Turnings and Epiphanies: Militarization, Life Histories, and the Making and Unmaking of Two Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone

Abstract

The militarization of children and their active participation in conflict continues to be a global phenomenon affecting hundreds of thousands of children. Yet many of the realities of child soldiery remain unclear and continue to be under-researched. In particular, the process of militarization and how it impinges on the identities and actions of children who are drawn into conflict remains poorly understood. Similarly, the experiences of children undergoing demobilization and a return to post-conflict, non-militarized social circumstances are essentially undocumented. Through the use of a life-history approach, this paper examines the making and unmaking of two Sierra Leonean child soldiers, one female and one male, in relation to the militarization of social systems and subsequent efforts to demobilize belligerent social groups. The paper reviews the turnings and epiphanies of these children's lives—particularly how these children became implicated as combatants in Sierra Leone's civil war, the manner and degree to which they assumed a militarized ‘identity’, and their subsequent efforts to re-adapt to civilian life in a context of post-war demilitarization.

Notes

1. For this paper, the definition of a child will coincide with the definition set out in the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. According to the Convention, a child is defined as ‘every human being below the age of eighteen years’ (Article 1).

2. The names of the two participants have been changed to ensure confidentiality and anonymity.

3. An important indicator of the trust and close relationships that were established between the research team and participants is that many participants continue to visit and socialize at the offices of the Sierra Leonean research team at DCI-SL. Despite the project's completion, the children continue to use the local non-governmental organization offices as meeting places to visit with the adult researchers, other child participants. Moreover, the participants and their families have warmly received the research team at subsequent meetings, official or otherwise. While posing a challenge as a result of our permanent residency in Canada, we have continued to correspond and keep in touch with the young Sierra Leonean participants and their families.

4. Several months following our last interview with Isata, the research team organized a community conference in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, to disseminate the findings of the research. Most of the children who had participated in the study also participated and offered feedback to our findings and initial interpretations. Unfortunately, despite lengthy searches, the research team was unable find Isata so she could participate in the conference. We later learned that she had travelled to the north of the country in an attempt to locate her mother, whom she had not seen since her abduction at age nine. Several months following the community conference, we learned that Isata had managed to reunite with her mother. Yet soon afterwards she succumbed to a fatal infection for which she was unable to receive treatment. Her two children have remained in the care of her mother.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Myriam Denov

Dr Myriam Denov is Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at McGill University, Canada

Richard Maclure

Dr Richard Maclure is Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa, Canada