Film examines harsh realities of survival for Sudanese refugees in America

By Dana Arellano
Diversity Institute Fellow

07.23.04

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Dozens of filmgoers were turned away Tuesday night when the Belcourt International Film Series debut, "The Lost Boys of Sudan," opened to a full house in Hillsboro Village.

Those who managed to get in not only saw a film about the unlikely refugees but also met some Sudanese who have resettled in Nashville and others who have played a central role in their new lives.

The award-winning documentary released last year follows a group of Sudanese boys who arrived in the United States as refugees of a 20-year civil war in their native country. The Dinka Tribe has been most affected by the war, which claimed the lives of nearly 2 million people and left many more homeless, including 20,000 young boys who escaped on foot to nearby Kenya where they lived in refugee camps.

About 4,000 of "The Lost Boys" began arriving in cities nationwide under the U. S. Refugee Program in 2001.

The film portrays the harsh realities of day-to-day survival in the United States, a country the boys envisioned as "heaven on earth" before they arrived. Caseworkers instruct the new arrivals in the basics of living, including how to operate kitchen appliances and how to read prices at the grocery store. The boys struggle with loneliness and disillusionment as they fail to find work and realize that their dream of getting an education is not so simple after all. Reflecting on his trials, one of the boys remembers how he believed America was so great.

"But now it's clear," he muses, "there's no heaven on earth."

The screening, which is the first in a series of films about Nashville's diverse immigrant population, was followed by a panel discussion. The panelists included Holly Johnston, director of refugee and immigration services at Catholic Charities; Asrar Babikir, caseworker for Catholic Charities; Ed Smith, a volunteer at Hillsboro Presbyterian Church, and two local Sudanese youth, Abraham Makat Makuach and John Owan.

The discussion reinforced the sentiments depicted in the film, with Babikir and Smith offering similar anecdotes about their experiences assimilating the boys into American life. Babikir has helped settle 51 Sudanese boys since 2001 and continues to support them, whether writing letters of recommendation or helping them to navigate traffic court. Smith explained that most of the resettled boys in Nashville work for $8 to $8.50 an hour and hold two jobs so they can send money home to their families.

Owan, who will attend Middle Tennessee State University in August, likened his experiences to one of the boys in the film, saying "what happened there is what we all face."

He repeated the sentiment that carried him through his own personal trials.

"If I cannot do it, then God will do it. That's what I believe."

Makuach, here since May of 2001, is president of the Sudanese Lost Boys Association and is working to establish it as a non-profit organization. He asked the eight other Sudanese boys in the audience to stand while the audience responded with applause. Explaining that all of them have struggled through the same hardships, Makuach told the audience he is "very much proud of my own people."

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