Wol Akujang was among the more than 20,000 "Lost Boys" who were displaced or orphaned during Sudan's civil war. He fled his village at the age of six, sheltering in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya before being relocated to the United States. He has a new degree in biology from the University of Arizona.
After casting his absentee ballot in Arizona last month in southern Sudan's historic independence referendum, he has returned to southern Sudan to work in the ministry of health for several months. It has been a challenging re-entry.
His teenage brother, who he is supporting through school in neighboring Kenya, contracted chicken pox, one of the childhood diseases for which many African children have not been vaccinated. Members of Akujang's extended family were among more than a million southerners who had settled in the north, seeking work or fleeing conflict. Now they are part of a return migration, struggling to find their place in a setting alien to them. Although just out of college, with few resources himself, Akujang has become part of a new elite, whose education confers expectations and responsibilities he must confront.
AllAfrica's Cindy Shiner interviewed him after his arrival in Juba, southern Sudan's capital and one of the world's fastest growing cities – a dust-choked construction zone of perhaps a million people on the banks of the Nile, with only a few paved streets, no safe water source and electricity only from diesel generators.
When they talked, Akujang was preparing to visit Pap, the village of his early childhood. His observations have been edited into a narrative. AllAfrica will be following his story.
Arrival
I picked up my brother in a place called Nakuru, in Kenya, to come to Sudan. A day before we left he noticed all these bumps on his body. He went to the doctor, and the doctor gave him some medicine. It didn't occur to me this was chicken pox right away.
We flew to Juba from Nairobi, Kenya's capital. The first and second day were very severe for him. Even the third day. Some of the blisters came out on his eyes. It was hard for him to see and open his eyes. He had fever and lack of appetite. We told him to eat some food, because there was no other way to feed him.
The fifth day the blisters started going down a little bit. Now he's getting better. He's walking, the fever is gone and his appetite is back. We'll be going to the village tomorrow, because he is now able to walk and talk.
Juba
We arrived in Juba around the time the referendum was going on. There was a lot of excitement and a lot of patriotism. You see the flag everywhere. Every car you see, almost all of them have the flag somewhere. It was an exciting time.
There's a lot of construction going on. I'm quite impressed by how individuals are trying to set up their business. Some people are actually setting up small shops.
The thing I notice - I see police, but there's not a lot of public service taking place. There's trash everywhere. It's amazing. People drink bottled water and just throw it there – soda, everything.
My guess is there's some kind of suspension by the government, waiting for the referendum results. I guess they will start working and trying to do what they're supposed to do when they know the results and when they know that the country is now independent.
Pap
Pap is the village I left when I was six years old. They leveled the road. It used to take about six hours to get there, and now it's only about two hours. There are a lot of positive things about security on the road and how nice it is to get there quickly.
There are a lot of small business people who come and get things in Juba - things like biscuits and clothes and beer - and put them in a car and take them back to the village. They sell them for a little bit higher than what they buy them, to make profit.
In Juba I met people from the village and, actually, a lot of them have heard about me. The message has already gone there, and they know that I'm coming back. Because my younger brother couldn't travel, a lot of them were worried. So my older brother came and visited and now he went back. I told him to tell the people back in the village that my brother is getting better, so they don't get worried, because a lot of people are waiting for us.
For me, it's a bit new, the village. Everyone knows each other, and the news travels quickly. It's a custom when somebody who has never been there or has been gone for a long time: they will prepare food, drinks, and they will slaughter a bull or something. They gather all the people in one place and they pray and they talk about how I left the village, life in the village and what it means that I'm back. Sometimes there is dancing. The elders will talk. They will be happy that I'm back and give words of encouragement.
This is not my first time. I was back in 2005, but that event was small because this is a farming community and there are a lot of people that take care of the cattle. When I came in 2005, people had moved far away from the village for green pastures. When I went there I think there were about 30 people. That is very few compared to now. It will be quite a number of people who will come.
An Education
I will tell them that America gave me the opportunity to go to school and to be in this position. I will tell them the importance of school, because a lot of them are starting to understand how important school is. These are not the poor, poor people. They have cattle. They can sell them and send a child to school.
My encouragement would be that their future is very bright if they can send their child to school. Now there is free movement, they are seeing how important school is. There are a very few elites here who have gone to school, so they can see what school has done for them in terms of wealth and things like that.
For someone like me, it's just important to know something. Knowing is power, so I would encourage them to make sure their children go to school. If somebody's able to do so, send them to school and let them learn.
Family
The norm in the village is that you grow up and become a farmer, just like your family. I will encourage them to keep the family together, to do things together like we used to do. This war has destabilized and destroyed some of the traditional values that are almost universal - sharing things, doing things together, without having issues. People can fight over things in our village, especially when things are few.
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I have three brothers and also some other very close relatives. I have an uncle who was in the north. He was a south Sudanese living in the north. The government arrested him and came back and said he died in jail. His family is now in the south.
They had to come back and vote. But the uncertainty in the north is definitely one of the factors why they moved back. I'm going to encourage people in the village to welcome them and make sure they're made to feel at home, because this to them is a very strange environment.
Home
The most difficult thing now is to finalize a home for them to live in, because now they don't have a home; they are here in Juba. I think Juba will be better for them, because they were living in a city in the north. Village life - it will take them a long time to get used to that life!
One of the guys was telling me about how he spent about two weeks in the village just to get used to it. It will be much more easy if they are actually in Juba or someplace that is a little bit modernized, so they can slowly get used to village life. At the same time, the village is home. If somebody wants to live there they can, and if somebody wants to live in the city they can - but at the same time know that if they are having a tough time here in Juba, they can always go to the village. It's a tough life. Having people around you is important.
Another important thing I notice: people who were in the north were taught only in Arabic, not in English. It's very, very hard for them to find jobs, because many of them cannot speak English. Life here is going to be tough.
