When hundreds of Achut Deng's colleagues at a South Dakota meatpacking plant were sickened by COVID-19, Deng spoke out to tell of the fear gripping the Sioux Falls workforce
Now, Deng is telling her whole story — from fleeing massacres to the trauma she experienced as a refugee in the United States — through a memoir that she hopes will bring awareness of both the hardships, as well as the healing, for refugees.
For decades, she followed that advice to survive. The book details her grandmother's sacrifice to literally shield Deng from bullets during a 1991 massacre, to a refugee journey where a deadly river, a snake bite and malaria all nearly killed her. And even after arriving in the U.S., Deng writes, she suffered sexual abuse from a male guardian as well as accompanying suicidal thoughts.
For years, she quietly kept her story buried beneath her work at the plant, a side hustle of catering sambusa and caring for her three sons. The hard work allowed Deng to achieve the life she dreamed of when she came to the U.S. as a teenager. She saved for a down payment on a home, paid for family vacations and even sponsored her parents' immigration to America.
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