This guy's name is Ring Paulino Deng. Born in Sudan, he found himself in the midst of the religious civil war there. He was kidnapped by military forces, and then was sold into slavery.
He was a slave for four years before his father sold everything he owned to buy the freedom of Deng and his sister. They escaped to Egypt, where they applied to immigrate to the US. Although they were unsuccessful, Deng's Aunt included him in her application, and she succeeded.
Deng moved to Nashville and attended high school for a while, hoping to get a college basketball scholarship. But eventually he dropped out to work at Walmart full-time. He would send most of his money back to his family in Egypt.
One day he drove into his apartment complex and blocked in three other cars. A dispute erupted. Deng was stabbed in the chest and died.
It would be easy to sum it up by saying that the whole story is high irony, and that it proves the US is not the apparent land of promise and security. But 2 million Sudanese have died from war or famine, and it's not clear what role Deng himself played in starting the scuffle that ended in his death.
06-17-2001, 10:54 AM
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