"War Witch" "You will come out of my belly one day," "I know you will." "So I have to tell you how I became a soldier with the rebels," "Listen good when I talk to you because it's very important that you know what I did before you come out of my belly." "Because when you come out," "I don't know if God will give me the strength to love you." "I started to make war when Great Tiger's rebels kidnapped me from my village." "12 YEARS OLD" "Kill them." "If you don't kill them, I will... with a machete." "They will suffer a lot." "Komona, do as he says." "You are now a rebel of Great Tiger." "We have 10 kids." "Twenty AK-47s." "Hurry." "Sit down." "Take it." "This is your mother." "This is your father." "Don't hold the gun like that." "You have to hold it like this." "Understood?" "Don't ever lose it, ever, ever." "We are rebels." "Respect your guns." "They're your new mother and father." "Look at me." "Why are you looking at the ground?" "When I started to make war with the rebels," "I had to work very hard and I had to fight against the soldiers from the government, because if I didn't, they would hit me with a stick." "And I had to learn to make the tears go inside my eyes so they didn't see I was crying." "When my tears wanted to go outside," "I had to go in the forest so no one would see me." "Give me the cookies!" "Give!" "I have not eaten in two days!" "No one must know I gave you these." "I will tell you a story... that tells how hard a soldier's life is." "Look." "My scar." "Look here." "It's a bullet wound." "We were told not to smoke at night, but I smoked and I was shot." "Lift the gun." "Come on, shoot." "Run!" "When we take the magic milk from the tree, we can see things." "We see ghosts all over." "When I see the ghosts it helps me do the job, because when I see the ghosts" "I don't see the red meat leaking red on the ground." "All I see are the ghosts that walk in the forest." "There are many, many ghosts here, You wouldn't believe." "Too many ghosts." "Even when I sleep, I see ghosts inside my head." "I don't know if you'll believe me, but I'm the only one from my village who survived the bullets of the government." "That's how they decided that I was a witch and that I could tell where the demons from the government were hiding in the forest." "13 YEARS OLD" "We have a witch!" "Who will help us win against the government!" "My generals liked the things I could see in the forest so much that they gave me a big reward." "They sent me to see Great Tiger so I could meet him and become his war witch." "They say that you can see the government soldiers hidden in the forest." "I have a gift for you." "My wizard gave it magic powers." "When I was at Great Tiger's camp," "I had to tell the things I saw in my head and I had to carry a black rock that they called "Coltan"." "I don't know what Great Tiger does with the Coltan, but I think it is very important to make war." "I saw a rebel who stole the Coltan from Great Tiger, and to punish him, they dug a hole in the ground and they put the rebel in the hole except for his head." "I saw him each day for three days with just his head out of the ground, and he died just like that with his mouth open, and the flies that would come in and out of his mouth." "Don't hit Great Tiger's witch!" "Since I became Great Tiger's witch, the ones who tried to hurt me would risk getting killed, because Great Tiger said that, with me, he would win all the battles and that I was sacred." "It's time to celebrate!" "Ask me better than this!" "Tell us!" "It's a book about Great Tiger." "When he was saying his prayers at noon, in the sun, he came onto 30 elephants." "But because of his magic, he was able to fight the elephants." "You know why he's called Great Tiger?" "Because his magic is so strong that he can even eat men." "What are you doing?" "Sit down." "What is it?" "It's the eye of the night." "He sees everything that happens in the night." "And that?" "Protection by the ancestors." "And the wings?" "It's the bird of the night." "He takes the eye to the sky." "I have something that you will always have to keep on you." "Give me your hand." "Put it in your pocket." " what are you doing?" " I'm drinking magic milk." "The chief's son wanted to get married, so he invited girls." "They put their makeup on with lipstick..." "You are pretty, mademoiselle." "One day, many government soldiers came to the mine because they wanted to steal the Coltan from Great Tiger," "So I took my AK-47 and we won the battle." "Even if there were more soldiers in front of us than I have hairs on my head," "we're not going back to Great Tiger!" " I am not leaving!" " You're coming with us!" "I'm dreaming." "See this grigri?" "You're the one who's going to die if you shoot, not me." "After everything I have done for you!" "I protected you in the camp, in the river..." " We're going back to Great Tiger." " No!" "You've lost your mind." "They've made you crazy." "Go on, leave." "Come on." "Let's go." " Leave me!" " Come on, I said!" "Now listen to me." "The magician spoke to me for a very long time." "He told me that, one day or another, I would die, that the government soldiers would kill me or that Great Tiger would make holes in me with his AK-47, on the day I would not do the job well," "He told me that Great Tiger had already killed three witches before me," "So I decided to listen to Magician and leave with him." "Are we moving forward or backward?" "Even a pig rows better than you!" "You don't know what you're saying!" "We would have tipped the boat if it wasn't for me!" "After we ran away from Great Tiger," "Magician told me he loved me and he asked me to marry him," "I told him what my father told me to answer to the boys who asked to marry me," "I told him you can't marry me just like that and that, if he wanted to marry me, he had to find me a white rooster." "My father always told me that the hardest thing to find in my country is a white rooster," "Give me a white rooster!" "Give me a white rooster!" "You're making fun of me?" "You're in love?" "You wanna get married?" "Mama Angele!" "What's so funny, Papa?" "He's looking for a white rooster to get married." "You are completely crazy!" "Magician searched for a white rooster for a very long time," " Were can I find a white rooster?" " Well, it doesn't exist." "Of course it exists." "I'm looking for one." "My father wanted to marry the prettiest girl in town." "They asked for a white rooster, but he never found one." "So he married my mother for 10 cows!" "OK, OK, OK. where are the chickens around here?" "There's a henhouse further that way, but there are no white roosters." "Drop it." "Bastards!" "You will get your throat slit just like chickens!" "I don't want to." "We need a white rooster to be together." "White roosters don't exist." "Your daddy lied to you." "They don't exist." "Everyone I ask tells me they don't exist." "White roosters only exist in your village." "And you refuse me for a white rooster that doesn't exist." "I don't have one for you, so I'm leaving." "My leg!" "Stop your nonsense." " I need money for the hospital!" " Liar!" "He threw himself on the car!" "You hit my brother!" "Pay him!" "Help!" "Tell me." "Know where I can find a white rooster?" "It's very difficult to find." "I know they are difficult to find!" "Give me a grigri to protect me from war." " That's all you want?" " Yes." " Is Maestro here?" " Yes." "A white rooster is very expensive." "It's rare." "It will cost you a lot." "They tell me you are a magician." "I have three wives." "I see one on Monday, one on Tuesday and the other on Wednesday, not easy to do." "So you give me a little money and I also need something for strength." "No problem, I have something for you." "With that, I can have fifteen wives?" "You will be in control of the situation." "Here's the white rooster." "If it's to get married, then show your courage." "Come." "Uncle!" "Are you finished with the war?" "My wife, Komona." "You don't need this anymore." "Everybody called Magician's uncle "The Butcher"." "He would always keep an empty bucket next to him when he cut the meat, because every time he would cut the meat with his machete, it would remind him of what happened to his family and he wanted to throw up." "I will not tell you what happened to his family, because if I do you won't listen anymore." "You will do like you don't have holes in your ears." "Qe press and extract the oil." "Qe've come for Great Tiger's witch." "She's not his witch." "She's my wife." "She's not going anywhere." " We are leaving with the witch!" " She's not leaving." "Hold him!" "Leave him!" "Kill him." "You are my wife." "Be happy." "Take her!" "14 YEARS OLD" "It has been two years since my commander stole me from my village to make war." "It is him who put you inside my belly." "I wonder if I throw up like this because you're filled with poison." "My commander decided to marry me because the girl that slept with him before me was killed in the war with an AK-47, so he needed a new girl to sleep with him." "Since my husband the magician was killed, my father and my mother's ghosts came back to give me nightmares." "Each day, they tell me I have to go back to my village to bury them." "They tell me that if I don't bury them, they will stay in my head." "They will never ever leave." "Before I go back to my village," "I have to become a poisoned rose so I can kill my commander." "because I don't want the crazy things in his head to go into your head." "To become a poisoned rose, you have to have a thorn, like a rose." "Why are you looking at me?" "I'm not looking at you." "You're looking at me." "You were waiting for me?" "You want to make love?" "You're all alike." "Each day, I pray God to give me the strength to love you, even if you look like your father who forced me to sleep with him, even when I cried." "Help!" "Guns are not allowed here." "Give me your gun." "No." "I'm keeping it." "Are you OK, little girl?" "Help us, Komona." "Why aren't you helping us?" "Come." "Drive us." "It's a hearse." "I'm waiting for a body." "You can get the body later." "Go!" "You can go to the cemetery later." " Faster!" " You can't do that." "Where do you want to go?" "You'll go back to prison if we take you to a hospital." "To my uncle's, The Butcher." " You know where it is?" " Yes." "Where does The Butcher live?" "Take a right at the end." "Push." "Why did you do this?" "You could have suffocated the baby, you know?" "The baby is OK." "Stay." "You are like my daughter." "I will teach you how to take care of the goats." "My gun!" "Give me my gun or else I'll kill you." "My gun is my child." "It's my father." "It's my mother." "I will kill you." "Give me my gun." "You're having a nightmare." "I don't know how long I stayed at The Butcher's." "It feels like time stopped." "Every night, my nightmares tell me to go back and bury my parents, but you force me to stay here at The Butcher's, even if I have to bury my parents before you come out of my belly," "or else the evil spirits will punish you for all the bad things that I have done, just like they punished my husband the magician because I married him before I buried my father and my mother." "You want to make me admit things." "You are a witch." "You eat people at night." "I eat no one!" "You eat people at night!" "How did the witchcraft get into your body?" "It's not in my body!" "what do you want?" "I have witchcraft in my body." "How did it get in?" "Through Great Tiger's gun." "What?" "Through Great Tiger's gun." "What do you want?" "I want you to rid me of the witchcraft." "I need a token to pray." "You must pray a lot and ask God for forgiveness so that Komona's spirit returns to your body." "I will kill you!" "You killed my family, my husband!" "Give me my gun!" "what's gotten into you?" "Wait!" "Each day, I pray to God to help me so I don't hate you, so I don't throw you in the river when you come out of my belly," "In my head, there are things that even the magic milk can't erase." "Go, go, Father" "Go, go, Mother" "I decided to call you Magician," "Like my husband who died, because I hope that, one day, you will become strong and courageous just like him." "Where are you heading?" " To my uncle's, The Butcher." " Get in!" "I don't have any money." "No one has money." "It's OK." "I'll take care of him."