Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: When the Walking Defeats You
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://lediocakaj.com/
CITY: Washington
STATE: DC
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ledio-cakaj-6332076/ * https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/nov/09/scars-body-soul-joseph-kony-bodyguard-when-the-walking-defeats-you-ledio-cakaj-book-extract * https://www.linkedin.com/in/ledio-cakaj-6332076/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Albania; children: three.
EDUCATION:Oxford University, B.A.; Princeton University, master’s degree.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and researcher. Has worked as a political analyst in the Balkans and East and Central Africa; has been affiliated with organizations, including the Enough Project, Resolve, World Bank, and Small Arms Survey. Former editor-in-chief of Journal of Public and International Affairs.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles to publications, including the Washington Post, Africa Report, Journal of East African Studies, African Arguments, Jane’s Intelligence Review, New Yorker, and to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
SIDELIGHTS
Ledio Cakaj is an Albanian-born writer and researcher. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Oxford University and a master’s degree from Princeton University. Cakaj has worked as a political analyst in Central and East Africa and in the Balkans. He has been affiliated with organizations, including the Enough Project, Resolve, World Bank, and Small Arms Survey. Previously, Cakaj served as the editor-in-chief of Journal of Public and International Affairs. He has written articles that have appeared in publications, including the Washington Post, Africa Report, Journal of East African Studies, African Arguments, Jane’s Intelligence Review, and the New Yorker. Cakaj has also contributed to the BBC.
In 2016, Cakaj released his first book, When the Walking Defeats You: One Man’s Journey as Joseph Kony’s Bodyguard. The volume is comprised of a long interview Cakaj conducts with a Ugandan man called George Omona. Omona is a former member of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a violent rebel group led by Joseph Kony. Omona discusses his childhood and provides the reasons he had for joining Kony’s army. He notes that many other members of the army were forced into service. Omona describes Kony’s charismatic and powerful leadership of the group and explains how he left the army.
Reviews of When the Walking Defeats You were mostly favorable. A New African writer commented: “George’s story … provides a unique, unsettling, and often brutal insight into the inner workings of the Lord’s Resistance Army.” A critic in Publishers Weekly suggested that the book was written in “a somber and assured tone.” The same critic concluded: “Cakaj handles George’s story, and the LRA’s, with an appealing, clear-eyed simplicity.” Stephen Chan, contributor to the Conversation Web site, asserted: “George’s telling is very much a narration of an encounter, not a psychological or intellectual inquiry. But it isn’t cheap or glib, and the book as a whole raises profund questions. Perhaps there are reasons why children fight–and perhaps even why madmen fight.” Reviewing the book on the London School of Economics Blog, Jamie Hitchen remarked: “For a reader unfamiliar with the LRA conflict and the wider politics of the region insufficient background is provided. More could have been said about how Ugandan troops were perceived by the communities they encounter in their pursuit of the LRA. … Nevertheless, by drawing on a unique and fascinating insider perspective, that of an LRA foot soldier, Cakaj has delivered an important addition not only to the literature on the LRA but rebel groups more broadly.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
New African, October, 2016, review of When The Walking Defeats You: One Man’s Journey as Joseph Kony’s Bodyguard, p. 102.
Publishers Weekly, September 5, 2016, review of When the Walking Defeats You, p. 69.
ONLINE
Conversation, https://theconversation.com/ (December 23, 2016), Stephen Chan, review of When the Walking Defeats You.
Enough Project Web site, http://www.enoughproject.org/ (May 23, 2017), author profile.
Ledio Cakaj Home Page, https://lediocakaj.com/ (May 23, 2017).
London School of Economics Blog, http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/ (November 18, 2016), Jamie Hitchen, review of When the Walking Defeats You.*
I am a researcher, writer and a father of three. I have worked in Burundi, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic for various organizations. I have written about rebels, armies, corruption, displacement, poaching and trafficking of wild animals, among other things. My writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, the BBC, Jane’s Intelligence Review, the Africa Report, African Arguments and the Journal of East African Studies.
I am the author of When the Walking Defeats You: One Man’s Journey as Joseph Kony’s Bodyguard, (Zed Books, 2016).
Ledio Cakaj, Field Researcher, Kampala
Embargoed
in
Staff
Ledio Cakaj is a consultant focusing on the Lord's Resistance Army. Ledio has worked in the Balkans and central Africa on political analysis and peacebuilding. A native of Albania, Ledio spent over two years in Burundi conducting monitoring and evaluation of reconciliation projects as well as managing the resettlement of Congolese refugees. Ledio holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, where he was the editor in chief of the Journal of Public and International Affairs. He also has a BA in Ancient and Modern History from Oxford University. Ledio speaks Albanian, English, French, Italian and Greek.
Ledio Cakaj is an independent researcher who has worked for more than a decade in the Balkans and East and Central Africa and has spent many years studying the Lord’s Resistance Army for organizations including the World Bank, the Enough Project, Small Arms Survey, and Resolve.
QUOTED: "George's story ... provides a unique, unsettling, and often brutal insight into the inner workings of the Lord's Resistance Army."
When The Walking I Defeats You
.565 (Oct. 2016): p102.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 IC Publications Ltd.
http://www.africasia.com/icpubs
WHEN THE WALKING I DEFEATS YOU
BY LEDIO CAKAJ
12.99 [pounds sterling] ZED BOOKS
ISBN: 978-2-783608-1-2-6
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
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, George came to regard the group as the best chance for rebuilding his life after his expulsion 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 finally making his escape, George's story--based on many hours of interviews with acknowledged LRA expert Ledio Cakaj--provides a unique, unsettling, and often brutal insight into the inner workings of the Lord's Resistance Army, as well as the mind of its leader and self-appointed prophet.
Ledio Cakaj is an independent researcher who has worked for more than a decade in the Balkans and east and central Africa. He has spent seven years working almost exclusively on the Lord's Resistance Army for organisations including the World Bank, the Enough Project, Small Arms Survey, and Resolve.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"When The Walking I Defeats You." New African, Oct. 2016, p. 102. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA468770973&it=r&asid=3a4fd3be8ad3006fea8861bad84bd3a3. Accessed 8 May 2017.
QUOTED: "a somber and assured tone."
"Cakaj handles George's story, and the LRA's, with an appealing, clear-eyed simplicity."
Gale Document Number: GALE|A468770973
When the Walking Defeats You: One Man's Journey as Joseph Kony's Bodyguard
263.36 (Sept. 5, 2016): p69.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
When the Walking Defeats You: One Man's Journey as Joseph Kony's Bodyguard
Ledio Cakaj. Zed, $19.95 trade paper (300p)
ISBN 978-1-78360-812-6
Cakaj renders interview subject George Omona's story of joining the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda with a somber and assured tone. He begins by expressing a desire to humanize the soldiers in the LRA, a rebel group notorious for committing atrocities, and he successfully avoids sensationalizing their actions. The writing settles fully into George's perspective, avoiding a voyeuristic tone even when Cakaj provides additional background information on Ugandan history and the LRA. George's story is striking; unlike many other LRA soldiers, he apparently joined the group of his own volition, earning him the ire of his comrades, who had often been forced to join. The book captures the fierceness of infighting within the group and the powerful hold exerted on it by founder Joseph Kony. Minor details catch the attention: the LRA's regimentation reminds George of his time in Catholic school, and, despite the respect Kony commanded from his fighters, "no one had ever seen Kony fire a gun." Cakaj handles George's story, and the LRA's, with an appealing, clear-eyed simplicity. (Nov.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"When the Walking Defeats You: One Man's Journey as Joseph Kony's Bodyguard." Publishers Weekly, 5 Sept. 2016, p. 69. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA463513596&it=r&asid=68bfa5d0b379292f3d908d44f7f72a02. Accessed 8 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A463513596
QUOTED: "George’s telling is very much a narration of an encounter, not a psychological or intellectual inquiry. But it isn’t cheap or glib, and the book as a whole raises profund questions. Perhaps there are reasons why children fight–and perhaps even why madmen fight."
In one of 2016’s best books, a former Lord’s Resistance Army child soldier reveals the reason behind the mayhem
December 23, 2016 7.25am GMT
EPA
Author
Stephen Chan
Professor of World Politics, SOAS, University of London
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Rather than review the year gone by, I wanted in this column to look at a particularly haunting book, Ledio Cakaj’s When the Walking Defeats You. It’s narrated by a young Ugandan student, pseudonym “George”, who was expelled from school and sent by his own family to join and fight with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). He became a bodyguard to the group’s infamous leader, Joseph Kony, who admired him for his learning.
It haunts me in particular as back in 1982, I wandered through many of the parts of Uganda that George describes. I was there as part of a desultory international effort to rehabilitate the country after the hellish reign of Idi Amin. I found almost everything, everywhere I went, from Kampala to Kasese, to Gulu, to Jinja, in ruins. Sometimes, I navigated by compass, as the roads had become so overgrown by vegetation that nothing on the maps was left.
When the still-reigning Yoweri Museveni won power in 1986, it briefly seemed as if Uganda had a chance at a new beginning – but when religious radical Alice Lakwena rose up violently against the government soon afterwards, it was clear that Uganda was doomed to many years of division and conflict.
Kony claims to be Lakwena’s successor. The West knows him simply for atrocities, among them the kidnapping of children – the boys forced to serve as child soldiers, the girls to be “wives” and concubines.
I used to imagine this motley crew walking around the wilds of northeastern Uganda and through the places I myself passed. Those memories drew me to Cakaj’s book, which chimes well with Christian Ryan’s 2012 book Children of War: Child Soldiers as Victims and Participants in the Sudan Civil War, based on her PhD thesis, which I supervised.
Before Christine went to South Sudan for a year of fieldwork, during which she essentially lived among the former child soldiers of a terrible conflict, the received wisdom, certainly among the aid agencies, was that they had all been victims. Christine talked to them often, and one day one of them broke down and began to cry. “Thank you for asking why we fought. No one has asked us before.” Many of them, though young, didn’t see themselves as only victims: they had had their own reasons for picking up guns.
The story George tells in Cakaj’s book confirms something similar: that as a very young soldier in Uganda, he also had his reasons and reflections, fears and hopes, pride and premonitions.
I have followed the conflict between Kony and Museveni for many years. I discussed it with the Ugandan officer who led the hunt for Kony, and asked: “Why? For what reasons?” To ascribe no reasons, no rationality, no belief, no principles for rebellion is a return to the old notion that Africans are mere savages – a racist device of dismissal and non-enquiry.
I myself wrote a fictional account of Kony’s rebellion in my 2012 novel, Joseph Kony and the Titans of Zagreb, in which I tried to demonstrate how the political machinations of a European capital city can be made to look just as atrociously ridiculous as a horrible rebellion in Africa. All you need to do is assume that the participants have put no reasoned thought into what they’re doing.
Hostage to the Holy Spirit
Very early on in Cakaj’s book, George explains that what often defeats the LRA’s young soldiers is the endless walking. A stationary army is a target, and the only way for the LRA to stay on the move is to walk for mile after mile every day.
George relates the killings along the way. He is anxious he is not asked to kill people by hand – that is, with a machete. To kill with a rifle, with a gap that reduces a terrible intimacy, is one thing. To butcher someone up close is harrowing precisely because it is not only atrocious, but atrociously intimate.
In the book’s most riveting moment, George gets the chance to talk with Kony himself. George is thankful he has been asked to cook; he serves alcohol with the meal, and it’s one of the very rare moments when Kony accepts a drink. The leader’s tongue loosens a little, and he relates his trust in the Holy Spirit, who always warns him when Museveni’s forces are near. He shows his battle scars. He talks politics, and laments how Museveni has ruined Uganda.
Joseph Kony. EPA/Stuart Price
When the other officers leave him and George alone, Kony asks after George’s uncle. He praises George’s love of books, and congratulates him on the good grades he had been receiving in school – and then he makes two confessions:
You need to know that if I had a choice I would not be doing this, this life in the forest like animals. I wish I could be a schooled man like you.
He also wishes aloud that his children could go to school, saying:
It is too late for me. I have all the wisdom in the world, thanks to the spirits who tell me everything.
But then Kony tells George he’s a hostage to these same spirits, bound to act on their instruction and instigation. Above all, he is captive to the Holy Spirit, who calls him to keep his army and his rebellion going – fighting, killing, and walking to their deaths.
Kony is to this day a hero to many of Uganda’s Acholi people, who feel marginalised under Museveni’s rule. Looked at in a particular way, he is perhaps not so unlike Joan of Arc, who also heard the voices of spirits; the English demonised her before finally capturing and burning her alive. Wanted worldwide for his heinous crimes, long since driven from Uganda and isolated with his greatly diminished forces, Kony is more likely to fade away.
George’s telling is very much a narration of an encounter, not a psychological or intellectual inquiry. But it isn’t cheap or glib, and the book as a whole raises profund questions. Perhaps there are reasons why children fight – and perhaps even why madmen fight.
QUOTED: "For a reader unfamiliar with the LRA conflict and the wider politics of the region insufficient background is provided. More could have been said about how Ugandan troops were perceived by the communities they encounter in their pursuit of the LRA. ... Nevertheless, by drawing on a unique and fascinating insider perspective, that of an LRA foot soldier, Cakaj has delivered an important addition not only to the literature on the LRA but rebel groups more broadly."
Book Review: When the Walking Defeats You: One Man’s Journey as Joseph Kony’s Bodyguard by Ledio Cakaj
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This is a unique and compelling account that effectively intertwines the biographical account of George Omona (fictional name) – a young man who voluntarily joined and fought for the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Central African Republic, South Sudan and Eastern Congo between 2007 and 2010 before escaping – with the wider narrative of an ongoing conflict. Jamie Hitchen describes this volume as an important addition to the literature on the LRA and rebel groups more broadly.
George’s account of life in the LRA, which has been corroborated by extensive interviews, is engrossing. Ledio Cakaj has done a fine job of turning his conversations with George into a highly readable narrative that provides fascinating insights into the daily hardships and battle for survival within the rebel group.
cakaj_bookThrough George’s eyes we learn about the sophisticated operations of the LRA and its leader Joseph Kony. The account relates how, in times of relative peace, they have been able to establish camps and farm; the way they communicate internally across national borders; and the strict hierarchical structure of the group, with defined roles for members. It also describes the way in which Kony and his followers have pillaged local communities in the quest to survive, and how they have continually fought (and been able to flee) the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) despite its clear training and technological advantages.
I was struck by several things. Firstly, the hardship experienced by LRA fighters and alluded to in the book’s title: the distances covered daily are staggering. Food and water emerge as both a driver of the conflict – raids on villages were often motivated more by the need for sustenance than the taking of captives – and the essence of bonds. Shared experiences of hardship, which included subjection to the LRA’s brutal system of internal discipline, helped forge a sense of collective identity.
Secondly, mistrust between fighters was deep and exemplified by the conduct of Kony himself. George, who gradually becomes more distanced from the group’s leader as his time in “the bush” wears on, talks about how Kony was constantly on the move to counter real and perceived threats. Very few people knew where he would be at a particular day or time. George also exposes Kony’s ruthlessness in ridding himself of anyone whose loyalty was suspect, the most famous example being the execution of his deputy, Vincent Otti, who had been with the LRA from the outset.
The way fear and mistrust permeated through the rank and file is highlighted by George’s agonising over whether to share his intention to escape with three other fighters with whom he becomes separated. He knows that the punishment for attempted desertion is death and it takes him almost three months to find the “right” moment to mention his plan.
Photo Credit: Roel Wijnants via Flickr (http://bit.ly/2futDsx) CC BY-NC 2.0
A wall mural of the LRA leader Joseph Kony Photo Credit: Roel Wijnants via Flickr (http://bit.ly/2futDsx) CC BY-NC 2.0
Finally, it is very interesting to trace the evolution of George’s mind-set towards violence, from initial apprehension to accepting it as part and parcel of daily life. It is noticeable that descriptions of violence become progressively less of a feature of the narrative and the justification for its use more accepted. This raises a pertinent question for judicial cases in Uganda about whether those indoctrinated in the LRA “way of life” as children – and it is striking how many of George’s fellow fighters are said to be in their early teenage years – can be held accountable for killings when adult. In this context, the case against Dominic Ongwen at the International Criminal Court may prove to be illustrative.
The book left some questions unanswered. Although the early chapters are devoted to providing some background to George’s childhood in northern Uganda, the reasons for him voluntarily choosing to join the LRA are not explained convincingly. It is perhaps understandable that George is less willing to reflect on his choices. Towards the end of the book he talks about how keen he is to move on with rebuilding his life and to forget the whole experience; and the author clearly has some “duty of care” to preserve George’s personal wellbeing. However, if greater reflection on his experiences could have been teased out the account would have been enhanced.
For a reader unfamiliar with the LRA conflict and the wider politics of the region insufficient background is provided. More could have been said about how Ugandan troops were perceived by the communities they encounter in their pursuit of the LRA. This is an important issue considering that one of the unaddressed legacies of the conflict in northern Uganda (1987-2006) are the injustices inflicted by the Ugandan military that have been ignored by the government and have contributed to a “negative peace”. Nevertheless, by drawing on a unique and fascinating insider perspective, that of an LRA foot soldier, Cakaj has delivered an important addition not only to the literature on the LRA but rebel groups more broadly.
When the Walking Defeats You: One Man’s Journey as Joseph Kony’s Bodyguard. Ledio Cakaj. Zed Books. 2016.
Ledio Cakaj will be speaking at LSE on Wednesday 23 November. Register to attend this event via Eventbrite.
Jamie Hitchen (@jchitchen) is Policy Researcher at Africa Research Institute.