But for 18-year-old Nyuol
Tong, a Sudanese student who begins his senior year at Dunn School in Santa
Ynez this fall, peace is a mirage. War has invaded his consciousness, if not
his California home.
In July, his
family village of Ayeit in the state of Warrap in Southern Sudan was invaded by
a rival tribe. Five hundred cattle were stolen and three of Tong’s
cousins were killed. His father, the chief, struggles to feed his villagers
because food rations were also stolen.
That same month, Tong raised
$9,000 at Grace Bible Church in Arroyo Grande to help his village, but large
sums of money can’t be wired from the U.S. to Sudan, and for accountability,
the funds must be delivered by a legitimate agency or church group.
Meanwhile, tribal raids have
increased in the lawless no-man’s land of Bahr el Ghazal, the slice of Sudan’s
Southwest that divides north and south.
Tong, preparing for a
challenging senior academic year and college decisions that will shape his
future, bears a heavier burden than his Santa Ynez classmates.
“I must help my family,” he
says. “It’s my responsibility. But it’s frustrating. I’ve raised this money,
but how can it be put to use if I can’t get it there?”
Tong identifies deeply with
his father and family members in Sudan, even though he left his home at age 12
for Cairo where he lived as a refugee until he won a scholarship to Dunn four
years ago.
Scarce resources
Resources have been scarce
in Sudan since 1955 when the first civil war began when rural cattle herders,
mostly Christians and animists in the oil-rich South, rebelled against the
domination of the Northern Muslim militia. War ended in 1972, but the problems
that triggered the fighting — namely religious differences and economic
control of lucrative oil earnings, which make up 70 percent of Sudan’s export
earnings — remained. In 1983, President Nimeiry declared a state of
emergency to maintain Shari’a law, a means of controlling the lives of citizens
based on a strict reading of the Koran. The application of Islamic law did not
sit well with Christians in the South.
The Sudanese People’s
Liberation Army (SPLA), composed of non-Arab Southerners, rose up to fight the
Islamic government forces in the North, and war resumed — if it really
did end — in 1983. Some 4 million Southerners were displaced internally
and internationally, the majority going to Cairo, which is where Tong
ultimately went.
The official death toll is
1.9 million, but thousands who went missing were never found and are not
counted in this number. A peace treaty signed in 2005 officially ended the war,
assisted by the charismatic Southern leader, John Garang. But Garang soon died
in a suspicious plane crash, and Southerners in exile, told to return home,
found villages bombed or burned and no electricity, water, food, healthcare and
schools.
Their fields were planted
with landmines. The psychological makeup of a people inundated by a lifetime of
war, corruption and tyranny can explain how tribal violence continues to rage
in Sudan’s South.
No summer vacation
While his peers are gearing
up for senior year this fall, playing lacrosse and soccer in anticipation of
Condor League victories and catching up on required summer reading — Tong
read “Pride and Prejudice,” the senior book, before summer even started —
Tong began to network on behalf of his family’s village.
The Rev. Jorge Naranjo, a
Comboni priest who met Tong in Cairo at Sacred Heart’s church school, is based
in Khartoum. As soon as he learned of the attack on Tong’s village, he began
working the limited phone lines to deliver emergency relief.
“Tong amazes me,” says the
priest. “Schools were destroyed in the war, and he didn’t learn to read till he
was 10, but by 14, he’d read Nietzsche, Feuerbach and Kant. He told me that he
was dedicated to a search for pure truth.”
While he waits for word from
the Comboni mission in Rumbek, Tong got to meet one of his heroes, writer Mark
Danner, whose books “The Secret Way to War” and “Massacre at El Mozote,” are
among his favorites.
Danner, a professor at U.C.
Berkeley and at Bard College, gave Tong tips on the college application
process, although he’s not worried about Tong’s chances of getting into a top
school.
“Tong is remarkable,” says
Danner. “He’s determined, thoughtful, articulate and engaged in the world not
only by the difficulties he’s experienced, but also by the wonderful goals he
hopes to accomplish. The fine education he’s received at Dunn is clearly an
enormous boon to his homeland — and to all of us.”
American Wild West
Back in the valley,
preparing for his role as senior prefect, Tong cannot help it when he looks at
the cattle grazing in the hills and thinks of his father’s stolen wealth. When
he walks through the aisles of El Rancho market and sees the abundance of fresh
meats and produce, he says he imagines his family searching for local plants
from the forest.
Despite his anxiety, he’s
excited to begin his senior year — and find a way to get that money to
his village.
“Dunn has been a true gift
to me, and I’m going to give back by getting a law degree and going back to
help my country,” he vows. “It is like the American Wild West in South Sudan
right now, with bandits and thieves ready to jump out from behind a tree and
rob anyone they see. We must be sure funds arrive safely.”
Tong, secure in his Dunn
dorm room, looks out the window at trees and sunlit hills, but his mind is
elsewhere, in another village far from Los Olivos, where the sound of war cries
pierce the night, and no man, woman or child can feel truly safe.