Mark Bixler's The Lost Boys of Sudan

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Since 1983, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Sudanese government have been at war within the southern region of Sudan. This brutal conflict has ravaged the country claiming hundreds of lives and exiling a vast number of the southern Sudanese people. Most of these outcasts were young men aging between five and twelve years of age who returned home from tending cattle to see their village being attacked and their fellow villagers being killed by government militias . These boys fled, not knowing what they would encounter on the journey to escape the violence in their own country. Hungry, frightened, and weak from their long and hellish journey, the boys reached refugee camps outside of Sudan. Even though many young men were killed on their journeys to and from refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, many remained at these camps for numerous years. While in the camps, they heard news of an opportunity to travel to the United States for hope and a promise of a better life. In Mark Bixler’s The Lost Boys of Sudan: An American Story of The Refugee Experience, Bixler depicts the story of these young men or Lost Boys’ and their determination to receive an education that would not only transform their lives but also the lives of their kinsmen.

Mark Bixler examines how The Lost Boys were tired of not having anything, and how they believe that education provided an opportunity to change the circumstances for them and their country. The Lost Boys strongly desired a formal education which they believe would help save themselves and their nation; this is illustrated through the narrative by both struggles in America, such as having to work and lacking the time they desired, as well as from the lack of supplies the refuge...

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...to believe anything was possible. Their journey was hard, but the Lost Boys felt their time in America reflected a better future and a chance to return learned American concepts back home.

Civil war in a country such as Sudan caused major damage within the borders. Death surrounded the nation as the northern Islamic and the southern Christians fought. This long lasting conflict finally ended and resulted in the creation of a new country, Southern Sudan. Clearly now is the time for the Lost Boys to return once again, as educated people, to rebuild their homeland. Bixler’s novel is a message of how education is a vital tool for those willing to enrich their lives and the lives of others less fortunate.

Works Cited

Bixler, Mark. The Lost Boys of Sudan: An American Story of the Refugee Experience.

Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2006. Print.

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