A Long Walk to Water

When Akeer’s family is told that they must boil the drinking water, they feel distress. In the dry season, their yield of water each day is so little that boiling may leave them with no water at all. In addition, Nya knows that it will be impossible for her sister to always drink boiled water because, now that Akeer has reached a certain age, fetching water is her responsibility as well. After a long walk, and with the long return walk ahead, thirst must be quenched. Nya’s life keeps getting harder, but she continues to meet the challenge one step at a time, evidence of the theme of Perseverance as a Long Walk.

When Salva’s group encounters the dying men in the desert, one of the women performs an act of mercy by wetting the victims’ lips with some of her water, even as she realizes that giving up even this tiny quantity of her water puts her life at risk. She seems to realize that they are all dependent on one another and that such kindness returned one day will save their lives. Her behavior is one of many acts of mercy in the book. This action—performed without regard for the men’s tribal identity—illustrates the changing relationship between Identity and Displacement. In the harsh conditions of the desert, new bonds are being formed—ones that have less to do with tribal identity and more to do with mutual suffering and mutual aid.

On the island in the Nile, Salva and the group are amazed at the bountiful spread they find the inhabitants feasting on, but without money, they are forced to beg for food. Among these well-fed people, settled people, boundaries of local identity remain in force, and the wanderers are strangers to them. Jewiir’s gun marks him as a soldier, and this identity alone makes him worthy of food in the eyes of the island’s inhabitants.

After leaving this bountiful island, the group must face the Akobo desert, the harshest landscape they have yet encountered. When Salva stubs his toe in the desert—tearing off the nail and making every subsequent step excruciating—he learns the most important lesson of the book. His Uncle jolts him out of his pain temporarily and back to reality. By telling him that he only needs to walk as far as a nearby clump of bushes, he gives Salva the strength to keep walking. Salva gets through the whole walk across the desert in this way—one small distance followed by another. This lesson is central to the theme of Perseverance as a Long Walk: Even the most dreadful, painful endeavors can be successful if one takes it one step at a time.