When the walking defeats you: one man's journey as Joseph Kony's bodyguard

Abstract

Educated and aspirational, with dreams of becoming a teacher, George Omona would seem an unlikely recruit for the Lord's Resistance Army; a group which for many has become the embodiment of evil, reviled for its use of child soldiers, sexual slavery, and for waging a decades long campaign of terror across a large swathe of Eastern and Central Africa. But drawn in by the charismatic pull of its messianic leader, and by the group's claims to speak for the long marginalised Acholi people, George came to regard the group as the best change for rebuilding his life after his explosion from high school.

George's education and fluent command of English allowed him to rapidly rise through the ranks, eventually becoming a bodyguard to the group's now notorious leader, Joseph Kony. Having spent almost three years with the group before deserting, George's story - as told to acknowledge LRA expert Ledio Cakaj - provides a unique, unsettling and often astonishing insight into the inner workings of the LRA.