Todays reading, taken from the United Colors of Benetton Diversity in Literacy Program: On a sticky hot November morning in 1992, I found myself at the foot of the Po River Bridge, on the outskirts of Monrovia, the besieged capital city of war-torn Liberia. I was interviewing soldiers from the Alligator Battalion, and the boys (none of them looked older than 21) were passing around a particularly pungent marijuana cigarette while keeping a vigil here against rebel incursions into the city from the surrounding swampland. The battalion commander, Captain Jungle Jabba, was dressed in an Operation Desert Storm t-shirt and gold rimmed glasses. His deputy commander, distinguishable mostly by his tennis shoes and thick dreadlocks, identified himself as Captain Pepper and Salt --”because I will peppa the enemy”, he explained, waving his AK-47. And further down the road, at the very foot of the bridge, the soldier inspecting cars was decked out in a flowing ash blond womans wig, held down by a black plastic shower cap pinned on his head. At his side was a 12 year old boy named Abraham, who called himself a member of the “special forces” and claimed to have been fighting in Liberias jungles since he was ten. Abraham wore camouflage pants and two grenades fastened to his belt on either side. Welcome to Liberia, scene of one of the wackiest and most ruthless of Africas uncivil wars. Its a war with a general named “Mosquito”, a war where soldiers get high on dope and paint their fingernails bright red before heading off to battle. Its a war where combatants sometimes don womans wigs, pantyhose, even Donald Duck Halloween masks before committing some of the worlds most unspeakable atrocities against their enemies. Its the only war that hosts a unit of soldiers who strip off their clothes before going into battle and calls itself “the Butt Naked Brigade”. Its a war where young child soldiers carry teddy bears and plastic baby dolls in one hand and AK-47s in the other. Its a war where fighters smear their faces with makeup and mud in the belief that “ju ju”, West African magic, will protect them from the enemies bullets. ---Keith Richburg, American journalist and longtime foreign correspondent for The Washington Post.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 16:07:21 +0000
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