Refugee recalls flight from civil war

African refugees face a difficult transition to the United States, a Sudanese refugee and a film director said at a screening of "The Lost Boys of Sudan" on Friday.

Joseph Deng, a U.S. citizen who fled Sudan during the country's second civil war in the 1990s, is one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan," the International Rescue Committee's program to resettle Sudanese refugees in the United States during the Second Sudanese Civil War.

"We think the peace [in southern Sudan] might fall out because of what's going on in Darfur," Deng said.

The film documents the dangerous journey of two other "lost boys" from war-torn Sudan to the United States.

The documentary also emphasizes the gulf between America as it is and how it is perceived in Sudan. In America, "they eat 24 hours a day and still have food left," one character in the film says.

Deng hopes to educate other Sudanese refugees about the reality of American life. "In Sudan, they don't know how the life is, but they know it's good," Deng said.

In particular, he said he wants to start an organization that would enable police officers to educate Sudanese immigrants about the law. Television teaches Sudanese-Americans to say, "I am not going to give you my name, I want to call my lawyer," Deng said.

"That is not how the law [actually] works," he said, smiling.

Deng also hopes to educate Americans about his former home. He no longer wants to be asked, "Did you live with lions?"

"I am one of you guys. I'm a U.S. citizen, too," Deng said, drawing applause from the crowd of about 100 in McCosh 10. He quickly added, "It doesn't help my brother and sister [in Sudan]."

Megan Mylan, the film's co-director, said Deng and most of his fellow Sudanese immigrants have been able to offer some assistance to their friends and relatives back in Africa.

"We can't give up our seven-dollar-an-hour jobs to come up with a massive organization," Deng said. "What we did and what we can do is open up a local organization."

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Mylan emphasized the connection between the Sudanese war and the current crisis in Darfur.

"A lot of people said it's Rwanda all over again," Mylan said of Darfur. "It's also Sudan all over again. Those [Darfurian] children are experiencing all the same things these [Sudanese] guys went through."

The promise of a good life led many Sudanese refugees to walk hundreds of miles before reaching a refugee camp. As boats took refugees across the Gilo River to safety, Deng said, "the enemy came." Trying to flee, "a lot of people just jammed into the river, and a lot of people drowned," Deng said.

Deng was unable to bring his sister with him to the United States. "I had not listed my sister in the application because the information was not well presented," he said.

Deng was not alone. Mylan said relatively few girls even made it as far as the refugee camps. "Those girls need to come," Mylan said. "They need to be given this opportunity. They deserve their own film."