Simon Aban Deng is a South Sudanese-American human rights activist living in the United States.
[citation needed] Deng was told he would be treated more humanely if he converted to Islam, took an Arab name, and agreed to become the family's son; he refused on all three counts.
[1] In 1993, after settling in the United States, Deng worked as an activist to raise awareness for slavery in Sudan.
[5][7] Through his efforts, he began a partnership with Charles Jacobs to help assist Christian Solidarity International in freeing Sudanese slaves.
He organized protests in New York and Washington, D.C. against the civil war in southern Sudan, particularly the kidnappings of men, women and children by militia groups allied to the Khartoum government.
His anti-war protests shifted to anti-slavery campaigns, as he spent the next decade sharing his story of being a child slave in the 1960s.
He and fellow activist, abolitionist and author Francis Bok toured the United States and Europe, sharing their stories of slavery and calling for an end to war in Sudan.
Deng became a prominent speaker with the American Anti Slavery Group and testified at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy in 2010.