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Journey from Sudan

by Jan Shaw-Flamm '76

It is Africa's largest country in area. It is bordered by nine countries and the Red Sea. The predominantly Arab, Muslim north and the predominantly black, Christian and Animist south were under combined British/Egyptian rule until independence in 1956.

Most Americans could identify Sudan only if "Darfur" or "the Lost Boys" are mentioned--if even then.

For Jimmy Longun '08, it is frustrating that American news coverage and general knowledge of his homeland is so shallow. "On TV, they see that people are being killed in Darfur, but they aren't curious enough to know what, exactly, is the problem. They don't know if it's getting worse, what the U.S. Senate is doing, the details."

For Longun and Kennedy Maring '08 it's anything but academic. Both were born in the state of Kajo Keji, part of the large Kuku tribe, although they didn't meet until years later. Longun's family is primarily Christian, while Maring's reflects both Christian and Muslim traditions. As 5-year-olds, they escaped the war between Islamic government soldiers and the rebels in southern Sudan, walking with family members south to Uganda.

In Kajo Keji, Maring's family owned several shops dealing in general merchandise. As rebels opposing Islamization went into the bush, security broke down. "We had a number of robberies; people would come with guns at night, and a couple of times they got scared and fired shots. Even as a little boy, I could see the lawlessness. The government was no longer giving people security."

Maring's parents supported the struggle against the government in the north, but that didn't exempt them from trouble. The rebels came to the village headman demanding a quota of people for the war effort. "My family didn't have people to give, so we had to provide food. They took goats, cows from my grandfathers, also beans, maize, sorghum.

"My dad had gone to Khartoum, the seat of Sudan, for a business trip. When the war broke out, we had to leave without him. It was really hard for my mother because I was 5 years old and my twin sisters were four months old. My father's brothers were there to help her."

The Sudanese government closed the borders, and it was two years before Maring's father was allowed to rejoin his family. Fortunately, Maring's family had extended family in Uganda and owned land there, so they avoided the refugee camps until Kennedy, at 13, went to the Ogujebe camp on the Nile River to attend a school provided by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

After completing secondary school (10th grade in the U.S.), Maring had returned home. "I was in the garden digging, helping with the farm work, when my father came home and said that the Hugh Pilkington Charitable Trust [a British trust involved in refugee education] had put up a notice. They were looking for people [to apply to United World Colleges]. I filled out the application, and my dad took off with my application.... On the bus, when we were going to Kampala for the interview, that's when I first met Jimmy, and we became best friends right away."

The two were among the five refugees offered scholarships to UWCs; Maring went to the school in Italy and Longun to the one in Singapore.

Longun has few memories from his early years in Sudan. "Basically it wasn't safe anymore; there was close fire--close fighting between the rebels and the government soldiers--uproar, killing, looting." He has even fewer memories of his father, who died fighting the government soldiers. "Sometimes when he came home, he would bring us things, like some biscuits, but that's all I remember.

"People migrated to neighboring countries--Uganda, the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia.... When you encountered soldiers from either side, they didn't harm you. We didn't have firearms. In most cases, they didn't hurt civilians unless you got caught in crossfire that couldn't be helped. My family crossed straight into Uganda, where we lived in a refugee camp. There was nothing to eat. We were under the United Nations. They had to clear the forests and construct tents at the beginning. The U.N. provided food items, then slowly we started to grow our own things--subsistence agriculture. After a while, we started to build semi-permanent huts of burnt bricks, reeds, poles and mud."

Although their scholarships took them to different countries, both knew Jimm Crowder, Macalester director of international and transfer admissions, who visited their schools as well as dozens of others around the globe. Maring applied early decision and Longun applied to a variety of colleges, but ultimately chose Mac, too.

A physics major, Longun plans to study electrical engineering in graduate school and eventually return to Sudan. His mother has died and Longun helps his sisters in Sudan as much as he can. He doesn't complain, but when pressed he admits, "It's pretty hard. Losing both of one's parents, it's something you can't really cope with. But as time goes by, you eventually put it behind you. When we lost our mother, my sisters at home had little hope for the future. But here I am, I know I can drive my own destiny, and therefore, I am their inspiration."

Maring, a biology major, hopes to go to medical school. "My friends, even my parents, think that when you come to America, you shouldn't go back [because] you can maximize your chances of living a better life. I've tried to make it clear to them that I really want to go back, because I don't think people in the U.S. really need me. I want to go back and work in public health, I think that's one area that my country is lacking in. My feeling is that I can do it."

Jan Shaw-Flamm '76 is a regular contributor to Macalester Today and writes much of the Around Old Main campus news section.