Welcome to the UFM Lou Douglas Lecture Series
About Simon Deng:
Simon Deng, who is working to put an end to genocide in the Sudan, will present "21st Century Slavery: Living Proof,” a lecture event, sponsored by K-State’s Lou Douglas Lecture Series on Public Issues at 7 p.m. Tuesday, October 13, in the K-State Student Union's Forum Hall.
Deng was forced into slavery at the very young age of nine-years-old. After his village of Tonga in southern Sudan was raided by the Sudanese army, he took refuge in Malkal, Sudan with family and other village members. After volunteering himself in assistance of an Arab man and his belongings to a nearby ship, Deng found himself being abducted by the man and given to a relative of the kidknapper.
Deng became a slave in the North, being ordered to do things such as watch his maters cattle and clean their dishes. The living conditions he was awarded for his hard work included eating only scraps, sleeping on straw, and enduring regular beatings.
Deng was referred to as “abeed,” or black slave, by his owners. When they insisted he convert to Islam in order to become accepted as their son, Deng refused their offer and mastered an escape.
Following his getaway, Deng proceeded to work as a messenger in the Sudanese Parliament and later became a national swimming champion. In 2006 he had the chance to speak before the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland. Deng launched the Sudan Freedom Walk in 2006, trekking 300 miles from United Nations headquarters in New York City to the Capitol in Washington, D.C. This walk was a call to end slavery and genocide in Sudan. Later in 2006, Deng embarked on a fact-finding and humanitarian aid mission in southern Sudan and Darfur. This mission led him to meet with the top officials in Sudan.
He is now an American citizen, and currently resides on Coney Island, working as a lifeguard and leading the struggle to stop genocide in Sudan. He pursues this hope actively across the nation.
http://www.speakingmatters.org/simon_deng.html