In the last chapter, we examined slave narratives to think about how enslaved Africans viewed their capture and entry into America. And in the next chapter, we'll look at stories of Nigerian immigrants and the racial challenges they face in America. But in this chapter, I want to discuss a group of immigrants from southern Sudan, who came to the United States as refugees in the 1990s and 2000s. For these immigrants the move to America was a remarkable transformation. It provided relief from violence and displacement in their own country, where they often lived in refugee camps. Because of this, American offered the possibility of freedom, mobility, and a start of a new life. But the transition to living in the United States was also challenging in that it represented a dramatic break from the way of life that Sudanese immigrants were used to, and required significant changes in how they lived their lives. The people who we'll be talking about today were refugees from what today is the country of South Sudan. South Sudan is the newest country in the world, gaining independence from Sudan in 2011. The independence of South Sudan was gained through two extremely long, and brutal civil wars, that were fought between groups in the northern and southern parts of the original Sudan. The second Sudanese Civil War was fought for more than 20 years, from 1983 to 2005. During this war, more than two million people died from fighting, but also from famine and disease that resulted from the war. In south Sudan, more than four million people were displaced, and many ended up in refugee camps in other African countries, including Chad, Ethiopia and Kenya. Beginning in the early 1990s, the United States began to resettle small numbers of Sudanese refugees. These numbers increased after 2001, when the United States agreed to resettle more then 3,000 young Sudanese men. These refugees are often called the Lost Boys of Sudan, a group of 20,000 boys, who were displaced or orphaned during the war. The examples and stories that I'll be talking about today, were documented by the anthropologist John Holtzman, who interviewed a group of refugees from the Nuer ethnic group that had been resettled in Minnesota. The primary challenge most Sudanese refugees face when they arrive in the United States, is that they have little education and very few job skills. Therefore, they struggle to earn enough to live in the United States. Because our course is about America through foreign eyes, I want to try and help you imagine what America looked like to these Sudanese refugees when they first arrived. Most of the refugees came from two ethnic groups, the Dinka and the Nuer. Both of these groups are what anthropologists call agro-pasturelists, people who rely on large herds of cattle, as well as small scale subsistence crops such as, millet and other grains. They mostly live in very rural settings where their families, communities, and daily cycles involve tending cattle and crops. The transition of Nuer refugees to the United States was not simply one of dislocation to a new place with new people and languages, but an entirely new way of living life. Although there are many topics I could discuss, I want to focus briefly on three areas that the resettled Nuer found strange or difficult in Minnesota, food, money and time. The shift from their diets in Sudan to that of the United States was challenging. The Nuer in Minnesota continued to make some local foods like Injera, a spongy bread eaten with meat and vegetable stews. However, they also ate American foods like pizza and other easily prepared meals. Since these immigrants were mostly agro-pastrolists, beef and milk were significant parts of their diet in Sudan. But in the United States, they didn't like the milk in stores as they found the processed milk unappealing. And although there was plenty of beef in the shops, it is often confusing for new immigrants to never see live animals. In a recent story on national public radio, one Sudanese immigrant said, going to the store, you see these good meats around, but there's no cow. Where does it come from? Is it actually really beef? He laughs. And where is that cow? We're been here in town for almost a month and we don't see cows. The issue of money was often a great challenge for newly arrived, Nuer refugees. They came from a place where there was little need or use of money, where wealth was bound up and cows and other animals. This shift to a cash economy that involves working jobs for money is something that many refugees find difficult. It's not simply the change in how they generate wealth, but rather that in America there is a constant need for money. A situation that Holtzman calls vexing for the immigrants. One man that Holtzman interviewed told him how excited he was when he received $250 from a resettlement agency when he first arrived in the United States. This seemed like an enormous sum of money based on his perspective from Sudan, but he quickly realized how little this amount of money would get him in the United States. This is actually a conversation that I have had many times with Tanzanian friends who live in rural areas and work with me on my own research. They often ask about hourly wages or yearly salaries of Americans, and are shocked at what seem to be large sums of money that people make each day. However, when I explain to them about the costs of daily life in America, housing, food, transportation, clothing, they quickly realize how these seemingly large salaries may not go very far. The issue of time was also challenging for Nuer immigrants. As agro-pastoralists in Sudan their time was structured in relative flexible ways, as they managed their herds, farmed the land and met with other members of the village and community. The Nuer were often surprised at the rigidity of time in the United States, where work is governed by the daily clock and fits into eight or nine hour shifts. This is completely opposite their Sudanese lifestyles, where their daily schedule is governed by the work at hand. Some days are busy and eventful, and others not. Thus, while the Nuer talk about their immigration to America in positive ways, the transition can be disorienting. Life in America represents a dramatic break from life in Southern Sudan. With it's processed foods, reliance on money, and rigid scheduling, the transition to America for these immigrants is challenging. And yet, Sudanese immigrants have prospered and developed cohesive communities in many cities in the United States. They've gotten jobs and raised families and sent children to college. And now that South Sudan is an independent country, many are attempting to return to their homelands to find lost families and begin a new life there.
