Journeys Across the Invisible Bridge

This book provides an account of the journeys of Francis M. Deng's ideas, grounded in Dinka values, and extended to inter-communal, national, and global levels. Deng has developed his ideas through global United Nations mandates on the human rights of displaced people and the prevention of genocide. However, their origins can be traced down through his contribution to the vision of a "New Sudan," and deeper to more local roots, in his homeland of Abyei, where he tries to reconcile the paradox of his area as both a gulf and a bridge between the two Sudans. Ultimately, Deng is elaborating upon values that he learned from his father, in his court, where he observed the art of administration, and from his mother, in their home, where his moral order was grounded. Deng's bridging concept reflects his father's attempt to manage relations internally within a large extended family, at the heart of the Ngok Dinka, and across local borders, particularly with the Missiriya Arabs to the north. Deng carried forward that bridging legacy with the Government(s) of the two Sudans and finally, applied his ideas within a United Nations made up of divided nations. These differences, the seemingly incompatible interests they represent, and the need to bridge them, remain as challenging as ever, and Deng, the strategic optimist, believes such a bridge is still possible.