Passive and Silence of the Lost Boys in the United States
6 min readBy Deng Kur Deng, Pennsylvania, USA
February 28, 2018 (SSB) — Looking back at the history of South Sudan, the Lost Boys—who are the generation deprived of their childhood at a tender age—are stains of blood left to remind our people of history that was made. Their hardship, and the result of an independent country are attached together with their suffering. We are a generation who have refused to be denied our rights; therefore, we joined South Sudan’s struggle. But that came with a price tag—unbearable consequences.
Today, when looking at the Lost Boys, we are full of pride and entitlement of something we rightfully deserve—South Sudan. You have heard about handing our country to UN under Trusteeship, which is something majority of us have rejected. This is not enough to maintain our sovereignty—more involvement is needed on your part as Lost Boys. With that said, the resettlement of many Lost Boys to the United States has accounted for many possibilities, which were legitimated as reasons that drive the secession of South Sudan from united Sudan. The arrival of the Lost Boys to the United States added to little-known Sudan social problems that were darkening the corners of South Sudan, but little was known among the American people.
We, the Lost Boys, have greatly contributed to what now stands on the blood of our people. Yes, I am a South Sudanese on all accounts, whether by choice or through the barrel of an AK-47 and many other mechanisms utilized to split from unified Sudan. We have earned it on the stains of our blood—with bodies in unknown graves. Sadly, I am personally and equally captivated by what kept the Lost Boys together for many years and their drive for a better South Sudan. Unfortunately, some of us are not sure what has reduced our enthusiasm for our country and her social issues when our collective conviction is to live in a peaceful South Sudan all along. We are no longer children—we have families of our own. Therefore, we shouldn’t be backtracking from elements that are meant for the improvement of South Sudan.
We have unimaginably gone silent from the equation of unresolved problems in our country, yet many know that it is our obligation to act on issues affecting the people. Instead of our involvement, we have equivocally allowed those who are ill informed or less knowledgeable to shatter themselves online or in social media while the majority of you remain reserved. Those who are obsessed with minor politics and demonizing others are the ones sticking to less substantive and unproductive attacks on each other’s position. As we know, such applications are no longer practical.
You can talk your head off, but it will remain less substantive to the current situation in the country. One may wonder if some of us are trying to weigh and assess the matter before we largely respond. Did we underestimate ourselves as a group willing to add our voices for the betterment of the people, or is this pure ignorance on our part? In other words, our silence is callous at its worst when we are being negatively engaged by those who are tarnishing the country. Or do we find it inappropriate or humiliating to mobilize Americans, especially politicians, to help South Sudan reconstitute the country economically and socially? What exactly is it that we fear? Did some of us out think something or are some of us too shortsighted to see the social problems in the country? This inconsistency on the part of the Lost Boys is incoherent to our standards, which is the support of peace and unity. We must be fairly mindful and appreciative of our contribution. It is a valid perspective if we continue to add our voices. There is disdain rising and these obnoxious politicians and generals shouldn’t overshadow the voices of the people. We cannot allow less immaculate individuals, who have created everything the country is experiencing, to continue to determine more unpredictable events in the future.
I can honestly say I don’t give a damn about anything else because I am a committed citizen for the betterment of this country and so you. Let me be very clear, we, the Lost Boys, are VERY POWERFUL and more importantly, our country needs us to intervene constructively. You and I know our country was capricious as it has slipped into the war we equally hate with a passion. With that, we are not here to contribute disparagingly but to make decisions that are in the best interest of our people, which will make a significant difference in their lives. Of course, we are not delegated in any form to intervene, but it is our duty as citizens to look beyond our individual fears of being mistaken for the wrong reasons. Yes, our leaders are remotely sensitive to solely and practically protect their jobs, but this is not helping the country. We were for South Sudanese during the struggle and we remain an important asset, even today when South Sudan is recognized as an independent nation. In order to change the minds and attitudes of our politicians and generals through constructive criticism and by employing ideology to the problems that have entangled the country, we must invest in peace, stability, economic strength, education, security, and much more. We must speak up and reengage our Americans friends to look at the problem of South Sudan constructively.
This long and uncomfortable war is being waged has dismantled little we collectively pieced together. In a nutshell, when we arrived, we were not politicians but desperate young men and women concerned for the welfare of their own people. You and I worked hard in this very country being mocked and exploited by a few politicians and generals—some who have not tasted life in the bush. It is quite terrifying watching your country deteriorating and scrambling before our eyes, yet we are reluctant to rebuild the little energy we initiated when we first arrived. I am personally furious and concerned by our long silence amidst our country’s crisis. This leads me to my question, how long are we intended to remain silent and watch our people suffer from afar? We fought harder when our freedom was diminishing, but at the moment, the situation in South Sudan has unpredictability components that are excruciating to many who have endured so much. The silence has precarious elements and these very elements have dark emptiness depicted through our families at home. Maybe some of us are silent because we aren’t reflecting on the situation in our country. We must fully recognize the social problems currently facing the South Sudanese. Reflect on this for a minute: when North Sudanese exercised what appears to be a sense of entitlement—something we were derogatorily identified with—we confronted them as people.
Also, the Americans were not fully informed about the aggressiveness of the North Sudanese; therefore, the Lost Boys overreached strategies employed by the Sudanese government to Americans. Changes in politics, specifically, the contribution of the Lost Boys confirmed blanketed methods used by the government to mistreat the South Sudanese. Lost Boys have done a magnificent job mobilizing Americans to support our position, which is something the government in Khartoum begrudgingly protested and even denied. To America’s credit, and to Lost Boys, in particular, as well as our brothers and sisters on the ground, we have collectively achieved our rights—our existence in its rightful place—South Sudan with the help of Americans. Sadly, it is hard to believe that South Sudan is experiencing indescribable security, economy, downfall in education, roads, and so much more, yet the Lost Boys have gone silent. What does the silence of the Lost Boys mean, out of all things? The Lost Boys involvement is a demand our politicians are neglecting, and we are, by far, the strongest group of South Sudanese located in the United States, but we remains isolated and silent.
This article was written by Deng Kur Deng AKA Raanmangar. You can reach him at pananyangajak@gmail.com
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