How de Body?: One Man's Terrifying Journey Through an African War

by Teun Voeten

In 1998, acclaimed photojournalist Teun Voeten headed to Sierra Leone for what he thought would be a standard assignment on the child soldiers there. But the cease-fire ended just as he arrived, and the clash between the military junta and the West African peace-keeping troops forced him to hide in the bush from rebels who were intent on killing him. How de Body? ("how are you?" in Sierra Leone's Creole English) is a dramatic account of the conflict...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312282192
• ISBN13: 9780312282196
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 308 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Gripping History

Emotional and gripping. Publisher's Weekly misses the mark completely. Here we find a struggle to tell the story of the Sierra Leone disaster from a new and compelling perspective. This is fundamentally not a story about the author himself, though his setting his harrowing tale within his own experience helps us to understand the people of Sierra Leone far better than any news report, photo essay, or anthropological tome that I have seen to date. The book succeeds perhaps precisely because the author does not delve into a further discussion of his own PTSD, but rather covers it incidentally through that of the children, the therapist working with the children, and, yes, in context, the occasional hint of the depth of his own near destruction. I am most grateful for the opportunity through this book to know people in Sierra Leone like Eddie, and am reminded of vignettes from the second world war about those who, surrounded by death at every turn, still found within themselves the courage to help others. For Eddie alone, this is a story to be read. I myself witnessed Sierra Leone's disaster at a time just before the events in this book. Voeten's depiction of the people of Sierra Leone -- those who committed atrocities, and those who were the subjects of those atrocites, all victims -- to me rings very true indeed.

Highly interesting, gripping and realistic

This book is definitely to be recommended for people interested in modern Africa and journalism. It tells the gripping tale of a Dutch (or Belgian?) journalist caught in the middle of the civil war in Sierra Leone. Don't hesitate just buy and enjoy!! Pieter

You are there, in Sierra Leone, during the past ten years.

For people from Sierra Leone, this book verifies the stories and rumors that they have been hearing over the years. The excellent pictures speak for themselves. References are there so that the reader may continue to read more about the devastation of a people from a peaceful country. For those who don't know about the tragedy going on in West Africa, this book tells all.

True to life

I recently visited the places Voeten speaks about in this book. He tells the truth about a beautiful people and a tragic land.

Fun and terror as a war reporter...

a most amazing mix of humor, terror and intrigue. voten is charming and real. One of the best books in this genre ever!