The Boy Who Never Gave Up

When this book landed on my desk in 2021, I held my breath for a moment. In the same week, exactly a year ago, I stood at my mother's deathbed and breathlessly watched as a man stood silently in front of us in a bluish glow. His face was full of love and compassion. The name, Dr. Emmanuel Taban, then only meant to me that he was my mother's pulmonologist. He spoke little, but he wanted to see how his patient was doing, even though he had already prepared us that she had to be kept comfortable until she embarked on her final journey.

Dr. Emmanuel Taban had a long, hard life journey before he appeared in my life in this gentle way, before he became known for his book, “The boy who never gave up”. As a young boy, he quenched his hunger with termites and grasshoppers in extreme poverty, but in the rural area near Djoeba in South Sudan, he was free and happy. Later, when his mother had to move to the village as a divorced woman, he encountered judgment, abuse, and rejection. His hunger was now for knowledge and skills. Unfortunately, his creativity and initiative sometimes marked him unfairly as a troublemaker.

He decided to run away in search of an education and a better life. He embarked on the journey with a loaf of bread and a bottle of water, and only in Eritrea did he realize that he had walked more than 250 km in the wrong direction. That alone would have made most people give up, but his faith kept him going, as if God had set up a platform for him to walk fearlessly on, where the dangers had already been removed. Yet he was subjected to interrogations, imprisonment, hunger, and was often the victim of robbery and theft, and gradually realized that he was only relying on himself. However, he never lost his faith in his own abilities, as well as the kindness of people. He received a lot of help and support from mission stations along the way.

His journey south brought him to Johannesburg after 18 months without extra clothes, possessions, or money. “Dignity was a luxury I could not afford.” Ironically, it is his dignity that now stands out.

“I might not have known what my ultimate destination would be, but I did know I was on a journey - and that I would never give up hope of reaching a good destination. That thought kept me going, and I could manage without food and without showering most days.”

The pure determination and blind perseverance in spite of numerous challenges along the way, with only his background as motivation to escape and rise above it, is absolutely remarkable. At the Comboni Missionaries in Johannesburg, he finally had the opportunity to continue his schooling and study until he could qualify as a medical doctor and later specialize in pulmonology.

“I could keep going because I had nothing left to lose, but everything to gain.”

The determination with which he kept trying, kept working, kept studying, is offered without emotion. Co-author Andrew Crofts ensures that his own writer's voice remains in the background and allows Dr. Taban's personality to shine through a factual account of events. There were places where it felt like a repetition of small things, but a skilled writer like Crofts probably did it deliberately to note the facts and form the importance of certain things in the experienced and highly regarded pulmonologist that Dr. Taban is today.

The problems with the cycle of poverty and the social, economic, and political challenges in Africa are integrated into his life story in a way that reflects his deep insight into it, without judgment. He himself never falls into a victim mentality, on the contrary.

“In Africa we are born into hardship; we never learn from it, but rather blame others for our suffering. By doing so we accept the status of permanent victims, with no control over our destiny. We remain forever dependent, despite living on a rich continent.”

He approached his life journey with consciousness, even as a young child. This book tells of a practical implementation of the spiritual vision of awareness of your life path and the challenges within it. Writers like Johannes de Villiers with his book “Blydskap,” in which he encourages people to live consciously, describe the theory, but Dr. Taban lives it. He is always aware of the dangers on his life path and his journey to South Africa, his challenges, and setbacks. He believes wholeheartedly that he was not born in South Sudan without a reason and knows that he can make a difference there. He has insight into the traditions and family's behavior. He walks his path without hesitation, he does what he must.

He describes his life principles as “passion, determination, and consistency.” This book is a testament to a man who, through horrific circumstances and events, has remained steadfast in his beliefs, continues to passionately pursue his life's work as a pulmonologist with determination and consistency, and can leave a visitor next to a patient's bed breathless.