Although Deo Kato hadn’t intended to run through South Sudan, entering Ethiopia would have required him to forfeit the whole amount of his trip’s expenditures. He thus concluded that he would have to take a chance in order to complete his objective of running the 14,570 kilometers from Cape Town to London after coming to a dead end at the Kenyan-Ethiopian border.
On July 24, 2023, the 37-year-old activist, personal trainer, runner, and native of Uganda began his trek to the Freedom Monument in Cape Town, which honors the anti-apartheid movement. Why? In a video chat with OkayAfrica from Aswan, Egypt, where he is recuperating after a difficult experience in South Sudan, he said, “To tell the history of migration from Africa to the world.”
The original plan was for him to go to Congo from Uganda, where he made a detour to see his family, but he was forced to remain in East Africa due to a civil conflict. There, Sudan and Ethiopia are at war as well; while the borders aren’t completely closed, it’s currently too risky to get across.
Rather, in cooperation with the Refugee Run Club and other organizations, Kato and his partner Alice Light started the “Run for Sudan” initiative, in which runners from Sudan who were forced to escape to the United Kingdom would run the same distance that Kato would have in Sudan. “Our goal is to spread our message to as many diverse audiences as we can,” adds Kato. “There is a deafening silence surrounding the war in Sudan, particularly in Western media.”
During his detour via South Sudan, Kato encountered hospitable and friendly people who supported his enterprise and its message. The area surrounding South Sudan proved to be a fitting example for his argument that humans have always and will always migrate, albeit for different reasons now than they did in prehistoric times. This was part of his quest to tell the story of human migration as a counter-narrative to slavery, colonialism, and African migrants “invading” Europe.
“The relationship between South Sudan and Uganda is good,” he says. “There are not many restrictions on how people may relocate. Because South Sudan is a developing nation, Ugandans go there in search of opportunity. In response, South Sudanese migrate to Uganda in order to raise their level of life due to the latter’s developed status. There is a lot of mobility, but due of the tensions in the region, there are also a lot of limitations.
Kato was warned many times before he set out on his journey that Africa was not a safe location for such an endeavor. He claims that these worries are inflated and out of control. “Countries in Africa are just as safe as any other in the globe. Every nation has its own unique issues. Although it is true that there are dangerous regions, he advises only heeding the advice of the locals about which locations to avoid. “Most people are incredibly friendly; they extend a warm welcome to you, invite you into their homes, offer you tea, and go above and beyond to make you feel at home.”
Depending on the nation, safety might entail various things. For example, in Botswana, Kato was told that the northern region of the country is home to fully untamed species, and he would unintentionally need to travel into Zimbabwe. In the nations farther north, the threat posed by animals is swapped out for that posed by a system that allows authorities to misuse their authority at will. In the northern regions of Southern Africa, where border crossings are easy, military checks are common.
As Kato left Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on day 315 of his trek, he had plans to run 60 kilometers (37 miles) that day. He claims, “I was in the zone and had developed all this strength in my legs to run between 60 and 70 km (37 and 43 miles) every day.” They approached a checkpoint, Kato on foot and his Ugandan driver Mulondo William in the automobile. We were familiar with the process since we had gone through checkpoints. We estimated that showing them the documents would take one or two minutes. William was stopped as Kato continued jogging, and after another half hour, a vehicle pulled up behind him.
Two people wearing simple clothes were inside the vehicle. Something wasn’t right, I thought,” recalls Kato. “They brought us back to the main checkpoint, where we were brought to the office and subjected to questioning.” They questioned us about our goals, what we were doing, and why we were there.
William and Kato had their phones and car keys taken from them, and their car was searched before being secured. “They didn’t think our account of the project was credible. Even though we had visas, stamps, and documentation to support everything, they believed that we were Ugandans who had entered the nation illegally.
Kato has brought along a little camera because he intends to use it to record his trip for a documentary once he gets to London. They said we required a letter from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, which we didn’t have, believing us to be journalists.
Kato and William urged the cops to assist them in obtaining the letter they seemed to need, not realizing at the time how bad things might go. He claims, “They had all the barriers up.” “If they had only understood our situation and our perspective, things might have turned out differently.” Rather, they were brought to a military home at gunpoint and placed under custody; neither the nature nor the duration of their detention were disclosed to them. They were prohibited from contacting attorneys or making any phone calls.
For three weeks, they were detained without being allowed to communicate with the outside world. Light, who oversees Kato’s projects, never received a word from him. His body went into shock at the unexpected silence after 315 days of jogging every day. “I was getting cues from my thoughts to just go go go go. You have to slow down gradually, and I had no idea how to go about it,” he explains. He had strange sensations inside of him, had trouble breathing, and had physical pains from not being able to move and from sleeping on a concrete floor in a cell with four other guys for 10 days without any supplies.
They were allowed to wander around after being sent to a different jail and began informing others about their predicament. He claims that “people in the prison were so friendly.” “You’ve seen several films about jails, including one in Africa, but most of the inmates have been wrongfully arrested. They were even more keen to assist once they found out why I was there. Since they were aware that my trip is really intended to benefit all of us, particularly Africans.
Particularly dissatisfied with Kato’s treatment were the prisoners from South Sudan. Foreigners are often imprisoned in South Sudan for two to four months, but one prisoner who was freed and sent back to his home country discovered Light online and informed her of the circumstances. She hadn’t heard from Kato in weeks at that time, so she wasn’t sure whether he was still alive.
Light began arranging their release, and when they were finally allowed to leave the nation on June 23, they were given the go-ahead to do so. According to Kato, “Once you’ve been arrested, you’re more likely to be arrested again because they will find a reason and have you on file.”
He is getting ready to resume his trip next week after taking a plane to Egypt two weeks ago. “I’m leaving this experience with even more motivation to finish this journey,” he says. “I’m recovering from my injury, regaining my physical strength, and still experiencing some gastrointestinal problems. Although I’m not quite there yet, I’m making progress.
His experience with the injustice that many migrants endure—being detained and deported without cause because their freedom of movement is restricted by repressive governments and arbitrary borders—has given him more motivation.
He says, “It has given me a different insight.” Some individuals are able to flee violence, while others are unable to do so due to physical limitations. I didn’t realize that some individuals would have such limited mobility, even though I understood that some would not be able to leave their homes. They want to escape, it’s only that they are unable to do so. Or that departing would make getting to a promised place much riskier. That could entail giving up life as they now know it. or giving up dear ones. And it’s the biggest sacrifice I’ve ever seen.
Kato emphasizes that the only reason he is allowed to take this journey is because he has a British passport, which allows him more freedom of movement than passports from African countries. “It would be extremely difficult for me to go to Egypt if I had a Ugandan passport,” he claims. “Now, all I have to do is show up on the day and acquire a visa right away. African passports should be enhanced inside our own continent since they are now weak.
With a Ugandan passport, it would be unimaginable for him to run the European part of the trip once he gets to the Mediterranean. “It’s so constrained that I could never imagine working on this project.”
How has Kato managed to go this far, given all the mental and physical challenges he has faced? Since it would be almost impossible to physically prepare for every terrain on such a journey, Kato concentrated on fortifying his mental toughness, believing that physical fitness would develop spontaneously.
“The mental aspect involved maintaining composure and having faith in oneself,” he says. I was receiving a lot of denials from individuals who said that because it had never been done before, it couldn’t be done. I have to give myself permission to believe that I will complete it, no matter what obstacles I face. Shut off the outside world and focus on my own beliefs. Recognize that I am capable of carrying out and delivering.
During the first month, he abandoned his plans to do a morning routine and recite a brief mantra. The recollection makes him giggle. He replies, “I have to take each day as it comes.” “Even though I may be jogging in the same nation, state, or neighborhood, everything is always changing since I move every day. “Take the day as it comes, embrace it, and experience it” is now my motto.
Kato realized he would need to depend on local knowledge to navigate the many surroundings he would encounter, including the intense heat of the Sahara, shockingly tall mountains in Tanzania, and heavy rainy seasons. Now when it’s 47 degrees Celsius (116.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Aswan heat, he discovers that the people are sipping tea in the shade and that it will be difficult to locate a professional who can advise him on how to run in this weather at this time of year. However, he is adamant about winning.
Kato was inspired by the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted 381 days and saw African Americans demonstrate for civil rights, and she first intended to operate the trip in that amount of time. His previous feats included running 10 km (6.2 miles) nonstop for 381 days, which encouraged other runners to take up the challenge and made this the longest protest run in history.
a picture of Deo Kato jogging in Kenya beside some children.
Deo Kato in Kenya, jogging among kids.
In addition to the several projects he has started as a result of his runs, his stay in South Sudan gave him the idea to add another cause to his remarkable adventure. He declares, “We are working to free everyone who was arrested with us and put in jail.” “We want to work toward the release of more people who shouldn’t be incarcerated worldwide in the long run.”
He shakes his head, grins, at the challenge of replying when asked about the highlights of his journey so far. “I think Zimbabwe’s beauty surprised me the most,” he remarks. “We experienced a cultural shock since it wasn’t on the original itinerary and we weren’t ready for the abrupt shift in language, money, and location—I was having a hard time. However, as I continued north, the country’s natural beauty and fauna struck me.
Imagine this: Running into the sunset in a national park that he was instructed not to visit, Kato finds elephants meeting other animals and lowering their heads into golden-lit water as they make their way to drink at the end of the day. “It remains in my memory as one of the most exquisite things I have witnessed,” remarks Kato. “It was an opportunity of a lifetime.”