Title: Father of the Lost Boys

Author: Yout A. Alaak

Reviewer: Rhonda Bruce

Audience: Secondary School Readers*

"It's June 1988. Scantly covered in rags, malnourished boys roam the landscape, searching for scraps to eat. Thousands more lie under trees, naked and starving. Many will never wake up to see a new day. War has brought me to a land far from my own. All I've ever known is left behind. I am in the midst of sixteen thousand unaccompanied minors. I call them my dear brothers, but the world calls them the Lost Boys of Sudan". (P46)

Yout A. Alaak has written a moving and emotional memoir about his father, Mecak Ajang Alaak, who saved 20,000 young South Sudanese boys from certain death, including his own son, Yout. During the second Sudanese civil war, many displaced and orphaned boys were trained to be soldiers. In 2989, Mecak led these boys on a four-year journey from Sudan to Ethiopia and finally Kenya. Most were aged between 7 and 12 years. This is the incredible story of survival.

* A younger reader's adaptation

Relevant to 7-12 English Syllabus Representation of Life Experiences, Cultural Diversity and Cultural Identity