War Brothers

In War Brothers, Oteka functions as Jacob’s foil. While Jacob is rich, happy-go-lucky, and naïve, Oteka is poor yet knowledgeable about the world. In the opening chapters, Oteka is desperate for money so he can pay a medicine man to reach out to his deceased mother. After Jacob gives him money from their church’s collection plate, Oteka visits the medicine man, but the only word that his mother says to him from beyond the grave is “Kony.”

After the death of his caretaker, Oteka joins the Lord’s Resistance Army due to his lack of food and support. While Jacob and the other boys from the boarding school are treated more as captives than soldiers, Oteka is given a weapon and forced to fight for the army, as he’s proven himself capable to the leaders.

However, Oteka’s loyalties lie with the kidnapped boys, particularly Jacob, as Oteka remembers him from the earlier incident in church. Though usually unable to provide direct support, Oteka’s whispered advice allows Jacob and his friends to survive the grueling months on the march. Oteka is characterized as loyal and brave, frequently putting himself into situations where he might be injured or killed helping another. Jacob’s character arc toward bravery and survival is explicitly modeled on his respect for Oteka, as he’s often shown considering what Oteka might do in a given situation.

After Oteka helps Jacob and the other children escape, Jacob starts to consider him as a brother. Though they hadn’t known each other well before the Lord’s Resistance Army, their shared traumatic experiences forged deep bonds between them. At the novel’s close, Oteka escapes back into the jungle, wishing to rescue more children from the army.

Jacob and the other children meet Hannah a few chapters into the novel, after she’s already been kidnapped. Hannah is presented as an example of the Lord’s Resistance Army’s punishment techniques, as she’s had her ears severed. However, she regards this as a secret advantage, as her mutilation leads the commanders to generally leave her alone compared to the other girls.

Though initially quiet and compliant, Hannah soon reveals herself to be just as brave, strong, and inventive as any of the boys she is with, putting herself in danger multiple times to help them all escape. While initially, her personal history is a mystery, she eventually reveals the events of her kidnapping and her desire to become a nun. Jacob considers Hannah to be beautiful, which he understands sets him apart from the other people in the camp, who cannot see past her lack of ears. Once she’s proven herself to be reliable and loyal, Jacob starts to consider her one of his closest friends. At the end of the novel, Hannah visits Jacob and tells him she now wishes to be a teacher, not a nun. The two of them walk hand-in-hand to meet his father, implying a future romantic bond between them.

In the novel’s Epilogue, which explores what happened to the real-life counterparts of the children in the novel, it’s revealed that Jacob and Hannah eventually get married after Hannah becomes a teacher.