ABOUT

SERVING THE HOL COMMUNITY MEMBERS IN THE UNITED STATES AND SOUTH SUDAN

Hol Community Development Association (HCDA) is a not-for-profit community membership based organization. HCDA was initiated by the community members here in the United States to serve and guard their connections and enhance their oneness toward activities, such as traditional dance, festivals, and more importantly to work on community challenges to better serve the greater Hol communities in all corners of the globe. As the needs for members increases, so do the connections and caring for one another here in the states and in Africa.

OUR HISTORY

OUR ROOTS

DEMOGRAPHY AND GEOGRAPHY

The Dinka is the largest single national group in South Sudan. Numbering about 2.5 to 3 million and constituting of more than 25 aggregates of different Dinka sections. Dinka are found in Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile and Southern Kordofan regions of South Sudan. Each Dinka section has a separate political entity with established rights to a well-defined territory. The Hol people lives in the Duk Padiet area of Jonglei State. They are divided into four major sections: Angaach, Duoor, Nyieel, and Pathel.

Our cultural dance

02 HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

The Dinka's religions, beliefs and lifestyle have led to conflict with the Arab Muslim colonial government in Khartoum. The Sudan People's Liberation Army, led by late Dr. John Garang De Mabior, a Dinka, took arms against the government in 1983. During the subsequent 21-year civil war, many thousands of Dinka, along with fellow non-Dinka southerners, were massacred by government forces. Sizable groups of Dinka refugees may be found in distant lands, including Jacksonville, Florida and Clarkston, a working-class suburb of Atlanta, Georgia and in the Midwest such as Omaha, NE; Des Moines, IA; Sioux Falls, SD; Chicago, IL; Grand Rapids, MI and Kansa,s MO, as well as Edmonton, Canada and Australia.

03 THE LOST BOYS OF SUDAN

In 1987, civil war drove an estimated 20,000 young boys from their families and villages in south Sudan. Most just six or seven years old, they fled to Ethiopia to escape death or induction into slavery and the northern army. They walked more than a thousand miles, half of them dying before reaching a Kenyan refugee camp. The survivors of this tragic exodus became known as the Lost Boys of Sudan. In 2001, close to four thousand Lost Boys came to the United States seeking peace, freedom, and education. The members of the Hol Tribe have banded together to work to support the Hol Community in South Sudan as well as here in the US.

Photo: UNHCR

Lost Boys of Sudan trekking across the desert bare feet between East African countries of Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya in late 1980's and early 1990's.