{"product_id":"first-kill-your-family-peter-h-eichstaedt-9781556527999","title":"First Kill Your Family: Child Soldiers of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army","description":"\"Richard Opio has neither the look of a cold-blooded killer nor the heart of one. Yet as his mother and father lay on the ground with their hands tied, Richard used the blunt end of an ax to crush their skulls. He was ordered to do this by a unit commander of the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group that has terrorized northern Uganda for twenty years. The memory racks Richard's slender body as he wipes away tears.\" For more than twenty years, beginning in the mid-1980s, the Lord's Resistance Army has ravaged northern Uganda. Tens of thousands have been slaughtered, and thousands more mutilated and traumatized. At least 1.5 million people have been driven from a pastoral existence into the squalor of refugee camps.   The leader of the rebel army is the rarely seen Joseph Kony, a former witchdoctor 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.  In \u003ci\u003eFirst Kill Your Family, \u003c\/i\u003eveteran journalist Peter Eichstaedt goes into the war-torn villages and refugee camps, talking to former child soldiers, child \"brides,\" and other victims. He examines the cultlike 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Peter H. Eichstaedt\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1556527993\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781556527999\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Lawrence Hill Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/01\/2009\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 336\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.31lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.16h x 6.36w x 1.06d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAward:\u003c\/b\u003e Colorado Book Award - Winner\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eEssence\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2009 pg. 62\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 11\/17\/2008 pg. 52\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/01\/2009 pg. 6\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/15\/2008 pg. 1289","brand":"Peter H. Eichstaedt","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43939610362111,"sku":"9781556527999","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_7bb465fe-7c31-46cf-966f-8967e7b5de38.jpg?v=1681442498","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/first-kill-your-family-peter-h-eichstaedt-9781556527999","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}