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What Is the What The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng Dave Eggers 9781932416640 Books

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What Is the What The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng Dave Eggers 9781932416640 Books

This is the story of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. With the help of novelist Dave Eggers, he tells his story in a moving, gripping way. Achak and Eggers met through the Lost Boys Foundation, which was founded and run by Mary Williams, Jane Fonda's adopted daughter. Williams called Eggers, asking him to meet with Achak and consider chronicling his story. They decided to include historical and political background and to expand on Achak's experiences, turning into a sort of autobiographical novel.

The title is from an old creation story Achak hears from his father. As his last act of creation, God said, "I can give you one more thing. . . . You can either have these cattle, as my gift to you, or you can have the What." Man asked, "What is the What?" God replied, "I cannot tell you. . . . You have to choose between the cattle and the What." Considering the attributes and benefits of the cattle, man chose cattle. And because man was content with what God had given, "God has allowed us to prosper. The Dinka live and grow as the cattle live and grow." In the Dinka version most often told, "God had given the What to the Arabs, and this was why the Arabs were inferior."

When Achak was just a boy, the Arabs began their attacks, determined to purge non-Arabs, non-Muslims from southern Sudan. Rebels fought the government soldiers in a long, drawn out war. Many villages were destroyed altogether. Even thought the rebels ostensibly tried to defend the rights of non-Arabs, they were, in many cases worse than the government soldiers and the raiding tribes supported by the government.

Achak fled his village, embarking on foot on a trek from Marial Bai, in southwestern Sudan, to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Conditions along this journey of hundreds of miles can't be imagined by most of us. The travellers, mostly young boys, most of whom had witnessed the horrors of their parents being murdered, their homes and villages being burned, and worse. Along the way, the boys (there were some girls and adults, too) suffered every kind of deprivation, going days without food or water, most without shoes, many without clothes. Many died along the way of starvation, disease, drowning or being eaten by crocodiles while crossing rivers, or being carried off by lions.

When they finally arrived at a refugee camp at Pinyudo, Ethiopia, conditions did not quickly improve. While there was some degree of security, and some food and other assistance from NGOs, the Sudanese rebels made their presence known and came to rule the camp, bringing it into the conflict. Achak and the others were forced to flee, and, after another grueling journey, ended up at another refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya.

Achak lived at Kakuma for many years. When Lost Boys began coming to the United States, he, of course, hoped to go. After years of wondering whether his parents were alive, he learned that they had survived and were trying to rebuild their lives in Marial Bai. Soon after, he was accepted to go to the U.S. He managed to speak to his father by CB, asking if he should come home to Marial Bai. His father raised his voice, "You have to go, boy. Are you crazy? This town [Marial Bai] is still ashen from the attack. Don't come here. I forbid it. Go to the United States. Go there tomorrow." He insists; Achak starts to resist: "But father, what--" His father interrupts, "Yes, the What. Right. Get it. This is it. Go."

Following Achak's story and experiences, What is the What tells the story of the Lost Boys, taking the reader into the world and the mind of these refugees. Most of us, thankfully, will never experience what they've gone through. Reading their experiences helps me appreciate the coddled, easy life we experience in the U.S. and challenges me to expand my perspective to engage the needs of others. I remember when we lived in Grand Rapids, a group of Lost Boys moved to town. Some good friends of ours sponsored a group of them and told great stories about teaching them about the simple, daily tasks we take for granted. What is the What tells some of those stories and so much more. I highly recommend this difficult but ultimately encouraging story.


Tags : What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng [Dave Eggers] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <DIV>In a heartrending and astonishing novel, Eggers illuminates the history of the civil war in Sudan through the eyes of Valentino Achak Deng,Dave Eggers,What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng,McSweeney's,1932416641,Literary,Refugees;Sudan;Fiction.,Sudan;History;Civil War, 1983-2005;Fiction.,Sudanese;United States;Fiction.,American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +,FICTION Historical General,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction - Historical,Historical - General,Refugees,Sudan,Sudanese,United States

What Is the What The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng Dave Eggers 9781932416640 Books Reviews

When I say that this book changed me irrevocably, I am not overstating. I read this book first back in high-school in my senior year in 2007. This book is so intense and meaningful to me, I can't really describe it. As someone who grew up upper middle-class my whole life in America, the experiences of Valentino Deng, ghost-written by Dave Eggers (one of my favorite authors), are profound in their intense despair, incredible hopefulness, and heart-breaking authenticity. I feel like I became a better,more worldly, more humble and more introspective person after having read this book. I also have a much greater appreciation for the plights of others from around the world. I literally knew next to nothing about Sudan and the refugee crisis before reading this book. I probably still know very little, but I feel closer, none the less, to such a profound and mass human experience.
Maybe if I was more well-informed and less ignorant about the Lost Boys of Sudan and what went on there, I wouldn't have thought this book was so amazing. But I barely knew anything about what transpired in the Sudan during the late 20th and early 21st centuries before reading this and therefore was blown away by this book. Unfortunately most Americans (and the developed world in general) only pay attention to what affects them, and what was happening in the Sudan was easy for us to ignore. I hope more and more people read this book.
Should have reviewed and praised this brilliant 2006 account of Sudanese civil-warfare, the flight of one person, his finding a host nation (US), where he survives a home invasion, soon after it came out. Seeing hundreds of reviews when it came out, I desisted, mine would be a drop in the ocean. Its publication caused a wave of sympathy in the US for international support for the future secession of an entity called South Sudan (SS) from its evil mother Sudan. However, the South’s long-time charismatic leader Dr John Garang died in a mysterious helicopter crash in 2005. He had always fought for a more inclusive, less unequal and -discriminatory New Sudan, and always rejected secession.
After a six-year transitional period, Independence was declared in 2011. Garang’s morose successor Salva Kiir never presented a clear plan or ideology for South Sudan’s future. Instead, his attitude about ethnic conflict by his own violence-prone Dinka clan vs rival clans, then other tribes, notably the equally violent Nuer, has created blatant nepotism, massive corruption and transfers of oil funds abroad by a tiny in crowd. A presumed coup attempt in 2013 resulted in tens of thousands of dead and millions of refugees and IDPs, hard to reach by aid workers prone to attack, rape and robbery in their hotel rooms by government soldiers, or while travelling overland by anyone carrying guns.
Re emergency relief, the ICRC (a major player worldwide and in SS) uses the concept of ‘residual responsibility’ when its most pressing targets have been met which agency will take over what, where are we still indispensible? Is this concept applicable to the broad swath of nations that supported for years SS independence militarily, financially, diplomatically? Was their mission accomplished in 2011? Legitimizing SS in UN-terms, opening embassies in Juba, soon seeing the dream collapse in chaos and despair, an environment unfit and unsafe to service investments made, let alone making new ones?
Nothing here is meant to disparage Dave Eggers’ wonderful book. Eritrea was an earlier beauty that went its own way. It became so repressive that its young citizens want out, at great risk and cost. I fear for the future of South Sudan’s young generation and hope this outburst will be picked up somewhere.
This is the story of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. With the help of novelist Dave Eggers, he tells his story in a moving, gripping way. Achak and Eggers met through the Lost Boys Foundation, which was founded and run by Mary Williams, Jane Fonda's adopted daughter. Williams called Eggers, asking him to meet with Achak and consider chronicling his story. They decided to include historical and political background and to expand on Achak's experiences, turning into a sort of autobiographical novel.

The title is from an old creation story Achak hears from his father. As his last act of creation, God said, "I can give you one more thing. . . . You can either have these cattle, as my gift to you, or you can have the What." Man asked, "What is the What?" God replied, "I cannot tell you. . . . You have to choose between the cattle and the What." Considering the attributes and benefits of the cattle, man chose cattle. And because man was content with what God had given, "God has allowed us to prosper. The Dinka live and grow as the cattle live and grow." In the Dinka version most often told, "God had given the What to the Arabs, and this was why the Arabs were inferior."

When Achak was just a boy, the Arabs began their attacks, determined to purge non-Arabs, non-Muslims from southern Sudan. Rebels fought the government soldiers in a long, drawn out war. Many villages were destroyed altogether. Even thought the rebels ostensibly tried to defend the rights of non-Arabs, they were, in many cases worse than the government soldiers and the raiding tribes supported by the government.

Achak fled his village, embarking on foot on a trek from Marial Bai, in southwestern Sudan, to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Conditions along this journey of hundreds of miles can't be imagined by most of us. The travellers, mostly young boys, most of whom had witnessed the horrors of their parents being murdered, their homes and villages being burned, and worse. Along the way, the boys (there were some girls and adults, too) suffered every kind of deprivation, going days without food or water, most without shoes, many without clothes. Many died along the way of starvation, disease, drowning or being eaten by crocodiles while crossing rivers, or being carried off by lions.

When they finally arrived at a refugee camp at Pinyudo, Ethiopia, conditions did not quickly improve. While there was some degree of security, and some food and other assistance from NGOs, the Sudanese rebels made their presence known and came to rule the camp, bringing it into the conflict. Achak and the others were forced to flee, and, after another grueling journey, ended up at another refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya.

Achak lived at Kakuma for many years. When Lost Boys began coming to the United States, he, of course, hoped to go. After years of wondering whether his parents were alive, he learned that they had survived and were trying to rebuild their lives in Marial Bai. Soon after, he was accepted to go to the U.S. He managed to speak to his father by CB, asking if he should come home to Marial Bai. His father raised his voice, "You have to go, boy. Are you crazy? This town [Marial Bai] is still ashen from the attack. Don't come here. I forbid it. Go to the United States. Go there tomorrow." He insists; Achak starts to resist "But father, what--" His father interrupts, "Yes, the What. Right. Get it. This is it. Go."

Following Achak's story and experiences, What is the What tells the story of the Lost Boys, taking the reader into the world and the mind of these refugees. Most of us, thankfully, will never experience what they've gone through. Reading their experiences helps me appreciate the coddled, easy life we experience in the U.S. and challenges me to expand my perspective to engage the needs of others. I remember when we lived in Grand Rapids, a group of Lost Boys moved to town. Some good friends of ours sponsored a group of them and told great stories about teaching them about the simple, daily tasks we take for granted. What is the What tells some of those stories and so much more. I highly recommend this difficult but ultimately encouraging story.