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Joseph Deng Walks a Long Road From Home
by Danielle Francis
Joseph Agot Maker Deng
Stars show home in Sudan and refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya - click to enlarge.
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Joseph Deng can remember going for a month without eating food. Eating was not something he did on a daily basis. But an even bigger issue was being unable to find clean water.
To survive, he would search desperately for wild plants and fruits for the juice. Sometimes he would trade his belongings to get food. "If you could just get some fruit, it would keep you for a while." He was about nine years old.
His nightmare began in 1987 when enemies from the north attacked his village in southeastern Sudan. Everyone who could fled to the forest, and the next morning, those who survived, including some of his relatives, started walking east toward Ethiopia along with thousands of other refugees - a month on the dusty road without supplies. He has never again seen his home, a village named Palek near the town of Bor.
Here at Mars Hill College, where Joseph is a sophomore, he is often amazed at how much people take food for granted. The amount of food that one person eats on a daily basis could feed about ten people in Sudan, he says.
Joseph, 26, was born in the southern part of Sudan, a country in East Africa. His parents are Amaan Ajak and Majak Deng. He has two brothers, Jok and Geu Deng, and two sisters, Elizabeth and Adol Deng.
His brother Geu was killed in Sudan in the fall of 2005 for trying to defend his livestock and family from another tribe.
He and his brother Geu were very close, and Geu was the oldest. "It hurt a lot when my brother got killed, but the teachers here talked to me, and I prayed to God, so that's what helped me get through what had happened."
While living in Sudan he faced war and poverty. He says that people were getting killed everyday because of the civil war going on in the country, and if people were not dying from being killed, they were dying from starvation or disease.
He says that having "clean water to drink and food to eat were his main struggles." He says that he experienced anger because of being hungry, and people were also dying on a daily basis from Malaria, and that medical care was just not available.
After running from Sudan he stayed in a refugee camp in Ethiopia for four years and started the first grade. (A sister is in Uganda. His parents remained in the Sudan).
Then war struck again, and the refugees from Sudan made another four week trek to Kenya where Deng would spend another nine years in refugee camps.
Getting an education was something that was very rare, especially in Southern Sudan . He says that since Africa was colonized, the North of Sudan has been dominated by the Muslims and the South dominated by Christians. The people in Southern Sudan did not have many opportunities to get an education, and 95 percent do not know how to read. People in the South are eager for an education, but there are no opportunities.
In his family, he will be the first person to go to and eventually graduate from college. He takes getting an education very seriously.
Two other Mars Hill students, Abraham Maker and David Thon, are also from Sudan, and they were all together in the same refugee camp in Kenya. There they went to the same high school, and he has known them for a very long time. Abraham was in the same class.
He says that coming over to America and working would not be enough for him; he has to get an education. "I did not leave Sudan only because of food and water. I left because I wanted a college education."
He had to go through all kinds of red tape and many medical exams in order to be able to come to America. He came as a refugee, so he is able to receive financial aid and the same benefits as those people in America with low income.
When he first moved to America (Charlotte NC) in 2001, he was in the tenth grade. He says the transition was extremely hard -- learning the culture, and getting people to understand him when he spoke. He recalls how he felt when he found out he would be coming to America as a feeling of extreme joy, but at the same time a feeling of nervousness. He says he did not know if he would fit in, but now he feels comfortable.
The thing he likes most about being in America is the feeling of security, being able to receive an education and having food to eat and clean water to drink. He likes Mars Hill College because he feels close to his professors and everyone here is so nice. One thing he does not like about America is the way many people take getting a good education for granted.
In his spare time he says that he, Abraham and David enjoy going out to eat, renting movies, going to the mall, and coming to the sports events on campus. His favorite food is chicken, and his favorite sport to watch is basketball.
He is a Bonner scholar and his major is Business Administration. He says that after graduation he plans to stay in America for a while, but he plans eventually to move back to Sudan, where he can help his family. Even now, when he has spare money, he sends some over to his family in Sudan.
One thing he wants everyone to know about him is that he is a friendly person, and he does not mind if people come over and ask him about his past and just basically try to get to know him better.
Reader Comment:
Jim Utterback - Assistant Professor of Business, 3/25/2006, 2:25:00 p.m. - Joseph not only has what it takes to survive, but to succeed. It inspires me, as one of his teachers, to see that determination and persistence can still overcome the most difficult obstacles this world has to offer.
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