Question

14) Recall the film “God Grew Tired of Us”. Describe normative history-graded (or cohort) differences

between Panther, John, & Daniels’s cohort in the Sudan and the current cohort of children in the United

States. How do you think the early traumatic experiences of the “Lost Boys” will affect their beliefs,

values, and priorities about family, responsibility, and life in the future?

Answer 1

Answer.

The Sudanese Civil War was one of the longest civil wars in history. It saw a large scale migration of. a number of Sudanese children who were sent away from their homeland by their parents in order to ensure their safety against massacres by the militia and rival forces. In the documentary, ‘ God Grew Tired of Us’, We witness young Christian boys from Sudan embarking on a journey to America in search of a safe refuge after years of wandering Sub-Saharan Africa. It presents and follows three young men as representative of their cohort of civil war refugees who repatriate to the U.S.- John Bul Dau goes to Syracuse, and in the end, becomes a spokesperson for the Lost Boys and Lost Girls of Sudan; Daniel Abol Pach and Panther Bior go to Pittsburgh. While All three of them work several jobs and show yearning for their family like any ordinary American youth of their age, their traumatic experience of moving in and out of refugee camps, the constant risk of being close to death, as well as economic hardships and prejudices in the host society make their cohort as unique and different from the ordinary American ofthe present. Even though both the groups represent the Millenial generation, their socio- historical, political and cultural background makes them very different in their social and emotional responses. While the American youth may earn money to spend on their lifestyle, the cohort of Sudanese refugee men earn to be able to survive in exile and to support people back in their homeland by sending money back to the camp, search for relatives lost in the civil war, acclimatize to the U.S., seek an education. Thus, while the contemporary mainstream American Male adult may be engaged more in trying to assert his independence from his filial family and establish a home of his own, the group of Sudanese refugees are seen to work towards merging their identity as adults with the homeland and seek a balance between their native culture and the mainstream host culture through acculturation.