Features
John Dau: Between two worlds - From Where I Sit
By Risper Kirui ’19
February 18, 2016
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Listening to John Dau describe the great U-turn his life took as a Lost Boy refugee resettled in the U.S., I am blown away by the significance of human resilience. It took Dau all the strength he could summon to trek for months into Ethiopia, and finally find his way into Kenya, where he would live as a refugee for ten years. Had the United Nations, Ethiopia and Kenya not come to the rescue of twelve-year old, thin and feeble Dau from the raging war in South Sudan, we would have lost a great man. As the founder of four successful foundations, and in the defense of human rights, Dau’s journey has required the activist to be strong in the face of opposition. Against all odds, Dau survived living in the desert wilderness. He believes that he survived for a reason and that his life has a purpose. A hospital founded by Dau in South Sudan that has helped thousands of his people would be not exist if he had not taken responsibility to save his people.
John Dau defines a human rights activists as one who becomes the voices of the voiceless and not a person who just lays down her life for others. Going back to Martin Luther King’s time, we observe a revolution of the African Americans who decided to defend their rights and stand on behalf of their communities during those dangerous times. Ms. Rosa Park’s serves as an explicit example of an activist who chose to question authority by occupying a seat in front of the bus reserved for white people. In Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, he states, “In time many Negroes lost faith in themselves and came to believe that perhaps they really were what they had been told they were--something less than men.” As one of those who began to question the basis of the caste system, in terms of human rights, Parks and her colleagues faced a challenge in rebuilding the confidence and dignity of black folks. Despite being declared guilty for her daring act of civil disobedience, Parks actions sparked an awakening and enlightenment for the undervalued blacks. The civil rights movement had begun because at that moment the new Negro had awoken from the terrible spell of the fake, tormenting, and dehumanizing peace. In Andrew Clapham’s book, Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction, even though Jeremy Bentham, a 19th century thinker, declared that ‘wanting something was not having it’, the fact that the black folks voiced their right for equality was the beginning of a great movement and a turning point in American history.
How distressing it is that many people have suffered because of inaction by their leaders, Dau is an example of one of these hunted victims. The Sudan government let down its citizens by not providing health care, education, food just to mention a few of the many lacking essential needs. “I recall the bitter concoction my mother would make me from herbs she collected whenever I got malaria. I still bear the scars from hot metal pressed on my skin to drive away Taj (yellow fever).” The lack of health facilities left the Southern Sudanese with no option but to devise methods to enable their survival. Darwinian Theory was fully in play in their lives, with the fittest being the ones that survived. Leaders chosen to be the voice of the community were the ones tormenting their people. It is no wonder that countries continue to languish in poverty, war, disease. When these people can come to the realization that the citizens are as human as they are, only then can the system function for the betterment of society.
“It’s far away from me, it can’t get to me.” That is the mentality that has led to inaction where action is required, a specific anecdote from Dau being the Ebola crisis in some West African countries.
Many countries thought that the pandemic would not get to them but the paws of the virus proved them wrong. Dau advised that people should take on the global issue of human rights as a personal issue that does affect them at any moment in time. It should not be only when a violation of our rights concerns us do we pay attention. As explained by Clapham, “each of us has to act according to the principles that we wish other rational beings to act on.” The equity of human rights should be a constant and not a variable in the context of nations. Protecting and respecting human rights becomes much easier when human dignity and individual autonomy are the integrative values.
John Dau greatly admires the legendary Nelson Mandela for one thing: he did not let those who had fought against apartheid take government administrative positions. Giving such people positions of power would result in conflict as they would try to avenge wrongdoings. South Sudan, the youngest nation in the world, is currently in a war which began in December 2013, barely a year after their independence. Dau links the conflict to the ‘war mode’ those in government positions are in. They are in a crisis that Mandela avoided; those who fought for South Sudan’s independence are in power. One of the many cases of people not learning from past experiences. In his I Have a Dream speech, Martin Luther King greatly promoted non-violence because he knew the strength that such a movement could carry; “the great appeal for the world appears to lie in the fact that we in Montgomery have adopted the method of nonviolence.” Peace commands support. King’s group was able to gain massive support from different corners of the world since bloodshed was out of the picture. Although it gets frustrating protesting for numerous months without favorable results happening, King was able to share his own patience and resilience with his group. Though change may take a bit of time, it is sometimes important to wait and be patient, a value that has been lost in our society and has led to the death of many black folk.
To truly appreciate the importance of something, going without it is necessary to understand its value just as they say, you never miss the water till the well runs dry. Education is a need that many people might take for granted, but it is a tool that liberated many people, Fredrick Douglass and John Dau among them. “We were very happy studying under a tree learning ABC,” Dau would recall the memories of his seventeen-year-old self in a Kenyan refugee camp, Kakuma. Douglass had to give his white friends his clothes in order to get books in exchange, which was a big risk and a violation of the anti-literacy law applied to slaves. Education opens a person to an endless possibility of a better future because a “magical button gets pressed in the brain.” There is freedom in literacy. For Douglass, literacy meant that he could pitch his equality notion to the white folk who deemed black folk inferior and simple objects to be handled however they preferred. For Dau, education has given him the opportunity to return to Sudan as a free man willing to serve his community building hospitals through the John Dau Foundation. Education is a tool that should give all people the confidence to stand for what we believe in and be the sober voice needed to protect human life and dignity at all times and in all worlds.