Child Soldiers in Context. Biographies, familial and collective trajectories in northern Uganda
Final Report Abstract
The main focus of this research project was on reconstructing the "Reintegration" courses of former rebel soldiers who were underage at the time of their often violent “recruitment” into the chiliastic rebel movement in northern Uganda known as the “Lord’s Resistance Army” (LRA). We set out to investigate their experiences after leaving the rebel group and returning to civilian life, both in public and private contexts, within the local society and in their families. An important first result provided a focus for further field studies: it became clear early on, especially in individual interviews, that the biographical self-presentations and stories told by the ex-rebels were not compatible with the dominant public discourse. International and national commentators often speak, in idealizing terms, of what is described as a deep-rooted and strong local culture of reconciliation and constructive conflict management among the Acholi (referred to as "traditional justice" or "mato oput"). This is contradicted by the accounts of former rebel fighters and child soldiers, who speak of discrimination experienced in everyday situations, especially in their families of origin and in the town or village where they live after leaving the rebel group. In order to be able to understand and explain this finding, in addition to conducting biographical-narrative interviews with individuals, we decided to hold group discussions with different groups of people, and to make extensive case studies of ex-rebels and their families (both their families of origin and the families they founded), in which several family members were interviewed and family interviews were conducted. We observed a marked ambivalence in the attitude of family members towards the ex-rebels or former child soldiers, which oscillated between respect and pathologization (often it would be right to say demonization). The weak position of the ex-rebels in their families of origin, and often an emotionally unbridgeable divide, was also observed. Finding a solution to these difficulties is made difficult not least by the above-mentioned dominant discourse, which plays down these problems. This correlates closely with the apologetic attitude of many Acholi towards their collective history, including their strong sympathy for the LRA leadership which is based on a local discourse of victimhood and, to a large extent, indeed on a shared history of suffering under different regimes.
Publications
- Rebellen in Norduganda nach der Rückkehr ins zivile Leben: Zwischen einem starken Wir-Bild und dem Erleben von Isolation und Diskriminierung. In: Leviathan, Jg. 44 (1): 126–154
Bogner, Artur /Rosenthal, Gabriele
(See online at https://doi.org/10.5771/0340-0425-2016-1-126) - Biographien – Diskurse – Figurationen. Methodologische Überlegungen aus einer sozialkonstruktivistischen und figurationssoziologischen Perspektive. In: Spies, Tina / Tuider, Elisabeth (Hrsg): Biographie und Diskurs. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, S. 43-67
Bogner, Artur / Rosenthal, Gabriele
- Biographies in the Global South: Life Stories Embedded in Figurations and Discourses. Frankfurt a. M.: Campus
Rosenthal, Gabriele / Bogner, Artur (Hrsg.)
- Familial and life (hi)stories of former child-soldiers of the LRA in northern Uganda. In: Rosenthal, G. / Bogner, A. (Hrsg.): Biographies in the Global South: Life Stories Embedded in Figurations and Discourses. Frankfurt a. M.: Campus, S. 50-102
Bogner, Artur / Rosenthal, Gabriele / Schmiereck, Josephine
- Rebels in northern Uganda after their return to civilian life: between a strong we-image and experiences of isolation and discrimination. In: Canadian Journal of African Studies. Vol. 51 (2): 175-197
Bogner, Artur / Rosenthal Gabriele
(See online at https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2017.1306451)
