Mamer Deng Jur: The South Sudanese Australian Author of an Upcoming Book
6 min readBy Kur Wel Kur, Australia
July 27, 2015 (SSB) —- Suffocating in regimes of Arab minority, regimes that propagated lies in order to remain in power, our heroes resorted to guerrilla warfare in order to slice off our beloved country from the whole Sudan map. In guerrilla warfare, nothing wears truth because many with criminal minds take advantage of the situations. Most stories are either told in white lies or dressed in “good lies”. Lots of unsieved personal stories contributed to Amazon, African and Asian forests destruction. Without peers’ reviews, some weightless stories wait for gigantic trees in line to receive a cracking sound and smell of diesel fuelled electric saws, just to make these untruthful story survive in prints.
Deficient of written histories, we welcome all but every word written or uttered in the name of the history must pass under the glaring eyes of historical critics. With that said, I am happy and proud to announce a truthful book by Mamer Deng Jur.
His academic background
In so many ways, life has challenged many Africans in Western countries, South Sudanese in particular. So studying high demanding degrees such as a degree of law, meeting demands of relatives in faces of the human-induced atrocities in South Sudan, and then letting the world know in writing what you went through, reflect more than a busy life. A life meant for highly disciplined and effective people. Mamer qualifies for this life.
Coming to Australia in November, 2002, Mamer stayed focused and pursued his secondary school education at Aberfoyle Park high school, Thebarton Senior College, then finally at St. John Grammar School where he sat for his year-12-final examination. He received his admission from The University of South Australia to study bachelor of business with the major of Commercial Law. His hard-working habits failed him not, he graduated in 2011. Having fell in love with Law from the outset, he pursued another degree in law with nothing attached to it. The law in its purest form. Call it the “gateway” to laws-making-profession. He is seven units shy of this degree (of law). Soon he will graduate once more.
His book: [The Life Of A Refugee Today: Like Being A New Inmate In Prison.]
In his memoir, Mamer poured out the long buried memories of his childhood, freedom struggles from the births of Anya Anya one, SPLM/A and other political uneasiness to attaining our country. Intensity in the book built up when he started talking about Dr.Riek’s 1991 rebellion. Mamer recalled his ordeal with his war-disabled brother on swampy grounds. How mosquitoes feasted on them and nibbled the little blood they had. He narrated the cruelty of Dr. Riek in three dimensions; dead cows and dead people rotted everywhere so the survivors fell sick of the smell until some people proffered the smell of rotting humans to that of rotting cows. He wrote.
Embarking on his journey that ended in Kakuma, a place that gave birth to the tittle of the book, Mamer exposed the readers with similar background to the mood of reliving those rough experiences, while the same part shocked the readers with no or little knowledge about refugees’ experiences. Mamer as a refugee, described life as unbearable and unbelievable because of treatments from Kenyas natives towards refugees. In his book, he recalled how the Turkana would sneak into the camp and start shooting, how those Kenyans working with the UNHCR mistreated refugees by denying them some basic stuffs such as water. They rationed the water. Then cruelty of Kenyan police to those who travelled to Nairobi. Battering and sexual harassments became normal to extent where refugees travelling to Nairobi would expect police officers to touch their (travellers) private parts in searches of “weapons”. But in actual sense, they did touch private parts in search of money. A corruption in the highest order.
The lawlessness in the Kakuma didn’t stop with Kenyans giving refugees hard times but refugees, themselves had their equal share in lawlessness. The refugees used to fight among themselves. The inter-communities fighting, so Dinka community fought with Nuer community, Dinka versus Equatorian community or Equatorian community versus Somalian community. The author acknowledged that those conflicts were triggered by either limited resources and former grudges.
In the book, Mamer turned to himself to show how poor the medical system was in the camp. He told two stories, both involved humans’ negligence. The discomfort in his hip and ambulance accident.
The discomfort in his hip
He visited the nurse because of a discomfort in his hip. The nurse touched his (Mamers) forehead with the back of his (nurse’s) palm to determine the temperature and then he prescribed some paracetamol and chloroquine tablets in name of the malaria. The discomfort retired not because paracetamol and chloroquine tablets couldn’t seal the fracture. Luckily, general health checks for a visa to settle in Australia helped him in healing the fracture on his hip. At the end of the check, the doctor asked whether Mamer had other health concerns that he (doctor) should know about. He mentioned the discomfort on his hip. The doctor transferred him to Nairobi for x-rays, there they found a fracture on his hip-bone. Mamer resided in Goal, an accommodation where refugees going for resettlement stay as they receive treatments for more concerned sicknesses such had as tuberculosis or fractures.
The ambulance accident.
Mamer and his childhood friend, Akoy Wut Lual in the camp, had two of those expensive mountain-bikes. It happened his shimano 21 speed mountain-bike’s saddle wobbled so he decided to ride it to bikes repairer. His another best friend, Maluak (Pach) Anyang given a lift by another bicycle rider, accompanied him to bikes repairer’s place. On the way, an ambulance going 140 km/h, hit him. He described the accident as such: that he heard it coming and he looked back, the ambulance was in the same lane squarely so he hopped off the bike, and landing head first. The ambulance crashed the bike and caught him, thus burying him underneath. Under the ambulance, “I was horrified, thinking that my legs were broken. Luckily, they were not.” Mamer thought. Blood gushing from his head and trickled over his lips. He recalled the scene:
” The blood smelled like fish and didn’t taste great. I was not really comfortable…. At that moment, I was shivering as if I had arthritis. I lost balance. I couldn’t stand properly. I had one of my shoes on but other one was missing “
The ambulance driver caused the accident because of his negligence. He wasn’t responding to an emergency; he sped for fun.
The hope and validity of elders
The author finished his book by acknowledging importance and validity of elders, whether educated or not. Though Mamer began this book with strings of suffering and struggles, he pointed at the ‘light in end of tunnel’ on the last page by encouraging young people and those struggling with other issues in their lives that hope exists in elders’ advice. So regardless of your PhD, you still need your uneducated parents and other members of the community to help in your life.
Thanks, for your times, that is the snapshot of Mamers academic background and his book.
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