There will be an event each semester with the authors and a series of Campus Read Book Discussions, during University Hour (T&Th) and lunch periods on Mondays and Wednesdays during the academic year. Dates to be determined. A limited number of books will be distributed to students on a first-come, first-serve basis.
The American Democracy Program will schedule showing(s) of the PBS documentary, The Lost Boys of the Sudan, as well as the movie Hotel Rwanda, the latter of which will be on the Rwandan genocide.
If you are interested in speakers, panels, discussions of events in the Sudan, and themes such as genocide, war, loss, terror, immigration, human rights, etc., please contact Dr. Pamela Stricker, Director, American Democracy Project (stricker@csusm.edu) with your ideas.
Please see the summary and information listed below for ideas on themes if you wish to use this book or portions of this book in class this year.
Summary, recommended reading and links from theypouredfire.com website
Benjamin, Alepho and Benson were raised among the Dinka tribe of Southern Sudan. Their world was an insulated, close-knit community of grass-roofed cottages, cattle herders, and tribal councils. All that changed the night the government-armed Murahiliin began attacking their villages. Amid the chaos, screams, conflagration, and gunfire, five-year-old Benjamin and seven-year-old Benson fled into the dark night. Two years later, Alepho, age seven, was forced to do the same.
Their journey would take them over one thousand miles across a war-ravaged country, through landmine-sown paths, crocodile-infested waters, and grotesque extremes of hunger, thirst, and disease.
In They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky, Alepho, Benson, and Benjamin, by turn, recount their experiences along this unthinkable journey. They vividly recall the family, friends, and tribal world they left far behind them and their desperate efforts to keep track of one another. Their memoir is a powerful portrait of war as seen through the eyes of children and a tribute to the tenacity of even the youngest human spirits.
Other Recommended Reading:
Scroggins, Deborah. Emma’s War. An aid worker, a warlord, radical Islam and the politics of oil – A true story of love and death in Sudan, Pantheon Books, 2002
Nazer, Mende and Lewis, Damien. Slave: My True Story , Public Affair ,2000
Deng, Francis Mading. The Dinka of Sudan , Waveland Press, Inc., 1972
Bok, Francis with Edward Tivnan. Escape from Slavery, St. Martin’s Press, 2003
Jok, Madut Jok. War and Slavery in Sudan, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001
Bixler, Mark The Lost Boys of Sudan, University of Georgia Press, 2005
