Boy Soldier: A memoir of innocence lost and humanity regained in northern Uganda

Abducted and forced to fight with the Lord’s Resistance Army at the age of twelve, Norman Okello describes a journey into inhumanity and back to forgiveness and love

Uganda’s civil war with Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army has raged since the 1980s, claiming over 100,000 lives and displacing around 1.5 million people. Kony’s rebel force, who combine religious mysticism with extreme brutality, have abducted tens of thousands of children: their child soldiers. Their insurgency continues to this day, though most of us know little about it.

Norman Okello was only twelve when he was abducted by the LRA. In captivity, he was subjected to a ruthless training regime aimed at turning him into a killing machine free from conscience and fear. Forced to commit unspeakable acts of violence, Norman struggled not just to stay alive but to hold on to the last shreds of his humanity. When he finally escaped the clutches of the LRA, he faced his next ordeal: trying to reintegrate into a society that feared and despised him.

Harrowing, heart-rending and enlightening in equal measure, Boy Soldier is above all a story of survival and redemption against unbelievable odds.