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Akoc Manheim grew up in southern Sudan, a country torn by civil war for over twenty years. He is a member of the so-called ‘Lost Boys’, a term used to describe a whole generation of young people, both boys and girls, displaced by the civil war. He came to Australia in 2003 and participated in RYLA in December last year. He helped to set up the Lost Boys Association of Australia and is currently working to save for his university education.
What was your life like before you moved to Australia?
“It was very strange, and very difficult. There had been a war in southern Sudan for two decades. It was 1983 when the war broke out between southern and northern Sudan. I was maybe one year old at the time. This war went on and on and on, and all of us grew up in the war.
When you are about seven years old you get conscripted by the Arab militia, and then they train you to be a soldier. But most of us didn’t accept that, so we escaped early to avoid abduction. We just moved around southern Sudan to avoid getting into trouble.
Most of the young people went to Ethiopia, when Ethiopia was captured, all of us ran back to southern Sudan, then we walked over to Kenya. We came to a refugee camp in Kenya in 1992.
I have been in the refugee camps myself for five years, and it is a terrible life. We survived the lions, because lions attacked people along the way, some other gangs hide somewhere to wait for you, maybe you might have some food, so they attack you at night, kill some people, take the food off you. All the way until people get to the refugee camp.
For my own experience, I was in a camp in southern Sudan, life was very hard, there were lots of young people. After some time there the people that were responsible for us told us to go back to our normal home because the town near us was captured. The Arab militias bombarded our centre every day, and it was very difficult to get food. So I went back to my parents. I went to help my family with the cattle. But the Arab militias attacked our cattle camp, they killed many of the older people and tried to catch the young ones. They caught me and took me to a local town. I was not happy about it, but I was too young to join the army. One of the people took me instead to look after the horses and cattle.
So what I did, I ran around with that horse every day, after I had tethered the cattle at night. Everybody said I was just playing. But one day I ran on the horse until I disappeared. I tied up the horse that night in the forest, but in the morning it was gone. I had to walk through the forest for many days until I found somewhere to go.
Eventually I got to a small town, where I got someone to give me a lift in a plane to the refugee camp in Kenya. I stayed there for five years.
When I came to the refugee camp I thought it would be secure for everyone, but there is insecurity because the local people don’t like refugees being there. They don’t have enough food either – they rely on the United Nations as well.
We got our food fortnightly, just like we get money from Centrelink now. We got 5kg of maize to last 15 days. You have to sell 3kg to be able to grind the 2kg. You spend 2 or 3 days without food. If you are unlucky, someone comes into the camp and demands your food. If you refuse they shoot you. One day one of my friends was shot. It was very terrible. We were just sitting down talking, talking. I had a feeling something was going to happen, so I went inside. I heard the sound of a gun very close. We called the police, they came three hours later – they didn’t care. Life was so difficult, wherever we went in Africa. We find it better in Australia.”
What are some of the challenges that the Sudanese refugees face
coming to Australia?
Akoc talks about the many difficulties that refugees deal with on a daily basis in Australia. One of the most pressing is the inadequacy of the English classes they receive. “I receive many visits from people who have completed their full amount of allocated lessons, but who need me to read their bills and forms for them.”
Related to this issue is the lack of connection with Australian mainstream society, which is especially difficult for the younger people. “It is so hard to find what they need without this connection”. RYLA,
Akoc says, has provided him with an Australian network, which he is rapidly putting to use to help the other people in his community.
How do you think you benefited from participating in RYLA?
“Being a refugee, we are all disconnected from Australian society, but when I went to RYLA, I learnt a different experience. I made many friends, who could help me if I called on them to help me. I also shared a lot of ideas about how people can go on with their lives. So one person can really not learn themselves, but finding other people with different experiences, we can learn a lot. I realised that everyone has different ideas about life.”
Akoc put the confidence RYLA gave him to good use almost immediately – organising a large community wedding on his return.
What is your vision for the Lost Boys Group for the future?
“Our vision is to work together with Australian people as a community and help people back in southern Sudan. Our short term goals are creating a recreational program, and organising a big conference for all lost boys in Australia to meet.
We are the generation who have to start the education and make change in southern Sudan – there are no others.”
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