On November 6, at 7:00 p.m. in Textor 101, Dominic Mathiang, one of the Sudanese "Lost Boys," will discuss the situation that drove himself and thousands of others from Sudan, his resettlement in the United States, and the difficulties that he and others like him face here as well as the hope it has afforded them.
Sudan is a nation that is ethnically divided into a predominantly Arab and Muslim North and an African south where people hold to traditional religious beliefs and Christianity. Following independence in 1956, the North gained control of the country and set out to create a united, Islamic Sudan. The ensuing civil war resulted in tens of thousand of citizens fleeing to refugee camps in neighboring countries.
Perhaps the most well known of these refugees are the tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors who are known collectively as the "Lost Boys of Sudan." The term "Lost Boys" comes from the wandering band of orphaned youth portrayed in Peter Pan.
When government-backed forces attacked villages in the south, many women and girls were raped, killed, or taken as slaves. Many younger boys survived because they were off tending cattle and were able to escape. Dominic Mathiang was kidnapped at gun- and knife-point from his home village of Prinychuk in 1988, when he was eight years old. He managed to escape and banded together with other orphaned boys.
Older boys took care of younger ones as traveled on foot for thousands of miles, witnessing horrific events that we cannot imagine -- friends dying of starvation or being killed by lions, crocodiles, and disease. Eventually, these children made it to a refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya, where Dominic would spend the next 16 years of his life.
Approximately 3,800 "Lost Boys" have settled in the United States, settling in about 40 cities, including Syracuse. When they arrived they had little knowledge of our world and adjustment was difficult. Many have persevered and today have remarkable success stories to tell, while others struggle with difficulties.
The majority of these Lost Boys do not have surviving relatives in the Sudan and will never know what became of them. For years, Dominic Mathiang did not have any information regarding his parents, but in fall 2005 he learned that both his parents were alive.
Dominic’s dream is to return to Sudan for a reunion with his mother and father, whom he has not seen for more than 20 years.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20081103093750526