Majok Tulba's novel is a red-raw story of an African child soldier. The violence is brutal and unrelenting, the writing unembellished and unsettling. The innocent are raped and gunned down and, equally horrifying, turned into killers themselves. The main character, Obinna, is just nine when rebels attack his village and kill most of his family, sparing Obinna and his brother. Both are measured against an AK-47, found to be tall enough to carry a weapon and so forcibly recruited. They are beaten and tortured from the moment they are captured. Obinna is finally made a soldier and kills other villagers – the same way as his own villagers were killed. Obinna is renamed twice by his captors – even his given name is no longer his – and lives under constant fear of death from those who command him. Based on Tulba's experience in Sudan, Beneath the Darkening Sky makes for uncomfortable reading and is a book that will prick the conscience of western readers in their soft armchairs.
