I Was Just a Quiet Little Boy: The Story of a Dinka

James Ayuen Buol was born in Aboudit village in southern Sudan, now the Republic of South Sudan. From the time James was born until he was 13 years old, he lived with his family in the one room of a grass thatch house in southern Sudan. James' parents were peasant farmers until their home village was attacked and destroyed by bombs dropped by the northern Sudanese Arab troops.

Before James was driven out by civil war, he helped his parents during the farming seasons by looking after goats and calves in the village and a nearby local cattle camp.

James' father got killed by lightning in 1988, and the family was left without a father who can help with duties. James' father used to help them with the man duties.

During the difficult time due to the 1992 famine, conditions for the family grew desperate in Makuach village and the family and many others walked to Mading Bor, hoping to find some food there. The Arab troops that controlled Mading Bor put them and other civilians who had come in a large area in Leudier, surrounded by wire fencing. There were many thousands of them in the Leudier Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp. They were allowed to go out at mid-morning. Leudier was on the outskirts of Mading Bor and was controlled by the northern Sudan government, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Every morning they saw soldiers transporting dead bodies and throwing them into the Nile - there were so many bodies every day.

During our time in Mading Bor in Leudier IDP camp, during this terrible time of confinement and starvation, everyone grew weak and could hardly stand. They could go to the Nile for water that was badly contaminated from dead bodies. They could walk nearby to look for some leaves to eat, and sometimes they found some bark and leaves. But they had no real food. It was a time of widespread famine.

As war was going on in southern Sudan, the SPLM/SPLA southern Sudanese rebel army tried to fight the Sudanese army forces from northern Sudan.

James' mother died and his brothers had to go to his aunt's house in the same Makuach area and James was taken to Kolnyang village to live with his uncle's widow and her two children, not knowing what had happened to his older brother, Malueth.

This book is about James' life in southern Sudan, now the Republic of South Sudan, the difficult time due to the civil war, the resulting famine, being driven out of his home village by the war, surviving in refugee camps in several countries in Africa, and eventually coming to the USA in North America.