For some time now I have been trying to find someone’s story. I was tired of reading watered down reports about what’s happening in Africa. I wanted to hear someone, not read about them. I wanted to read a first person ordeal of what really goes on in the conflicts in Africa. After researching on the BBC News website, I found a story about a man who became abductees in Uganda. His story wasn’t sad and it didn’t make me cry. His story was unbelievable and if anything, made me angry. It was unbelievable because it reminded me of things that you only see in movies, and it bothered me that there were thousands of stories just like his. I felt angry because I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to, or had the courage to do this to another human being. On some conscience level, it frightened me to know that these type of people even existed. I then became curious as to what happened to these human beings to make them so cold.
I rather readers go and read the story for themselves. The young man by the name of Ochola John, not only had his ears, and his lips cut off, but his nose and hands as well. Denied of food and water, he was forced to watch women get raped and other men killed. He even describes how one woman was killed and another had her breasts cut off. Surprisingly, after being abducted for more than a week, he did survive. Unfortunately, he lives with the memories that haunt him. If you could only imagine what he dreams about. His wife stayed by his side and nursed him back to health, and had a little boy who he named Anyway which means insult or abuse. He did this due to his ordeal caused by the Lord's Resistance Army.
His last words in this article were "I cannot forgive and I cannot forget".
Those words spoke to me because so many people in America hold grudges and stay angry over things that after reading this young man's story would seem so trivial. Yes we live in a different society, but we are apart of the same world. Our cultures may be different but had we gone through the same atrocities, I think we'd be saying the same things. We'd feel the same feelings, and we would have the same thoughts. We're all human, and I think its time that we start recognizing that.
I rather readers go and read the story for themselves. The young man by the name of Ochola John, not only had his ears, and his lips cut off, but his nose and hands as well. Denied of food and water, he was forced to watch women get raped and other men killed. He even describes how one woman was killed and another had her breasts cut off. Surprisingly, after being abducted for more than a week, he did survive. Unfortunately, he lives with the memories that haunt him. If you could only imagine what he dreams about. His wife stayed by his side and nursed him back to health, and had a little boy who he named Anyway which means insult or abuse. He did this due to his ordeal caused by the Lord's Resistance Army.
His last words in this article were "I cannot forgive and I cannot forget".
Those words spoke to me because so many people in America hold grudges and stay angry over things that after reading this young man's story would seem so trivial. Yes we live in a different society, but we are apart of the same world. Our cultures may be different but had we gone through the same atrocities, I think we'd be saying the same things. We'd feel the same feelings, and we would have the same thoughts. We're all human, and I think its time that we start recognizing that.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/5129350.stm
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