Content Warning: This section discusses violence, rape, loss, and suffering.

Benson is the fifth child from a big family, with five brothers and three sisters. He belongs to a tribe called the Dinka. His people were subsistence farmers in the Bahr al Ghazal region of southern Sudan. Benson’s father was an important member of their community and helped with making decisions within their society. Benson’s mother was his father’s third and most respected wife.

Benson and his family lived in small, thatched huts in their village. The children helped out with chores, with the girls taking care of things in the house while the boys grazed the goats, sheep, and cows. Life in the village followed the harvest seasons, with planting taking place in the spring and end of summer and harvests taking place in autumn. Nights were spent gathered around the fire with the elders telling stories, which is how Benson learned his people’s history.

Benson remembers his circumcision, which happened when he was a young boy. It was a painful and shocking experience, with the adults having to hold Benson down during the process. Now, when Benson has nightmares about all the things that happened to his village, he is overcome with the same feeling of helplessness he experienced then.