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First Kill Your Family is the only book published in American to reveal the full story behind the rise of Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army. After savaging northern Uganda for twenty years and slaughtering thousands and mutilating many more, Kony fled in 2006 to some of the most remote territory in Africa. In a largely inaccessible region bordered by the failed states of South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Congo, Kony and his cult-like army of child killers continue to terrorize local populations. Most recently, they've turning the the wholesale slaughter of elephants in the jungles of northern Congo to fund their army. The leader of the rebel army is the rarely seen Joseph Kony, a former witch doctor and self-professed spirit medium who continues to evade justice and wield power from somewhere near the Congo~Sudan border. Kony claims he not only can predict the future but also can control the minds of his fighters. And control them he does: the Lord's Resistance Army consists of children who are abducted from their homes under cover of night. As initiation, the boys are forced to commit atrocities--murdering their parents, friends, and relatives--and the kidnapped girls are forced into lives of sexual slavery and labor. Eichstaedt takes readers into the war-torn villages and refugee camps, talking to former child soldiers, child "brides," and other victims. He examines the cult-like convictions of the army; how a pervasive belief in witchcraft, the spirit world, and the supernatural gave rise to this and other deadly movements; and what the global community can do to bring peace and justice to the region. This insightful analysis delves into the war's foundations and argues that, much like Rwanda's genocide, international intervention is needed to stop Africa's virulent cycle of violence.
First Kill Your Family provides an up close and personal look at the war that has been raging within Ugandan borders for well over 20 years. Peter Eichstaedt examines this war from every aspect he can find, including marching into the jungle with Machar and others to find Kony and talk peace. This book gives an excellent understanding of how those who have suffered most at the hands of the LRA feel not only about Kony himself but also consequences of the war, such as the ICC indictments. Eichstaedt also gives the reader the chance to confront African war, mysticism, witchcraft, and interest (or lack thereof) of the international community to become involved in and stop the needless killing of innocent people. The history behind the creation of Kony as the person he is today and his infamous LRA is one that could be likened to Osama's Taliban, Hitler's Nazi party, and Rwanda's Hutu extremist groups. This could be seen as possibly another story of a war that the world initially turned a blind eye upon, but will now have to face the consequences of allowing it to take place. The personal accounts of the Acholi people, Kony's own clan, is at times shocking and disturbing. But beyond all of the details lies the underlying theme that Eichstaedt proclaimed when he stated, "The growing gap between the developed and underdeveloped worlds is obvious on every corner, on every street, down every country road." The question is, knowing what we do, will the war of the LRA ever end, or simply move to inhabit every region of Africa it is chased into, possibly even someday extending outside African borders?
