Child, Victim, Soldier

By: Donald H. Dunson

$20.00

Overview

From Booklist “I was kidnapped by rebels when I was just twelve and forced to do unspeakable things.” Like The Bite of the Mango (2008) by Mariatu Kamara and Susan McClelland, this searing title is about children at war today, as casualties and as forced perpetrators of brutality. Dunson, a Cleveland missionary priest, travels regularly to northern Uganda to spend summers among formerly abducted child soldiers, and he constantly invokes his Christian beliefs as his inspiration to work for peace. With his interviews of formerly abducted children, including boys forced to kill their families and girls subjected to routine sexual abuse, he also includes historical background not only on the tribal factors behind the current strife but also on the early European colonialists’ role in the scramble for African rule. The personal stories will draw teens to the fundamental issues: Is healing possible? Should children be held responsible? Why does the world stand silent and indifferent? Grades 8-12. --Hazel Rochman

The rebel group in Uganda known as the Lords Resistance Army has abducted children--boys and girls--to serve as soldiers and to provide sexual services. Torn from their families in the dead of night and forced to carry out terrible acts, including murdering family members and other children, they bear terrifying scars on their bodies, minds, and souls. Fr. Dunson lets their stories be heard, often in their own voices, telling of their hurts and needs, but also of their hopes for the future. His text, accompanied by powerful photographs, also reflects on the presence of evil in the world and the need for healing.

Donald H. Dunson, a priest from the diocese of Cleveland, is a professor or moral theology at Saint Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology in Wickliffe, Ohio. He is author of No Room at the Table: Earths Most Vulnerable Children.