Chanda's Wars (22 page)

 

N
GALA's CIVIL WAR
isn't over, but Mr. Selalame says there's hope.

Mandiki's death has been a rock to the rebel beehive. His main army has splintered into three rival factions, led by his brother and two of his cousins. They're so busy killing each other, they don't have time for anyone else.

At the same time, the Ngala government has offered pardons to the child soldiers. Some have left the bush, but not all. Many are orphans, kidnapped when they were little. They have nowhere to go, and no one who wants them. With the rebels, they get food, shelter, and the protection of a gun. Others feel safer in the bush than in Ngala's overcrowded refugee camps, full of war victims seeking revenge. Another problem: There's no pardon for the
rebel leaders. If they're captured, they'll be hanged as war criminals. As long as that's true, they won't surrender, and as long as they won't surrender, the Ngala children fear being recaptured and killed if they try to escape.

What to do? Even Mr. Selalame doesn't know. “The horror has to be punished, but the threat of punishment keeps the horror going,” he says. “Let's be glad for small mercies. The rebels are back in Ngala. They're too weak and distracted to come here again. At least not for a long while. If they do, next time, we'll be ready.”

 

Closer to home, things have been going well. Nelson's been living with us in a single room beside the shed, built with cracked cinder blocks that Mr. Tafa brought home from his job at United Construction. They're no good for shopping malls, but with a little cement and plaster they're perfect for here. At first, I thought Mrs. Tafa'd have a fit about Nelson staying with us, but Nelson's smart. On Mrs. Tafa's morning walks, he always compliments her on her dresses, and when she's had her hair done, well, he just won't stop!

Nelson does chores and plays with Soly and Iris. He's like a papa and a big brother, both. He also helps with
money; he's sold one of his cattle to pay his keep. My uncles tend the rest of his herd in exchange for the use of his land. Sometimes, Nelson gets odd jobs at Mr. Tafa's construction sites, but I know he misses the bush. He may have a chance with the Kenje River Safari Camp. Mr. Lesole's back working again. Since he can't speak, he can't guide, but he's got the best eye up there, so they've kept him as a spotter. He's recommending Nelson for his tracking skills; Nelson would start as a busboy and work his way up, while he learns about the animals.

Thanks to all that Nelson does around the place, I'm finally getting some rest. So much, in fact, I've started to work with Mr. Selalame on finishing my high school. “You'll get that scholarship yet,” he beams.

Mrs. Tafa and Esther tease that before that, there'll be wedding bells. They can think what they like. I'm building my dreams one day at a time. Nelson, too. Each night, we sit outside and talk forever. When the air cools, we bundle ourselves together in a light blanket.

I look up at the stars and imagine the ancestors: Mama, Papa, Auntie Lizbet, and the others. Here with Nelson, I can feel them smiling.

CHANDA'S WARS
TELLS
the story of one young woman's heartbreak, courage, and hope in the midst of terrible events in a fictional African war. The reasons children are used as soldiers may be complicated, but the effects on them are direct and horrific. Most end up broken by adult wars they cannot hope to understand. A very few, like Chanda and her siblings, find within themselves the resources to resist and to escape with what remains of their tattered lives. Chanda's story reaches to the heart of the terrifying truth about child soldiers in a way that all of us, young and old alike, can understand. It makes it possible for us to imagine the faces of real children caught and trampled by the scourge of war in so many recent and ongoing conflicts in Africa. For those of us working actively to protect children from combat, there is something inspiring in the example
of Chanda, who refuses to give in to fear and who risks her life in her quest to save her brother and sister. Ultimately, Chanda's wars are everybody's wars: Every young person stolen and recruited is our brother, our sister, our son, our daughter. We must all join the fight if we are to protect them from the horror of becoming child soldiers.

The Honorable Roméo Dallaire,
Lieutenant-General (retired),
head of U.N. forces during the
Rwandan genocide

T
HE CHARACTERS, COUNTRIES
, and story of
Chanda's Wars
are fictional, but the horrors are real. Children and youth are forcibly recruited for combat in strife-torn regions of Africa, as they have been, and continue to be, in conflicts around the world. Despite wars and genocides that demand global action, it must be remembered that Africa is a continent of fifty-four separate countries, most of which, as represented by Chanda's homeland, are at peace. I urge anyone who is tempted to give up hope for Africa's future to consider the past history of Europe.

 

Work on this novel was made possible by the support and encouragement of friends and acquaintances from Uganda, Eritrea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa, Malawi, and Zambia, both living in
Africa and in the African diaspora.

For insight into the psychology of child soldiers, I am particularly grateful to the late Michael Oruni, director of World Vision's Children of War Rehabilitation Centre in Gulu, northern Uganda, and my conversation with former members of the Lord's Resistance Army rehabilitated at the Centre; Dr. Philip Lancaster, United Nations Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire's executive assistant during the Rwandan genocide; Tariq Bhanjee of UNICEF; Justin Daniel Peffer of Plan International; Raymond Micah and Amanuel Melles of the African Canadian Social Development Council; filmmakers Oliver Stoltz and Ali Samadi Ahadi, who documented child soldiers along the Ugandan/Sudanese border; Dr. Anne Goodman and Michael Wheeler of the International Institute for Community-Based Peacebuilding; Thomas Turay of the COADY International Institute; Kathy Vandergrift, Rebecca Steinmann, and Ken and Cynthia Jaworko of World Vision; and Barbara Hoffman, director of the Association for the Children of Mozambique. I am also indebted to the wide range of materials available from Human Rights Watch, Save the Children, CARE, Defence for Children International, the Children's Institute, médecins sans frontiers, Amnesty International, War Child, and other NGOs.

The sections about tracking and animal behavior come from my experiences in the bush with Richard Chimwala and Angel M. Gondwe, guides at Wilderness Safaris' Mvuu Camp, Malawi, and with scout Gideon Mpase and guides Ian Salisbury and Alex Cole at Kaingo Camp, Zambia. I also met with Susan Slotar, executive director of the Jane Goodall Institute, South Africa branch.

My observations of village life were deepened enormously by Robert Thomas Gama, who introduced me to rural Malawi, and by Enoch Chidothi, Bakiri Wandiki, and James Asan, who were my hosts during my stay at Ulongwe, and who introduced me to local farmers, villagers, and Ligwang'wa, their late village headman.

I owe my understanding of the power of spirit doctors to visits in Malawi with spirit doctor John Saisa, Father Claude Boucher of Mua Mission, and Felix Chisale of Zomba Plateau, and to earlier visits to spirit doctors in Zimbabwe and Botswana.

Many thanks as well to my Harper editors Lynne Missen (Canada) and Susan Rich and Patricia Ocampo (U.S.); Alexis MacDonald and Christina Magill of the Stephen Lewis Foundation; Harriet McQuire and Althea Tait of Access Africa; journalist Michele Landsberg; and
the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council.

Above all, I'd like to thank all those who invited me into their homes in cities, villages, farms, and cattle posts. I am forever grateful for their generosity of time, guidance, and insight.

Jacket photograph © 2008 by Alexander Nesbitt / Aurora Photos

Jacket design by Joel Tippie