Child Soldiers As Reflected in the African Francophone War Literature of the 1990S and 2000S
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Child Soldiers as Reflected in the African Francophone War Literature of the 1990s and 2000s By Katunga Joseph Minga A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Johannesburg 2012 Abstract The ‘child soldier’ is one of the most challenging concepts confronting the modern mind. Neither wholly “perpetrator” nor “innocent”, the child soldier character haunts the pages of our recent novels, drawing the reader into the sad page of the recent African history of civil wars. As controversial now as it was in the 1990s when it first appeared, the literature about child soldiers both invites and resists the reader‘s understanding of the reasons behind the grotesque acts of the African child soldier. Francophone African writers such as Ahamadou Kourouma, Emmanuel Dongala and Florent Couao-Zotti among others, have reappropriated the theory of the grotesque as a useful tool for investigating the postcolonial realities through the trope of child soldier. Distortion, degradation, irony, symbolism, and so on, as strategies of representation used in these writers’ novels all contribute not only to increase the reader’s difficulty in comprehending the child soldier but also to deny him sympathy. However, on examining closely the child soldier character whose acts everybody detests, the francophone African writers expose our new sacrificial and cannibalist practices. It is in this respect that the present study proposes to read the child soldier as a postcolonial figure which has become a signifier, not only of war and lawlessness, but also of marginal alienated African people who are victims of the exploitation of systems of modernity. The study further suggests that, in focusing our analyses exclusively upon the child soldier’s ambiguous nature as simultaneously ‘child’ and ‘soldier’, ‘strong’ and ‘weak’, ‘inocent’and‘guilty’, ‘protector’ and ‘destroyer’, and so on, this concept will start to become understandable. In other words, we will solve the problem of child soldier’s violence when such contradictions are given critical attention. It is thus only fitting that multiple voices or perspectives contradict one another in addressing postcolonial issues in Africa of which the child soldier is a clear example in this study. ii Declaration I declare that this thesis is my own unaided work. It is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It has not been submitted before for any other degree or examination at any other university. _________________________ Katunga Joseph Minga _____ day of __________ , 2012. iii Dedication I dedicate this work to all African children who continue to suffer and those who died in war and never lived to tell the story of their pain. iv Acknowledgements The work in front of your eyes has been made possible by a huge number of people, a number far too large to acknowledge appropriately within such a narrow space. Consequently, I start by offering gratitude to all, before acknowledging a few groups and individuals. If I may be asked to say what my sacrifice was like in all these nine past years at this university; I would simply say that I climbed up the face of the rock on my hands and knees, a feat many thought could not be accomplished. I then hope nobody will take offence if I congratulate myself first for this achievement. But, what will the race be without the encouragement of others? Most of all I am indebted to my wife, Virginia Bambi Minga without whose care and support this work would not have been completed. Virginia has endured it all for the success of this project more than anybody: I, often without noticing it, took all my frustrations out on you, but you willingly accepted it all. I owe a great debt to you my sons Ephraim Kabuya Minga, Blessed Mukanya Minga, Céphas Katunga Minga, and to you my daughter, Beulah Ntumba Minga, who needed to spend quality time with your Dad. I cheated it to work on this thesis. I would like to thank you and ask forgiveness for all these years of sacrifice you have endured for me. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my supervisors, namely, Professor Judith Inggs and Professor Véronique Tadjo. The project would have been difficult without their assistance and even more so without their intelligent insight which allowed me to improve this work. Please do accept my thanks for your valuable criticism. I would also like to express my gratitude to my advisor, Professor Robert Muponde with whom the idea of letting others know about child soldiers in my country began. My gratitude goes back again to my editor, Tammy Baikie, for her patience in reformulating my ill-constructed sentences due to the interference of the French syntax. However, she will not be held responsible for the ideas advanced nor the mistakes that might occur in this work. To make things which are stuck work is not something I could have done myself. A big thank you to Dr. Libby Meintjes, the Acting Head of School, in this regard. I am also grateful in a less personal but equally real sense to the University of the Witwatersrand for granting me the Merit Scholarship for three consecutive years that enabled to start working on this project. In this regard, I also extend my thanks to Professor James Ogude who never hesitated to support me each time I needed a reference letter to support my application for financial aid. Perhaps more importantly are my Christian brothers and sisters who were praying for me in secret. I thank in this regard the Katunga Christian family. Thank you for your prayers. Given my financial difficulties especially over the past two years, a few friends have helped out; I would be remiss if I do not thank them. A special acknowledgement goes to v my friends José Matundu Diamena and Margaret Northey who have been friends in need and indeed during the last moments when writing this thesis. And lastly, my eternal thanks are due to the Almighty God by whose strength and mercy I have come thus far. vi List of Abbreviations AK47: Automatic Kalashnikov 19471 AFL: Armed forces of Liberia (Forces armées du Libéria) CEDEAO: Communauté économique des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS)2 ECOMOG/ECOWAS: Economic Community of West African States Monitoring (Group) (Communauté économique des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest) 3 UNHCR United Nations High Commission for Refugees (Haut commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés) MFDLP: Mouvement pour la libération démocratique du people (fictional) MFTLP Mouvement pour la libération totale du people (fictional) NPFL : National Patriotic Front of Liberia (Front national patriotique du Liberia) RUF Revolutionary United Front (Front Révolutionnaire Uni) ULIMO: United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (Mouvement uni de libération pour la démocratie au Liberia) SLA Sierra Leone Army (Armée sierra-léonaise) 1 Kalashnikov invented the gun in 1947 and it is an automatic hence AK47. 2 The francophone ECOWAS is CEDEAO 3 ECOMOG was a West African multilateral armed force established by ECOWAS vii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................. ii Declaration .......................................................................................................................... iii Dedication ............................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... v List of the Abbreviations .................................................................................................... vii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... viii Pictures .................................................................................................................................. x SECTION A: Generalities about child soldier & literature Chapter 1: General introduction ....................................................................................... 1 1.1. Aim and context ........................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Conflicting perspectives in the texts ............................................................................ 10 1.3. Chapter Breakdown ...................................................................................................... 13 Chapter 2: Literature review and Theoretical framework ........................................... 16 2.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 16 2.1 Francophone African literature depicting child figures ................................................ 16 2.2.Tropes and characteristics of the novels ........................................................................ 39 2.2.1 African folklore, historiography and the novels about child soldiers ........................ 39 2.2.2. Child warriors and empire (nation) builders ............................................................. 41 2.2.2.1. Shaka Zulu .............................................................................................................. 43 2.2.2.2.