Stop Child Soldiers

By Bakegede Mathew

Bakegede MathewI just said I am not sure about Mary with my child and what will happen in the future. Because one day, I went to Mary Duds house to see my child. I found out she was making a call to somebody from Africa, from her tribe, in Dinka, and she talked with a guy about my child. After she was done, she gave me the phone. She told me, Somebody wants to talk to you right now on this phone. I took that call from the guy. And the guy said to me something about my child. He said to me, Mary, she is my sister. She just told me about you a few days ago, and you are not the father of my sisters child. I did say this to you because youre not from my tribe, Dinka. Before my sister gave birth to that child, I told her that when she will get that child, she has to name her on my fathers name because Bakegede Mathew is not from the Dinka tribe. I did tell you that because that child has to be with me here in South Sudan. In the future, I will sell her to my tribe, Dinka, with lots of cows. I said this to my sister. RIGHT NOW, ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I REALLY KNOW ABOUT MARY DUD is she is from South Sudan. Her tribe is called Dinka. This tribe is not a good tribe. I say this because the Dinka tribe has been abusing children from South Sudan for a long time. For example, when the kid got born, if she is female, they will take her to the village. She will never go back to the town again, not anymore. And when she becomes fifteen years of age, they will look for some man from the Dinka tribe to sell her for him with fifty cows, then the guy will take the fifteen-year-old as his wife and marry her. I think this is kind of the same way with Mary Dud. If they try to do it to my child, I wouldnt agree with that kind of thing. What I have to say right now is, after that crime would happen to my child, the court will find out about this. Thank you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479758104

Bakegede Mathew

Bakegede Mathew—I just said I am not sure about Mary with my child and what will happen in the future. Because one day, I went to Mary Dud’s house to see my child. I found out she was making a call to somebody from Africa, from her tribe, in Dinka, and she talked with a guy about my child. After she was done, she gave me the phone. She told me, “Somebody wants to talk to you right now on this phone.” I took that call from the guy. And the guy said to me something about my child. He said to me, “Mary, she is my sister. She just told me about you a few days ago, and you are not the father of my sister’s child. I did say this to you because you’re not from my tribe, Dinka. Before my sister gave birth to that child, I told her that when she will get that child, she has to name her on my father’s name because Bakegede Mathew is not from the Dinka tribe. I did tell you that because that child has to be with me here in South Sudan. In the future, I will sell her to my tribe, Dinka, with lots of cows. I said this to my sister.” RIGHT NOW, ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I REALLY KNOW ABOUT MARY DUD is she is from South Sudan. Her tribe is called Dinka. This tribe is not a good tribe. I say this because the Dinka tribe has been abusing children from South Sudan for a long time. For example, when the kid got born, if she is female, they will take her to the village. She will never go back to the town again, not anymore. And when she becomes fifteen years of age, they will look for some man from the Dinka tribe to sell her for him with fifty cows, then the guy will take the fifteen-year-old as his wife and marry her. I think this is kind of the same way with Mary Dud. If they try to do it to my child, I wouldn’t agree with that kind of thing. What I have to say right now is, after that crime would happen to my child, the court will find out about this. Thank you.

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by Bakegede Mathew.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 06/28/2013

Please make a donation to the non-profit Sudanese International Organization

ADDRESS: Unit 607 48 Salem St., Portland, Maine 04102

We help children with their education in South Sudan School of Music

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

125344

I am originally from the Azande tribe, from Western Equatoria. Western Equatoria is the place that was affected a lot by the LRA attack. LRA became rebels during the time when Museveni took power from Idi Amin Dada, and they became a rebel group again against the Ugandan government. They used to live near the Uganda area.

SPLA used to be at war against the Sudanese government. The SPLA rebels took power, came out of the jungle.

The rebel group LRA expanded and took over where the SPLA used to be. They came to Western Equatoria (the place between Congo and Sudan). From Sarsibo, you could go to Tumbara (my daddy’s from there) in Southwestern Sudan, pretty near to Central Africa.

How I Became a Child Soldier

When SPLA was making war against the Sudanese government, my family and I, we used to live in the city called Maridi. They used to take armed forces from Khartoum to Maridi. During that time (1989), when SPLA came, they took over all this place and made war with the army for so long, maybe two years. One day, the army took the kids to make them soldiers. That’s how they took me.

They sent the army to each house. If you’re eight years old or nine years old, they take you from your mom and your daddy. And your mom and your daddy can’t do a thing. During that time, my brother was at primary school. He was eleven or so. I was between eight or nine. I didn’t know how to write too. I was also in primary school.

My mom, she is from a tribe called Balanda. That tribe is from another state called Wau State. She left early when the SPLA came. She said she was going on vacation, but she never came back. The first time I saw her again was last year. I took a vacation and heard my mom was in Wau, so I went there, and I met her. It was difficult to see her again. I wanted to stay longer, but my visa was about to expire, so I had to go back.

When I went back to Sudan last year, I couldn’t find him. But I found the family of my daddy’s sister. I saw them. I sat with them, and we talked. They told me that since the war, they couldn’t find my daddy. They heard he was here, he was there, but nobody could ever find him. When I was there last year, I heard that he was here, he was there. I went to all those places, but I couldn’t find him.

Before I came here, I was a child soldier. When I was nine years old, the government of Sudan was taking children to train them and send them to the army of Sudan.

They were training us to go to the army forces. They trained us for three months, maybe three and a half months. Then they sent us to war, and then, when they sent us to war, they didn’t want us to go back. They just wanted us to end our life. And if you make a mistake—say, for example, you’re sick, you have a problem—the doctor would say that you would have to go back to the city, but after some time, they would send you to a different place.

When they were training me, they took me to a place called Maridi, a big city in Sudan, and I stayed there for three or four years. I never saw anybody, like my mom or my daddy.

At night, the rebels (SPLA) would come and go fight against us. We were just young kids; we had no experience with the war, with shooting guns. At the end of 1989 to 1990, we (all of us young kids, child soldiers) left Maridi; we ran away. The SPLAs had taken over the city. So when we ran away, there was a small street that the rebels didn’t know about. We took that street and ran away and went to the Congo. We had to go all day for five days, all day, from morning to night. We slept in the forest and woke up early and walked all day. We didn’t eat anything. During that time, when we left Maridi, we got to a place called Nabanga. It’s on the border between Congo and Sudan. When we got over

cover%20photo.jpg

When we (thousands of us) got to Nabanga, most people over there are Congolese; they don’t speak Sudanese. But they have food; they wanted to get money or kids in exchange for giving their food. If we wanted food, they wanted guns or young kids for payment. My brother and I,