They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys From Sudan (2005) is a memoir by three cousins, Alephonsion “Alepho” Deng, Benson Deng, and Benjamin Ajak, and co-written with Judy A. Bernstein. It follows their harrowing experiences during the Second Sudanese Civil War in the 1980s and 1990s as they fled their villages in search of refuge across African deserts.

Alepho, Benson, and Benjamin were among the “Lost Boys” of Sudan who were resettled in the United States in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They met Bernstein, who became their mentor and co-author, through San Diego’s International Rescue Committee in 2001. Their book received many accolades, including the Christopher Award, and was a Los Angeles Times bestseller in July 2005. Alepho and Bernstein went on to co-write one more book: Disturbed in Their Nests: A Journey From Sudan’s Dinkaland to San Diego’s City Heights (2018).

This guide refers to the 2015 PublicAffairs Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The source text contains descriptions of violence, rape, loss, and suffering experienced by the authors as children; this guide touches on all these topics.

Summary

Benson and Alepho are brothers who lived in the village of Juol in the south of Sudan. Their cousin, Benjamin, lived in a neighboring village. The boys’ families, who belong to the Dinka tribe, were subsistence farmers. The boys spent their early childhood days immersed in play, school, and helping the family graze their cows, goats, and sheep.

All their lives, the boys had heard about the conflict between the Sudanese government in the north and villages in the south. The former, largely Arab population wanted the latter to convert to Islam, but the Dinka and Nuer tribes consistently refused. Thus, the Murahilin had been attacking the southern villages for years. However, conflict escalated after 1983 when the government declared Sharia law for all of Sudan. Civil war broke out, and the boys’ villages were attacked. The boys were forced to flee for their lives, leaving their home and family behind.

The boys joined large groups of Dinka also on the move and searching for asylum elsewhere. They walked for thousands of miles over harsh terrain, battling hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and injury along the way. At different points in their journeys over the years, the boys were separated from each other, only to reunite again, sometimes with other siblings and cousins along the way.

Benson and Benjamin ended up in Panyido, a refugee camp in Ethiopia, for a while. When war broke out in Ethiopia, the Sudanese refugees were forced back into their still-dangerous home country. Tens of thousands attempted to cross the Gilo River back into Sudan, with Benson, Benjamin, and a number of their cousins succeeding. However, large numbers were massacred by the Ethiopians in the process, with many others drowning in the river during the attempt.

After wandering across different camps in south Sudan, the boys eventually reunited with Alepho and some other cousins. They also found Benson and Alepho’s older brother, Yier, who was a rebel soldier with the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) and fighting the government. Yier heard of a new camp in Kakuma, Kenya, that opened up in 1992. He organized for his younger cousins and siblings to be sent there, where they would presumably be safe. However, the boys headed for Kakuma were hijacked by soldiers and taken to Natinga instead. The soldiers began training the boys for conscription into the SPLA; anyone caught trying to escape to Kakuma was brutally punished.

Each of the boys eventually managed to escape Natinga and made it to Kakuma on individual journeys at different times. They had to make it through the desert on foot, under harsh conditions, with no resources or protection. The journey took a physical toll on each of the boys, but they were each relieved and overjoyed to be reunited with family when they finally made it to Kakuma.

Life at Kakuma also grew hard over time. The refugees were treated like cattle, with the camp officials exploiting them for labor and stealing their resources. This mistreatment worsened after the famine that hit the region in 1996. The saving grace at Kakuma was that the boys had each other and school. They focused on their education as best as they could and kept each other’s spirits up with their shared company, despite the hardships.

As the war raged on, the American government decided to introduce a resettlement program to the United States for the “Lost Boys” of Sudan. The boys were heartened by the possibility of escape and freedom; they worked hard at their studies and at passing the requirements to leave Kakuma. Eventually, Benson, Alepho, and Benjamin, along with more of their cousins and siblings, made it across.

In the Epilogue, co-author Bernstein describes how the resettlement of refugees was paused for a time after September 11, 2001. By the time it resumed, the north and south in Sudan had signed a peace treaty, and resettling refugees from Kakuma was deprioritized. Many Lost Boys were left behind at the camp, including a couple of the boys’ family members. Even after moving to America, the boys struggled for a while. Bernstein stresses that their personal accounts of war captured in this book showcase the long-lasting impacts of war on children.