BOOKPATHS

Darfur, Sudan

Halima Bashir talks about her book, Tears of the Desert: a Memoir of Survival in Darfur, on NPR.

“Darfur. I know to you this must be a word soaked in suffering and blood. A name that conjures up terrible images of a dark horror and an evil without end. Pain and cruelty on a magnitude inconceivable in most of the civilized world. But to me Darfur means something quite different: It was and is that irreplaceable, unfathomable joy that is home.” – from Tears of the Desert: a Memoir of Survival in Darfur, by Halima Bashir

Sudan; United States

Lost Boys of Sudan is the name given by aid organizations to refer to the more than 27,000 boys who were displaced and/or orphaned during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2003, about 2 million killed). – from Wikipedia

What is the What: the Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng: a Novel, by Dave Eggers (New York: Vintage Books, paperback 2007, first published 2006)

Based on the life of Valentino Achak Dent, one of the “lost-boys” of Sudan, Dave Eggers takes readers on the dangerous and frightening journey of a 7-year-old “forced to leave his village…and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals,” before finally arriving in the United States where “promise” is mixed with “heartache” and “challenges.” In this extraordinary book, Eggers forces readers to confront what is all too easily ignored.

As you read this book, you will learn about me and my beloved people of Sudan. I was just a young boy when the twenty-two-year civil war began that pitted Sudan’s government against the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army. As a helpless human, I survived by trekking across many punishing landscapes while being bombed by Sudanese air forces, while dodging land mines, while being preyed upon by wild beasts and human killers. I fed on unknown fruits, vegetables, leaves and sometimes went with nothing for days. At many points, the difficulty was unbearable. I thought the whole world had turned blind eyes on the fate that was befalling me and the people of southern Sudan. Many of my friends, and thousands of my fellow countrymen, did not make it. May God give them eternal peace. – from “Preface,” by Valentino Achak Deng, What is the What, by Dave Eggers

Related Websites

Publisher’s Website

Valentino Achak Deng Foundation

Sudan

Richard Lea talks with Sudanese poet Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi.

"The Sudanese poet Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi is worried about the direction our conversation is taking. He shakes his head and speaks to our interpreter. ‘It's heading too much towards the political side and I'm not really an expert,’ he says. ‘The cultural side is a lot more important.’"  -- from “There is a Sudanese Culture,” by Richard Lea, The Guardian

Today's Bookpath

SUDAN; ENGLAND

Minaret, by Leila Aboulela (New York : Black Cat, 2005)

In Minaret, readers follow Najwa’s “coming down in the world.” Covering twenty years of her life, she’s first encountered at her home in 1980s Khartoum, Sudan, daughter of a prominent and wealthy family. A military coup forces Najwa, her mother, and brother into exile in London. Taken into custody before they flee, her father is eventually executed by the new regime. Instead of servants and wealth, Najwa must slowly adjust to life in London’s working class, “moving in the background” of society. Never drawn to religion in Sudan, Najwa gradually embraces the Muslim faith, finding solace and peace in its teachings. One leaves Najwa’s story with compassion and a better understanding of Sudan’s tragic history and the difficulty of reclaiming an identity while in exile.

“For a brief moment I am not sure who I am, the Najwa who danced at the American Club disco in Khartoum or Najwa, the maid Lamya hired by walking into the Central Mosque one afternoon.” – from Minaret, by Leila Aboulela