Because I said so

"They took us as wives straightaway. We had to cook for them. If a cow was killed, we had to cook it...When they came back, they would eat and drink, then they would call for you. They were so many. It was so painful...If they went to attack somewhere or to loot, there was always someone who stayed behind. Then he’d call you. If you refused, they used sticks to whip you...We mostly stayed in the forest but sometimes we had to go with them and carry what they looted...They all had sex with me. I don’t know how many people had sex with me. A man would come, then another and another. I wasn’t even the youngest. Some girls were even younger than me. Even the commanders called for you. You couldn’t refuse...They said they’d kill you if you ran away. Some people fled and didn’t come back. We didn’t know if they’d got away or had been killed."

"I remember the day I decided to join the mayi-mayi. It was after an attack on my village. My parents, and also my grand-father were killed and I was running. I was so scared. I lost everyone; I had nowhere to go and no food to eat. In the mayi-mayi I thought I would be protected, but it was hard. I would see others die in front of me. I was hungry very often, and I was scared. Sometimes they would whip me, sometimes very hard. They used to say that it would make me a better fighter. One day, they whipped my [11-year-old] friend to death because he had not killed the enemy. Also, what I did not like is to hear the girls, our friends, crying because the soldiers would rape them. "

Rita’s life was filled with suffering however; her life line was filled with more flowers than rocks giving, me encouragement for the future of ex-child soldiers.

• Labels:
• Africa
• child soldiers


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