Yuot A. Alaak

Rafeif Ismail

Tinashe Jakwa

Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes

Ways of Being Here features four stories by emerging writers Rafeif Ismail, Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes, Tinashe Jakwa and Yuot Alaak, winners of last year's 'Ways of Being Here' flash fiction competition, which was open to any writer of African heritage residing in Western Australia who had less than four published stories and/or articles. The stories featured are urgent, innovative, and inimitable, distinct voices that are easy to read, but hard to forget once you've entered their worlds, words, and thoughts.

Ways of Being Here

During the Second Sudanese Civil war, thousands of South Sudanese boys were displaced from their villages or orphaned in attacks from northern government troops. Many became refugees in Ethiopia. There, in 1989, teacher and community leader Mecak Ajang Alaak assumed care of the Lost Boys in a bid to protect them from becoming child soldiers. So began a four year journey from Ethiopia to Sudan and on to the safety of a Kenyan refugee camp. Together they endured starvation, animal attacks, and the horrors of land mines and aerial bombardments. This eyewitness account by Mecak Ajang Alaak's son, Yuot, is the extraordinary true story of a man who never ceased to believe that the pen is mightier than the gun.

Yuot A. Alaak

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