In 1987, Simon Deng, then a young boy
in Sudan, awakened to the sound of screaming and gunfire, and heard
his mother's voice for the last time.
"She was calling to my two sisters
to follow her and telling my brother to go with me," Deng said.
"I was still lying on the bed not knowing what to do. My brother
grasped my hand, and we jumped. Our neighbor's houses were already
on fire. As I ran across the yard, I heard bullets in the air, breaking
the tree branches with a noise like a thunderstorm."
Deng's story is similar to that of
thousands of children who grew up in war-torn Sudan, Africa's largest
country, which has been in almost continual turmoil since its independence
from Great Britain in the mid-1950s.
Now nine of these stories, written
by Sudanese refugees living in Jackson, have been collected by a
class of Millsaps College students under the direction of Greg Miller,
professor of English. Entitled The Long Journey: Sudanese Refugees
in Mississippi Tell Their Story, the pamphlet includes narratives
fraught with images of war and civil strife. Copies of the pamphlet
are available for download
at the Millsaps College website or can be obtained by contacting
the College.
"Over the course of eight weeks,
my students in Introduction to Liberal Studies, an interdisciplinary
freshman seminar, collaborated with refugees in writing and editing
these narratives," Miller said. "The Millsaps College
Faith & Work Initiative sponsored the collaboration."
Miller explained that the Sudanese
first became a part of his life three years ago, when a few dozen
tall young Africans began attending services at Saint Andrew's Episcopal
Cathedral in Jackson, where he worships as a chorister and a congregant.
He learned that these young people, many of whom were orphans, had
been reared as Episcopalians and had been brought to Jackson by
Catholic Charities of Mississippi.
"During the first year of their
lives in the United States, several of the refugees came to Millsaps
College for tutoring in English, math and other subjects,"
Miller said. "Many of the refugees who came to Jackson as unaccompanied
minors are now adults eager to tell their stories. This pamphlet
is the result of the happy collaboration between the 15 students
of my freshman seminar and nine refugees, two of whom, Simon Deng
and Deng Mabil, are themselves students at Millsaps College."
"So very often in our lives, events
occurring in the larger world go unnoticed and unseen," said
Chris Spear, a participating student. "They quickly fade from
our consciousness because of their distance from our personal experiences.
Yet that makes them no less important to other members of humanity."
According to Kathy Gray, program coordinator
for the Millsaps College Faith & Work Initiative, "The
booklet is a treasure trove of stories."
"It has been their deep desire
to tell them since they arrived in the United States," Gray
said. "They often say, 'Education is my mother and my father.'
The stories of their painful past, their challenging transition
to life in America and their hope for the future for themselves,
as well as their beloved country of Sudan, are compelling, dramatic
and a testament to the indomitable human spirit and the power of
faith."
For more information on the Sudanese
project, please contact the Millsaps College Office of Communications
by email, communications@millsaps.edu,
or by telephone, 601-974-1034.
Click
here for copies
of the pamphlet.
