John Dau

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John Bul Dau is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, whose emigration to the United States was filmed in the 2006 documentary God Grew Tired of Us.

[edit] Background

Dau belonged to the Dinka tribe of southern Sudan. Dau was raised in the village of Duk Payuel in Duk County, Jonglei. In 1987, when Dau was a young teenager, his village was raided during the Second Sudanese Civil War. Dau became separated from his parents and would spend the next 14 years living in refugee camps, first at the Pinyudu refugee camp in western Ethiopia, and later at the Kakuma refugee camp in Northern Kenya, where he lived for 10 years.^[1]

In 2001, Dau was one of about 3,800 Sudanese who were resettled in the United States. As the subject of God Grew Tired of Us, his arrival in the United States, and adaptation to American culture is chronicled. Dau was relocated to Syracuse, New York. The title of the film, God Grew Tired of Us, is a quote from Dau discussing the despair he and other Sudanese felt during the civil war.^[2]

At the end of the film, Dau was reunited with his mother after nearly two decades. Dau has begun a fundraising effort to build a hospital in his hometown called the "Duk Lost Boys Clinic."

"God Grew Tired of Us: A Memoir" by John Dau and Michael Sweeney, was published by National Geographic Books in January, 2007.