The Lost Boys of Sudan: An American Story of the Refugee Experience

In 2000 the United States began accepting 3,800 refugees from one of Africa’s longest civil wars. They were just some of the thousands of young men, known as “Lost Boys,” who had been orphaned or otherwise separated from their families in the chaos of a brutal conflict that has ravaged Sudan since 1983. The Lost Boys of Sudan focuses on four of these refugees. Theirs, however, is a typical story, one that repeated itself wherever the Lost Boys could be found across America.

Jacob Magot, Peter Anyang, Daniel Khoch, and Marko Ayii were among 150 or so Lost Boys who were resettled in Atlanta. Like most of their fellow refugees, they had never before turned on a light switch, used a kitchen appliance, or ridden in a car or subway train--much less held a job or balanced a checkbook. We relive their early excitement and disorientation, their growing despondency over fruitless job searches, adjustments they faced upon finally entering the workforce, their experiences of post-9/11 xenophobia, and their undying dreams of acquiring an education.

As we immerse ourselves in the Lost Boys’ daily lives, we also get to know the social services professionals and volunteers, celebrities, community leaders, and others who guided them--with occasional detours--toward self-sufficiency. Along the way author Mark Bixler looks closely at the ins and outs of U.S. refugee policy, the politics of international aid, the history of Sudan, and the radical Islamist underpinnings of its government. America is home to more foreign-born residents than ever before; the Lost Boys have repaid that gift in full through their example of unflagging resolve, hope, and faith.

Customer Reviews:

The Lost Boys

By Michael J. OKeefe - March 25, 2005

In 1983, while the rest of the world looked away, a civil war broke out in Sudan between the Islamic controlled government in the north and the people of the south who were Christians or animists. This conflict would eventually result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands, more than five million people driven from their homes and would would force two million Sudanese to seek refuge in neighboring countries. Among these refugees was a group of at least 20,000 children aged 7 to 17 years of age who were separated from their families and forced to make their way alone over hundreds of miles of an unforgiving wilderness until they finally arrived at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Northwest Kenya where the United Nations Committee for refugees created a sanctuary for "The Lost Boys of Sudan." By that time, more than half were lost to starvation, disease, attacks by wild animals, and bandits.

I first met the Lost Boys in Kakuma in February 1998, while on an inspection tour for... read more

Great read!

By Joan Hecht - June 7, 2005

The story of the Lost Boys of Sudan is like no other story ever told. It is a story about thousands of young children, particularly young boys, who became separated from their families due to the long running civil war between the North and South of Sudan. In all, these children walked over a thousand miles across the wilds of Africa in search of safe refuge. Their journey was a long and arduous one filled with suffering and horrors beyond ones imagination.

Through the skilled style of Atlanta journalist Mark Bixler, "The Lost Boys of Sudan" weaves their story with that of other refugees and immigrants who have also settled in our country, while never trivializing their incredible plight. And although "The Lost Boys of Sudan" focuses on four young men living in Atlanta Georgia, their stories are similar to those of approximately 3800 other Lost Boys who have resettled in various cities across the US. Like those in Atlanta, they too have had to come to grips with the... read more

Full review of Bixler's book

By Clint Schnekloth "Clint S." - January 22, 2006

The Lost Boys of Sudan: An American Story of the Refugee Experience, by Mark Bixler. The University of Georgia Press, 2005. Pp. 261.

The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God (Leviticus 19:34)

Imagine a cluster of tall, thin Sudanese young men waiting in an airport in Washington D.C. They are all wearing the same sweatshirt. They have spent the past four or five years of their life in refugee camps in Ethiopia. This is their first time traveling by air, seeing the U.S., eating chocolate. They are separated from their parents by war or death. They seem, as Mark Bixler remarks, "to have been plucked from another era and dropped into the hustle and bustle of contemporary America" (96). They anticipate another flight to Atlanta, Georgia, where they will begin a life they have been anticipating for some time- hard work in the... read more