A long ago walk through the Sudd, the swampy headwaters of the Nile reminded me how essential story telling is to all of us and our lives.
Fireflies drifted luminous and green through the lacy shadows of the acacia trees. A ring of thin cloud surrounded the moon, the night sky inside it was as clear and black as a deep well.
‘It will not rain tonight,’ said Nun, our Dinka translator. ‘Not when there is a ring around the moon.’ We were deep in the Sahel region of southern Sudan. We had come to film the civil war raging there between the government in the North and the Dinka and Nuer people in the South. In the fighting, Dinka women and children were often captured by government militias. Many of them were forced to work for their captors. That day more than 300 women and children had been brought back from the north. Western aid groups paid their captors for their release. These cash redemptions were a controversial program, but in the village that night, there was only joy…
hamilton wende
Hamilton Wende is an author, journalist and TV producer. He has worked all over the world, covering historical events and some 17 different wars and conflicts. He is based in Johannesburg and travels from there. He has worked for a number of international networks including BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera. He has also reported on events in South Africa for the last three decades. He has published many articles in newspapers, magazines and websites around the world. He is the author of 9 books. House of War, Only the Dead and The King’s Shilling are thrillers based on his travels around the world as a journalist. His latest book Red Air is based on his experiences filming with the US Marines in Afghanistan. He has a master’s degree in Creative Writing from Wits University.
He is also the author of the popular children’s books: Arabella, the Moon and the Magic Mongongo Nut and Arabella the Secret King and the Amulet from Timbuktu which are set in Johannesburg and Knysna. He is working on the third volume in the series.
