War Brothers

The boys in the dorm bolt upright in fear, knowing immediately that they are under attack by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Someone begins to bang loudly on their door, and Jacob rushes over to deadbolt it. As the attackers begin to break the door down, the boys desperately try to pry the bars off the windows to escape. However, they are unsuccessful, and as an axe shears through the door, Jacob instructs everybody to dress themselves. As the door is broken down, the boys can see Lord’s Resistance Army soldiers in the door, shining flashlights over them.

A man named Commander Opiro introduces himself and threatens the boys with death if they try to scream. He tells the students, “[Y]ou will be soldiers now. You will fight for your country and kill for God” (79). As the soldiers spread through the dorm, Jacob realizes that most of them are children, just like him and the other boys. Jacob gets into a confrontation with one of the soldiers, and just before he’s knocked unconscious by a rifle butt, he realizes that one of the soldiers with them in the dorm is Oteka.

Jacob awakes to Tony instructing him to not make any sound. When he opens his eyes, he realizes that he’s outside under some trees and that it’s just before daybreak. Just then, a soldier kicks Jacob in the stomach, saying that if he doesn’t walk on his own, the soldiers will kill him. As Jacob comes to, Tony tells him that they’re with the Lord’s Resistance Army out in the bush. Tony also tells him that the boys have been marked with a cross on their foreheads made of shea nut oil, which marks them as “soldiers of the movement” (87). Jacob is confused after being knocked unconscious, thinking at first that Ethel is there and not realizing the dire situation that all of them are in.

Tony tells Jacob that the soldier who knocked him out earlier has a particular hatred for him, and is looking for reasons to torment him. None of the boys know where their teachers are, except for one who they saw lying motionless on the ground when they were kidnapped. The soldiers then force the boys to their feet and make them march through the forest.

As they march through the forest, Jacob thinks of the Lord’s Resistance Army and why they might have been kidnapped. Eventually, the army arrives at a village with round mud huts and straw roofs. The homes are filled entirely with women and small children, but no elders. A truck rumbles to the center of the village, and Commander Opiro gets out. He lines the boys up and tells them that they are rebel soldiers now, forced to fight for Joseph Kony. He tells them several rules, including not to shout across rivers and to not use drugs or alcohol. He also tells the boys that if they are caught talking to any of the women in the village, they will be beaten and the women will be killed. To demonstrate what they do to people who break the rules, Commander Opiro shows them a young girl who’s had her ears cut off.

One of the boys named Adam suddenly collapses. Commander Opiro chooses five boys at random, including Tony, and demands that they beat Adam to death. Tony refuses, and two of the soldiers drag him over to a tree. They threaten to cut his arm off if he doesn’t participate in Adam’s beating, and Tony gives in. Jacob tries to look away, but the soldier who earlier hit him with the rifle—who is nicknamed Lizard—threatens him with death if he closes his eyes. As Jacob watches, the boys beat Adam with thick wooden logs.

Jacob stands in shock before Adam’s corpse. Commander Opiro continues his speech, telling the boys that if they don’t fight, they won’t be able to eat. Commander Opiro then forces the boys to their knees and demands that they pray and sing the song “Onward, Christian Soldiers.” The Commander tells them that they are now going to “learn how to be soldiers” (108), giving them a long speech filled with religious terminology and entreaties to God and Jesus. Commander Opiro forces the boys to pray facing east, despite this being a Muslim tradition and not a Christian one.

Jacob hears a voice whispering to him from behind and realizes that it is Oteka, who tells him to make sure to not cry out as he is being beaten. Jacob passes this information to Norman as well. One by one, the boys are forced down into the dirt and whipped.