57 pages • 1 hour read
Alphonsion Deng, Benson Deng, Benjamin AjakThey Poured Fire On Us From The Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Impact of Civil War
Content Warning: This section discusses violence, rape, loss, and suffering.
They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky details Benson, Alepho, and Benjamin’s traumatic experiences during the Second Sudanese Civil War. Even before they were displaced from their homes at young ages, the war was a constant, looming presence in the background of their lives. They grew up hearing about the Murahilin attacks and knowing that it was possible to lose family and home at any moment. When the war finally touched them, the impact was sudden and complete.
After attacks on their villages, all three boys were forced to flee the only homes they had ever known. They then had to keep moving for years since the ongoing civil war in their own country and neighboring ones rendered many places unsafe shortly after they arrived there. First the war in Ethiopia, and later the famine in Kenya, both exacerbated the refugees’ troubles, as they were ousted from the former and mistreated in the latter. The constant movement was not just inconvenient but also physically dangerous and taxing owing to the treacherous desert terrain and threat of wildlife. The political and geographical contexts around the boys thus complicated the impact of the civil war they were caught in.
This displacement from home both was an immediate impact of the war and contributed to long-lasting struggle as well. As the war stretched on and the boys were forced to move around without enough food or water, they had to increasingly contend with starvation and exhaustion. The malnutrition they experienced was coupled with disease and illness arising from poor hygiene, with a number of children dying of common and treatable illnesses like diarrhea.
While the war took a very clear physical toll on the Lost Boys, it also had equally intense psychological impacts on their mental health. Alepho describes how the constant violence and brutality around them led him to grow up with the belief that all people were essentially bad. This was reinforced by not just the actions of the government that persecuted the south Sudanese but also their own people who mistreated and neglected the young boys displaced from their homes. What happened to the boys headed to Kakuma is a prime example: Rather than sending the boys to refugee camps where they would be safe, the soldiers hijacked the boys and took them to Natinga to recruit them into the SPLA instead. Growing up on the run and without the support of adults around them thus contributed to the boys’ trauma.
While the book ends on a positive note with their relocation to America, the Epilogue notes that the boys struggled for a while even after their resettlement. Bernstein mentions how the Lost Boys of Sudan are among the most deeply war-traumatized children ever examined by professionals. She pinpoints this as one of the most important reasons to write such a book: Presenting these personal accounts reinforces the devastating impact that war has on children and families.
The Importance of Resilience and Resourcefulness
Despite the disturbing and traumatic experiences that Benson, Alepho, and Benjamin describe throughout, the book ends on a positive note: They made it out to America, with hope for a different future. The boys’ narrative of their journey to safety hints at the factors that influenced their resilience and resourcefulness in the face of all their hardship.
There are certain aspects of Dinka life and culture that prepared the boys for survival. They were sent out to graze cattle in the wild from a young age, ensuring an early independence and a preparedness to defend themselves against threats from wildlife. Certain Dinka traditions, like circumcision and teeth removal, also introduced the boys to physical pain early on; they were encouraged to bear this pain bravely. Most importantly, however, the Dinka encouraged “age-mates” to stick together, which fostered a sense of community among the boys and gave them a higher chance of surviving in the wild.
This sense of community was a crucial element in the boys’ survival over their years of displacement. Each time any of them was reunited with a brother or sibling, they felt a sense of hope regarding their future, which in turn made them more determined to survive. The Dinka traditionally have large families—Benson, for instance, has eight siblings—and so the boys often found a connection through a cousin or half-sibling almost everywhere they went. These connections, and the sense of togetherness it brought them, kept the boys physically safe as they traveled in groups for most parts of their journeys across the desert. This togetherness also helped them cope at the refugee camps: Benson describes how he and his siblings and cousins managed to survive Kakuma by not only pooling their resources but also keeping each other’s spirits up through time spent together in laughter and games.
Another factor that contributed to the boys’ resilience in tough times was their strong desire for an education. All three boys mention the lure of school at the different camps they attempted to move to, and although Alepho initially had a negative experience with schooling, he eventually grew to like it. Especially at Kakuma, it was the idea of education that kept the boys going despite the intense hunger and hardship. Staying focused on their education kept the boys away from crime, and this desire to learn enabled their move to America.
There are also moments in which the boys were forced to put themselves first and survive on their own resourcefulness. For instance, each of boys, at some point in their journey, was either left behind or chose to leave another behind. Benson, Alepho, and Benjamin each made a journey to Kakuma on their own and under different circumstances. However, there was only joy and celebration when they ultimately reunited; none of them held any resentment toward the others for the choices they made to survive. This is mirrored in how the older community in Kakuma came together to give the boys advice and wish them well on their way to America: The survival of any individual from among the group was celebrated as a whole by the community.
Ultimately, despite the hardships and harrowing experiences the boys faced, their resilience and resourcefulness helped them to overcome the obstacles in their way. The book’s conclusion suggests that they continued to demonstrate the same qualities as they adjusted to their new lives in America.
The Journey From Childhood to Adulthood Under Extreme Circumstances
As Benson, Alepho, and Benjamin traveled across Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya and eventually made their way to America, another journey they undertook was one of childhood to adulthood. They were aware of the threat of war all their lives and were confronted with it at a very young age. This forced them to grow up quickly and harshly, as they left behind home and family in search of safety.
The three boys, along with other displaced Dinka, were displaced from their homes and forced to flee without the help or support of any adults. This prompted them to grow up quickly to adapt to the harsh circumstances they found themselves in. When contemplating how he would survive traveling the Ajakageer desert, Benjamin willed himself to be strong like an adult to survive; similarly, Alepho counseled a despondent Peter to be stronger, as he was no longer in his mother’s house. There was a keen sense that there were no adults looking out for them anymore, and the absence of adult support is starkly seen in Benjamin’s relief at finding Benson, an “elder,” even though Benson was only a couple of years older than Benjamin. Thus, the boys quickly learned to make decisions about their lives and their survival on their own.
It was not just a lack of benign adults that prompted the boys’ growing up but also the active presence of abusive and exploitative ones. The war opened the boys’ eyes to the atrocities that adults are capable of committing, even toward children. Alepho encountered a young girl who was raped by a grown man in his sister’s village; he also contended with the grief of losing his childhood friend, Achol, who was burned to death in her house. However, it was not just the attacking northerners; even the adults on the same side in the south eventually treated the boys cruelly. Soldiers took out their frustrations on the boys, their empathy eroded by the violence they had seen, like the solider who sat on Alepho’s bag. Many other adult refugees were unable to dredge up any sympathy toward the boys because of their own suffering, like the Ethiopian woman who accused Benson of thievery. Over time, the SPLA ceased to see the boys as children, instead regarding them as resources to be recruited and used for the purpose of war. The boys who were caught trying to escape such a fate, such as in Natinga, were brutally punished by their own people.
While the boys needed to adapt to this new reality and grow up fast so that they could survive on their own, doing so also had a severe impact upon them. Their rapid journey from childhood to adulthood under these extreme circumstances ultimately had long-lasting effects on their overall health and psyches, reflecting the legacy of childhood trauma.
