Growing up amoung the mess.

The New York Times wrote an article about one of the people featured in the book "War Child: A Child Soldiers Story" The book talks about how many young boys grew up in the Sudan and the struggles they faced as a result of the many problems occurring over there. One man in particular talked about how he grew up without his father and how he moved from city to city with his mother. He talks about how there was only peace in his life for his first 3 years, but he doesn't particularly remember that part. The Sudan has experienced a lot of problems over the years other than the current issue at hand. When Emmanuel Jal [the author of the book] was young the civil war between Northern and Southern Sudan. From a very young age [he says 9] he had a gun and often had to fight. He talked about how for pretty much his entire life he heard Arab-Africans talk about their superiority to Africans. He also talked about how he was practically forced to become a soldiers in the rebellion army. 

The book talks about child soldiers from many countries in Africa. For more information on the book check out your local library, or The New York Times, or Amazon.com