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The Journey Home
Young exiles are returning from across the world to build the new nation of South Sudan.
(<span style="font-style: italic">Page 1 of 4)</span>
Sarah Elliott for Newsweek
Nyagoa Nyuon is a willowy, striking woman of illustrious stock. Her father was a leading rebel commander; her mother one of the first women to join the militia that sought the independence of South Sudan. In 1986, when she was just 5 years old, her father sent her family into exile to protect them from a raging civil war, a conflict that over time killed roughly 2 million people. William Nyuon Bany, one of the founders of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, knew that because of his profile, his family was particularly at risk, and so he dispatched eight of his nine wives abroad, along with dozens of his children. Some landed in Kenya, but others went as far afield as Cuba, Australia, Britain, and the United States.
When her father was killed 10 years later in circumstances that remain unclear, the plan for a joyful reunion with his family died. But for Nyagoa Nyuon, her father’s legacy was one of the main motivations for returning to South Sudan. “I told my mom I would come back…for the celebration” of the peace agreement that ended the civil war, says Nyuon. “My mom said, ‘You should be here. This is what your father started.’?”
On a recent afternoon, sitting under an umbrella in the blazing midday sun in Juba, a city of pungent smells and potholed streets that will become the capital of the world’s newest country on July 9, Nyuon contemplates the winding roads that led her away from where she was born, and now, at 30, back to her place of origin.
“I never felt like the U.S. was my home. I just felt like somehow, someday, I have to go back to where I came from,” says Nyuon. “My dad always told us, ‘You’re going there for security. Get what you can, educate yourself, come back, and find your place. America is not your home; this is your home.’?”
Like Nyuon, many in the generation who grew up abroad are “returning” to South Sudan to help build the country. For some, it’s a return to a home they have no memory of, a return to a place that existed only in the imagination. If the stories told by parents and grandparents were to be believed, here life was simple, land was plentiful, and they were among their own.
In January, a vast majority of the southerners voted for independence from the north, in a secession that’s been troubled but, so far, not as bloody as feared. Still, after nearly five decades of civil war, the challenges facing everyone in South Sudan are hard to overstate. The government is largely composed of rebel fighters turned politicians, many of whom have had little formal education, let alone experience building a democracy. Only 24 percent of the population can read, and the literacy rate is significantly lower among women. Travel is difficult, as there are few paved roads in the region; during the rainy season, some areas are accessible only by helicopter.
other pages r here: http://www.newsweek.com/2011/06/26/b...uth-sudan.html
Young exiles are returning from across the world to build the new nation of South Sudan.
(<span style="font-style: italic">Page 1 of 4)</span>
Sarah Elliott for Newsweek
Nyagoa Nyuon is a willowy, striking woman of illustrious stock. Her father was a leading rebel commander; her mother one of the first women to join the militia that sought the independence of South Sudan. In 1986, when she was just 5 years old, her father sent her family into exile to protect them from a raging civil war, a conflict that over time killed roughly 2 million people. William Nyuon Bany, one of the founders of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, knew that because of his profile, his family was particularly at risk, and so he dispatched eight of his nine wives abroad, along with dozens of his children. Some landed in Kenya, but others went as far afield as Cuba, Australia, Britain, and the United States.
When her father was killed 10 years later in circumstances that remain unclear, the plan for a joyful reunion with his family died. But for Nyagoa Nyuon, her father’s legacy was one of the main motivations for returning to South Sudan. “I told my mom I would come back…for the celebration” of the peace agreement that ended the civil war, says Nyuon. “My mom said, ‘You should be here. This is what your father started.’?”
On a recent afternoon, sitting under an umbrella in the blazing midday sun in Juba, a city of pungent smells and potholed streets that will become the capital of the world’s newest country on July 9, Nyuon contemplates the winding roads that led her away from where she was born, and now, at 30, back to her place of origin.
“I never felt like the U.S. was my home. I just felt like somehow, someday, I have to go back to where I came from,” says Nyuon. “My dad always told us, ‘You’re going there for security. Get what you can, educate yourself, come back, and find your place. America is not your home; this is your home.’?”
Like Nyuon, many in the generation who grew up abroad are “returning” to South Sudan to help build the country. For some, it’s a return to a home they have no memory of, a return to a place that existed only in the imagination. If the stories told by parents and grandparents were to be believed, here life was simple, land was plentiful, and they were among their own.
In January, a vast majority of the southerners voted for independence from the north, in a secession that’s been troubled but, so far, not as bloody as feared. Still, after nearly five decades of civil war, the challenges facing everyone in South Sudan are hard to overstate. The government is largely composed of rebel fighters turned politicians, many of whom have had little formal education, let alone experience building a democracy. Only 24 percent of the population can read, and the literacy rate is significantly lower among women. Travel is difficult, as there are few paved roads in the region; during the rainy season, some areas are accessible only by helicopter.
other pages r here: http://www.newsweek.com/2011/06/26/b...uth-sudan.html