Review by Booklist Review
Voeten, a Dutch photojournalist, went to Sierra Leone on assignment to chronicle the child soldiers, as young as eight years old, who were forced to engage in that nation's civil war. When he is caught in rebel territory, Voeten is confronted with the gigantic contradictions of Western indifference and compassion and of atrocities beyond imagination and a compelling hope, as well as a love toward strangers that helps save his life. Voeten's survival is assisted by an array of extraordinary characters: an Italian priest who puts his life at risk trying to save the child soldiers, who is in turn saved by them; and a principal and his wife who protect Voeten and trigger the suspicions of rebels fearful of the respect shown the couple by their students. The author witnesses the horrendous acts of the rebels and their leaders, now protected by the UN forces as official leaders in the negotiated peace settlements. He has written an exciting adventure that educates the West to one of the many wars about which we cannot afford to be indifferent. Vernon Ford.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The title of this harrowing journey through war-torn Sierra Leone means how are you? in pidgin English; as photojournalist Voeten shows in his dramatic but incomplete work of war reportage, Sierra Leone isn't doing well and neither is he, after a 1998 trip there. On assignment to photograph child soldiers, Voeten finds himself in the midst of a war between a military junta and West African peacekeeping troops. After nearly being killed by a gun-toting teenager, he goes into hiding for two weeks: I feel like a fox running from hounds and curse the soldiers who won't give me a moment's peace. His disappearance makes him something of a cause celebre several of his colleagues are planning to mount a search and rescue but he's eventually able to leave the country. Yet that's just the beginning of Voeten's involvement with the impoverished African nation. Despite suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, he returns to Sierra Leone, and it is in recounting these times that the book weakens. Voeten doesn't delve beneath the surface of his interest in Sierra Leone; he fails to give readers even a basic history of the country or to reflect on what makes journalists willing to risk their lives to report from there. He also neglects to sufficiently describe his PTSD or how his multiple returns to Sierra Leone affect it. By not answering these questions, Voeten ends up with merely a frightening travelogue of a depressing country and one inelegantly written at that. The photos, which may be the book's highlight, were not seen by PW. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Voeten, an acclaimed photojournalist, writes about the ferocity of the eight-year civil war in Sierra Leone, a former British colony in West Africa. Once referred to as "The White Man's Grave," it is a country endowed with very hospitable people and mineral wealth gold, silver, and, in particular, diamonds, which "literally lie there waiting to be picked up." The abundance of diamonds has sown greed among the major ethnic groups and has also attracted an international consortium of criminals, arms dealers, mercenaries, and drug barons. Control of these diamonds is the cause and fuel of the war. Voeten was sent to cover the use of child soldiers by the rebels and in the process got caught in the middle of the warring factions and almost lost his life. He has covered many civil wars in other places, and references and comparisons are constantly made to other war-torn countries. Thousands of children were kidnapped by the rebels and conscripted as soldiers, bearers, and cannon fodder. Special amputation squads hacked off arms, hands, or legs to sow terror and avenge the rebels' defeat. Such mass amputations were compared to those done by Belgian colonizers in the former Congo. Throughout How De Body? ("How are you?" in pidgin English), Voeten, relief workers, missionaries, and human rights activists ruminate on the extent of savagery during the eight-year period. Voeten is also fascinated by the courage, strength, and hospitality of Sierra Leoneans. The author, however, exposes his own biases by using words such as natives, thick lips, bastards, fat, and the like in the first chapter. Overall, this is a very interesting but depressing narrative of the atrocities of a civil war characterized by greed and wealth. Recommended for public libraries and those interested in African politics and civil wars in general. Edward G. McCormack, Cox Lib. & Media Ctr., Univ. of Southern Mississippi-Gulf Coast, Long Beach (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Photojournalist Voeten examines the curious duality of life in a war zone, where he might narrowly escape death in the morning and be offered a shower and cup of coffee in the afternoon. The author describes a journey to Sierra Leone in the late 1990s. He's there to photograph demobilized children who were once soldiers but are now cared for by a Catholic charity trying to remold them into regular boys and girls. Ironically, most of the kids want to be fighters when they grow up. Other ironies abound in a West African country where rebels are terrorizing the people in order to oust a government that terrorizes the people. A common greeting in the street is "How de body?" It's a local version of "How are you?" but it has acquired a nasty resonance in Sierra Leone, where many people have had one or more limbs chopped off. Despite the horrors of his subject matter, Voeten's fresh, punchy prose rarely becomes sentimental. He is compassionate toward the people of Sierra Leone and toward his readers, who will be grateful that he provides short chapters with tangents on the bigger picture surrounding the country's plight. His analysis of the history of amputation during wartime, for example, keeps in touch with the dreadful topic but gives them a break from the grim story at hand. Those interested in journalism will find this memoir exhilarating. From what he packs into his suitcase, to his bout with post-traumatic stress disorder, Voeten always finds a way to come back to his private concerns as a foreign correspondent looking out for a story. When the two story-streams coincide, the effect is powerful. In the thick of the tale, his audience will feel the same tension Voeten experienced when he was hiding away from rebels bent on killing all foreigners in their path. A heroic portrayal of an overlooked, blood-soaked corner of the world.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
