Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2014 Unlocking the Voices of Child Soldiers in Sub-Saharan African Novels, Films and Autobiographies Marda Messay Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES UNLOCKING THE VOICES OF CHILD SOLDIERS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN NOVELS, FILMS AND AUTOBIOGRAPHIES By MARDA MESSAY A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2014 Marda Messay defended this dissertation on April 11, 2014. The members of the supervisory committee were: Martin Munro Professor Directing Dissertation Peter Garretson University Representative Alec Hargreaves Committee Member Reinier Leushuis Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii For my parents and Beru iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Martin Munro, for his patience, guidance and encouragement, as well as Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies for their financial support throughout my graduate studies. I would also like to thank Dr. Alec Hargreaves and Dr. Reinier Leushuis for their guidance during my graduate studies at Florida State University and for generously agreeing to serve on my committee. Thanks to Dr. Peter Garretson for agreeing to serve on my committee (Betam amesegënallô). Finally, I would like to thank my parents and my sister for their unwavering support and encouragement. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1 Child Soldiers ......................................................................................................................... 2 Existing Literature ................................................................................................................ 10 Theoretical Framework ......................................................................................................... 14 Overview of the Following Chapters .................................................................................... 20 CHAPTER TWO: MEMORIALISING THE CHILD SOLDIER ............................................... 23 Allah n’est pas obligé by Ahmadou Kourouma ..................................................................... 24 Johnny chien méchant by Emmanuel Dongola ...................................................................... 47 Les Anges Cannibales by Jean Claude Derey ........................................................................ 70 CHAPTER THREE: WITNESSING THE TRANSGRESSION OF CHILD SOLDIERS .......... 94 Johnny Mad Dog by Jean-Stephane Sauvaire ........................................................................ 96 Rebelle by Kim Nguyen ..................................................................................................... 114 Ezra by Newton Aduaka ..................................................................................................... 135 CHAPTER FOUR: THE CATHARSIS OF SPEAKING THEIR TRAUMA ........................... 159 J’étais enfant soldat by Lucien Badjoko ............................................................................. 163 Congo my Body by Djodjo Kazadi, Serge Amisi and Jean René Yaoundé Mulamba .......... 183 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................... 202 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................... 209 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ................................................................................................... 225 v ABSTRACT In this dissertation, I examine a variety of Francophone African novels, films, and autobiographies with female and male child-soldiers as main characters. My corpus includes well-known works such as Johnny Mad Dog by Emmanuel Dongola, Allah n’est pas obligé by Ahmadou Kourouma and Ezra by Newton Aduaka, as well as lesser-known works such as Les Anges Cannibales by Jean-Claude Derey and J’étais enfant-soldat by Lucien Badjoko. After explaining the phenomenon, the identity of child soldiers and my use of trauma theory in my introduction, I dedicate a chapter to each medium. In my analysis of the fictional works, I demonstrate how the writers use textual techniques such as intertextuality, repetition, alternating narrators and repetition in order to situate the creation of child soldiers, their trauma and violence in its historical, political and socio-cultural context. I also reveal how these works underscore the need to transmit the child soldier’s story orally and textually. In my analysis of cinematic works, I examine how the filmmakers use cinematic techniques such as contrasting spaces to expose the child soldier’s horrific experience and its damaging effects on the child and the community, and to transform the spectator into a witness to the child soldier’s trauma and violence. In my last chapter, I examine how former child soldiers use their works to exorcise their trauma and draw attention to the real life difficulties linked to the phenomenon such as the difficulties that demobilized child soldiers face and our own ethical viewing and response to the trauma and violence of the child soldier. This dissertation will demonstrate how all these works accord a voice to the child soldier (in their witnessing of his/her traumatic and violent experiences) and offer invaluable insight into the phenomenon and its implications in Sub-Saharan Africa. vi CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION He ordered us to loot everything they had, to drive them away and to destroy their homes. The population responded and tried to stop us, and so our commander gave the order to kill anyone who put up any resistance. He ordered me personally to do that and told two other soldiers to watch over me and kill me if I refused to obey. And so I killed, I fired on these people. They brought me a woman and her children and I had to put them in a hole and bury them alive. They were screaming and pleading with me to spare them and release them. I took pity on them, but then I looked over my shoulder at the two soldiers watching me, and I said to myself: ‘If I let them go, these soldiers are going to kill me.’ And so I went ahead and buried the woman and children alive, to save my own life.’ Olivier1 Through humanitarian organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UNICEF or Child Soldier International, testimonies by former child soldiers have surfaced within the last ten to fifteen years. More recently, the phenomenon of child soldiers captured the world’s attention through the Invisible Children’s KONY 2012 campaign that dominated American media outlets and social media in March 2012. This phenomenon has been and is present in the media and is well-studied in terms of its sociological, political, historical and psychological context.2 However, the literary, cinematic and autobiographical representations of these child soldiers are relatively unexplored. My dissertation will focus on the study of a wide 1 Testimony by a former child soldier from the Democratic Republic of Congo (Amnesty International, Democratic Republic of Congo: Children at War 7). 2 These studies include: Alcinda Honwana’s Child Soldiers in Africa (based on her field research in Angola and Mozambique), Myriam Denov’s Child Soldiers: Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (based on in -depth interviews with former child soldiers), Scott Gates and Simon Reich’s Child Soldiers in the Age of Fractured States (a volume that examines the legal and ethical dimensions, the economic reasons, the policies to stop the recruitment of child soldiers), P.W Singer’s Children at War (a more comprehensive study of the phenomenon from Africa to Latin America based on personal interviews and extensive research), Michael Wessells’ Child Soldiers: From Violence to Protection ( based on research and personal interviews with former child soldiers, it covers in detail the dangers and the psychological impact of the experience for boy and girl soldiers). A detailed list of other studies can be found David Rosen’s Child Soldiers: A Reference Handbook, published in 2012. 1 variety of sub-Saharan Anglophone and Francophone novels, films, and autobiographies with child soldiers, female and male, as main characters. Although the term child soldier is used to identify “any person below 18 years of age who is or who has been recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to children, boys and girls, used as fighters, cooks, porters, messengers, spies or for sexual purposes” (UNICEF 7), I will concentrate on the representation of those that participate actively in the fighting. My main interest lies in the different strategies used by authors and filmmakers to portray the child soldier and his/her traumatic experiences. I aim to demonstrate how the strategies used by writers and filmmakers