Mark Bixler's The Lost Boys of Sudan Essays

John and Robert always dreamed about running away from the poverty embracing their community. Even though they shared the same dream, each considered different means of achieving this dream. John realized at an early age that education was his was out of poverty in Pittsburgh. In his book Brothers and Keepers, John explains how he was running away from Pittsburgh because of the poverty. He explained that the only logical way to get out of these unbearable conditions were to go to college.

Because the boys were often completely severed from all family ties, they had to learn to build new trust with boys they had barely known in order to take care of each other. The camp was maintained until the government collapsed and the boys were forced to flee again, but this time to Kenya. Another journey of hundreds and even thousands of miles had just begun. By the time the Lost Boys had reached Kenya, their numbers had been cut to 12,000. In such times, the people had to find ways to keep their minds occupied and to discuss issues such as returning home to a safe and unified Sudan. Slowly, the culture of the Sudan boys had been adapting and changing. Because there were few adults to raise these children as would their parents in Sudan, the boys developed their own semblance of their culture. Other societies take for granted that their culture is passed down by their family and other surrounding sociological forces, so for thousands of young boys to have to figure it out for themselves in an astonishing thought. Many other cultures do not understand the genocide that occurs in Africa, more specifically Sudan. This is not a cultural norm that exists in Western society where people are more accepting of other cultural ideals. This ethnocentrism raises concern by many other regions of the world, but because they are not actually a party of this seemingly strange culture, not much is done in order to end such crisis

Students explore the experiences of people of Southern Sudan during and after the Second Sudanese Civil War.

Darfur is the western region of the African country of Sudan. Currently, the people of Darfur have been continually attacked by the Sudanese army and by proxy-militia controlled by the Sudanese government. Families are being uprooted and starved, children tormented and murdered by the thousands and women raped without punishment. Innocent civilians in Darfur continue to be victims of unthinkable brutality. Many people have become homeless and seek protection in refugee camps in Chad. Yet despite its outward appearance, Darfur has a vast ethnic diversity and a complex, ancient system of resolving conflict. Genocide has occurred in several places around the world, but in Darfur there are certain reasons why it

After these two genocides, one may look at the past and ask, how could this death and destruction possibly happen again? The bad part is that it is happening again in the Darfur region of Sudan. This region is “about the size of Texas” (DarfurScores, par. 1) and “five thousand die every month”

This little boy’s major issue might have not been in his actions, but in what his real motives were. Jacob Blivens idolized the innocent young boys that he read about in his Sunday-school

Growing up as a slave Jacobs was constantly exposed to sexual abuse from her master. She was forced to learn what it meant to be a slave that was

Around 120,000 adolescent children are now engaged in conflicts throughout Africa (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 4). In Sudan, for instance, thousands of children, some as young as 12, were recruited against their will into separatist and government groups (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 5). Thousands more children have been enlisted into the armed forces throughout Asia and the Pacific. The most significant numbers are in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and recently, Cambodia. Myanmar, a country in Asia, has some of the most child soldiers throughout the world, with children being recruited into both non-government and government armed forces (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 6). The number of child soldiers has been decreasing annually, but these children are still being taken against their will.

This non-fiction article was written in April, 2001, due to the arrival of The Lost Boys in Fargo, North Dakota. They came from a war zone, Sudan, Africa, that , not only destroyed families throughout the country, but also created more tension between the rivals and the

In order to survive, people have been known to go to great lengths and do things they wouldn't ordinarily do. Since humans are taught the skills needed to survive, thousands of Sudanies were given the chance to live. Eventhough they knew that going back to Sudan wasn't an option they were mentally, physically, and emotionally prepared to survive and thrive.

The narrative begins with the tale of Jacob’s childhood. She tells tales of a childhood oblivious to slavery being allowed to enjoy the pleasures of child’s play. Her mother died when she was six years old and was left under the mastership of her white foster sister. On her deathbed, her mother’s white sister promised to protect her slave sister’s children. While, this was true during her lifetime, upon her death, Jacob’s expected that she would be freed. Jacob’s first painful realization that despite what appeared to be a good relationship, her mistress viewed her as a slave and did not free but bequeathed her to her five year old niece. From this point Jacob’s has a new master and mistress .

War is one of the principal reasons why most children become orphans. This phenomenon is quite common in Africa, the Middle East, and most parts of the world. This study would primarily be conducted in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital city where we find three basic types of orphans that are representative of orphans throughout the country: street orphans, orphans in institutions or orphanages, and orphans that live with extended family or in structured homes. A recent Newsweek study examines the challenges that Liberia faces of acclimating back in to society more than 38,000 children who were former child soldiers, cooks, grenades handlers and even sex slaves in recent Liberian wars (MacDougall, 2013). Following the wars,

The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 250,000 IDP’s are displaced because of the conflict in South Sudan. Lizabeth Paulat, a member of Truthout, a think tank, writes that the violence is directly causing a potentially massive famine within the region. “This threat of starvation is not occurring because of a natural scarcity, or even a political attempt to starve out opponents,” says Paulat, “rather, this is an issue of South Sudan’s internal refugees, forced to flee their homes to escape violence.” With such a high volume of IDP’s and a projected record breaking famine, the international community must intervene to assist President Kiir and the South Sudanese Government.

The origin of the war between these two regions goes back to the 1950s when the country, which was previously two separate nations, was made one after World War II by the west. Shortly after this union, Sudan was emancipated from England. 1983 marks the beginning of the violent relations between the North and South Sudan. The initiation of this conflict was brought forth by the Islamic Sudanese of the North, invading with military force the Southern Sudanese Christians . From 1983, it is estimated that at least two million people have been killed in the violent duration of this genocide, most of whom are of the Christian faith and lead non-violent civilian lives. Attention on human trafficking was brought into the international community’s scope with close proximity to the beginning of the violence as two professors from the University of Khartoum shed light on the subject. Ushari Ahmad Mahumud and Suleyman Ali Baldo learned about the genocide and enslavement being practiced on the Dinka people, a tribal group in the southern Sudan, and upon this discovery they dicided to investigate it further. What they found was that raiders from the north were killing the Southern Christian men and kidnapping the women and children to be sold into slavery. The most disturbing part of this discovery was the newfound knowledge that this had been going on for over two years. Professors Mahumud and Baldo

These two boys, Alexie and Douglass, grew up in very similar yet contrasting worlds. Due to their ethnic backgrounds these boys were expected to fail in life; they weren’t supposed to get an education due to the norms during their times. Douglass states in his text that “…education and slavery were incompatible with each other” (119), and that is what he grew up knowing. Others viewed a smart Indian or African American as dangerous because they could stand up for themselves instead of staying quiet like they were expected to. Alexie and Douglass were both stuck in a position where their futures were in jeopardy. Alexie was not expected to make a name for himself and Douglass was doomed to be a slave for