Part of God’s Family

I meet Ross on a rafting expedition on the Nile.

Originally from Ireland, he now lives in New York and works as a cinematographer. He spends his time flying around the world shooting documentaries for armchair anthropologists.Last month, the upcoming elections in Uganda. Next month, drug lords in Mexico. His stubble is raggy and goes well with the sunburned nose, touche for someone recently returned from Uganda's arid north. His accent is sometimes Irish - sometimes American, and he speaks with the measured cynicism of one who's seen his share of the world's hotspots.

He tells wild tales of the North.

Scarification. Concentration camps. Children firing semi-automatics at passing aid convoys.

Nightly migrations of children from the countryside to the towns to avoid rebel abductions.

Ritual human sacrifice and catholic missionaries administering the sacraments amongst the plunder of cattle-raiding parties.

He tells of the origins of the enigmatic Mr Kony, personally gathered from flesh and blood relatives. Or a version of, I suppose. You can no more accrue true facts about the real Joseph any more than Hitler or Napolean

Especially in Africa.

From all accounts though, Joseph appeared to be a quiet, softly-spoken child from Gulu in Northern Uganda. Never much into sports, he preferred debating and reading and studying the flora and fauna upward of the Nile.When he grew up, he wanted to be a doctor.

But this all changes on his 15th birthday. He becomes full of the Holy Spirit.

He begins to speak in tongues and perform miracles. The sick are healed and the dead raised to life. Villagers come to him to drive the demons from their family members. In a short time he becomes a local celebrity. Amidst the northern tribes long opppressed by the policies from Kampala in the south, he vows to overthrow the current president Musuveni and restore balance to Uganda. The Holy Spirit assures him he cannot fail.

And so the Lord's Resistance Army is born. They announce a singular aim: to overthrow the heathen government and rule Uganda according to the biblical Ten Commandments, that exhaustive list of all that is good and proper.. Only then will Uganda be restored to it's true Christian heritage.

He begins to build his army.

All those that follow his 'Holy Spirit' rules will be divinely protected while they accomplish God's will.They must chant 'James Bond! James Bond!' as they march into battle. There's to be no sheltering behind anthills or termite mounds. Butter must be spread across their foreheads. Soldiers must have a regulation two testicles, no more no less. Bullets won't stop them and bombs will only slow them down.

But the Holy Spirit fails to protect them and they fall in droves to the well-funded and elite trained troops of the government. So LRA soldiers begin to raid local villages. Children as young as 8 are forcibly abducted and forced to fight government troops. For months they are trained in cmobat and prepared for their first mission.

One evening they are sent out and told 'Track down and kill your family and then you will be part of God's family'

This all started in 1988. For over 20 years, Joseph Kony has kept northern Uganda in a virtually constant state of civil war.

The statistics are staggering. Over 5000 boys abducted from families and forced to fight. Over 3000 girls captured as sex slaves. Rewards for valient soldiers.

Joseph Kony is now in the top 5 suspects wanted by the international criminal court for crimes against humanity.

Little is known about his current whereabouts. He used to have bases in southern Sudan, funded by the Sudanese government. Convoys of military supplies would be shipped down to the LRA, virtually passing supplies sent by Uganda to anti-government Sudanese rebels. But in 2004, the governments of Uganda and Sudan held talks and decided it would be simply splendid if they stopped supporting each other's rebels.

So then Mr Kony had nowhere to go. He was in the Congo for a while perhaps. Maybe in Chad. Possibly now in Central African Republic. But he is not forgotten. He seems to be ever present but never present.

And he epitomises the North-South divide I find to keep recurring.

As the Nile cuts Uganda in two geographically, it also separates it socially and politically . With elections looming in the new year, I can't help but feel this is a country still deeply divided.