• ‘What is the What’ book info
• The Valentino Achak Deng Foundation
• Sudan: a nation divided

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JEB SHARP:  Two men, one from the U-S and one from Sudan, crossed paths six years ago.

Their lives remain intertwined to this day.  The American is Dave Eggers.  He was already a successful writer, whose books included one called “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.”  The Sudanese man is Valentino Achak Deng.  He had led a heartbreaking life of staggering sorrow.  Valentino had escaped his home village of Marial Bai in war-torn southern Sudan.  Eggers turned Valentino’s life-story into an only slightly fictionalized biography, called “What Is the What.”  Now, three years later, proceeds from the novel have gone back to Marial Bai to build a school.  It’s gratifying for both the author, Dave Eggers, and his subject, Valentino Achak Deng.  For all they’ve been through though, both men say they’ll never forget that first time they met.

VALENTINO ACHAK DENG:  Dave, you know, is this just cool guy, doesn’t talk too much, but we are just about a writer meeting a student and then they write a book, it would not have been possible.  We would have had to go through a lot of trust issues and we had trouble.  We took risks, actually.  Dave took risks, and went to Marial Bai with me when I reunited with my family.  And I was at Dave’s wedding, my first American wedding to attend.  You could imagine that.  Dave brought me to his life, and he also came to my life.

SHARP:  Dave Eggers?

DAVE EGGERS:  A lot of it has to do with Valentino, you know, and his bravery in sharing his story.  It wasn’t easy to get at some of the more difficult parts of the story and a lot of parts of it that weren’t easy to remember or to recount or to get published.  But his courage in revealing all of that was important, you know.

SHARP:  And now an awful lot has happened in Sudan in recent years.   I mean, there’s everything that happened in the years encompassed by the book, but even since then, the war that destroyed your village and caused your flight with the Lost Boys ended in 2005 with a peace agreement between north and south Sudan.  So southern Sudan where you’re from, Valentino, is supposed to be emerging from a crisis. You’ve used the proceeds from the book to start a foundation that’s built a school back in your home village.  Is this indeed a time of renewal and hope in southern Sudan?

DENG:  This is the time for me where people need to go back and help.  We went back to Marial Bai and realized that many multilateral organization and even the new autonomous government of southern Sudan was paying so much attention to primary education.  For example, in the area where we’ve built a second school now, this is going to be the only functioning secondary school the region has ever had.

SHARP: Dave Eggers, you’ve visited the new school in Marial Bai.  It opened this year.  What strikes you about it?

EGGERS:  The first thing that strikes me is that Valentino, with the help of one staff member here in the US, pretty much built this school on his own, with the help of the community there in Marial Bai. And it’s flabbergasting to a lot of organizations that have been trying to build similar facilities in southern Sudan, and Valentino did it in about a year, and it’s a 14 building complex with cafeteria and a library and ten classrooms and pretty soon, ideally, there’ll be a dormitory for girls and there’s about 100 students there right now, and a waiting list of almost 1,000 to go to this school.

SHARP:  What’s the secret? What’s different?

EGGERS:  It took a man that had lived in Ethiopia and Kenya and the US, but had grown up and knew the Marial Bai community and knew how to get things done there.  Besides just being an incredible scholar, he’s a guy that knows how to negotiate the price of bricks and mortar and things like that.

DENG:  The other idea is, I wanted to invest in the community, so we bought bricks from the local brick makers and hoping that that money will go to the local economy.  Now I could see shops in Marial Bai that came as a result of the bricks business.  Another thing is that we just inspire the youth. For example, when we started, it was just the rainy season and people had to carry bag of cements on their back.  People had to carry everything we needed to the construction site.

SHARP:  This all sounds so good and positive and the economy’s being rebuilt, even as the school project’s getting off the ground. Can you convey the feeling there after so many years of war, especially when there’s often a feeling that the peace isn’t that stable?

DENG:  There is still a concern that if the regions return to war, or if this pocket of insecurity in many parts of south Sudan spread all over, then it will be tough for us, because we have students who come from different part of the country.  But I have lived in Sudan for almost a year now, and I haven’t seen people advocating to go back to war.

SHARP:  Dave Eggers?

EGGERS:  It’s essential that we have to be optimistic and you have to give the young people the hope.  You know, there’s a generation or two that grew up without schools.

SHARP:  You’re both translators in a way.  You’re trying to bring continually the story of Sudan to people here in the United States.  And I’m curious how you’ve come to think about that, how you break through the sense of something being far away and out of sight and out of mind.  How do you get people to care about suffering far away?

DENG:  First I believe that all people have so much in common than they are able to realize. We are all the same.  It’s just about how do we get to hear about things?

SHARP:  Dave Eggers?

EGGERS:  Well, I think it was important, and it’s important for a lot of stories like this and in parts of the world that the US and Western world doesn’t know that much about.  I think most of the time, it’s best to tell that story through one person’s eyes and to be able to connect with their elemental humanity and our commonalities and say, “Well, that boy could have been me.”

SHARP:  Valentino, I can’t resist asking you one more question. I heard you got on an airplane recently and sat next to a woman who was reading the book, “What is the What.”

DENG:  We sat at the airport together and she was reading the book.  I could not resist the temptation after 30 minutes of seeing her reading and sometimes laughing.  And then I said, “Hey, that’s my story you’re reading.”  She said, “What?”  I said, “I am Valentino” and she could not accept that.  At that point, I had to show her my passport, and wow, it was a drama.

SHARP:  Valentino Achak Deng runs a foundation that builds schools in southern Sudan.  Dave Eggers is the author of several books, including “Zeitoun” and most recently “The Wild Things.”  Thank you both so much.

EGGERS:  Thank you.

DENG:  You’re welcome.

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