Jan L. Coates,
A Hare in the Elephant’s Trunk
Red Deer Press, 2010.

Rating: G*

In this novel, Jan Coates takes the real story of Jacob Deng and turns it into a fictional version of his experiences as one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. The novel covers the time frame of 1987 to 1994, during the Civil War between the Muslim and ethnically Arabic north and the Christian and Animist ethnically African south of Sudan, when over 2 million southern Sudanese were driven from their tribal homelands. Today, the referendum to begin the possible separation of these two areas is occurring, but political separation will be only one of the challenges yet to be faced by the Sudanese. The motif of the novel is expressed by the Dinka word "wadeng", meaning "look always to tomorrow; it will be better". This optimism and courage will certainly be required.

The novel begins in media res, with Jacob in a United Nations refugee camp in Kenya in 1992. We are then taken back to his village of Duk Padiet in 1987. Although the civil war has begun, his family is still together, and living in relative peace: "People are fighting all around us," his mother replied, her voice tinged with sadness. "We have been lucky war has not yet found Duk Padiet." (p. 9) Jacob and his family are able to visit relatives, the boys spend time with the men working at the cattle camp, and in the evening his grandmother shares the important oral tradition of storytelling.

But this pastoral world is shattered in Chapter Five, when their village is attacked by helicopter gunships and armed horsemen. As the men are away with the cattle, the village is defenseless. The women and children are prizes of war; most of those who manage to escape are young boys.

Jacob finds a small band of friends, who eventually join the stream of thousands of boys fleeing on foot through the grasslands and desert, without food, water, shelter or protective clothing, headed for what they hope will be safety across the border in Ethiopia. Through seventy-eight days, they eat grass, drink from mud flats, defend themselves from lions and crocodiles, help the injured and weak, and bury those who fall on the way. The camp which they reach has little to offer, but the boys organize themselves into work details and ration what little food and water is available. However in 1991 Ethiopia decides to forcibly deport the refugees, and the boys again walk, this time to Kenya.

Jacob never loses sight of his mother’s dream: that he will go to school, in order to create a better future for his people. In the camps, he attends "school", where, sitting under a tree and drawing with a stick in the dirt, he learns the English alphabet and how to count. With courage and initiative, he passes on his knowledge to other children in other villages, in return for trade goods. Eventually Jacob reaches Nairobi, and has attained enough money to attend school. But he must pass one more hurdle: although he is sure he is an orphan, the school insists that he must find a relative to act as a guardian. Miraculously, his uncle from the cattle camp, now a wounded ex-soldier, is living in the slums of Nairobi, and can vouch for Jacob. At age 13, seven years after losing his village and his family and facing desperate challenges during his exile, Jacob is now ready to fulfill his mother’s wishes: "With knowledge will come peace. With peace and knowledge together, Southern Sudan will be able to grow stronger. Wadeng, Jacob, Wadeng. Look always to tomorrow - it will be better, especially if young people like you go to school. You must always dream of a better tomorrow." (p. 9) In 2003, the real Jacob Deng was able to emigrate to Canada. Today he follows his mother’s dream through his foundation, Wadeng Wings of Hope, which fosters literacy by building schools in South Sudan.

By telling the story through the eyes of a young, Dinka boy, Coates simplifies the complex and difficult political and social issues, and makes the story of the Lost Boys accessible to young readers. Her reliance on the storytelling narrative style leads to simple but memorable images. In her interview, she states: "it’s my hope that children struggling with troubles of their own will read about young Jacob, admire his determination as he worked to overcome the tremendous adversity in his life, and be inspired, and perhaps empowered, to confront and overcome their own problems." (p. 281) She and Jacob share a wonderful dream.

Patricia Jermey
Vol. 16, number 3
February 2011

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.