Playing with friends, going to school, helping with chores at home; it’s in these seemingly mundane things that we realize what should be part of a wholesome life of a child. After school there is a career that awaits individuals around the world. It might be following a passion or dream, perhaps learning a profession. Some are ambitious and dream about studying at a prestigious university. Some might be content with apprenticing at a local business which, perhaps, is owned by the family. All that, of course very much oversimplified, is only a glimpse of what life could and should look like for children growing up.
But there’s also another reality…
Agu was a young boy with many dreams about the future. He had a home, a mother and a father. Agu had siblings, he went to school and loved playing with his friends. That is - up until the day when his village was stormed by armed soldiers leaving most of those dearest to Agu’s heart killed. He wouldn’t be able to ever see his parents again. He was separated from his siblings, his friends, his village and everything that was familiar. Alone and frightened he fled into the African bush. Fear was now his new friend. And after several days of loneliness he was finally found - but not by helping saints. Agu was spotted by militants. Instead of killing him physically, they decide to kill him mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Death became his new companion. His barbaric training consisted of killing people brutally. Drugs soon were his place of comfort. They enabled him to continue to carry out the diabolical tasks he was forced to perform. He shot people. He chopped people into pieces. He was sexually abused by his militant commander. The child within him had died.
“I saw terrible things... and I did terrible things. So if I’m talking to you, it will make me sad and it will make you too sad. In this life... I just want to be happy in this life. If I’m telling this to you... you will think that... I am some sort of beast... or devil. I am all of these things... but I also having mother... father... brother and sister once. They loved me.”
Agu became one of the 65,000 children forced to be a child soldier. Along with others he found himself at the front line of conflicts, the burning of villages, brutal killings of individuals and suicide missions. His childhood was terminated by evil, with no chance of ever getting it back. His memories will forever be fogged by the shades of red blood he saw flowing again and again, inflicted by his own hands. He was desensitized so that, when he looks his enemies in the eyes before splitting their head with a forceful swing of a machete, he wouldn’t feel anything anymore.
Agu was physically alive, but so much of him had died.
In this particular instance, thanks be to God, Agu is a fictional character of the Netflix movie Beasts of No Nation. Unfortunately, however, his story is the story of too many real individuals at this very moment you are reading these lines. The heart of evil and the demonic forces are at work, manifested in these cruel stories of desperation & death. Beasts of No Nation, though at times maybe a bit too graphic for some, does an excellent job of taking the viewer on a very uncomfortable and unsettling journey. One is confronted with the dark reality of children being forced & exploited to fight wars of adults. It portrays the brutality of the things children in the real world are living through, right now.
If you choose to watch the movie, I strongly encourage you to find the time for a few processing questions after viewing it. And then, take a moment and pray.
How was I affected (body, soul & spirit) by what I just viewed?
What questions do I have (for myself, for God,…) after watching the film?
What emotions am I feeling right now?
How can what I just saw, shape the way I pray for the issue of child soldiers fighting in various regions worldwide?
Are there any other action steps I want to take?