the lost
boys of sudan_
By Matt Pascarella | The
Progressive Magazine, April 2006
Christopher Quinn, director of the new documentary, God Grew
Tired of Us, met three Sudanese men in the Spring of 2001 while
visiting the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. John, Daniel, and
Panther, Quinn found out, were eligible for the U.S. government's
relocation program of 3,600 Sudanese refugees. After spending
two weeks in the camp with them, Quinn decided to take his
cameras and follow this group of three on their journey to
America.
They were among "The Lost Boys," nearly 25,000 in
all, who had been forced to abandon their families more than
a decade ago. Escaping the Sudanese government's vicious ethnic
cleansing crusade that targeted all Christian males in the
southern region of that nation, John, Daniel, and Panther fled
for their lives.
Like other Lost Boys, they trekked barefoot for more than 1,000
miles through barren deserts, struggling to stay alive and
learning to bury those that died in mass graves. After close
to five years of this cruel journey they finally reached the
safety of the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya.
As John, Daniel, and Panther prepare to leave for America,
John [??1]feels guilty that he is leaving his "brothers" behind
but reluctantly explains, "I have to go, I have to go
to school and get a job." The three board a plane and
wave good-bye as a massive crowd from the camp gathers to see
them off.
Quinn documents the young men's first encounters with strange
utilities that they've never seen before. Their first experiences
with devices such as escalators, toilets, showers, refrigerators,
and even wet-naps, jelly donuts, and helium balloons force
you to reconsider your daily activities from an entirely new
perspective.
One scene shows one of the young men casually taking Ritz crackers,
dumping them into an ice-tea pitcher, pulverizing them with
the handle of a hammer and then pouring milk on top of them-while
in the background women dressed in spandex vigorously perform
aerobics on the television.
Aside from seeing how bizarre it is for a foreigner to make
sense of your culture, what draws you into the film is that
Quinn continues to follow them for four years, tracking them
after their initial adjustment to America. They begin to inquire
about peculiar concepts like why people don't stop and talk
to each other, and how Jesus Christ could possibly be related
to Santa Claus.
The most poignant parts of the film are those that show their
struggle to understand the daily experiences of living in our
country. One of them comments, "It's lonely, we miss our
culture. Now we say this is mine, this is yours."
John, Daniel, and Panther also question whether anyone has
the time to be friendly in America. "In Kakuma camp, people
were together every day," recalls one of the boys. Most
people in America are too busy to see each other, too busy
to be friendly.
Soon enough the boys themselves begin to rarely see each other.
The U.S. government sponsors them for only the first three
months following their arrival to America. At the end of the
three months they find themselves desperately trying to figure
out how to pay back the government for their living expenses
and the cost of airfare to America. John, Panther, and Daniel
each work up to three jobs at a time to try and raise money
to cover these debts and their own expenditures, as well as
to send money back to their other "brothers" in Kakuma
Camp.
John constantly agonizes over his "brothers" left
behind in Kakuma. He repeats, "I left them in a very bad
place, a very bad place." Despite his own struggle to
survive financially in America, he is determined to do as much
as he can to help the "brothers" he left behind.
John, Daniel, and Panther are currently working to develop
initiatives back in Kakuma and even in Sudan to aid their fellow
refugees.
Nicole Kidman narrates and Brad Pitt is the executive producer,
but the power of the movie is when Quinn stands back and lets
John, Daniel, and Panther speak for themselves. The boys
have a natural ability to effortlessly tell an audience their
astonishing stories of unimaginable struggles, and they do
so in an utterly sincere and honest manner.
John was in attendance for the premiere of God Grew Tired of
Us at the Sundance Film Festival in late January. Both
John, and the film were well received. The film took
home the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary. Following
the screening at Sundance, a member of the audience handed
John a check for $25,000 to help him with a clinic project
for refugees back home.
Matt Pascarella is a researcher, writer and producer for investigative
journalist Greg Palast. You can view his reports on BBC Newsnight
TV, in Harper's Magazine, and at www.GregPalast.com.