Caroline Rohrer, Marial Bai

One thing  that I wondered  about was if marial Bai was ever rebuilt. I googled it and found that, according to VerticalResponse, that on July 9th, the republic of South Sudan officially became a nation. As soon as this happened, people in the area began rebuilding the war torn village and have since constructed the Marial Bai Secondary School, which has enrolled over 350 students.

What IS the 'What'

"What is the What" is extremely intriguing and makes one wonder about lifestyle and necessity and that we could give up pretty much 90% of our belongings and continue living perfectly fine if we were in an area that didn't expect glowing skin and comfy sheets. The Dinka people seem to be very practical, especially in their choosing of cattle over 'the What', a mystery gift from God.
"God said, you can either have these cattle, as my gift to you, or you can have the What.(p.62)" 
 I decided to do some research into what other reviewers thought the What actually is. At first, I personally believed that the What was actually nothing but simply the idea of giving up what was given to you out of curiosity for the unknown. If the Dinka had chosen the What, I'd expect some sort of biblical punishment and maybe a lesson to teach those to accept what they are given. 
I looked around, and according to Timothy McSweeney's blog (full of reviews for this book), Francis Prose of the NY Times believes that maybe although the wise Dinka chose the cattle to feed and prosper from, the What was their protection later from the mujahideen and Sudan government. For example if they had forfeited cattle for the What, the pain that followed later would've been eradicated. Valentino himself comes up with multiple examples of the What, according to the Hungry Owl Blog, later in the book Achak contemplates the What being horses (the symbol of the Arabs), an AK-47, airplanes, or education. I think that the What could symbolize the wisdom of the Dinka for turning down the temptation and could be a reminder of logic. But I also think that the What could have many different meanings. There are no hypotheses of the What directly from Dinka people that I could find, so maybe not knowing is the key to the story. Evidently, the actual meaning behind the What is not the point of the creation story. The point is that they were able to refuse such a curious uncharted thing. It could have been glorious, yet the Dink people chose what they knew would help them survive. 
Which brings it back to my original point. People in our country would give up a lot for glamour and it isn't hard for me to imagine people in our time and area turning down the cattle every time for just a glimpse of the mysterious What. I hope I will be able to hear more opinions of the What, it's an incredibly interesting topic. 

Post One

"'Hello, uncle,'" I said. It is customary to call an older man uncle, as a term of familiarity and respect. If the man is older than one's father, he is called father." (page 58.)

There is a lot about Achak's life story so far that is very different from ours. He describes what it was like to grow up in a rural, though large, village in Sudan and live in a culture that is foreign to ours. We see many aspects of this upbringing clash with the life that Achak is experiencing in America. For example, Achak does not expect the woman and the man in chapter one to have malevolent intentions and rob him. He describes his confusion when it comes to how to use the refrigerator and which foods to put where, and his early fascination with television. His customs clash with American ones too, not only his lifestyle. The quote above addresses Sudanese greetings, a topic that stuck out to me. As I read this passage I thought, "What are some other Sudanese cultural behaviors?" So I did some research to find out.

According to sudan.usembassy.gov, the Sudanese have a specific way of greeting people that they expect to be reciprocated. They inquire after the well being of a relative of the person before entering into the conversation. A greeting between men includes a handshake and a shoulder tap simultaneously, and a greeting between women includes a hug and a rubbing of cheeks. Sudan is a male oriented society, so many social behaviors that are the equivalent of western etiquette are relative to the differentiation and treatment of the separate genders. For example, at dinner the women sit on the opposite side of the table as the men, and if a couple is invited to a friend's house to dine the husband must ask if his wife is invited.

First Week of What is the What

For the first third of the book, I read up to page 186. What is the What begins with the main character Valentino or Achak getting robbed at his apartment in Atlanta, Georgia which he shares with his friend Achor Achor. After he tries to stand up to the robbers a couple of times, they knock him unconscious. He wakes up to the sound of his T.V. playing, which has been plugged into the living room/kitchen area. The robbers have left a young boy, Michael, to guard it while they bring the other stuff they stole from Valentino's apartment to their home. Valentino feels a strong connection to the boy because at a similar age, Valentino's life was turned upside down and remembers life at that age very clearly. A war broke out between the government and the rebel army and with more than a hundred other boys, Valentino walked through Sudan to find camps in Bilpam, Ethiopia. He tries to speak to Michael but ends up getting a telephone book dropped on his head. He decides to relate his life story to Michael in his mind. He begins with his early life in the town Marial Bai with his many brothers and sisters (the result of the five wives his father had). One day his father, the successful owner of a general store, is talking with traders about the slowly rising rebel force (the Sudan People's Liberation Army) whose tensions with the government seem to be hinting at war. His father, who was involved on the rebels side in the last rebellion, shows little worry of war. Yet one day, soldiers attack the town. Valentino and his mother make an escape. His mother realizes he would have a greater chance of survival without her and encourages him to go on by himself. Soon, he meets Dut, a school teacher in his town, and the two walk to a nearby viewpoint to see the state of Marial Bai. It is burned to the ground. Later, as Valentino is trekking to Ethiopia with Dut, Deng (who he befriends) and a few hundred other boys, they run into a  village that hasn't been affected by the war at all. Valentino discovers that his village, Marial Bai was burned to the ground because it was associated with the rebel forces. He later asks Dut to explain the situation to him. Dut tells them about the Anyanya rebels before the SPLA, the reason for all the Dinka cattle thievery done by Baggara government soilders  and the reason behind attacking Marial Bali in greater detail. This made me wonder, where did the conflict between the north and south of Sudan that caused the civil war come from? How were the Anyanya and the SPLA created and where are they today? 

 According to the Federation of American Scientists, that the hatred between the north and the south of Sudan says to come from clashes in religious beliefs and culture. The north is more of a traditional islamic belief, and the south has a wide variety of culture and religion, including Christianity. In 1955, the Equatoria Corps began uprising against the government in Torit. This led to anger amongst the corps and violence broke out, more than 500,000 people dead by the end of the 1960s. The Anyanya was formed as a rebel organization against the government. Countries such as Israel aided the Anyanya in 1969 by sending weapons.  Their disputes ended in 1972 with the Addis Ababa negotiations. The SPLA formed around 1983, with the end of the Addis Ababa agreements (according to the New Sudan Division news). John Garang (as mentioned in the book) began the SPLA after he encouraged a series of uprisings against the Khartoum government. In 1996, the United States gave $20 million in military equipment to soilders in Uganda, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. The SPLM (Sundanese People's Liberation Movement) and the SPLA ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the north and south of Sudan in 2005 (Federation of American Scientists). 

What is the What 1st Post

Reading What is What? has been a emotionally and conceptually difficult. At least so far. The book starts out with Sudanese Valentino Achak Deng opening the door of his apartment for a strange woman. She comes in and begins to rob him and his absent roommate while another man beats and threatens him with his gun. He is tied up and a young boy he calls T.V boy who ordered to watch Valentino and hold him captive until they return. Valentino immediately regrets moving to the city of Atlanta and he begins to have flashbacks of his violent childhood. He tells of his village Marial Bai, his father Deng Nyibek Arou and his father's first wife, hanging out with his childhood friends Moses and William K. He reminisces on a few funny memories of him trying to impress his older crush Amath and being bitten by a horse. During these flashbacks he learns "T.V. boy's" name is Michael and when he tries to reason with him, Michael smashes his head with a book. Valentino's flash backs start to get darker and sadder as tension between Arabs, rebel groups, and the army grow. This is where I began to get confused, with all of the different names for Arabs, political groups, and various African organizations, and villages. The author never clearly explains who is bad, who is good, and exactly what they all do. So I decided to research the SPLA or the Sudan People's Liberation Army. This organization was fighting for independence in Southern Sudan and according to fas.org the SPLA was fighting the Sudanese Government from 1972-1983. Since I am only one third of the way into the book, I don't know all the in's and outs of why the Arabs are fighting and killing Dinka people but on the research website, it seems to be the Second Sudanese Civil War. On the website, John Pike explains the SPLA saying that "The principal insurgent faction is the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), a body created by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA)." I will continue reading to learn more about this war from the man who was forced to escape it. The rest of the third I read consisted of Valentino running from the Arabs and away from his village. He joins a group of run away and who lost their families, they are led by an older boy Dut Majok. They walk all day and far into the night, looking for near by villages and food. Valentino reflects on the boys he meets and their sad stories. He is still tied up in his apartment when I stopped reading. It has been a sad and informational novel so far, and have a feeling the issues it discusses will be explained in more depth. 

Soccer in What is the What

                                                                                                                                Sasha Tcherepanov

                                                                                                                                                     3/6/14

       Soccer in Marial Bai sybolizes happiness and safety. While the soldiers were based in Marial Bai, soccer was an everyday tradition on the dirt soccer field near the barracks. In the begginning of this novel soccer is the only sport. When the soldiers left their base, the Arabs on horses immediately massacred the citizens and burned down almost every house. I dug further into soccer in South Sudan because it was portrayed as such a passionate event that drew the attention of all the kids of the city.

On 10 July 2012, South sudan competed in it's first international game against Uganda, the game ended in a draw. Currently now South Sudan is ranked 198 in FIFA standings. If the passion and spirit for the game continues in South Sudan as much as it resonated with me from What is the What, then South Sudan will go far and pass other countries in the rankings. South Sudan did not qualify for the 2014 Rio de Janeiro World Cup. From 1930 to 2012 South Sudan was part of Sudan and won the Africa cup once. 

The first 1/3 of What is the What was more difficult to read than I expected.  It begins with Achak being beaten and robbed of the little that he owns, and then waking to find himself under the guard of a young boy, who seems to be fond of heavy books.  During the time that he is tied up, he imagines telling the "TV boy" or Micheal about his own experiences as a young boy, and the horrors that took place in his hometown of Marial Bai and nearby towns.  Before he goes into detail about these, he fast forwards to travelling with a group of "Lost Boys" and being attacked by lions. Going backward in time, Achak lives a peaceful life, but when army soldiers desert Marial Bai, the murahaleen descend and wreak havoc. Achak's friends and family members are killed and he flees into the wilderness, where he comes across several small groups and eventually a huge group of people with livestock.  These Dinka people are then surrounded by murahaleen again, but Achak manages to escape.  He describes more of the present in which Micheal presumably looks at Achak's pictures of Tabitha; The girl that he loves.  Achak mentions classes that the two took together in Kakuma, and then how Tabitha went to the U.S. and their re connection.  Achak befriends Mary Williams, one of the women in charge of the Lost Boy's foundation, even if his friends believe that she was not able to get them a good enough education.    What a mouthfull!
     I was curious about what the "September Laws" were, so I did a wee bit of research...These laws were created by an Islamist leader who wanted to create an Islamic republic with sharia law.  They were enforced in 1983 and lasted up until 1985 .  The implementation of these laws led to civil war between Muslims, Christians  and  people practicing any other religion.
-Oxford Islamic Studies Online