James Garang Lual passed away in the early hours of August 18, 2011 near Grand Island, Nebraska.
Mr. Lual was born in 1981 to parents Lual Akot and Abak Kuol, in a village near the town of Aweil, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, South Sudan, the area of the Malual section of the Dinka tribe, a cattle herding pastoral people of the now autonomous Republic of South Sudan.
James Garang Lual was a child of civil war, having grown up during the height of the conflict between the northern, Islamic-based government of Sudan and the mainly Christian and animist southern population seeking justice and freedom from decades of subjugation.  His home was a key target in the violence and he was forced to flee at a young age.  The insecurity and devastation eventually led him to Kenya's Kakuma Refugee Camp where he spent more than 10 years until 2001 when he was selected for resettlement to the United States along with some 3,500 Lost Boys and other Sudanese refugees.  He arrived in 2001 to San Diego, CA.  In 2009, Mr. Lual moved to Grand Island, Nebraska where he found employment at JBS Swift Beef Company.  "Garang" was a kind individual with an amiable character.  He especially enjoyed music, dancing and singing, and spending time with his friends, many of whom he had known in Sudan and lived with while a refugee in camps before his resettlement.
A funeral mass will be held for Mr. Lual on Saturday, August 27, 2011, at 11:00 am at Blessed Sacrament Church in Grand Island.  Burial will take place at the Grand Island Cemetery.  A communal memorial will follow at the Jubilee Center, Blessed Sacrament Church.