The “Lost Boys of Sudan” are unaccompanied minor refugees from southern Sudan who became casualties of genocidal civil war during the mid-1980s. At the hand of government troops, tens of thousands of these young boys witnessed their villages destroyed and, in many instances, their families killed. As a result, many of them fled, leaving behind the security of their families and communities. As many as half of these children died from disease, starvation, attacks by government troops and wild animals. Their sojourns took them to Pignudo Refugee Camp in Ethiopia, but when civil war erupted in Ethiopia they were force to flee again. Most of them found protection in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. Eventually, many of them found new homes in countries across the globe. In 2001, nearly 4,000 Lost Boys and 89 Lost Girls arrived in America with little more than dim memories of their lives before the war.

A written record exists of the lives of these refugees in the form of personal histories recorded by field-workers for Save The Children Sweden in the late 1980s at Pignudo Refugee Camp. Nearly 17,000 personal histories were taken for the primary purpose of assisting with family reunification. In 2004 these documents were entrusted to me and to the Arizona Lost Boys Center. The records have been scanned and digitized. In partnership with the Lost Boys and Girls National Network, we are building the capacity to return these records to their rightful owners. We will also release files to survivors in instances where the person to whom they pertain is deceased. Our hope is that these records will enable these refugees to reconnect with surviving family members, with villages and with their rich cultural heritage, to open the way for healing and closure, and to finding childhood companions lost along the way.

The files have the potential to serve other humanitarian purposes as well. In one instance, a young man I am acquainted with had married while in Kakuma. Through the “lottery” system he was able to immigrate to the U.S., but his bride could not. Now a citizen, he is seeking to bring her here. However, when he came to the U.S. he took a Christian name, as is common practice among members of this group, and this does not match the name on his marriage license. By finding his document, complete with a photograph, he has concrete evidence to establish for the Immigration and Naturalization Service the legitimacy of his marriage. This should ultimately enable him to make a much stronger case for sponsoring his wife’s immigration here.

We have made much progress in disseminating these files. This past summer I attended the Lost Boys and Girls National Conference in San Diego, Calif., and was able to repatriate approximately 20 young men with their files. The emotions they display when they first see their files and photographs range from laughter to crying. Nonetheless, virtually all of them recognize the importance of the documents and are eager to obtain them. We have developed a Web site to make these files available to Lost Boys and Girls globally and are presently seeking funding to cover costs associated with administering the project. Within a year, southern Sudanese refugees from across the globe will have the ability to search the database and, if their file is within it, obtain a copy.

David Turkon is an associate professor of anthropology. He can be reached at dturkon@ithaca.edu.