No Simple Way Home

The daughter of Rebecca and John Garang returns to South Sudan to document her mother’s attempts to forge peace on the political stage.

John Garang de Mabior helped broker a peace deal in Sudan that ended the longest civil war in African history. His face adorns the country’s banknotes. He died before the birth of South Sudan, and now his widow has returned with the hope of becoming Vice President. Akuol de Mabior records Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior – known as ‘the mother of South Sudan’ – as she travels the country on her campaign. Her enquiring, familial lens asks what it means to prioritise your country above all else, and how to identify if your own upbringing was in exile.