What is the What [antikvár]

PREFACE What Is the What is the soulful account of my life: from the time I was separated from my family in Marial Bai to the thirteen years I spent in Ethiopian and Kenyan refugee camps, to my encounter with vibrant Western cultures beginning in Atlanta, to the generosity and the challenges that I encountered elsewhere. As you read this book, you will learn about me and my beloved people f, of Sudan. I was just a young boy when the twenty-two-year civil war began that pitted Sudan's government against the Sudan People's Lib- , eration Movement/Army. As a helpless human, I survived by trekking across many punishing landscapes while being bombed by Sudanese air ' forces, while dodging land mines, while being preyed upon by wild if beasts and human killers. I fed on unknown fruits, vegetables, leaves K and sometimes went with nothing for days. At many points, the diffi- ^ culty was unbearable. I thought the whole world had turned blind eyes j| on the fate that was befalling me and the people of southern Sudan. R Many of my friends, and thousands of my fellow countrymen, did not make it. May God give them eternal peace. This book began as part of my struggle to reach out to others through public speaking. I told my story to many audiences, but I wanted the world to know the whole truth of my existence. In the fall of 2003, I told Mary Williams, the founder of the Lost Boys Foundation in Atlanta, that in spite of the public-speaking opportunities available, I wanted to reach out to a wider audience by telling the story of my life in book form. Because I was not a writer, I asked Mary to put me in touch with an author to help me write my biography. Mary contacted Dave Eggers, and thank God Dave and I met and certainly became