Experience is a solid walking stick...
I don’t know where to start. I wish I had taken my wife. Who am I without my school certificates? These three remarks by refugees, scribbled into notebooks by The Niles correspondents, support the Sudanese proverb that ‘experience is a solid walking stick’. War, hunger and poverty have repeatedly forced both Sudanese and South Sudanese to flee their homes. Right now more than 4.5 million people are on the road in the two countries, like these passengers on a bus from Khartoum to Shendi. The fifth edition of The Niles documents their journeys, following their routes to neighbouring villages, fast-expanding cities or the other side of the globe, revealing diverse experiences with a recurring theme: When you leave home, the familiar is lost but the essential remains.
I don’t know where to start. I wish I had taken my wife. Who am I without my school certificates? These three remarks by refugees, scribbled into notebooks by The Niles correspondents, support the Sudanese proverb that ‘experience is a solid walking stick’. War, hunger and poverty have repeatedly forced both Sudanese and South Sudanese to flee their homes. Right now more than 4.5 million people are on the road in the two countries, like these passengers on a bus from Khartoum to Shendi. The fifth edition of The Niles documents their journeys, following their routes to neighbouring villages, fast-expanding cities or the other side of the globe, revealing diverse experiences with a recurring theme: When you leave home, the familiar is lost but the essential remains.
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12 The Niles<br />
> Departure: Dar Karni, Central Darfur State, Sudan<br />
> Arrival: Nyala, South Darfur State, Sudan<br />
> D<strong>is</strong>tance: 230km<br />
> Departure: Bor, South Sudan<br />
> Arrival: Nyumanzi refugee camp, Uganda<br />
> D<strong>is</strong>tance: 250km<br />
70-year-old Mustafa Ali Mustafa<br />
fled h<strong>is</strong> hometown in Darfur when<br />
fighting broke out.<br />
“Losing my library <strong>is</strong> an<br />
obsession for me”<br />
“I don’t know where<br />
to start”<br />
Deng Akol now makes an income<br />
charging up mobile phones in<br />
Nyumanzi refugee camp.<br />
Pastor Deng Adut fled Bor<br />
to escape recent fighting.<br />
Herdswoman Abor Rebbeca wants<br />
to head back to South Sudan when<br />
the violence stops.<br />
230<br />
km<br />
> Name: Mustafa Ali Mustafa, 70 years old.<br />
> Previous occupation: I worked with a number<br />
ofcompanies in Darfur. After reaching retirement<br />
age, I did social work and became a senior member<br />
of theadmin<strong>is</strong>tration in my town.<br />
> Current occupation: Retired.<br />
Where did you run from?<br />
Dar Karni, Nertiti Locality, Central Darfur State, to Nyala,<br />
North Darfur State. My town was attacked by rebels in 2003,<br />
so I had to flee.<br />
Where do you plan to go?<br />
I want to go back home.<br />
What do you w<strong>is</strong>h you could have taken with you?<br />
And why do you still dream of it?<br />
My library, which contains valuable books collected throughout<br />
my career in the different positions I held in private and public<br />
institutions. Losing my library <strong>is</strong> an obsession for me. I remember<br />
it every time I want to read a book in my spare time.<br />
What <strong>is</strong> your favourite item now?<br />
And what makes th<strong>is</strong> item very precious?<br />
There <strong>is</strong> nothing.<br />
> Name: Deng Akol.<br />
> Previous occupation: Student.<br />
> Current occupation: Public phone charging<br />
attendant.<br />
Where did you run from?<br />
Bor.<br />
Where do you plan to go?<br />
Wherever opportunity ar<strong>is</strong>es.<br />
What do you w<strong>is</strong>h you could have taken with you?<br />
And why do you still dream of it?<br />
My school books.<br />
I had all my academic lessons written in them. Even though there<br />
<strong>is</strong> free education at Nyumanzi primary school, I don’t know where<br />
to start. It <strong>is</strong> a new syllabus and I am not used to it.<br />
What <strong>is</strong> your favourite item now?<br />
And what makes th<strong>is</strong> item very precious?<br />
My job. I earn 15,000 Ugandan shillings (US$6) every day.<br />
I can now buy most basics like food, soap, clothes and other<br />
things.<br />
Interview by Esther Muwombi<br />
250<br />
km<br />
250<br />
km<br />
Interview by Abdelrahman Ibrahim<br />
330<br />
km<br />
> Departure: Bor, South Sudan<br />
> Arrival: Nyumanzi refugee camp, Uganda<br />
> D<strong>is</strong>tance: 250km<br />
> Departure: Renk, Upper Nile State, South Sudan<br />
> Arrival: Khartoum, Sudan<br />
> D<strong>is</strong>tance: 310km<br />
“I w<strong>is</strong>h I could have run<br />
away with the people who<br />
died in Bor”<br />
“I needed a mosquito<br />
net and a blanket because<br />
the road was tough”<br />
> Name: Pastor Deng Adut.<br />
> Previous occupation: Pastor and employee<br />
with warrior security in Bor.<br />
> Current occupation: Pastor and employee at World<br />
V<strong>is</strong>ion’s Children’s Early Development Centre.<br />
Where did you run from?<br />
Bor.<br />
Where do you plan to go?<br />
Back to my country.<br />
What do you w<strong>is</strong>h you could have taken with you?<br />
And why do you still dream of it?<br />
I w<strong>is</strong>h I could have run away with the people who died in Bor –<br />
I watched them being shot. The crippled, children and women<br />
were shot mercilessly. It hurts me that I couldn’t do anything<br />
at that time.<br />
I don’t really care about material things like cows, money, clothes<br />
or food, because God can give me more. I am most concerned about<br />
my people’s lives and I w<strong>is</strong>h I had taken those lives with me.<br />
What <strong>is</strong> your favourite item now?<br />
And what makes th<strong>is</strong> item very precious?<br />
My job. Th<strong>is</strong> job <strong>is</strong> in line with my dreams of serving God’s people.<br />
Each day I feel fulfilled when I see children smiling and regaining<br />
confidence after the gunfire trauma they experienced when the<br />
fighting broke out.<br />
> Name: Mary Dak.<br />
> Previous occupation: None, I am 80 years old.<br />
> Current occupation: None.<br />
Where did you run from?<br />
Renk, Upper Nile State, South Sudan.<br />
Where do you plan to go?<br />
I do not consider returning to the South since being in Khartoum<br />
<strong>is</strong> more convenient for me.<br />
What do you w<strong>is</strong>h you could have taken with you?<br />
And why do you still dream of it?<br />
A mosquito net and a blanket.<br />
The road was tough. I would have used them for protection<br />
against the cold and the mosquitoes, especially on the way here.<br />
What <strong>is</strong> your favourite item now?<br />
And what makes th<strong>is</strong> item very precious?<br />
Nothing.<br />
Interview by Michael Franc<strong>is</strong><br />
Interview by Esther Muwombi<br />
theniles_enar_20150327.indd 12<br />
2015/3/31 1:50 PM
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