Nuer Refugees From Sudan

Imagine being dropped off in a foreign place where you have never been before or even heard of. You have been dropped off with nothing but the clothes on your back and barely speak a word of the language that is spoken there. This is how the Nuer feel when then go to the United States from Sudan for more freedom. Sure the United States may have more opportunities for a better life than Sudan, but it comes with a lot of life-changing events and challenges that the Nuer must face daily. In Nuer Journeys Nuer Lives, Jon Holtzman discusses the challenges the Nuer face and how they overcome them once they have been kicked out of their homes and immigrate to Minnesota in the United States.

The journey of the Nuer to the United States began when their homeland was invaded by war between the North and South Sudanese. Nuer would explain how their homes would become the battlefields of the War in Southern Sudan. It was the battle between the government and the rebels. No one could side with either side and you could not remain neutral because one side would make the assumptions that you are taking the side of the dominant force in your homeland area. Most Nuer believed that the rebel forces were more the troublemakers to their homeland than the government was (17). Now this became the first challenge that the Nuer had to overcome and that was the leave everything they ever owned in their homeland and move on to the refugee camps, which were scattered all over Africa.

Moving to a refugee camp from your home was a tough thing to do. Moving between camps was even tougher. However, the toughest thing actually had to be to live in a refugee camp. The conditions in theses camps were unbearable and make it difficult to make it from one day to the next. Most Nuer found this to be such a challenge of their daily lives, yet they knew that there were better days to come and tried their best to make it through these horrible camp conditions. It was not just 100 Nuer at each camp it was more like 10,000 people living in these camps in tents all within close areas of one another. All there was to eat were small amounts of grain, milk, meat, and vegetables. Due to everyone living in a close area of one another and not having adequate bathing facilities it was quite common to catch disease from one another. Furthermore, there was inadequate medical care so one someone transmitted a disease it was very difficult to get rid of it and cure it. In addition to poor diet and poor health, there was a lack of physical security and education (20). It was daily challenge just to try and stay alive at one of these camps. Most would try to stay alive in order to move on to the resettlement process, which would bring them closer to the United States.

The resettlement process was very tiresome as well as time consuming. Some would wait weeks; others would wait to years just to get through this process. So from abandoning their homes to passing the resettlement process, it could take several years to make it over to the United States. The resettlement process consisted of several steps with the screening interview being the first step. This interview was to see if the person taking the interview met the actual requirements of gaining refugee status. One could not just say they wanted status because their homes were invaded by war it had to be more reasonable than an answer of that sort. The definition of a refugee "is an alien outside the United States who is unable or unwilling to return to his or her country because of well-founded fear of persecution" (26). Most would say the interview was the most difficult part of this process due to the fact that it was done in a foreign language and made it difficult to answer their questions (24). The second step of the resettlement process was to provide detailed information about your family in terms of how old they were, what their names were, their gender, where they were located at that time period, and other various questions of that nature. Nuer would find it easier to get through this process if they already had family members in the United States because they would then send an "affidavit of relationship", which would allow family members to be reunited with one another in America (25). Once all of this process was done they would be issued travel documents, given some brief background to the American culture and a health check. After this process had been accomplished, most Nuer had faced the most difficult challenges that they would have to face in this transition of moving to America. While leaving Sudan they had to leave behind everything they ever owned, including a huge portion of their Nuer culture of their home country and learn to adapt to the American culture in Minnesota.

The Nuer culture is much different than that of any type of American culture. Yes both cultures had some similarities, but for the most part they had their differences and this was a challenge that Nuer had to overcome once in the United States. The most important part of the Nuer culture was the use of cattle and how it is essential to the economics of their culture by providing them with daily essential needs, such as milk, meat, hides, and fuel. Having cattle is what would define a social relationship between the Nuer (4). For instance, the most important use of cattle was used for the payment of bridewealth to the bride's family from the groom's when a young couple would get married (5). In terms of what the Nuer would wear it was hardly any clothing at all. If they did wear anything on their bodies it would consist of beads, tiny amounts of cloth, and white ash. Nuer would also be grouped in various forms of patrilineal clans and lineages, which are united by decent from a mutual ancestor that was male (5). Their communities were also much different that those found in the United States. The Nuer community was based on kinship of two different types. The first one is called mar, which means "actual kinship between people that are directly traced through relatives" (42). The second type of community is called buth, which are "relationships between links between people who cannot be traced, which is fundamental to the tribal organization of the Nuer with regards to alliances and warfare" (42). Their names of the Nuer are of social significance. For example, if a child was named Chuol then it had meant their older sibling had died (30). This was just some of what the Nuer culture was like back in Sudan and what was most important to them and how they would form communities.

The move to the United States was a massive culture shock to the Nuer. In the United States it was quite opposite of their life in Sudan. For instance, the weather in Minnesota was cold and there was lots of snow, something the Nuer had never seen before. The weather was the least of their worries in terms of