All the Glimmering Stars

A secondary protagonist in the novel, Florence Okori lives in Uganda with her father, Constantine, and her mother, Josca. She’s four years old at the start of the novel when she contracts malaria and nearly dies. However, her survival inspires her to strive to become a nurse (suggesting that her name alludes to Florence Nightingale). She’s a hardworking student and catches up on the work she missed while sick, finishing primary school at the top of her class. Additionally, she works hard at home, completing chores with her mother and father each day while learning about the land and various medicinal herbs.

At 14, Florence’s life is uprooted when she’s kidnapped by the LRA. She undergoes physical and emotional abuse at the hands of its men and is raped by a commander who takes her as his wife. However, she remains optimistic and courageous, ignoring the brutality of her situation and instead focusing on her desire to return home and fulfill her dream of becoming a nurse. Central to Florence’s character is her notebook, which symbolizes her future after the war. As a child, she writes about her hopes and dreams in her notebook, emphasizing the fact that “no one can take [her] dreams from [her]. Only [she] can let them go or hold them tight” (98). When she loses the notebook after being kidnapped, she continues to keep a mental list of her dreams and record them in her mind. In this way, the memory of her notebook reminds Florence that she has a future—despite everything she experiences in the present.

Florence’s development throughout the novel emphasizes the theme of The Journey to Agency and Control. Even when the LRA soldiers kidnap and then objectify her, she maintains hope and is resilient despite everything she faces. She actively tries to make her situation better, completing chores and helping Mariama while living with Okaya and later joining the field hospital to help soldiers while preparing for her future as a nurse. While Florence initially focuses on the needs of those around her in the LRA, choosing to do so to survive, she ultimately takes control of her own future by escaping and going to the police station. As she stands outside the station, contemplating whether to go in, it’s a significant moment for her character. After years of mental and physical abuse, she’s afraid to turn herself in for fear of repercussions; however, she chooses to overcome that fear, finally freeing herself emotionally from Kony and the LRA.

The novel’s primary antagonist, Joseph Kony, is a real person, and his actions in the novel are largely based on real events. Born in the 1960s in Uganda, Kony was an altar boy and a devout Christian. He’s one of the primary members of the insurgency against Museveni’s government in Uganda in the 1980s, founding the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) with the goal of overthrowing Museveni and creating a Christian state in Uganda. Central to his power was the belief that he was possessed by spirits and blessed by the Lord, containing powers that allowed him to invoke storms. Today, he’s still believed to be in hiding, as he’s wanted by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court for his nearly two decades of crimes against humanity while fighting in Uganda and the Sudan.

All the Glimmering Stars explores the duality of Kony as both a nearly mythical being and a human being. The first time Anthony sees Kony, he’s warned about going near him, as he’s said to have “powers” and can “call storms” (11). When Anthony meets him for the first time on the mountain, he’s awed at his “possession” by spirits and the power that he exudes. This interaction highlights Kony’s ability to control others and become a dominant force in Uganda. Anthony’s internal conflict (feeling both awed by Kony and hating him for the things he has done) explores Kony’s ability to inspire people to follow him, instill fear in those who resisted him, and portray himself as something more than human.

As he works closely with Kony throughout the novel, Anthony witnesses Kony’s deterioration and descent into isolation. The latter part of the novel moves quickly through Kony’s different military decisions, as he becomes desperate to maintain his power and avoid capture. As he loses his military strength, he begins to spend months in hiding, abandoning his army and dressing in disguises—as is evident when Florence sees him dressed as a woman—to evade pursuers. When Anthony sees him for the first time in months, he notes that Kony has “aged well beyond his forty-four years[…], his dreadlocks and beard […] graying, his cheeks […] gaunt, and his eyes […] sunken and rheumy” and that he has “developed a tic in his left cheek, [as] if […] on some kind of drug” (396). Through Anthony’s eyes, the novel explores the growth and strength of Kony throughout his war and his subsequent downfall as Uganda and the Sudan unite against him.

Florence’s parents, Josca and Constantine Okori, provide her with love and support during her childhood, encouraging her to become a nurse and teaching her about the land and medicinal herbs. They’re nurturing and foster Florence’s dreams even though young women normally married early and started a family.

At the end of the novel, Josca and Constantine serve to represent an unfortunate reality for many who managed to escape Kony’s army. When Florence returns, they’re hesitant to accept her children and outright refuse to acknowledge her marriage to Anthony. Despite the fact that Florence—like many female children—was sexually abused by the LRA soldiers, members of the public were judgmental and hesitant to accept them back into civilization. In this way, Florence’s parents highlight the duality of the situation of Florence, Anthony, and others: They were unwillingly forced into the brutality of the LRA yet upon returning home were often judged for the atrocities they were forced to commit.

An antagonist in the novel, Seargent Bacia is Kony’s primary tracker, hunting down then bringing back those who try to escape the LRA. He serves largely as a foil to soldiers like Anthony and Captain Oyet, who were forced into the LRA and unwillingly participated in committing atrocities. In contrast, Bacia enjoys his role as a soldier, brutally killing two young boys who tried to escape, almost killing Anthony, and bragging to Anthony about killing his mother. Bacia’s status as a wholly evil villain emphasizes that not all of Kony’s men were trapped in the LRA but took pleasure in perpetrating malicious deeds.