When 15,000 boys and young men crossed the borders between war-torn Sudan and a desolate corner of Kenya in 1992, it soon became an important milestone for the youngsters themselves and for the international community's attention to a long-forgotten war.

"What an extraordinary story Deng has to tell! It is not just about South Sudan; it is a universal story about survival and determination - how a child can face the most difficult of situations and find a way through them. It is a privilege to introduce you to Deng Atem and his moving memoir, Jumping Over the Ram." (Anderson Cooper, CNN Anchor)

“When people have called us 'Lost Boys' many of us have been angered by the term. We knew that we had not been lost. We knew who we were and from where we had come. What had been lost, however, was that connection with our identities”. This book is part of that reconstruction that I feel privileged to have followed. I trust other readers will have a similar experience." (Jesper Strudsholm)

"The author of these memoirs, Deng Atem, is one of the highly resilient young South Sudanese who has endured every hardship of South Sudan’s final war of liberation under the Sudan liberation army (SPLA). Like much of his generation, he survived all the ordeals of the last South Sudan war of independence.

Since this manuscript is his account of his life and soldier as a child of South Sudan’s long war of liberation, as one of his elders in the community we both come from Twic Mayardit community of Warrap state of the Republic of South Sudan, it gives me privileges and honor to attest with these few orders, to the accuracy of what’s contained in this manuscript." (Bona Malwal Madut Ring, Twic Mayardit Elder)