Tong: There is a Country | South Sudan (Tour D'Afrique) first read: Jan 2016

[Marieke]

Both of our official selections for the January/February tour stop are nonfiction, but a member discovered this slim collection of new short stories from South Sudanese writers.

The editor's introduction is very thoughtful and interesting. He mentions that South Sudan is "still too young to be able to claim a literary coterie" so recommends personal accounts from the Sudanese diaspora of former refugees and war survivors when someone asks for "literature that illuminates its cultures and experiences." But he is "reluctant to refer to them as South Sudanese literature." And so he decided to do something about that.

All but two of the contributors to the volume he compiled are young. He used the internet to call for submissions and he says he "chose these narratives among the dozens received because they epitomize and illuminate South Sudan's current moment of rupture."

I hope some of you will join in this read!

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I have finished the stories but haven't written a review yet. I noticed two things off the bat - the absence of women as contributors but the handling of women within the stories points to a lesser power position in a somewhat unsettled society; and perhaps really a lack of what we might consider a "society" in the stories - almost everyone is a refugee or a transplant, nobody has their family units the way they used to, and a lot of people are struggling to survive.

I do love the capture of a moment in time that I feel so vividly.

[Zanna]

This looks interesting! I'll see if I can get hold of it...

[Tinea, Nonfiction Logistician]

I don't know how but I managed to get a hold of all three South Sudan reads. Not sure I'll get to Emma's War though.

I just finished There Is a Country (review here). I really embrace the goal of the editor, Nyuol Lueth Tong, to pull this collection together and 'start' in the search for South Sudanese literature. A lot of reviewers note the absence of women-- and the absence of all but highly educated elite living and working abroad, speaking English, connected online. And yet, the stories showcase diverse experiences: a comfortably employed teacher, a displaced "Lost Boy" in an IDP camp, a young unemployed traveler, a soldier, a child following his mother across the country. When you start from scratch, each story adds so much, even while pulled from a small pool. According to the introduction, it was hard to find these South Sudanese writers. Perhaps, as for the endless anglophone literature in rich white male voice, the absences also tell a story of who has access to tell theirs.

[Tinea, Nonfiction Logistician]

Oh, i forgot to add:

How's this for creating a literature of place? The story of the northern soldier taking his last stand in a bunker in the South is set outside Yei, the same battle described in poetry in Beyond the River Yei: Life in the Land Where Sleeping Is a Disease. Tong writes about how we need fiction to make sense of the nonfiction. Together these two stories give a sense of the immensity and hopelessness on both sides of that battleground, more so than a history of the civil war can really show.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

So cool how they tied together, thanks for pointing that out. And even though I noticed the gender disparity, here's to hoping for a rich literary life in South Sudan's future!

[Zanna]

Thanks Tinea, that review definitely cemented the book's place on my list. can't seem to get hold of it as yet but will keep an eye out

[Marieke]

Tinea wrote: "Oh, i forgot to add:

How's this for creating a literature of place? The story of the northern soldier taking his last stand in a bunker in the South is set outside Yei, the same battle described i..."

great catch! i have only read two stories in this collection so far, but i will keep my eye out for that.