Chasing the Rain: An Africans Quest for God by Jon Arensen and Richard Lyth

Brief Summary

Richard Lyth: Oxford graduate, missionary, commando, Frontier Agent, linguist, District Commissioner, Anglican bishop. Lyth lived an epic life much of it spent in the remote southeastern Sudan. During World War 2 he served as Frontier Agent on the Boma Plateau, part of the traditional homeland of the Murle people. There he met a young Murle man named Lado, the subject of this book. The two men became lifelong friends. Over time Lado told Lyth the story of his difficult and extraordinary life. Lyth lived for many years among the Murle people, studying their culture and language. He penned an early edition of this book in 1945, drawing upon his knowledge of the setting and customs of the intriguing Murle culture and integrating them with Lado s personal story. This book follows the life of a man named Lado.

He was born in Sudan approximately 1920. He grew up living the traditional life of his Murle people- herding the goats, planting sorghum and hunting antelope with a spear. But Lado was different. Even as a young boy he wondered about the world around him. As he grew older he was increasingly confused by the different manifestations of the tribal god named Tammu. As a teenager he was captured in a raid and taken away as a slave.

He was later adopted into the tribe that enslaved him. Under these conditions his questions about suffering and God became more intense. He was rescued by British troops and learned Arabic under the protection of the District Commissioner. Eventually he returned to his home at Boma as the official translator for the military. It was here that Lado met Kemerbong (Richard Lyth). A meeting that changed the rest of his life.