ASU student survives childhood slavery, earns degree

TEMPE, Ariz. — According to Arizona State University student William Mawwin, he was not expecting a beautiful thing to happen in his life.

Mawwin is not speaking as just another dramatic college student. He survived childhood slavery in Sudan.

At age 6, he was captured and beaten and forced into labor. Mawwin lived in fear everyday: Fear of death, fear of dismemberment, fear of others.

Mawwin managed to flee to the United States, where he earned an associate’s degree. He now strives for a bachelor’s degree at Arizona State University, where professor of English Melissa Pritchard took him under her wing.

Pritchard held a fundraiser at her home for the Lost Boys of Sudan in September 2005, where Mawwin was one of the Sudanese guests.

Together, Pritchard helped Mawwin turned his pain and struggle into a film for The Wilson Quarterly, in the hopes of helping others.