Cosgrove Seminars:
African Soul, American Heart: The Presentation
Friday, March 14th, 3:00-4:30 PM CDT
Minard 136, North Dakota State University, Fargo
Who: Dr. Kevin Brooks and Joseph Akol Makeer
When: Friday, 3-4:30, March 14th
Where: Minard 136
This last December, Joseph Akol Makeer, a Sudanese Lost Boy and Fargo émigré, returned to his native village of Duk Payuel for the first time in twenty years. He is working to repair that community, devastated by 22 years of civil war and now struggling, like much of South Sudan, to rebuild its basic human resources and traditional culture.
Accompanied by Kevin Brooks, Makeer documented his African trip, which included investigations into the welfare of Duk Payuel's orphans and plans for a desperately needed orphanage.
This multi-media talk will include a short history of Sudan and its civil war, a brief account of Joseph's life as a refugee in Ethiopia then Kenya, stories about adapting to life in the US, and an overview of the orphanage he plans to build.
Makeer is one of the growing ranks of Sudanese refugees in Fargo, having arrived and settled here with his family in 2003. Fargo couldn't be more different from his home terrain, where he lived in grass shelters, experienced the genocidal aggression of northern Muslims, and became, at age 10, one of the 20-30,000 young boys who walked out of the Sudan to Ethiopia.
For more information on the project, visit africansoulamericanheart.org.
For more information about the English Dept. Seminars, contact Cindy Nichols.