Storeman aims to lead newest nation – all he needs is an election
In a hardware superstore in Virginia, Bol Gai Deng is known as a popular member of the night shift, who works tirelessly to unload tools and equipment from the supply lorries.
He is also known to have ambitions that stretch beyond the gardening and home-furnishings departments of the Richmond branch of Lowe’s chain.
Deng is running for the presidency of South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation.
‘‘Unity is our aim, Victory is our destiny in South Sudan,’’ he declares on his campaign website, which promises that he will build ‘‘a broad coalition of individuals interested in the democratic rule of law and the progressive advancement of citizens’ rights’’.
Deng identifies himself as ‘‘a proud American citizen’’ and a survivor of genocide, who grew up in a Dinka village – an ethnic group that inhabits what became South Sudan. In 1987, when he was about 7, the village was attacked by raiders on horseback from the Muslim north. The children were rounded up and Deng, who does not know his age but is in his late thirties, said he was ‘‘sold’’ to a landowner in Darfur, who initially kept him in chains.
In 1990, he was able to escape to a refugee camp in Khartoum, and then to Egypt, in 1998.
Offered asylum through the United Nations, he was brought to Richmond the following year by a church group. Last September, with the aid of a local television anchor and a Republican activist, he launched a campaign for his homeland’s presidency, politicking by day and unloading lorries by night.
There are, however, obstacles in Deng’s path to power, namely that South Sudan is racked by civil war and is unlikely to hold an election any time soon. Salva Kiir, the incumbent president, shows little appetite for giving up his role.