This story is about Eve Adut John Anyuat, the girl I call my sister.

During the civil war in Sudan my father was a captain commanding 300 soldiers. One afternoon the enemy attacked them at Puweny. In the intense fighting most of my father’s soldiers were killed or wounded. The survivors crossed a nearby stream of water where they found a woman and infant covered in blood. The soldiers thought they were dead and did not bother to check. My father discovered that the mother was truly dead but the baby girl had been suckling her dead mother and was now falling asleep. My father picked up this child and gave her some water from the stream. He carried the child to our home where he found my mother grieving, thinking that he had died.

My pregnant mother rejoiced to have our father back and moreover with a baby girl. After some few months, my mother gave birth to me and later another one. Sadly, the second-born died after 8 days. Adut (which means “don’t cry, God will provide another one”), the girl on which this story stands, then became like our second-born. My parents cared for her and she is really one of us.

Adut started school in Kakuma Refugee Camp in 2002, studying so well that she received a scholarship. She completed 8th grade at age 17 this year, ready for high school. My Uncle sent for her to come home to Malakal for Christmas. Adut had a good time there until the last moment, when our Uncle announced, “You are big enough for marriage now. I am organizing it; you must accept it.” She begged and begged, but our Uncle refused, saying “Educated girls disturb men.” In fact, my father wants Adut to continue her studies, but I am not very sure because among the Dinka it is the elder uncles who control the children.

I do not know what happened to Adut after I left to return to St. Bakhita school. Myself, I very much advocate for education of girls in Sudan. Women are the mothers of all nations. When we are educated, we will make the world a better place and we can advise men on how to govern people as human beings. I worry for Adut, my sister.

-Regina Achai John, March 2011

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