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WAR/DANCE
For the last twenty years, Northern Uganda has been at war with a rebel force, the Lord’s Resistance Army (L.R.A.). As in any war zone, the children are hit the hardest. But here the children are not only the victims of the rebels, they are the rebels. The L.R.A has a chillingly effective process to fill its ranks: abducting children. Eighty percent of their army is kids, some as young as five. Under the cover of darkness, the rebels raid villages to kidnap new soldiers. Children are ripped from their beds, their parents unarmed and helpless. Once abducted, the children are forced at gunpoint to viciously beat or kill neighbors, other children and sometimes even their own parents. The boys become soldiers, the girls forced into sexual slavery. After two decades, there is little sign of peace on the horizon, but amidst the grief and violence, voices are heard - children’s voices, singing strong, without fear. Their bodies shake and stomp to the rhythms of their ancestors. They dance about their homeland, they dance about their future, they dance to be children…and they dance to win. Across the country, Ugandan children are getting ready for the biggest event of the year: the annual Kampala Music Festival. Fifty-six schools will compete, but only one will go home the champion. No one expects it to be Patongo – schools in the middle of refugee camps don’t win awards. War Dance will follow the courageous efforts of Patongo’s students as they pour their hearts into winning this year’s music competition against all odds. “The music helps them forget,” sighs Patongo’s head teacher. He wishes he could give his students more. The war has stolen so much: their homes, their parents and their childhoods. Patongo’s refugee camp packs sixty thousand people in its endless squalor. There is no electricity, running water, and no place safe. Close to half of the primary school students are escaped child soldiers. The bullet holes in the school wall tell the stories the children would rather forget. Two years ago, the L.R.A. dragged twenty-nine children from their schoolhouse to become their soldiers. You can see the horror in the eyes of these children: Rose, 13, the choirgirl trying to piece her life back together after witnessing the brutal aftermath of her parents grisly murder; Dominic, 14, the escaped child soldier and virtuoso xylophone player, forced to murder three people; and Nancy, 12, who kept herself and two younger siblings alive in the bush for a month after the L.R.A. killed their father and abducted their mother. She now dreams of becoming a doctor. But when the music starts, expressions shift. After a lifetime of trauma, this year Patongo Primary School students have something magical to anticipate. For the first time, they have qualifed to compete in Kampala’s national festival. The capital city may as well be on another planet to these kids. Most have never left the camp, but they dream about Kampala’s towering buildings, plentiful soda and soldier-free streets. Unlike the wealthier schools from the south, Patongo’s students scrap for school uniforms and instruments. Despite the odds, the children endlessly practice their performances, filling the sweltering one room schoolhouse with dust. They are driven by heart, talent and, for some, the need to rebuild lives shattered by the L.R.A.. After months of practicing, it all builds to the big night in Kampala. If their bus can safely make it through rebel territory, they’ll take the stage and give it their all. Win or lose, these children will show what true heart can achieve.

Click here to read about Uganda's Civil War.

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