Mamer Deng Jur’s Book is OUT and Launched in Australia
5 min readBy Kur Wël Kur, Australia
September 25, 2015 (SSB) — On 27 July 2015, I announced on this site, the coming of Mamer’s book. Finally, it made its way out so the anxious readers have already immersed and filled themselves with some bitter truths, which surrounded refugees’ lives in Kakuma refugee camp. Imagine a place, where every need: water, food, and good health is a struggle: there is [was] such a place in Kakuma. Life at its extreme.
Extreme in the sense that memories of it will be buried with most of us, who struggled and lived in the camp. Regardless of our present lives, bad or good, whether in Western countries or in Africa, Kakuma has a “special” place in our hearts. Mamer squeezed out every bit of that camp-life into his memoir. The shocking truths that oozed out of the book are testimonies of a grown young man who was once a child-refugee. Grown? How? Physical growth is God’s work but academic, spiritual and social growth are personal choices. Mamer has disciplined himself in aforementioned areas and he continues to thrive in them.
Launching it on the 19 September 2015, Mamer explained why he wrote the book and titled it as such: “The Life of a refugee today- Like being a new inmate in prison”. Humbly, he acknowledged the people who encouraged him to finish the book. Friend, I have already bored you, which wasn’t my intention. I am writing this article as an update of the book. The book is out and it has been launched.
Here are some interesting points about the book.
Picture on front cover
“A picture is worth one-thousand words”. This wise saying, says it all. People from faraway heavens would recognise the picture as a picture of one of the houses from lifeless, abandoned ghost town where no living wild animal, leave a lone human, hasn’t set foot for centuries, but the picture is that of a house where author’s mother once lived, which is now turned into a kitchen.
Every item in the picture, explains the hardship and scarcity of refugee’s life. The lying on its side, yellow jerry-can, the crumbled and wasting-away walls, the white containers on the roof, the dirty yard, the lying-about-black (burned) kettle, the not-looking- useful but useful white rug and nylon, the exposed utensils where flies from nearby latrine or from nauseating stench of sewage would visit and perch on them, and the rusted roof, speak volumes. It shatters the caring humans’ souls when refugees are treated as aliens by some people from peaceful countries as if these people labelled refugees were not once free in their countries and enjoying undulating landscape like antelopes on hillsides of rolling hills.
The title of the book
Mamer used appropriate simile in the title to capture and send a powerful message to the world.
Hardship and scarcity of a refugee’s life gave birth to the title of the book: “The Life of a refugee today- Like being a new inmate in prison”.
The hopes of good health, of education, and of life, free of any segregation, trapped in the chasms of a refugee life. The facades of suffering blurred all these hopes.
Refugees’ transformation
Refugees can contribute to humanity in a great extent. It’s this contribution or transformation that vibrates in Mamer’s book. I know of great refugees: Jesus, Albert Einstein and Madeleine Korbel Albright. Albert Einstein who became the epitome of physics, a man whom science community attributes the “word genius” without reservations, the author of theory of general relativity and a literature giant who contributed to the philosophy of literature through his numerous quotes was once a refugee. Quotes such as: “politics are for the moment. An equation is for eternity”, enriched the English literature.
Another once-a-refugee is Madeleine Korbel Albright from Czechoslovakia, who earned a Ph.D., taught at university in America, became an ambassador to United Nations, and finally, became the first-ever female Secretary of Sates during Clinton’s administration in 1997. Should I forget about Jesus? King of kings? Prince of peace? Son of God? Jesus and His parents took refuge in Egypt, Africa.
Reader’s testimony about the book
There are many testimonies on Facebook and on Twitter about the book, but the testimony, which says it vividly and briefly is Adit Bol Khor’s, a nursing student at Careers Australia in South Australia. She is looking forward to finishing this year.
She has this to say:
“The first time I heard Mamer Deng Jur was composing a book, I was over the moon with excitement. Every time I recall this memoir, I would feel as if I’m blindly walking through thousand cactus. The wait was so real I started to invent my own stories in my head of how the book was going to turn out like. As a person so free spirit, well-spoken and irreproachably amazing; I could only imagine how divine this book was going to turn out to be. After countless of questions about when the book is going to be launch, it finally happened on the 19/09/2015.
AND OH MY GOD!!!!!!
Just as I imagine, this book took me to thousands places I’ve never been. It’s so well written and every moment is captured with heart-felt stories. I’m also learning a lot about my own people. As we all know, I’m a child of yesterday, I was born in Kakuma, and I’ve never been to South Sudan. This book took me there, and I’m just speechless. I’m so thankful for Mamer Deng Jur, This book will forever live with me. The title of the book is: The Life of a refugee today- Like being a new inmate in prison”.
Well, I retire here. Thanks.
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