Part Two - War Summary and Analysis

War came to John's homeland when he was 13 years old. They had been expecting it, but it still shocked them when their village was actually attacked. Various people had visions that predicted war and death. One man prophesied that theirs would be a generation of black hair. The elders of the village felt that this meant that the oldest and youngest would die.

At that time, John didn't know much about his country's history. Sudan had gained independence from Britain in 1956. The new nation was comprised of two people groups who had very little in common. The Arabs dominated the northern half of Sudan, and the black skinned tribes dominated the southern half. In the early 1980s, the northern Arabs tried to impose laws on the entire nation, and civil war broke out. The northern...