Manute Deng has a broad laugh. Laughter, he says, he learned in his time in the United States. In the meantime, Deng, who in reality is different, lives again in South Sudan, the youngest country in the world since 2011. The War of Independence, which broke out in 1983, put Deng’s childhood an abrupt end. He was one of thousands of boys who cattle lively during armed clashes between the rebels of the independence movement and the Sudanese army and then could not return to their destroyed villages. At that time, the boys made their way to the national border. On the way they were taken up by humanitarian helpers: inside, which they named after the “Lost Boys”, the lost boys from Peter Pan. “This story really represents how it was for us at the time,” Deng recalls. For reasons of security, Deng does not want his real name to be published.
