Paths Cross

Majok Deng is a rising senior on the Pepperdine basketball team.

We had the privilege of meeting him around the time of our recent Prison Project when he traveled to Uganda with a group of Pepperdine undergrads for a summer study abroad program.

Majok was born in Sudan (just north of Uganda) and left his home country when he was 6. He and his family walked into Kenya and stayed in a refugee camp with others fleeing the unrest in Sudan. When he was 9, he and his mother and a couple of siblings were able to immigrate to the US. His father and other siblings stayed in Kenya.

From his home in Arizona, Majok found his was to Pepperdine and hadn’t been back to East Africa in 12 years. During this study trip to Uganda, Pepperdine arranged for his father to come from Kenya to see his son for the first time since their goodbyes in a far-away refuge camp. I’ve seen the video. It’s beautiful.

Later that same week, Majok and the other undergrad students joined our team at the Gulu Main Prison for a day. They sat in on case review and negotiations. Majok was asked by his team to return a file to our “Secretariat” desk. I asked him to describe his morning – “Overwhelming.”

We talked for a moment and he told me about his interaction with one inmate. The team had negotiated a plea bargain for the inmate and was completing the necessary paperwork. Part of the completed form required that the sentence be calculated minus the amount of time already served. As the remandee went to put his thumbprint on the form, Majok realized that the remaining sentence was not correct. The team fixed the numbers, the paperwork was completed and Majok turned to the inmate and said, “I’m sorry for making that mistake.” The inmate laughed. Majok couldn’t understand why and left the group to submit the paperwork to our table.

Majok was confused. This was serious business and this man had just agreed to serving more time in a Ugandan prison for a crime he had committed.

“You realize what you did?” Majok shook his head “No.”

I pointed out to Majok - You are wearing a suit. You are obviously educated. You are from the US. You share this man’s skin color…. and you apologized to him. This NEVER happens. People in power don’t say they are sorry to people who don’t have power. You respected this man. Majok, your words gave this man a bit of dignity today.

Majok smiled. He hadn’t considered the powerful effect of his simple apology.

Later, I realized that these two men shared a tribal language and were born within a few hours of each other. Their lives had taken such divergent paths. What a gift it was to see their paths cross in the courtyard of a Ugandan prison.