald Author, The Oracle & Omaha: How Warren Buffett And His Hometown Shaped Each Other In Abrahams deeply personal account, he not only gives clarity to this important part of South Sudans history and helps you gain a greater appreciation for the struggle and hardships endured, he also inspires us with a story of the strength and resiliency of the human spirit as well as a story of Gods presence and providence, even in the darkest of places and circumstances. Rev. Gregory Berger, Messiah Lutheran Church, Omaha, Nebraska

 MY LIFE THE TREES

UNDER The Story of a Lost Boy from South Sudan
ABRAHAM MANGAR
WITH JIM THOMPSON

JIENG

PUBLISHING

Omaha, NE

 2014 Abraham Mangar. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Jieng Publishing books may be ordered from your favorite bookseller. www.JiengPublishing.com Jieng Publishing c/o CMI 13518 L. Street Omaha, NE 68137 Because of the dynamic nature of the internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. ISBN: 978-0-9913365-0-0 (paperback) ISBN: 978-0-9913365-1-7 (Mobi) ISBN: 978-0-9913365-2-4 (epub) LCCN data on file with the publisher

Printed in the USA 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Abraham with his wife Achol and their daughter also named Achol.

CONTENTS
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A BRIEF HISTORY OF SOUTh SUDAN AND ThE SPLM/A .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 ChApTER 1 ThE PROphECY UNDER ThE TAmARIND TREE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 ChApTER 2 PlEA FOR SAFETY IN ThE WIlDERNESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 ChApTER 3 REST, REVIVAl, AND ThE RIVERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 ChApTER 4 ONE ShOT MEANS WE FOUND WATER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 ChApTER 5 DEADlY CROSSING INTO EThIOpIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 ChApTER 6 SUCh AN UNDESIRAblE LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 ChApTER 7 LONG LINES TO SEE ThE DOCTOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 ChApTER 8 NEVER A DAY wIThOUT DEATh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 ChApTER 9 EATING JUST TO SURVIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 ChApTER 10 GROUp TEN AND ThE WIlD ANImAlS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 ChApTER 11 NEVER LOSE YOUR HOSpITAl CARD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 ChApTER 12 ThE DIRT DOES NOT LIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 ChApTER 13 UNITED NATIONS RATIONS ARRIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 ChApTER 14 COllECTING GRASS BRINGS MORE PROblEmS. . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 ChApTER 15 A BED FOR GEU AND OThER SURpRISES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

ChApTER 16 A SpECIAl GUEST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 ChApTER 17 MIlITARY TRAINING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 ChApTER 18 ThE WEApON IS OUR FAThER AND MOThER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 ChApTER 19 WhAT KIND OF CAmp IS ThIS?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 ChApTER 20 PUNIShmENT .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 ChApTER 21 GEU BECOmES AbRAhAm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 ChApTER 22 HOw TO MAkE A BED IN CAmp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 ChApTER 23 SPLM/A IS OUSTED FROm EThIOpIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 ChApTER 24 REFUGEES IN OUR OwN COUNTRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 ChApTER 25 FIGhTING STARVATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 ChApTER 26 WORST POSSIblE NEwS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 ChApTER 27 UNplEASANT DUTIES AND TROUblED EYES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 ChApTER 28 WAR REAChES ThE BOYS CAmp .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 ChApTER 29 A LITTlE RElIEF FOR GEU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 ChApTER 30 GOD MUST BE ClOSER TO ThEm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 ChApTER 31 ThE KAkUmA REFUGEE CAmp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 ChApTER 32 LIVING OFF ThE LAND .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 ChApTER 33 REFlECTIONS ON ThE SPLM/A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

PREFAcE
s one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, I have always felt that one of the hardest parts of our story is the one sometimes told by those who did not actually live that story. Also, I would like to clarify that most of us were not separated from our parents because our villages were attacked in the middle of the night and we had to run to a safe place, although that may have happened to some people that I did not meet. I just hated this part of the history because that makes our parents look like they were the most careless parents in the entire world. In reality, we were not boys who got lost, magically met somewhere, and somehow led ourselves to safety many hundreds of miles away. Like I state in the beginning of the book, Dr. John Garang, himself, ordered the South Sudanese governors to send boys from different regions to Ethiopia so they could (eventually) attend school. My biggest motivator for writing this book, though, is the fact that many of my fellow Lost Boys think some of the things we went through are degrading to our image and also humiliating, but I simply look at them as the scars of our many struggles. To me, there is nothing embarrassing about our past since, most of the time, we had no other choice but to try to survive. For example, if I did not try to eat things that looked inedible, then I might not be here todayI could have died of hunger. Since most of the Lost Boys in my new hometown in Omaha, Nebraska,

MY LIFE UNDER THE TREES

are not from the same groups in the Pignudo refugee camp, every time we were together we told each other what happened in our groups. The stories sound funny now, even though the experiences were horrible. I know that for most people reading this book, it will be hard to believe that we are still alive after some of the things that happened to us. There are also parts in the book that can make you laugh, tear up, and shake your head. When I and five other Lost Boys immigrated to Omaha in 2001, we were sponsored by Lutheran Family Services and settled into a house provided by that organization. About three weeks later, a man named Bob Head and his wife Willow came to see us and offered their help after reading an article about us in the Omaha World Herald newspaper. The next week, Bob talked to his pastor at Christ the King Church to see if they would sponsor us, and they did. In the meantime, Bob helped us find jobs and an apartment. After living in America for four years, I decided to get a commercial class A drivers license so I could drive semi trucks. I called Bob Head to see if he could help me find a commercial driving school where I could be trained and get my license. After driving cross-country for five months, I knew I needed a job closer to home. I was happy to quit cross-country driving due to the truck-stop food and, worst of all, the loneliness. Bobs friend, Jim Thompson, gave me a job driving for the company at which he worked. Jim and I came to know each other better and became close friends. Every time we had a chance to talk, I would tell him a little bit more about the Lost Boys before we came to the United States. He often told me that I should write a book about my experiences because it would be so interesting. After thinking about it for some time, I called Jim and asked him if he had the time to edit my memoir if I wrote it. After he read my first three pages, he asked many questions to help me clarify the narration of the story. So as I wrote, he helped me greatly; sometimes the editing went fast and sometimes we would spend a lot of time editing just a half a page until the book was finally done. The

 ABRAHAM MANGAR

entire process took us several years, and I am so grateful for his help. I could not have told my story if not for Jim Thompson.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SOUTH SUDAN AND THE SPLM/A

udan has not been free from civil war since 1955. There was always a divide between the Arab-Muslim north of Sudan and the African-Christian south of Sudan. This divide was caused by the uneven distribution of natural resources and development, as well as an effort by the north to impose Islam on the Christian south. Even though most of the natural resources were located in the south, the primarily Arabic north held all of the power by using the South-Sudanese resources for further development in the north, to the exclusion of the south. In addition, SouthSudanese students were generally only allowed to study at higher levels of education if they became Muslim. Because of these and other inequities, the first civil war broke out in 1955 when some South Sudanese formed a rebellion that was called the Anyanya (which means snake/ scorpion venom in the Madi language). The Anyanya lasted for seventeen years until the Addis Ababa Agreement and peace treaty was signed in 1972. As time passed, however, the north started violating the terms of the agreement, so factions in the south started meeting secretly to discuss these inequities and treaty violations. The government in Khartoum (Sudans capital city which is located in the northern part of the country) began to suspect rebellion in the south. So it ordered Unit 105, a group of five-hundred

MY LIFE UNDER THE TREES

southern soldiers stationed in Mading-Bor (now simply known as Bor Town) suspected of being rebels, to be reassigned to the north so the government could monitor their activities. Unit 105 was under the command of Kerubino Kuanyin Bol and they refused to obey the order, so the government sent troops to Bor to force the relocation. When the government troops arrived in May 1983, Unit 105 opened fire on them, retreated into the bush, and later escaped to Ethiopia. A day later, Unit 104, under the command of William Nyoun Bany, killed some government officials in Ayod and then fled to Ethiopia, where they joined forces with Kerubino and Unit 105. Many South Sudanese intellectuals sympathetic to the rebellion had gathered in Bor to support the rebellion. However, when Units 105 and 104 attacked the government troops, they had to pretend (for their own security) that they were not part of that rebellion. Only when the South-Sudanese intellectuals knew it was safe could they lead students, police, and others to Ethiopia and join Units 105 and 104 who were already there. This is where they formed the SPLM/A (Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement/ Army). Dr. John Garang, Kerubino Kuanyin Bol, William Nyoun Bany, and Salva Kiir Mayardit, who is the current president of South Sudan, became the leaders of the SPLA (the Army). The political-movement branch (SPLM) was led by Joseph Oduho, Martin Majier Gai, and others.

INTRODUcTION

everal months after the SPLM/A organized in the mid 1980s, some of the SPLA officers returned to their villages for political visits. These visits were an effort to send rebel members to encourage the local men to join the SPLA. During these enlistment campaigns, the villagers were not told exactly what they were about to get themselves into; they were just told what they wanted to hearlike they would be given free weapons for the protection of their cattleand this encouraged them to volunteer. Many boys and men considered this good news and they left with the SPLA. After several years, some of the newly trained and fully equipped SPLA soldiers returned to their villages for visits. To those of us who had not gone away to train, it was as if we had missed out on something important. Three of my family had already joined, and every time one of my cousins or uncles who was in the military visited, I would go to him so I could check out his gun and ask questions. We younger boys always wished we were old enough that we could be in the army and have an AK47. Everything about military life sounded and looked good to me in my small Dinka village in the Bor region of South Sudan, and I would copy the way the new soldiers walked. One day an SPLM/A soldier who was passing by decided to stop at the tamarind tree where my friends and I were playing. He told us to gather around him, and he started to teach us the

MY LIFE UNDER THE TREES

English alphabet. He told us we would be going to school soon, but he did not say where. A few months later, what he told us became real. In 1987, we left our village forever. I was six years old. This is the story of my nearly thousand-mile journey throughout East Africa over fourteen years and eventual emigration to the United States in 2001.

1
THE PROPHEcY UNDER THE TAMARIND TREE
s a six-year-old, I didnt think leaving home meant being separated from my parents; it sounded more like visiting some relatives in another village. I thought that maybe I would be gone for a few years because I remembered that many young men from my home area had left to receive military training and had been gone for about that same period of time. So I was hoping I would return after about two years to see my parents. But as it turned out, that did not happen. Neither our parents, nor we, had any choice in this matter. Our parents rights were taken away when Dr. John Garang ordered the boys in South Sudan to go to Ethiopia for schooling. Dr. Garang ordered the governors of all the southern states to collect the boys in their villages with no regard for how the parents might feel. All of the village chiefs were called to a special assembly where they were told that each of them had to register all of the boys in his village. Our governor took a stick, showed it to the chiefs, and said, The youngest has to be at least the height of this stick, and if you fail to bring the boys from your village by the date mentioned, you will be arrested and your cattle will be confiscated. The chiefs did not question these directives, and they registered every boy in their villages with or without the parents knowledge. So I, my ten-year-old brother Nhial, and four of our cousins were

10

MY LIFE UNDER THE TREES

registered to go to Ethiopia by our chief. My four-year-old younger brother Jacob was too small to go.

The Lost Boys of Sudan

Most of the children who became known as the Lost Boys of Sudan were from the Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups, which are the primary tribes in South Sudan. While many were officially taken by the SPLM/A for schooling, others were the survivors of the destruction and devastation inflicted on South Sudan by the Khartoum government in the north that was trying to squash rebellion. The common local term for those children who later became known as the Lost Boys was jesh alhamer, which literally means Red Army in Arabic. It came from the Russian/Communist term for those who rebelled against the current government. It is commonly thought to refer to children in the militia who were under the age of eighteen, but became a term that refers to all of the boys and girls who were taken by the SPLM/A. In fact, there is now a Red Army Foundation in South Sudan. It is also important to note that the term Lost Boys of Sudan was coined by aid workers in the Ethiopian refugee camps. It referred to the characters in Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie called the Lost Boys, who were orphans left to fend for themselves.

 ABRAHAM MANGAR

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Dr. John Garang, 19452005

John Garang was a Dinka who completed his higher education in Tanzania and the United States and earned his Ph.D. in economics in 1981 at Iowa State University. Upon his return to South Sudan, he became a leader in the rebellion. After the 1972 peace agreement, he remained in the military and due to his intelligence and abilities as a military strategist, he eventually rose to a military-planning position within the Khartoum government. However, when sent to Bor in 1983 to quell the Unit 105 rebellion, he sided with his own people and fled with the rebels to Ethiopia and started the SPLM/A. Garang died in a helicopter crash in 2005 and did not live to see South Sudan become an independent nation at midnight on July 9, 2011.
Many of the parents of the boys, but especially our mothers, were not happy about the idea that the SPLM/A was going to take their boys to Ethiopia for schooling. Most of them would cry and curse the chiefs and the SPLM/A leaders at the same time for taking their children away at such a young age. We were ignorant about such things, however, and the journey to Ethiopia just sounded exciting to us. The SPLM/A leaders tried to make it sound interesting by telling our parents and us that we would live in a well-organized place and that we would do nothing but go to school and study. They said our food would be prepared by cooks like they did here in our school, but it was still hard to convince our parents. Yet

12

MY LIFE UNDER THE TREES

in the end, there was nothing our parents could do to stop the SPLM/A from taking us away. One afternoon my mother came to me and said, Geu [Abrahams name in his native Dinka language], were going to Makuac today, because it was time for every chief to send the boys from his village to a subdivision to make arrangements for how we were going to walk to Ethiopia. We gathered by clan with our families under the trees, and I joined my older brother who was already there, and then the soldiers came and recorded our names. Later, I became separated from my mother and I didnt know where she was because there were so many people sitting under the trees. The noise from the other boys made it hard to hear anything unless you were close to them. I was just busy playing with other boys and never worried about the trip. The trip did not seem to be a really big deal to me because I was thinking, if all of these boys can make it to Ethiopia, then I can make it too. But in my moms mind, the journey was a different thing. I think she was thinking of going with us all the way to Ethiopia (the distance from Abrahams village to Ethiopia was onehundred-fifty miles) even though she never said that to me or my brother. I think she wanted to see how we were going to live. She also wanted to help us carry our food and bedding because she thought I was too young to carry anything like that for such a long distance, and my older brother was not able to carry both of our belongings by himself all that way. Around four oclock in the afternoon, after everybody had arrived and the temperature had started to cool down, the soldiers started calling our names to make sure everybody who had been registered was there in their assigned subdivisions. After they were sure we were all there, they gave us instructions on how we were to march. They told us what we should do and what we should not do. But the main message was this: Walk in a straight line, make sure you follow the person ahead of you, and dont fall behind

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or change your position. If you need to relieve yourself, dont go so far that we cannot hear you, just in case something happens. After all of the instructions were given, we were told that it was time to leave. Some SPLM/A soldiers went ahead of us, some walked on each side of us, and another group stayed behind for about half an hour to make sure that there was nobody left. The lead army group was to make sure that there were no enemy ahead of us and to find drinkable water. On the first day of our journey, around four thousand of us only walked for about three hours and then slept on the ground for the rest of the night. We walked barefoot on cattle or animal trails through the grassland carrying nothing. The next day, we stayed under the trees waiting for cooler conditions. At around three oclock in the afternoon, a whistle was blown to inform everybody that we were about to leave. The first whistle was to inform us that we would be leaving in thirty minutes, and then a second whistle meant to assemble and prepare to leave. We assembled by subdivision and all of the boys in Makuac (my subdivision that indicated where I was from in the Bor) gathered. After about ten minutes, it was announced that we would be leading the way that day. We were so happy to hear that our subdivision was the one to lead the way, and we immediately left going toward the east.