Lost and Found

This piece initially ran in the Syracuse New Times on April 11, and can be accessed here.

John Bul Dau never wanted to be famous. If his name is unfamiliar, it won’t be for long: He’s one of the three stars of God Grew Tired of Us, a documentary about his years as a Sudanese Lost Boy. After numerous public speaking engagements across the country and a published memoir, Dau has earned fame in his own right. “What I want to be is a star of helping people, not a star of making money. "If I can use all of my life to help people, that’s what I want,” Dau said from his home in Eastwood.

Dau, 34, has been translating his nascent celebrity into tangible action. On Friday, April 13, after a showing of the film at Syracuse University’s College of Law, he will answer questions and sign copies of God Grew Tired of Us (National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.; 352 pages; $26/hardcover). The evening’s proceeds will support the Duk County Lost Boys Clinic, the first medical clinic to serve the people of Duk County, Sudan. (The movie also continues its engagement at the Westcott Cinema, 524 Westcott St. See Times Table for showtimes.)

Beyond this philanthropic goal, the night allows those unfamiliar with the Lost Boys’ story to experience it. The book and movie follow Dau as he adjusts to life in Syracuse, as well as two other Sudanese refugees who were relocated to Pittsburgh. “I hope people will come and see it firsthand. I think that is a huge contribution to resolving the problem in Africa,” Dau said referring to the continued persecution of Southern Sudanese citizens by the North. “If you can’t go and shoot there, as the military, this is your chance to shoot here. This is your chance to participate.”

Through strong monetary and physical participation, the medical facility should be finished by the end of April. According to the project’s Web site, www.directchange.org/sudan, $78,600 toward the first year’s operating costs of $417,000 had been raised as of April 9. One doctor has already been hired, and four other medical personnel are moving from Kenya to Duk County. “I was told that when the electricity went on for the first time—we have two generators—people came from far, far, far away to see it. That has made me really happy because the clinic is going to help our people,” Dau said.

He has traveled all over this country for public speaking engagements, but few places can match Syracuse. “I feel like I’m talking to my kin, I’m feeling like I’m talking to my clan,” he said. “Here, I will be answering questions from people in my home. I will feel really good because I will feel like I’m talking to the people at the dining table.”

Although Dau is speaking of how welcoming and generous he has found Central New Yorkers, his statement has an element of truth behind it. The area has taken in at least 700 Sudanese refugees since 2001, and they all share a similar story.

The second Sudanese Civil War, waged from 1983 to 2005, separated families and forced the boys, most who were at least temporarily orphaned, from their homes. Children between ages 3 and 13 bound together for the 1,000-mile journey. They walked through horrendous conditions from southern Sudan to Ethiopia, but conflict again turned them into refugees. The boys ultimately made it to a refugee camp in Kenya where many became stuck without anywhere else to go. Dau lived there 10 years before he immigrated.

Catholic Charities, a national organization with a branch in Syracuse, has given more than 300 refugees homes in Syracuse. Its workers provide a friendly ear for the new arrivals. “People don’t talk about {their time in Kakukma} enough. The guys don’t talk about it,” said Pinyoun, volunteer coordinator for Catholic Charities. “I think it was kind of like being in jail. You don’t want to think about it that much. You’re glad you got through it and maybe it made you stronger. But not that many pleasant things happened.”

The documentary, which won the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, doesn’t spend much time talking about the refugees’ time in Africa either. It begins with the conflict’s history and the boys’ time in camp before moving on to America.

Dau, on the other hand, goes into detail in his memoir about the journey and his time spent in the camp from 1991 to 2001. By contrast, while the film rushes to get its main characters to America, Dau’s time here comprises the final third of the book. Taken as a whole, the combination of the memoir and movie provide a complete account of Dau’s story.

The film and the book are not the whole story, however. Dau also hopes to inspire action, understanding or both. He has been raising money to help the people of Southern Sudan since August 2003, when he co-founded the Sudanese Lost Boy Foundation of New York. Through that organization, he raised more than $90,000 before the film came out. “If word will go from one person to another, it will explode later. Maybe it will explode to taking action. They way I look at it is that it’s getting into the brain, into the veins, into the roots,” Dau said.

Although the war officially ended in January 2005 conflict remains. “The next step is to have the United States of America and some other countries push the government of Sudan to implement peace,” he said. “To have southerners vote for whether or not they want one country or whether it will be a divided country.”

Friday’s event takes place in Grant Auditorium inside the SU College of Law; the film is at 7 p.m., Dau’s talk at 8:30 p.m. Admission is $10. Tickets are available at the Schine Student Center box office, 303 University Ave., with limited availability at the door. For more information about the event, call 443-3759.