Beneath the Darkening Sky

About the Author

Majok Tulba fled war-torn South Sudan as a sixteen-year-old, and now lives in Sydney with his wife and children. He was awarded a NSW Premier’s CAL Literary Centre
Fellowship, and is the founder and CEO of the charity Mother and Child Development Agency.

When Majok Tulba was nine years old, rebel soldiers attacked his village, taking all children taller than an AK47 to fight in their ragtag army. Majok was an inch too short.
This is the story of what might have happened had he been an inch taller. Drawing on his own and his friends’ experiences, he has conjured a psychologically compelling portrait of how a human
being copes when confronted by inhumanity.

Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize, the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and winner of the Sydney Morning Herald Young Novelists’ Award,
Beneath the
Darkening Sky
is Majok Tulba’s first novel, and announces the arrival of an important new African voice.

‘Majok Tulba recreates his country’s recent past with a visceral energy and a finely tuned fidelity to truth and beauty.’

Delia Jarrett-Macauley
, author of
Moses, Citizen & Me

‘A brilliant novel that will not be easily forgotten.’

The Weekend Australia

A Oneworld Book

First published in Great Britain and the Commonwealth by
Oneworld Publications 2013

First published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2012

Copyright © Majok Tulba 2012

The moral right of Majok Tulba to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved
Copyright under Berne Convention
A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-78074-241-0
Ebook ISBN 978-1-78074-242-7

Printed and bound by Page Bros Ltd, UK

Oneworld Publications
10 Bloomsbury Street
London WC1B 3SR
UK

For the children who died in battle, the villages that were burned, the rights that were lost, the lives not lived, and the voiceless everywhere
.

Part One

Rebels

Taken

Pina

Sick

Blessed

The Football Field

Minefield

Part Two

Paradise

Our Brothers Need Us

Celebration to Ruin

Cell

Part Three

First Kill

Return to Paradise

The Raid

The American Girl

Jungle

Priest

I Am Not a Soldier

Acknowledgements

My papyrus mat creaks as I roll in my sleep.

Mama says when you dream of running in circles, it’s because you’re sleeping with your legs folded up. I dream I’m falling into a dark bottomless pit, red eyes in the black
following me. Then the night is dark water and I’m swimming for the surface. The neighbour’s dogs bark and my stomach moans and gargles in the night. I force myself awake.

My skin tingles all over, like I’m still falling or swimming. I listen to the night outside and hear only crickets, no birds or cockcrows yet. It’s still not safe to go out. Maybe
I’ll hold it until morning. I lie back down, stare and blink into the dark hut.

Last night, my big brother Akot asked me to go out with him. It was midnight and hyenas were crying in the bushes. So I said no. Akot is thirteen years old, two years older than me, but
he’s still in Primary 4. I’m in Primary 5, and in a few months I’ll be in Primary 6. I get bullied by the bigger boys because I’m the youngest in my class. Whenever they
pick on me I tell the teachers. Then the big boys get punished.

The teacher says, ‘Bend over. You’re getting five lashes. If you touch your backside before I get to five, I start again.’

When I tell Akot he is ashamed. ‘You’re such a baby, Obinna! You’re a coward. You’re not even a real man. If you were a man, you’d fight back. But no, you just go
running to a teacher, crying like a baby. Or a little girl.’

He hates me because everybody says I’m the clever one and Akot’s the stupid one. So the big boys tease him too. But Akot doesn’t tell the teachers, he tries to be a man and
fight them.

He got into a fight last week.

Afterwards he told me, ‘I’m running away from here.’ His nose was bleeding. ‘I’m going to go join up with the rebels.’

I laughed at him. Soldiers have to know about guns, but he can’t even write. How was he going to learn about guns? He growled at me and hit my shoulder.

‘You’re just a baby,’ he said, wiping blood off his lip.

That’s why I didn’t go out with him last night. If he’s a man he should be brave enough to go out in the dark by himself. Akot says that when he comes back he’ll be a
soldier, and he’s going to show me his gun. He says he’ll be a sergeant then.

I want to be a doctor and wear one of those things around my neck. You know that thing real doctors always wear? They put it on your chest and listen. Last time I was sick, Mama took me to the
clinic. There was another sick kid there and I saw the doctor put the thing on his chest and listen. When it was my turn he didn’t use it, so I asked him, ‘Doctor, why aren’t you
using that on me?’

‘What?’

‘That thing.’ I pointed. ‘You used it on the other boy, but not on me.’

‘Oh, you mean my stethoscope? I used it on the other boy because he has tuberculosis in his chest, while you only have headache. A headache I give you some tablets for. Does that make
sense?’

‘A little bit.’

‘Do you want to see it?’

‘Yes, please!’

Mama got angry. ‘Obinna, don’t bother the good doctor. He’s a very busy man. I’m very sorry, sir. He’s always asking questions.’

‘That’s all right,’ the doctor said. ‘Obinna, do you want to listen to my chest?’

‘Can I? When I grow up, I want to be a doctor.’

‘Good. You’ll have to study really hard in school, then you have to go to university to study medicine. And always listen to your teachers.’

‘But sometimes my teachers are wrong. And they don’t like it when you tell them.’

He smiled. ‘Adults can be like that. It’s a weakness.’

‘This one time, my maths teacher got an answer wrong, and when I tried to tell him it was wrong he pulled on my ears.’

Mama said it was time to go.

‘Thank you, Doctor.’ She grabbed my hand. ‘Come on, Obinna, the doctor’s very busy. Thank you again, Doctor. You’ve been very patient.’

‘Quite all right, ma’am. Obinna, come and see me again sometime and we can sit and talk, yes?’

We haven’t gone back, yet. Every time I ask Mama to take me she laughs, and says the doctor is too busy to see naughty little boys.

My stomach aches. Maybe it was the mangoes. Mama always says not to eat green mangoes, but we were bringing the goats home and they looked really good and I was very hungry.
Oh, my stomach hurts!

‘Akot,’ I whisper. ‘Akot. Akot, come outside with me. I really need to use the toilet.’

‘Leave me alone.’ He’s still mostly asleep. ‘You didn’t go out with me last night.’

‘Okay, I’ll just have to go right here.’

‘Go ahead.’ That woke him up. ‘I’ll tell everyone at school about it and Mama will make you rub cow dung on the floor. Do it right there, I dare you.’

I knew he’d say something like that. And he means it, too. Mama and Papa sleep in another hut near the goats, so the wild animals don’t come and eat the goats in the night, but Akot
would make sure they knew. So I get up, feeling like my backside’s going to explode. I open the door, careful of splinters, and then run as fast as I can across the dirt. The paths of the
village are like rock, packed down by generations of feet. As soon as I squat, it all flows out in one big go. The morning is crisp, the air stings my nostrils and chills my throat as I gulp it
in.

The dogs are still barking. It’s not them yelling just at each other. Mama says that bark is for when someone is around who they don’t like.

The toilet house is a fair way from our hut. So I open the door just a little and peek out.

I see men with guns in the village.

Fear grips my hands and limbs. My mind goes blank. I have no idea what to do. What should I do? Who are these men?

I try to calm my breathing. No one in our village has a gun. I keep watching from my hiding place.

Three men are quite close. One is just wearing shorts and a T-shirt, but the other two are in camouflage pants and black shirts.

They’re running towards the hut I share with Akot.

They yell, ‘Everybody out!’ I can hear doors being kicked and things crashing and breaking. Villagers scream and shout.

Akot is alone in the hut.

I don’t hear Papa’s voice. I tell myself, It’s okay, it’s okay, Papa is a man. He’ll be all right. We’ll all be all right. But my heart can’t stop
thumping. My body shivers.

God, don’t let anyone hurt my brother. I love him. He’s mean sometimes, but I forgive him.

Are these the rebels I’ve heard about? Or the army? I haven’t seen rebels before and I don’t know how to tell them apart.

I can’t just hide in the toilet. I think of running into the bush but soldiers are everywhere. There’s no way I can run without them seeing me but I can’t stay where I am. I
creep out, extra quiet, and head for the mango tree. My knees are shaking so much, like I’m going to fall over. When I get to the tree, I hide behind it and hold my breath. I need to stop
shaking.