The Lost Boy: The Lost Boy

1211 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Introduction about sudan's conflict

The Sudanese Civil war in 1987 broke out in southern Sudan and forced over twenty thousand young boys to flee from their families and villages. The young boys, most only six or seven years old, fled to Ethiopia to escape death or induction. They travelled thousands of miles before reaching the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. The survivors of this tragic migration became known as the Lost Boys of Sudan. Without the aid of the refugee camps and the support of America, the Lost Boys would not be educated, as successful as they are today or even alive.

The Sudanese Civil War was a fight between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, which occurred from 1983 to 2005. It was mainly a continuation of the First Sudanese …show more content…

Guor was also one of the thousands of Lost Boys who went through a tragic childhood but he was also one of the few who were able to start a new life. Guor was not only successful in resettling but he was the first South Sudanese person to enter the Olympics (Source H). Even though he was not able to aid or sent donations back to those who did not relocate, he represented the people of Sudan and made them proud even though he was not living in their country anymore (Source H).

Not only do the stories of the Lost Boys touch the lives of the southern Sudanese people, but these young men also inspired people all around the world. As simple as reading a book about their journey, it motivated the musician Greg Holden and it inspired him to produce a song and tribute it to the Lost Boys (Source F). The story of the Lost Boys was not only told through film but also through music because the impact of the story is powerful enough to create music (Source F). The influence of The Lost Boys has traveled the world and inspired many different people in many different …show more content…

America started by setting up refugee camps, to relocate the Lost Boys within its own cities and was able to change the lives of thousands of boys who endured war, defeat, hurt and fear all through their childhoods. The significance of America’s involvement is emphasized in each source because it was an essential aid, support and hope for the Lost Boys of Sudan. Without America these lost boys may never have been discovered by the

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Rachel M. Harper's The Myth Of Music

    393 Words  | 1 Pages

    Rachel M. Harper’s The Myth of Music intentionally weaves together 1960s era jazz music and a poor African American family via metaphor and allusion to show a deep familiar bond between father and daughter.

    Read More

  • Mark Bixler's The Lost Boys of Sudan

    1027 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since 1983, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Sudanese government have been at war within the southern region of Sudan. This brutal conflict has ravaged the country claiming hundreds of lives and exiling a vast number of the southern Sudanese people. Most of these outcasts were young men aging between five and twelve years of age who returned home from tending cattle to see their village being attacked and their fellow villagers being killed by government militias . These boys fled, not knowing what they would encounter on the journey to escape the violence in their own country. Hungry, frightened, and weak from their long and hellish journey, the boys reached refugee camps outside of Sudan. Even though many young men were killed on their journeys to and from refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, many remained at these camps for numerous years. While in the camps, they heard news of an opportunity to travel to the United States for hope and a promise of a better life. In Mark Bixler’s The Lost Boys of Sudan: An American Story of The Refugee Experience, Bixler depicts the story of these young men or Lost Boys’ and their determination to receive an education that would not only transform their lives but also the lives of their kinsmen.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Lost Boys

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    Culture is generally defined as the customary beliefs and social norms of religious, social, or racial groups. Culture can remind us who we are and where we came from. However, it is important to respect the culture of other people. In this case it was rather important that the Lost Boys assimilated to American culture. The Lost Boys were given the opportunity to live and work in America. To be able to fully function and succeed it was important that the adapted to an American lifestyle while not forgetting their own culture. Certain American cultural beliefs had to be adopted, like the American work style and ethic, certain social cues and actions, financial attitudes, and some clothing etiquette. They needed to assimilate into these beliefs

    Read More

  • The People of Darfur Migrating Out of Sudan

    967 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are multiple push and pull factors of this journey. The migration of the people of Darfur out of Sudan was a voluntary migration because the refugees wanted to move to better places and there were no laws that pushed them away from Sudan. One push factor was that their homes were regularly raided. “Many Sudanese from marginalized areas such as Many Sudanese from marginalised areas such as South Sudan and Darfur live in camps on the fringes of Khartoum. These are regularly raided by the police, and homes demolished, in order to relocate their inhabitants (without advance warning or the right to appeal) further into the deserts on the outskirts of the capital. They often have no access to basic facilities such as water, housing and transport.” Although this was an attempt from the government to push the Sudanese out of their homes, they could have stayed if they wanted to, therefore, this was a voluntary movement (Verney, pgs. 14-15). Another factor would be that their homes would be attacked by Sudanese forces and the Janjaweed militia. “In 2003, two Darfuri rebel movements- the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and t...

    Read More

  • A Long Walk To Water

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Lost Boys of Sudan was about 17,000 boys. Some of the boys died of starvation hunger, dehydration or by getting eaten by animals during the journey to a place of safety. Although this may seem like a made-up story. it wasn’t. It was all real to salva, a lost boy in Sudan who survived the journey. This young boy (Salva) endured long walks to camps across the country, becoming a leader and making a positive impact on water in sudan which was a consistent struggle in Sudan. This boy has been written about in a book called “A Long Walk To Water” By Linda Sue Park. Salva’s life wasn’t easy as we read in the book. Salva has lived and survived with these survival factors: Hope, Persistent and Bravery.

    Read More

  • Resilience in Northern Kenya: A Village's Struggle

    2204 Words  | 5 Pages

    In Northern Kenya a small village of Sudanese refugees have made a makeshift village, which has served as their permanent housing for the past twenty years. This village displays the kind of poverty that is predictably featured in Time Magazine on a semi-regular basis: mud walls are adorned by straw roofs, ribs can be easily counted on shirtless bodies, flour is a resource precious enough to be rationed, and a formidable desert can be seen in all directions. What do you see when you look at this village? Do you see a primitive society, struggling to survive in a world that has long made struggling for survival antiquated, do you see the cost of western colonialism, do you see a people deprived of the dignity of humanity, do you just

    Read More

  • The History of Slave Music and its Impact on Modern Music

    2049 Words  | 5 Pages

    Music is an art and a wonderful gift to human race. It soothes, stimulates and makes us feel happy. It affects our moods in many different ways from lullaby to war cry for changes in the society. Music is actually distinct to different people. Above all, it has a transformational importance that is captured in its art and nature. Music draws our emotions and it has an impact of bridging different cultures across the continents. Slave songs were very vital channels through which all kind of information was conveyed both positive and negative.

    Read More

  • Uganda Essay

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    While some children and adults are able to escape the wrath of the LRA, many are hurt, persecuted and forgotten about every year, by the group’s tactics. Children are taken during raids in villages near the borders of Uganda, Sudan, Congo, and the Central African Republic. The men are usually killed and the women flee, are killed, or trafficked. These raids are usually carried out by “child soldiers much younger than their victims,” where they are forced to kill possible relatives and kidnap other children. The male children that are taken are usually forc...

    Read More

  • God Grew Tired Of Us Essay

    576 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1992, the conflict of the Sudanese Civil War resulted in the mass migration of thousands of Sudanese boys. This huge group of children were without adult supervision and care, and they travelled a total of one thousand miles through the Sahara desert. Many of them died of starvation and exposure during their journey. They were given the name the Lost Boys.

    Read More

  • God Grew Tired Of Us Analysis

    603 Words  | 2 Pages

    The film God Grew Tired of Us is a documentary about the journey of a couple of Sudanese “lost boys” to their new lives in the United States. The film is divided in two parts. The first one gives the historical background of what led to the boys’ situation at the time the documentary was being filmed and what their lifestyle at Kakuma camp looks like. It starts by recounting the events that led up to the Second Sudanese Civil War of 1983. The conflict was fought along ethno religious lines between the Muslim North and the non-Muslim South. By 1983, 27,000 people, including the lost boys, from the South were forced to flee as the Sudanese government, held in the hands by northerners, announced that all men in south should be killed regardless of age. After a short stay in an Ethiopian refugee camp, the boys finally arrived to Kakuma refugee

    Read More

  • The Lost Boys And The Lost Boys

    1473 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Sudanese Civil War lasted approximately twenty years and destroyed whole villages along with the lives of entire families. “They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky” tells the true story of the Sudanese civil war and the Lost Boys swallowed up by gunfire and hatred. The Lost Boys was the ‘nickname’ given to the thousands of children that were orphaned or relocated during the bloody Sudanese civil war. The Lost Boys includes Benson Deng, Alepho Deng, and Benjamin Ajak who wrote the novel provides their opinions and understandings of several political concepts. These political concepts have multiple views by the Sudanese people. When brought to comparison by the American culture the perspectives are not that different.

    Read More

  • The lost boy

    369 Words  | 1 Pages

    Lost boy is a follow up to Dave Pelzer’s book A Child Called It. This Novel Is a Auto-biography by Dave Pelzer. It follows his experiences in the foster care system. After being taken from his mother Dave goes from one foster home to another and he describes his life there.

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers: Converting Innocent Children into Armed Killers

    3190 Words  | 7 Pages

    These are the words of a 15-year-old girl in Uganda. Like her, there are an estimated 300,000 children under the age of eighteen who are serving as child soldiers in about thirty-six conflict zones (Shaikh). Life on the front lines often brings children face to face with the horrors of war. Too many children have personally experienced or witnessed physical violence, including executions, death squad killings, disappearances, torture, arrest, sexual abuse, bombings, forced displacement, destruction of home, and massacres. Over the past ten years, more than two million children have been killed, five million disabled, twelve million left homeless, one million orphaned or separated from their parents, and ten million psychologically traumatized (Unicef, “Children in War”). They have been robbed of their childhood and forced to become part of unwanted conflicts. In African countries, such as Chad, this problem is increasingly becoming a global issue that needs to be solved immediately. However, there are other countries, such as Sierra Leone, where the problem has been effectively resolved. Although the use of child soldiers will never completely diminish, it has been proven in Sierra Leone that Unicef's disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration program will lessen the amount of child soldiers in Chad and prevent their use in the future.

    Read More

  • “The Lost Boy”

    1696 Words  | 4 Pages

    The fictional life and death of a twelve year old little boy named Robert is vividly articulated in this moving tale by Thomas Wolfe. The reader learns of the boy’s life through four well developed points of view. The reader’s first glimpse into Robert’s character is expressed through a third person narrative. This section takes place on a particularly important afternoon in the boy’s life. The second and third views are memories of the child, through the eyes of his mother and sister. His mother paints the picture of an extraordinary child whom she loved dearly and his sister illustrates the love that the boy had for others. Finally, an account from the narrator is given in the ending. It is in the last section of this work that the narrator attempts to regain his own memories of his lost brother.

    Read More

  • South Sudan: A Struggle Within

    904 Words  | 2 Pages

    The rise of this conflict can be traced back to European colonialism. As the British Empire continued to expand it incorporated Sudan into it’s empire in the 1890s. However at the time, Sudan was not the Sudan that is knew pre-2011. There were two a North and a South Sudan. The north was predominatingly a Arabic speaking Muslim North, and the south an English speaking Christian South. To prevent Egypt claiming North Sudan, the British combined the two regions into one. It can be classified as this being the start of the conflict. The two regions, were culturally,religiously, and ethnically different. Tensions were bound to rise based on these issues. When the British colonialism ended and Sudan declared independence in 1956, the borders were not altered. The country was still united into one Sudan. The British like most Colonial powers left the nation with an unstable government structure. The British supported the North more than it did the South, thus creating resentment and tensions between the two after the end of colonialism.

    Read More

More about The Lost Boy: The Lost Boy

Open Document