AS LITERATURE - Preparing for 'Beasts of no Nation'

Our next text explores the life of a (fictional) child soldier caught up in civil war in an unnamed African country. To prepare ourselves for this, it would be a good idea to find out more about the use of child soldiers across the world today. An apt place to start is this site on the bbc, which includes accounts by child soldiers about what their lives are like.

This site is also worth visiting.

Someone who has really inspired me is Emmanuel Jal. He is a Sudanese hiphop artist who often uses his past life as a child soldier as his material for his music. Below you can watch Warchild, a largely autobiographical song about life as a child soldier. It's not the greatest video in the world, but listen to the lyrics:

Finally, watch Pray the devil back to hell, a documentary about child soldiers in Liberia, which lasts about 50 minutes. Highly recommended!