South Sudan honors Korean 'hero' priest in textbooks

South Sudan's new school textbooks introduce the late Lee's life over a few pages. Photo provided by a South Sudan Korean community

Lee about two months before his death in January 2010 from colorectal cancer. Photo provided to Hankook Ilbo

The South Sudan education ministry is publishing new school textbooks that highlight late Korean priest Father Dr. John Lee's heroic achievements as a doctor and missionary for people in Tonj.

The late Father Dr. John Lee. Photo provided to Hankook Ilbo

The African authority will distribute them to students beginning next February, the country's media outlet Juba Monitor said on Nov. 14.

Those for elementary schools reportedly have three pages about Lee, whose Korean first name is Tae-seok, and those for high schools two.

Juba said Lee was the first foreigner to feature in a national textbook for their volunteering activities.

One of the textbooks referred to him as "a South Korean missionary and doctor who served as a priest, medical doctor, mathematician and music teacher … in the small village of Tonj." It explained he was motivated by Belgian missionary Fr. Damien, who helped lepers in Molokai until his death in 1889.

Lee left for Africa after being ordained in Seoul in 2001.

The textbooks explained that Lee built a small clinic and treated daily some 300 patients, provided vaccinations for about 80 villages around Tonj, and taught math and music at a school he built.

"Despite the ethnic and religious conflicts that devastated South Sudan causing some 2 million deaths, Fr. Lee brought relief to the suffering of anyone who needed his help," the textbook said.

Lee halted his humanitarian work and returned to Korea in 2008 when he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer that had already advanced to its fourth stage. He died two years later aged 48.

His life was highlighted in the 2010 Korean documentary film "Don't cry for me Sudan." It was followed by a KBS TV documentary of the same title on Christmas Eve that year and establishment of an eponymous award by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2011 to honor those who follow his egalitarian steps.