I am a simple person from a simple family who was part of a simple community. I grew up in the village of Dissa in the Darfur region of western Sudan. While growing up, I didn't know what racism was and didn't differentiate between people based on their color or religion. I had no access to television or electricity, had never tasted chocolate, and my family put our money in a hole instead of keeping it in a bank. In 2003, I was forced to leave my country with other Darfuris to escape persecution. While in Egypt in 2005, I read the word "refugee" in a book and realized that was me. I have experienced hate and racism because I am a refugee and foreign. I have been called "ponga ponga," "chocolate," "ashikabla," and "koshi." All these terms were meant to humiliate me either for my status as a refugee or for the color of my skin. I have been put in prison for being a refugee. On December 31, 2005, in Egypt, twenty-seven people were killed in front of my eyes simply because they were refugees. This book tells my story, both the happy parts as a child and the challenging parts as a refugee. I want the world to see all of me, not just my skin or my legal status. Because Darfuri refugees aren't just a nameless mass of people. We have families, stories, lives, just like you.

"An incisive work of photo-journalism with trenchant essays that illumines the plight of displaced persons in the Darfu region of Sudan. The authors take readers inside the camps via personal narratives and through compelling images. The work also provides a context for understanding the tragedy and describes a framework for how people of faith are responding to the crisis."--P. [4] of cover.

In 2000 the United States began accepting 3,800 refugees from one of Africa’s longest civil wars. They were just some of the thousands of young men, known as “Lost Boys,” who had been orphaned or otherwise separated from their families in the chaos of a brutal conflict that has ravaged Sudan since 1983. The Lost Boys of Sudan focuses on four of these refugees. Theirs, however, is a typical story, one that repeated itself wherever the Lost Boys could be found across America. Jacob Magot, Peter Anyang, Daniel Khoch, and Marko Ayii were among 150 or so Lost Boys who were resettled in Atlanta. Like most of their fellow refugees, they had never before turned on a light switch, used a kitchen appliance, or ridden in a car or subway train—much less held a job or balanced a checkbook. We relive their early excitement and disorientation, their growing despondency over fruitless job searches, adjustments they faced upon finally entering the workforce, their experiences of post-9/11 xenophobia, and their undying dreams of acquiring an education. As we immerse ourselves in the Lost Boys’ daily lives, we also get to know the social services professionals and volunteers, celebrities, community leaders, and others who guided them—with occasional detours—toward self-sufficiency. Along the way author Mark Bixler looks closely at the ins and outs of U.S. refugee policy, the politics of international aid, the history of Sudan, and the radical Islamist underpinnings of its government. America is home to more foreign-born residents than ever before; the Lost Boys have repaid that gift in full through their example of unflagging resolve, hope, and faith.

Written by two authors with unparalleled first-hand experience of Darfur, this is the definitive guide. Newly updated and hugely expanded, this edition details Darfur's history in Sudan. It traces the origins, organization and ideology of the infamous Janjawiid and rebel groups, including the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement. It also analyses the brutal response of the Sudanese government. The authors investigate the responses by the African Union and the international community, including the halting peace talks and the attempts at peacekeeping. Flint and de Waal provide an authoritative and compelling account of contemporary Africa's most controversial conflict.

Refugees are one of the great contemporary challenges the world is confronting, and the international community struggles to provide adequate responses to refugee needs. Gil Loescher explores the causes and consequences of the contemporary refugee crisis for both sending and receiving states, for global order, and for refugees themselves.

This is a novel about people who find themselves in the middle of a horrific conflict and how they survive. Their choices affect their families, the people they love, and the course of their lives. Their stories start before the events in Sudan touch them, following them through challenges and triumphs, as they rebuild their lives. What they have in common with the rest of us is that their journeys are about finding out what kind of people they are: Should they try to draw strength from their anger or should they let it go? Is it better to stick with what you know or find the courage to change?

What Is the What is the story of Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee in war-ravaged southern Sudan who flees from his village in the mid-1980s and becomes one of the so-called Lost Boys. Valentino’s travels bring him in contact with enemy soldiers, with liberation rebels, with hyenas and lions, with disease and starvation, and with deadly murahaleen (militias on horseback)–the same sort who currently terrorize Darfur. Eventually Deng is resettled in the United States with almost 4000 other young Sudanese men, and a very different struggle begins. Based closely on true experiences, What Is the What is heartbreaking and arresting, filled with adventure, suspense, tragedy, and, finally, triumph.