WEBVTT 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:09.000 Uh my name is Kuan. 00:00:10.419 --> 00:00:18.419 Uh spelled K U O L. The last name is spelled A W A N. 00:00:21.978 --> 00:00:28.925 He was born in South Sudan in a small village called K. 00:00:28.958 --> 00:00:31.637 OK. 00:00:31.670 --> 00:00:38.945 C H I I R. 00:00:38.978 --> 00:00:44.097 Uh, the daily life is for, for boys like me. You eat, you sleep, and in 00:00:44.130 --> 00:00:47.375 the morning you start doing something about cow or goats, and then you 00:00:47.408 --> 00:00:53.896 clean them or you clean the tanks of the pieces, or you, you know, if you 00:00:53.929 --> 00:00:58.015 are old enough, you can go to the garden and be with your dad. But the 00:00:58.048 --> 00:01:03.826 girls it's more of gold, fresh water, cooking. You know, try to do 00:01:03.859 --> 00:01:08.745 something with like running boots and preparing food and stick with the 00:01:08.778 --> 00:01:13.426 mother try to learn how to do things and you know, for boys is all about 00:01:13.459 --> 00:01:17.546 if the cows missing, you go out and look for that car and as you know, if 00:01:17.579 --> 00:01:21.346 it is in parties and then your dad or your uncle, you wanna take care of 00:01:21.379 --> 00:01:25.665 that and you start learning those things as, as you grow. And then if you 00:01:25.698 --> 00:01:29.617 come to the afternoon, then you start taking the cows out and I look at 00:01:29.650 --> 00:01:31.757 them here you bring them in 00:01:31.790 --> 00:01:36.706 in the evening. So the role was kind of divided and then you grow up to at 00:01:36.739 --> 00:01:39.397 that old 00:01:39.430 --> 00:01:42.706 and that was the take, you know, you go then to be a man and then when you 00:01:42.739 --> 00:01:46.626 get mad and then you move out and then this kind of goes like that. So 00:01:46.659 --> 00:01:53.635 that's how it was. 00:01:53.668 --> 00:01:57.846 Um, I was just looking at houses and books, so that's what I learned early 00:01:57.879 --> 00:02:05.879 on and that's what I used to do and do that horrible workup. 00:02:07.528 --> 00:02:13.555 In the village for us, you know, there are 22 big, we call them rock. It's 00:02:13.588 --> 00:02:17.386 a big one that you keep the cows in and the small one that where, you know 00:02:17.419 --> 00:02:22.356 , people are sleeping. But the way it is, is kind of a gender kind of 00:02:22.389 --> 00:02:26.436 gender-based thing where the cows sleep, that's where the boys and men 00:02:26.469 --> 00:02:30.835 sleep. Well, you know, that small home room that where people live, this 00:02:30.868 --> 00:02:35.725 is where, you know, the little kids and girls and mothers sleep. So that's 00:02:35.758 --> 00:02:40.237 how my room used to be. So and then, you know, in the car, they, you know 00:02:40.270 --> 00:02:45.616 , they take the bed there for the boys, you don't have to be to sleep. Pro 00:02:45.649 --> 00:02:49.217 or something like that, but for other, yeah, they have made that they 00:02:49.250 --> 00:02:53.577 sleep in the power and they sleep there that's, you know, to their council. 00:02:53.610 --> 00:02:56.767 And then when there's more room to see where everybody sleep. The boy 00:02:56.800 --> 00:03:01.237 that young and you know, all the girls and so and that's, you know, you 00:03:01.270 --> 00:03:04.866 can find about 10 or depend on the size of the home they can sleep there 00:03:04.899 --> 00:03:10.797 yourself, you know, all the boys can sleep with the cars and the cows 00:03:10.830 --> 00:03:17.446 or uncles that are all. 00:03:17.479 --> 00:03:22.217 Uh, yes, it's highlands a big threatening animals that attack cows, so 00:03:22.250 --> 00:03:26.866 that's where, you know, you have to be. Kind of that all the time because 00:03:26.899 --> 00:03:30.646 they come and open the back of the that room, that room that they keep 00:03:30.679 --> 00:03:35.106 them in and then take a small one. So and then also they they want to get 00:03:35.139 --> 00:03:39.225 that and you don't bring them back home with you and they attack them. 00:03:39.258 --> 00:03:43.856 Lions, uh, lions, lion is not a lot like I know there's more hyas than 00:03:43.889 --> 00:03:49.737 lions. A lion also seem to be a little bit there for. They eat cows but 00:03:49.770 --> 00:03:55.886 not all the time. Because what they do is they tend to stay away, away, 00:03:55.919 --> 00:04:01.096 away from the building. So sometimes the only time they come is when they 00:04:01.129 --> 00:04:04.696 fail to get other animal like that and other animal that's when they come 00:04:04.729 --> 00:04:09.376 and like the times animals that are home for people. So with that, you 00:04:09.409 --> 00:04:14.536 know, the high is the animal that is really crazy eating cows and and I, 00:04:14.569 --> 00:04:18.877 especially the goats and sheeps 00:04:18.910 --> 00:04:22.166 because they are small and they. on the back of the they come and open the 00:04:22.199 --> 00:04:26.286 bag and I and get one. So that's, you know, in in the dog here the dogs 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:31.336 are used for Bradley and like babies, but back there that's what they do. 00:04:31.369 --> 00:04:34.366 When the dog park at night, people know that something is coming, so 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:39.305 people then will get up and go around and see what is happening. That's 00:04:39.338 --> 00:04:45.220 the use of the top most of the use of what I do basically the youth guide. 00:04:49.410 --> 00:04:51.410 There was one time I remember during the summer I think it was coming for 00:04:53.009 --> 00:04:58.676 the war because during the summer they it came and then people were 00:04:58.709 --> 00:05:04.217 attacked because they one man I keep lying, but it has to be a team. I 00:05:04.250 --> 00:05:08.687 remember when they killed him when they kill it. They killed on the top of 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:13.406 somebody, jump on somebody, and then people kill them. So that's, that's, 00:05:13.439 --> 00:05:16.967 that's the only time I remember that I've seen lion during all this whole 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:24.495 thing, but getting back home I thought once. 00:05:24.528 --> 00:05:31.026 Yes, this is Pierce. 00:05:31.059 --> 00:05:35.426 Not there are people that are that blacks meets that does that make them 00:05:35.459 --> 00:05:43.459 in the community, the people buy them. 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:49.156 As you know, there are major 00:05:49.189 --> 00:05:52.656 harmonies that are here that are in my village here there are free. So one 00:05:52.689 --> 00:05:58.176 in December, which is more like this month but for them this is know they 00:05:58.209 --> 00:06:02.596 kill a lot of cows. It's like, you know, they do offering to the guy for 00:06:02.629 --> 00:06:07.296 whatever happened with the good empathy or all the diseases and all that, 00:06:07.329 --> 00:06:12.137 and people go to one place and then they do that. And then there is also, 00:06:12.170 --> 00:06:17.106 they don't do it yearly, but they do it after the 1st 3 years initiation. 00:06:17.139 --> 00:06:21.245 This is whereby they bring all the boys together. In my village it's not 00:06:21.278 --> 00:06:25.296 like in in the village they do so that guy would hold those things in his 00:06:25.329 --> 00:06:29.127 head. That's, that's the time that they put in my village they don't do 00:06:29.160 --> 00:06:32.127 that. What they do in my village, they bring the boys together and then 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:36.645 they stay together for 3 months. And then, and then they shave their hat. 00:06:36.678 --> 00:06:40.286 One person like if one woman will be designated in the whole village to 00:06:40.319 --> 00:06:44.286 shave their hat off. Every time they bring one kid in, they have to shave 00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:48.176 their head his head before he joined the team. That's how they do then at 00:06:48.209 --> 00:06:51.137 the end that what happened during that initiation period that's this is 00:06:51.170 --> 00:06:55.265 when the adults come and tell them about, you know, what it, what it means 00:06:55.298 --> 00:06:59.937 to be a man. What role are you taking? Now you're not a boy anymore, so 00:06:59.970 --> 00:07:04.895 you're not. So that kind of put me thinking. Now when you become, when you 00:07:04.928 --> 00:07:08.887 went through that, that I think that you don't do. You know, you, you know 00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:12.687 , you don't, you don't do the child thing, so now you become adults. So 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:16.967 you always go to one day gathering, you go to where others are making the 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:20.406 decision and even if you don't make the decision because you feel at the 00:07:20.439 --> 00:07:24.575 lower end of adults, you sit there and listen. So that's the second one, 00:07:24.608 --> 00:07:28.205 not the third one is, you know, a small thing that like up in the village 00:07:28.238 --> 00:07:32.586 like one, like if I be like that, there's something wrong with my. In my 00:07:32.619 --> 00:07:37.676 house I'll bring a boat or a cow and just kill it and invite and all the 00:07:37.709 --> 00:07:41.555 plants around and talk about what is happening. So it's more like second 00:07:41.588 --> 00:07:45.257 class then like the last one. So those are the thing and then in the, in, 00:07:45.290 --> 00:07:48.187 in, in our own home, you know, in the very room we eat together and then 00:07:48.220 --> 00:07:52.656 this is the historic time that we'll talk about, you know, what and his 00:07:52.689 --> 00:07:57.026 grand grandfather used to do or what, you know, it's like more some of it 00:07:57.059 --> 00:08:01.346 is more like his history here but more of it is all about education. And 00:08:01.379 --> 00:08:04.346 so the guy that was what happened. If this happened, this is what this 00:08:04.379 --> 00:08:08.546 person done in the past. This is how we do it for the girl, it's more 00:08:08.579 --> 00:08:11.786 about how to take care of the babies, how to take care of the house and 00:08:11.819 --> 00:08:16.666 all that. And so if the mother is one telling the story will be more of, 00:08:16.699 --> 00:08:20.507 more of how the babies can be taken care of and how the house will be kept 00:08:20.540 --> 00:08:28.540 and and all of that. So that's, that's how the situation was. 00:08:29.809 --> 00:08:35.515 When the war when the war started in 1983. You know, what happened is they 00:08:35.548 --> 00:08:39.436 startedroing people in the villages. What they used to do is they come and 00:08:39.469 --> 00:08:42.797 tell people what is happening and then they and then they talk about the 00:08:42.830 --> 00:08:47.895 guns because and then with the new thing that they had. So they, they kind 00:08:47.928 --> 00:08:53.417 of lie to people that just, I remember that they lied to all the people 00:08:53.450 --> 00:08:57.177 that if you go and get the guns, you can have your gun at home and if 00:08:57.210 --> 00:09:00.696 someone attacking you, you will shoot them with a gun. If the animal 00:09:00.729 --> 00:09:04.255 attacks your animal, you will shoot them with a gun. So people start 00:09:04.288 --> 00:09:08.816 thinking about, oh, I wanna go and do that, but the trick was you go when 00:09:08.849 --> 00:09:12.135 they train you and you join the rebels to fight against the government 00:09:12.168 --> 00:09:18.996 that will kind of. Uh, discriminating about. But in 1987, what happened 00:09:19.029 --> 00:09:25.186 was the government decided to go out and go to the villages and try to 00:09:25.219 --> 00:09:29.505 kind of destroy the villages and, and take the kids and take them to the 00:09:29.538 --> 00:09:34.265 north and gain them to be Muslims or, or put them in the military to kind 00:09:34.298 --> 00:09:39.566 of destroy the, the manpower of the rebels. So that, that, that afternoon 00:09:39.599 --> 00:09:42.885 when that, when they start, so in a while they come on the plane and then 00:09:42.918 --> 00:09:48.407 throw they throw the bombs out the villages or in the car camps. So it was 00:09:48.440 --> 00:09:52.326 summer. It was the thing I remember that was the beginning of the summer. 00:09:52.359 --> 00:09:59.076 So I I that me and another 5 boys, one of them is 2 of them are one is in 00:09:59.109 --> 00:10:04.436 the one and the other one is in. In Boston, so we were, we were taking 00:10:04.469 --> 00:10:08.395 care of the cows that and we saw the plane coming, then it dropped the 00:10:08.428 --> 00:10:12.275 bombs and then it left. Then it came back and then it stopped. We saw, you 00:10:12.308 --> 00:10:15.606 know, that parachute thing that they put people and we saw it throwing 00:10:15.639 --> 00:10:18.875 people down. We were like, why are they throwing people down, but they 00:10:18.908 --> 00:10:22.586 were throwing soldiers down in the village. So that's, that's the day that 00:10:22.619 --> 00:10:27.346 it become messy. So we, we came back with the cows and we kind of said, 00:10:27.379 --> 00:10:31.307 let's, let's take the cows back and see where people are and then we can 00:10:31.340 --> 00:10:34.976 handle that. So we didn't even need to the building. We had it become too 00:10:35.009 --> 00:10:39.186 , too scared, too scared, and then we left the cows there and then we 00:10:39.219 --> 00:10:44.196 start. Running to the south of the village, that's the other day that we 00:10:44.229 --> 00:10:49.836 got to, so we start hiding in the boots and gear to become a, a kind of a 00:10:49.869 --> 00:10:52.307 threat to 00:10:52.340 --> 00:10:56.395 to go to. It took 3 months to get there and a lot of people didn't get in 00:10:56.428 --> 00:11:04.428 that process. So finally we went to that first camp. 00:11:05.690 --> 00:11:10.616 To me, I was 8. I was 8 years old, and, and what it was, what my day was 00:11:10.649 --> 00:11:15.816 like is I thought, you know, in the village fighting it, something that 00:11:15.849 --> 00:11:21.446 happened and they get over and go back. So I know it was scary. And in my 00:11:21.479 --> 00:11:24.807 head, I thought it would be done and you know would come back home like it 00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:28.657 used to be. Because when you what it used to be when the fighting is going 00:11:28.690 --> 00:11:32.496 on the kid and the girl and the woman's and they would run away and then 00:11:32.529 --> 00:11:36.456 the man would go and fight. So we thought it would be like that, but it, 00:11:36.489 --> 00:11:40.696 it become, and the, the, the part that was killing me that time, I didn't 00:11:40.729 --> 00:11:45.496 know where my family was, so I was not sure what happened to them and I 00:11:45.529 --> 00:11:53.529 knew that also they were also worried of what happened to them. 00:11:54.168 --> 00:11:58.677 Well, before, yeah, it was kind of on and off when the plane come run or 00:11:58.710 --> 00:12:02.336 when they, they, you know, the, the, the messaging in the mouth, the 00:12:02.369 --> 00:12:06.645 communication back there, it can be somebody crying in the village and 00:12:06.678 --> 00:12:09.015 then the other person pick it out and another person pick it out because 00:12:09.048 --> 00:12:13.177 there's no communication through. So the way to communicate is they beat 00:12:13.210 --> 00:12:16.686 the drum and then you kind of know the sound of the drum, that's a drum 00:12:16.719 --> 00:12:19.645 for the communication that there's something wrong, and then there's a 00:12:19.678 --> 00:12:23.927 drum for that. So when they beat it up or they, when there's something 00:12:23.960 --> 00:12:30.057 like with fighting or attack from Government troops or other tribes, they 00:12:30.090 --> 00:12:34.775 will be the 2 and then people will know that something is wrong. So the 00:12:34.808 --> 00:12:38.015 men will start running to where that where the drama is coming, and then 00:12:38.048 --> 00:12:42.015 the kid will start going to where they can hide. So that used to happen 00:12:42.048 --> 00:12:49.236 since 1983 when the war started. 00:12:49.269 --> 00:12:54.667 Oh yeah, it's, you know, cause you know, when you, when you feel like 00:12:54.700 --> 00:12:58.667 that's something that, you know, there's no rhythm in it. It just um 00:12:58.700 --> 00:13:04.037 that's something wrong. But if it is a drum for, for dancing it and 00:13:04.070 --> 00:13:07.157 doesn't do it and then people will always play it in a way that people can 00:13:07.190 --> 00:13:12.667 dance to at that level, but for the drum for, you know, communication also 00:13:12.700 --> 00:13:17.255 sometimes in the summer they use choir. But that's why I think kind of 00:13:17.288 --> 00:13:23.769 pain away because it turned out to be that kind of cause a lot of problems. 00:13:27.359 --> 00:13:29.359 Uh, what happened when after we left, we, we start going to the south of 00:13:31.750 --> 00:13:36.356 the village and the, the thing, the thinking was that we'll go back. But 00:13:36.389 --> 00:13:41.885 after about 5 days into it, and then that's 1 week out of that it's like 00:13:41.918 --> 00:13:46.677 kind of stuff and it's going through all the villages. So the level they 00:13:46.710 --> 00:13:53.515 were fighting. Uh, the government, they had their base in the public. 00:13:53.548 --> 00:13:56.596 That's where they go and get their training and come back to South Sudan 00:13:56.629 --> 00:13:59.356 and why. 00:13:59.389 --> 00:14:03.787 So I think by day 7 or day 8, so there was one person in the group that 00:14:03.820 --> 00:14:10.956 that was a so you, but somehow we were wounded. So he had, 00:14:10.989 --> 00:14:14.427 yeah, he was, and then you kind of wanna go back to base where they were. 00:14:14.460 --> 00:14:18.866 So he, he became the leader of the car, and now he was the one that kind 00:14:18.899 --> 00:14:24.826 of show us where we can go, yeah, so you took out of the leadership role, 00:14:24.859 --> 00:14:29.427 he was the only person with the gun. We used to go to this gun, but you 00:14:29.460 --> 00:14:31.537 know for, 00:14:31.570 --> 00:14:35.787 so we come to land. So that's when our direction can be clear that we're 00:14:35.820 --> 00:14:39.025 going to this election. And you know, for a little bit of what I was there 00:14:39.058 --> 00:14:42.907 were 11 o'clock, you know, it was like, oh, I'm gonna get a gun and come 00:14:42.940 --> 00:14:47.047 back and fight these people and that was the story of the whole trip that 00:14:47.080 --> 00:14:50.486 you, yeah, we're running to this direction. You don't know what it was, 00:14:50.519 --> 00:14:53.537 but if we go there we will get down by other people that always come with 00:14:53.570 --> 00:14:55.750 a gun.