Key Readings
Bibliography of core texts for children and youth in armed conflict
Abbink, Jon & Ineke van Kessel (eds.), Vanguard or Vandals: Youth, politics and conflict in Africa, (Leiden: Brill, 2005).
Beber, Bernd, and Chris Blattman, “The Logic of Child Soldiering and Coercion”, International Organization, 67.1(2013), 65-104.
Beier, J. Marshall, The Militarization of Childhood: Thinking Beyond the Global South (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
Bennett, T. W., Using Children in Armed Conflict: A Legitimate African Tradition? Criminalizing the Recruitment of Child Soldiers (Cape Town, ISS; no 32 1998).
Berger, Carol, The Child Soldiers of Africa’s Red Army: The Role of Social Process and Routinised Violence in South Sudan’s Military (London: Routledge, 2021).
Boothby, Neil, ‘What happens when child soldiers grow up? The Mozambique case study’, Intervention, 4,3 (2006), 244-59.
Boyden, Jo and de Berry, Joanna, Children and Youth on the Front Line: Ethnography, Armed Conflict and Displacement (London, 2005).
Brett, Rachel, and McCallin, Margaret, Children: The Invisible Soldiers (Växjö , Sweden: Rädda Barnen, 1996).
Brett, Rachel and Specht, Irma, Young Soldiers: Why They Choose to Fight (Boulder, Lynne Reinner, 2004).
Bridger, Emily, Young Women against Apartheid: Gender, Youth and South Africa’s Liberation (Oxford: James Currey, 2021).
Cohn, Ilene and Goodwin Gill, Guy, Child Soldiers: The Role of Children in Armed Conflict (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994).
Goodwin-Gill, Guy S., ‘The Challenge of Child Soldiers’, in Hew Strachan and Sibylle Schiepers (eds.), The Changing Character of War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
Dallaire, Romeo, They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die like Children: The Global Quest to Eradicate the Use of Child Soldiers (London: Arrow, 2011).
Denov, Myriam, Child Soldiers: Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Drumbl, Mark A., Reimagining Child Soldiers in International Law and Policy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
Drumbl, Mark A. and Jastine C. Barrett, Research Handbook on Child Soldiers (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019).
Duff, Sarah E., Childhood and Youth in African History (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).
Gates, Scott & Reich, Simon, Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in Fractured States (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009).
Fisher, Kristin J., Transitional Justice for Child Soldiers: Accountability and Social Reconstruction in Post-Conflict Contexts (London: Palgrave, 2013).
Hoffman, Danny, The War Machines: Young Men and Violence in Sierra Leone and Liberia (Durham, N. H.: Duke University Press, 2011).
Honwana, Alcinda, Child Soldiers in Africa (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2006).
Honwana, Alcinda and Filip de Boeck (ed.), Makers and Breakers: Children and Youth in Postcolonial Africa (London: James Currey, 2005).
Huynh, Kim, Bina D’Costa and Katrina Lee-Koo, Children and Global Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).
McKay, Susan and Mazurana, Dyan, Where are the Girls? Girls in Fighting Forces in Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone and Mozambique: Their Lives During and After War (Montreal: Rights & Democracy, 2004).
Oloya, Opiyo, Child to Soldier: Stories from Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013).
Ozerdem, Alpaslan and Sukanya Podder, Child Soldiers: From Recruitment to Reintegration (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
Peters, Krijn, War and the Crisis of Youth in Sierra Leone (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
Peters, Krijn & Richards, Paul, ‘’Why We Fight’: Voices of Youth Combatants in Sierra Leone’, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 68.2 (1998), 183-210.
Pignot, Manon (ed.), L’enfant soldat XIXe-XXe siècle. Une approche critique (Paris: Armand Colin, 2012).
Richards, Paul, Fighting for the Rain Forest: War, Youth and Resources in Sierra Leone (Oxford: James Currey, 2005).
Rosen, David M., Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2005).
Rosen, David, ‘Child Soldiers, International Humanitarian Law and the Globalization of Childhood’, American Anthropologist, 107 (2007), 296-306.
Rosen, David M., Child Soldiers and the Western Imagination: From Patriots to Victims (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2015).
Ryan, Christine, Children of War: Child Soldiers as Victims and Participants in the Sudan Civil War (London: I. B. Taurus, 2012).
Tabak, Jana, The Child and the World: Child-Soldiers and the Claim for Progress (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2020).
Twum-Danso, Afua, Africa’s Young Soldiers: The Co-option of Childhood (Cape Town, SA: ISS Monograph No.82, 2003).
Tynes, Robert, Tools of War, Tools of State: When Children Become Soldiers (New York: State University of New York, 2018).
Shepler, Susan, Childhood Deployed: Remaking Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone (New York: New York University Press, 2014).
United Nations, [Machel Report], Report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, A 51/306, 1996, pp. 13-22.
Waller, Richard, ‘Rebellious Youth in Colonial Africa’, Journal of African History, 47.1 (2006), 77-92.
Wessells, Michael, Child Soldiers from Violence to Protection (Boston: Harvard University Press, 2009).
Child Soldier Memoirs
Adut, Deng Thiat & Mckelvey, Songs of a War Boy: My Story (Sydney : Hatchett, 2015).
Amony, Evelyn & Baines, Erin, I Am Evelyn Amony: Reclaiming my Life from the Lord’s Resistance Army (Madison : University of Wisconsin Press, 2015).
Badjoko, Lucien & Clarens, Katia, J’étais enfant soldat (Paris: Plon, 2005). www.grands-reporters.com/J-etais-enfant-soldat.html
Beah, Ishmael, A Long Way Gone: The True Story of a Child Soldier (London, Harper Perennial, 2008).
Ferdi, Saïd, Un Enfant dans la guerre (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1981).
Graham, Ronald W. (ed.), There was a Soldier: The Life of Hama Kim M.M., Africana Marburgensia Special Issue 10, (1985).
Jal, Emmanuel, Warchild: A Boy Soldier’s Story (London, Abacus: 2009).
Keitetsi, China, Child Soldier (London, Souvenir Press, 2004).
Kolk, Mario, Can you tell me why I went to war? A Story of a young King’s African Rifle Reverend Father John E A Mandambwe (Zomba: Kachere Books, 2007).
McDonnell, Faith and Grace Akallo, Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda’s Children (New York: Chosen Books, 2007).
Mehari, Senait, Heart of Fire: From Child Soldier to Soul Singer (Profile Books, London, 2006[2004]).
Chioma Mundy-Castle, A Mother’s Debt: The True Story of An African Orphan (London: Author House, 2012).
Okello, Norman and Theo Hollander, Boy Soldier: A Memoir of Innocence Lost and Humanity Regained in Northern Uganda (Unbound Digital, 2021).
Child Soldier Novels
Abani, Chris, Song for Night (New York: Akashic, 2007).
Adiche, Chimamanda, Half a Yellow Sun (London: Harper Perennial, 2007).
Bandele, Biyi, Burma Boy (London: Vintage, 2008).
Dongala, Emmanuel, Johnny Mad Dog (London: Picador, 2006) trans., Johnny Chien Mechant (2002).
Gueye, Aïssatou Morelle Gueye, Siaka, l’enfant soldat (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2013).
Iweala, Uzodinma, Beasts of No Nation (London: John Murray, 2006).
Kourouma, Ahmadou, Allah is not obliged (Vintage Books, London, 2007, trans Frank Wynne) orig Allah n’est pas obligé, Editions du Seuil, 2000).
Macauley, Delia Jarrett, Moses, Citizen and Me (London: Granta, 2005).
Saro-Wiwa, Ken, Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English (New York: Longman, 1994[1985]).
Films and Documentaries
Neil Abrahamson, Soldier Child (1998)
Edward Zwick, Blood Diamond (2006)
Invisible Children, Invisible Children: Rough Cut (2006)
Christopher Quinn, God Grew Tired of Us (2006)
Newton Aduaka, Ezra (2007)
Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, Johnny Mad Dog (2008)
Luigi Falorni, Feuerherz (2008)
Emmanuel Jal, Warchild (2008)
Brian Single, Children of War (2010)
Invisible Children, ‘Kony 2012’, (2012)
Kim Nguyen, War Witch (2013) [French title Rebelle]
Patrick Reed, Fight Like Soldiers, Die Like Children (2013)
[There are also hundreds of short videos available online from activist groups/charities/news media detailing the plight and experiences of current and formers child combatants – most are available on YouTube, Google search, or via NGO websites]
Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)/Humanitarian Reports
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Child Soldiers Global Report 2001 (2002).
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Child Soldiers Global Report 2004 (2005).
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Child Soldiers Global Report 2008 (2009).
Human Rights Watch, ‘This Old Man Can Feed Us, You Will Marry Him’: Child and Forced Marriage in South Sudan (2013).
————————–, No Place for Children: Child Recruitment, Forced Marriage and Attacks on Schools in Somalia (2012).
————————–, Chad: Early to War – Child Soldiers in the Chad Conflict (2007).
————————–, How to Fight, How to Kill: Child Soldiers in Liberia (2006).
————————–, Stolen Children, Uganda (2003).
————————–, Forgotten Soldiers: Child Soldiers in Angola (2003).
————————–, We’ll Kill You if You Cry: Sexual Violence in the Sierra Leone Conflict (2003).
————————–, The War within the War: Sexual Violence against Women and Girls in Eastern Congo (2002).
————————–, DRC – Reluctant Recruits: Children and Adults Forcibly Recruited for Military Service in North Kivu (2001).
————————–, Sowing Terror: Atrocities against Civilians in Sierra Leone (1998).
————————–, Scars of Death: Children Abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda (1997).
————————–, Shattered Lives: Sexual Violence during the Rwandan Genocide and its Aftermath (1996).
—————————, Children in Sudan: Slaves, Street Children and Child Soldiers (1995).
International Labour Organization, Wounded Childhood: The Use of Children in Armed Conflict in Central Africa (Geneva, 2003).
United Nations/UNICEF, The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children: Report of Graca Machel Expert of the Secretary-General of the United Nations (1996).
Machel, Graca, The Impact of War on Children: A Review of the progress since the 1996 United Nations report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children (Hurst, London, 2001).
Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict in collaboration with UNICEF, Machel Study Ten-Year Strategic Review: Children and Conflict in a Changing World (New York: UNICEF, 2009).
Latest Publications (last 5 years)
Children, Militarism, and Armed Conflict
Abdalatif, Fatma Alzahra, ‘In Search of Home; Child Soldiers in al-Shabaab’s Ranks.’ Linnaeus University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science. (2021). Master’s Thesis.
Abidi, Catherine Baillie and Laura Cleave. ‘Child Responsive Conflict Early Warning: Prioritizing Children in Peace and Security’, Civil Wars (August 2023), 1–24.
Baricako, Gladys, ‘Les enfants combattants : du désarmement à la réintégration. Le cas du Burundi.‘ [Child soldiers: from disarmement to reintegration. The case of Burundi]. Université du Québec à Montréal, Department of Political Science. (2014). Master’s Dissertation.
Beier, Marshall J. and Jana Tabak, ‘Children, childhoods, and everyday militarisms’, Childhood 27.3 (2020), 281-293.
Beier, Marshall J. and Jana Tabak, ‘Other Childhoods: Finding Children in Peace and Conflict’, in: J.M. Beier, and J. Tabak (eds), Childhoods in Peace and Conflict: Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies, (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), 1-19.
Berger, Carol, The Child Soldiers of Africa’s Red Army: The Role of Social Process and Routinised Violence in South Sudan’s Military, (London: Routledge, 2021).
Camello, Maria, Enfants-soldats en RDC: évolution et perspectives de la lutte contre leur recrutement [Child soldiers in the DRC: evolution and prospects in the fight against their recruitment], (Brussels: GRIP, 2019).
Drumbl, Mark A. and Barrett, Jastine C. Research Handbook on Child Soldiers, (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019).
Faulkner, Christopher M and Doctor, Austin C, ‘Rebel Fragmentation and the Recruitment of Child Soldiers,’ International Studies Quarterly 65.3 (2021), 647–659.
Hoban, Iuliia, Objects and subjects: Strategic use of childhood in the debate over the Canadian contribution to MINUSMA. Childhood, 27.3 (2020), 294-309.
Mlambo, Victor, H., Mpanza, Siphesihle and Daniel N. Mlambo. ‘Armed conflict and the increasing use of child soldiers in the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan: Implications of regional security’, Journal of Public Affairs, 19.2 (2019).
Ndongo, Théodore Onguene and Daniel Derivois, ‘Understanding voluntary enrolment of child soldiers: A key to reintegration’, Annales Médico-psychologiques, revue psychiatrique 80.2 (2022), 145-1448.
Nsadisi, Tharcisse, Child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, (Our Knowledge Publishing 2023).
Military communities in colonial and post-colonial Africa
Bolliger, Lennart, Apartheid’s Black Soldiers: Un-National Wars and Militaries in Southern Africa, (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2021).
Bolliger, Lennart, Richard Levi Raber, and Dino Estevao, ‘“We Were the Army in the Shadows”: The Dynamics of Military Rule and Experiences of Black Women in the South African Defence Force 32 Battalion Military Community’, The Journal of African History (2024).
Moyd, Michelle, ‘African Military Historiography’, War & Society 42.1 (2022), 34–43.
Raber, Richard Levi, ‘”In the Eyes of the New Government, We Are Covered in Mud”: Cultural Memory, Generational Conflict, and the Imprint of Militarization on Two Former Military Communities.’ Indiana University, Department of History. (2024). PhD dissertation.
Schmitt, Carina, and Amanda Shriwise, ‘The Great War and the Warfare–Welfare Nexus in British and French West African Colonies’, Social Science History 47.4 (2023), 565–84.
Titeca, Kristof, Rebel Lives: Photographs from inside the Lord’s Resistance Army, (Veurne: Hannibal Books, 2019). Zimmerman, Sarah J., Militarizing Marriage: West African Soldiers’ Conjugal Traditions in Modern French Empire, (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2020).
Humanitarianism
Bodineau, Sylvie, ‘Chapter 5: Refusing to be victims: child soldiers in the humanitarian world’, in: Research Handbook of Children and Armed Conflict, (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024), 67–85.
Bolotta, Giuseppe, and Dympna Devine, ‘Contested futures: The ‘humanitarian value’ of childhood in rural Sierra Leone’, Current Sociology 70.4(2022), 557-577.
Carruth, Lauren, Love and Liberation: Humanitarian Work in Ethiopia’s Somali Region, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2021).
Damousi, Joy, Trevor Burnard, and Alan Lester, Humanitarianism, empire and transnationalism, 1760-1995. Selective humanity in the Anglophone world, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2022).
Ibhawoh, Bonny, ‘Refugees, Evacuees, and Repatriates: Biafran Children, UNHCR, and the Politics of International Humanitarianism in the Nigerian Civil War’, African Studies Review 63. 3 (2020), 568-592.
O’Sullivan, Kevin, The NGO Moment: The Globalisation of Compassion from Biafra to Live Aid, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 2021).
Rich, Jeremy, Protestant Missionaries and Humanitarianism in the DRC. The Politics of Aid in Cold War Africa, (Suffolk: Boydell and Brewer, 2020).
Williams, Christian A. ‘African Refugee History’, African Studies Review 63.3 (2020), 560-567.
Legal studies
Benyera, Everisto, ‘Child Victim, Loyal War Spirit Medium or War Criminal: Shifting the Geography and Logic of Historical Accountability in Dominic Ongwen’s ICC Trial’, African Identities 22.1 (2021), 197–212.
Drumbl, Mark A., ‘The child soldier under international law and policy’, in: Denov, Myriam and Fenning, Maya (eds), Research Handbook of Children and Armed Conflict, (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing: 2024), 200-2015.
Frisso, Giovanna M., ‘Children Born of War: The Recognition of Children Born of War as Victims in the Ongwen Case’, International Criminal Law Review 24. 1 (2024), 53-79.
Heathcote, Gina, ‘Women and children and elephants as justification for force’, Journal on the Use of Force and International Law 4. 1 (2017), 66-85.
Kiyala, Jean Chrysostome K. ‘Responding to Epistemic Injustice against Child Soldiers’, The International Journal of Children’s Rights 29. 3 (2021), 662-700.
Kiyala, Jean Chrysostome K. ‘Child Soldiers, Justice and Peacebuilding: A Dialectical Analysis of the Conventional Criminal Justice System and African Indigenous Jurisprudence’. in: Kiyala, J.C.K., Chivasa, N. (eds) Climate Change and Socio-political Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa in the Anthropocene, (Cham: Springer, 2024), 443-493.
Legassicke, Michelle, Dustin Johnson, and Catherine Gribbin. ‘Definitions of Child Recruitment and Use in Armed Conflict: Challenges for Early Warning.’ Civil Wars (April 2023), 1–25.
Lindkvist, Linde. ‘Rights for the World’s Children: Rädda Barnen and the Making of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child’. Nordic Journal of Human Rights, 36.3 (2018), 287-303.
Jakšić, Milena. ‘Looking for the child soldier: The judicial investigation in the case of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo’.Journal of Legal Anthropology 4.1 (2020), 46-70.
Matignon, Émilie, ‘La prise en charge de la jeunesse violente au Burundi : nouvel arsenal juridique et pratiques innovantes’, Les Cahiers d’Afrique de l’Est 46. 2 (2013), 13-23.
Molima Bameka, Christelle. ‘Narrowing the Gap in the Access to Justice for Child Victims in Postconflict Societies: An Analysis Stemming from the Construction of Child Soldiers in International Law and Policy’. International Journal of Transitional Justice 17.1 (March 2023), 141–156.
Molima Bameka, Christelle. ‘The Post-Ongwen Case Period and the Reconciliation Process in Northern Uganda: Local Communities as a Site of Knowledge’, International Criminal Law Review 24.1 (2024): 29-52.
Molloy, Sean. ‘Child Soldiers and Peace Agreements.’ International and Comparative Law Quarterly 73.1 (2024), 103–34.
Schubart, Justine, ‘Accountability for crimes committed by child soldiers.’ University of Pretoria. (2020). LLM Degree Masters Dissertation.
The aftermath of armed conflict
Amoateng, Acheampong Yaw and Elizabeth Biney, Youth in Post-Apartheid South Africa: A Sociological Perspective, (London: Routledge, 2024).
Dumke, Lars, Haer, Roos, Zawadka, Annika, Salmen, Charlotte, and Hecker, Tobias, ’The role of violence perpetration in driving externalizing problems and offending behavior among youth from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’, Journal of Traumatic Stress 35 (2022): 1696–1708.
Joon Song, Susan, Tol, Wietse and De Jong, Joop, ‘Indero : Intergenerational Trauma and Resilience between Burundian Former Child Soldiers and Their Children’, Family Process 53.2 (2014), 239-251.
Milne, Andrew, ‘The Typography of Forgetting: The Unsettling of Dominant Social Narratives in the Resurfacing of a Military Deserter in Family Memory’, Genealogy 8.2 (2024), 1-17.
Mufumu, A.B., ‘From the Acoustics of Weapons to the Guitar, an Extraordinary Professional Retraining. How Did the Vocational and Artisanal Training Centre (CAPA) Succeed in the Socio-professional Integration of a Former Child Soldier?’, in: Sauer, K.E., Brandes, D., Uwimbabazi, P., Nzambimana, O., Mbasa, M.N. (eds), Healing through Remembering. Edition Centaurus – Perspektiven Sozialer Arbeit in Theorie und Praxis, (Wiesbaden: Springer, 2024), 189-203.
Robb, Martin, ‘Hidden from Family History: The Ethics of Remembering’ Genealogy 8.2 (2024), 1-8.
Scates, Bruce, ‘Making the Memory Book: War-Time Loss and Memorialization through Ephemera’ Genealogy 8.2 (2024), 1-15.
Wambugu, Nyambura, Post-Conflict Security in South Sudan: From Liberal Peacebuilding to Demilitarization, (London: I.B. Tauris, 2019).
Methodological pluralism
Jemal, Alexis D., ‘Time and Place for Counter-Storytelling as Liberatory Theory and Collective Healing Practice in Academia: A Case Example of a Black Feminist Psycho-Socio Cultural Scholar-Artivist’, Genealogy 8.2 (2024), 1-12.
Lanz, Jonathan, ‘Lost (or Recovered?) Childhoods: Writing Children’s Histories of Genocide’, Journal of Genocide Research (August 2023): 1–17.
Maistry, Suriamurthee Moonsamy, ‘Colonisation and the Genesis and Perpetuation of Anti-Blackness Violence in South Africa’, Genealogy 7.4 (2023), 1-10.
Massey, Rachel and Thom Tyerman, ‘Remaining “in-between” the Divides? Conceptual, Methodological, and Ethical Political Dilemmas of Engaged Research in Critical Military Studies’, Critical Studies on Security 11.2 (2023), 64-83.
Mxolisi R. Mchunu, Violence and Solace: The Natal Civil War in Late-Apartheid South Africa, (Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press, 2020).
Quitmann, Susanne, ‘George Green’s Voice: A Concept for Studying the History of Young People’, Journal of Contemporary History (2024), 1-27.
Gender and conflict
Anderson, Kristine, ‘Between NGO-ization and Militarization: Women’s Rights in the Fragile Geographies of Niger’, in Bows, Hannah and Fileborn, Bianca (eds.), Geographies of Gender-based Violence: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective, (Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2022).
Buchanan, Nathalie, ‘Invisible No More?: An Analysis of Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration Programs for Former ‘Girl Soldiers Who Become Mothers’ and Their Children’, University of Ottawa, Faculty of Social Sciences. (2023). Masters’ Dissertation.
Henshaw, Alexis Leanna, ‘Female Combatants in Post-conflict Processes: Understanding the Roots of Exclusion’, Journal of Global Security Studies 5.1 (2020), 63–79.
Kapur, Nidhi and Thompson, Hannah, ‘Beyond the Binary: Why Gender Matters in the Recruitment and Use of Children’, Allons-Y: Journal of Children, Peace and Security, 5 (2021), 21-35.
Magadla, Siphokazi, ‘Theorizing African Women and Girls in Combat: From National Liberation to the War on Terrorism’, in Yacob-Haliso, Olajumoke and Falola, Toyin (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of African Women’s Studies, (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).
Maringira, Godfrey, ‘Soldiers, Masculinities, and Violence. War and Politics’, Current Anthropology 62.23 (2021), 103-111.
Möller, Esther, Paulmann, Johannes and Stornig, Katharina (eds.), Gendering Global Humanitarianism in the Twentieth Century. Practice, Politics and the Power of Representation, (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).
Ngutuku, Elizabeth, and Auma Okwany, ‘Beyond Colonial Politics of Identity: Being and Becoming Female Youth in Colonial Kenya’, Genealogy 8.47 (2024), 1-24.
Pentecost, Michelle, ‘The Politics of Trauma: Gender, Futurity, and Violence Prevention in South Africa’, Medical Anthropology Quarterly 35. 4 (2022), 441-457.
Rupčić Kelam, Darija, ‘Militarization of Everyday Life: Girls in Armed Conflicts’, Conatus – Journal of Philosophy 8.2 (2023), 487-519.
Soares Bedin, Tiago, ‘Human Rights Policy Implementation on the Social Reintegration of Former Girls-Soldiers: The Case of Angola.’ Linnaeus University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Peace and Development Work. (2020). Master’s Thesis.
Spall, John, Manhood, Morality and the Transformation of the Angolan Society: MPLA Veterans and Post-War Dynamics, (Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer, 2020).
Symons, Stephen, ‘‘Casting Shadows’: Militarised boyhoods in apartheid South Africa during the 1980s’, Childhood 27.4 (2020), 514-529.
Van der Wal, Ernst, ‘Masculinities at War: The South African Border War and the Textual Representation of the ‘Moffie’’, Journal of Literary Studies 35. 2 (2019), 62-84.
Vastapuu, Leena, ‘Beans, Bullets and Bandages? Gendered and Racialised Othering in the Depiction of Military Support Work’, Civil Wars (September 2023), 1–21.
Representations of youth and armed conflict
Adesola, Ademola Oladipupo, ‘Representations of Child Soldiers in Contemporary African Narratives.’ University of Manitoba, Department of English, Theatre, Film, and Media. (2022). PhD Dissertation.
Ama Okyeso Yeboah, Philomena, Otoo, Paul, Freitas, Philip and Abdul-Basit, Mohammed, ‘The Difficulty of Reintegration: Examining the Child Soldier’s Post-War Life in Selected African Novels’, English Franca: Academic Journal of English Language and Education 7. 2 (2023), 291-304.
Gehrmann, Susanne, ‘Congolese Child Soldier Narratives for Global and Local Audiences: From Testimony to Reconciliation’, Journal of World Literature 6. 2 (2021), 148-166.
Hynd, Stacey, ‘Trauma, Violence, and Memory in African Child Soldier Memoirs’, Cult Med Psychiatry 45 (2021), 74–96.
Katenga Mwamba, Dieudonné, La construction de la figure de l’enfant- soldat : Le cas de République Démocratique du Congo, (Sarrebruck : Editions Universitaires Européennes, 2021).
Lakika, Dostin Mulopo, ‘‘Weapons Only Are Not Sufficient’: Former Congolese Soldiers’ Accounts of the Power of Ritual Practices’ in Wartime’, Critical Military Studies (April 2024),1–17.
Moynagh, Maureen, ‘Frames of War: Thinking Child-Soldier Photography’, Photography and Culture 14.1 (2020), 71–95.
Ndziba, Miliswa Sizakele, Forts of Sand. A Reimagining of Black Childhood Through Critical Fabulation. A Viewer’s Guide, Master’s Dissertation, (Johannesburg: University of Johannesburg, 2021).
Nweke, Obinna Chukwunenye, ‘Hunger as a Weapon of War: Biafra, Social Media and the Politics of Famine Remembrance’, Third World Quarterly 45. 2 (2023), 314–31.
Peatrik, Anne-Marie, ‘Towards an anthropology of youth in Africa’, Ateliers d’anthropologie 47 (2020).
Pieri, Zacharias, Mary-Jane Fox, Lily Lousada, and Jacob Zenn, ‘Boko Haram’s Child Soldiers: Media Mujahids, Martyrs, and Militants’, Terrorism and Political Violence, May (2023), 1-28.
Urraizee, Joya, Writing that Breaks Stones: African Child Soldier Narratives, (Michigan: Michigan State University Press, 2020).
Van der Rede, Lauren, ‘Child Soldiers/Child Slaves: Africa’s Weaponised Unfree Children in Blood Diamond (2006) and Beasts of No Nation (2015)’, Genealogy 8. 46 (2024), 1-26.
Youth, criminality and conflict
Garbarino, James, Governale, Amy and Nesi, Danielle, ‘Vulnerable children: Protection and social reintegration of child soldiers and youth members of gangs’, Child Abuse & Neglect 110 (2020), 1-9.
Okorie, Mitterand, and Uchenna Okeja. 2023. ‘Child Trafficking in Africa: Reimagining the Problem’, Genealogy 7. 64 (2023), 1-14.
Tabak, Jana, The Child and the World: Child-Soldiers and the Claim for Progress, (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2020).
Youth Political Movements and Student Activism
Maringira, Godfrey and Simbarashe Gukurume, ‘Youth Political Mobilization: Violence, Intimidation, and Patronage in Zimbabwe’, Political Psychology 43. 6 (2021),1027-1041.
Zeleke, Elleni Centime, Ethiopia in Theory: Revolution and Knowledge Production, 1964-2016, (Leiden, NL: Brill, 2020).
Film, Photography, and Web-based material
Aalam-Warqe Davidian, Fig Tree (2019)
Amnesty International, Irak, un documentaire sur le calvaire des enfants soldats Yézidis (2022)
Anne Poiret, Enfants soldats de Daech, les damnés de la guerre (2021)
Asmae El Moudir, The Mother of All Lies (2023)
Billy Briggs, Yemen’s war: photo essay (2024)
Damien Castera and Arthur Bourbon, Water get no enemy (2019)
Dino Estevao and Lennart Bolliger, “No Longer an Orphan,” The Namibian, December 18, 2020. No Longer an Orphan (Part 2) – Know the History
Dino Estevao and Lennart Bolliger, “Scars of War: Forty Years Later,” The Namibian, December 11, 2020, The Scars of War: Forty Years Later (Part 1) – Know the History
Helene Sandbu Ryeng, From child soldier to just a child-in one day, UNICEF, June 2, 2020, https://www.unicef.org/southsudan/stories/child-soldier-just-child-one-day.
Jacqueline Rose, “One Long Scream,” London Review of Books, May 23, 2019, https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n10/jacqueline-rose/one-long-scream.
Jansen Van Staden, Microlight (Yogurt Editions, 2021).
Lukasz Konopa and Emil Langballe, Itinéraire d’un enfant soldat (2023)
Laura Moran (curator), ‘Junctions’, Otherwise 14 (December 2024-March 2025), https://www.otherwisemag.com/junctions?utm_medium=email&utm_source=substack.
Mads Ellesøe, Enfants soldats hier, mercenaires aujourd’hui (2016)
Mo Scarpelli, Anbessa (2019)
Oliver Hermanus, Moffie (2019)
Stephen Symons & Paul Weinberg, Saying No! Navigating Apartheid Militarisms (September 2019), https://sayingno.co.za.
Pauline Maucort and Véronique Samouiloff , L’innocente cruauté des petits guerriers (2021)
Patricia Huon and Caroline Thirion, Sur les pas des Kadogos: Les enfants-soldats de Laurent-Désiré Kabila, 25 ans plus tard (2022)
Tamara Mariam Dawit, Finding Sally (2020)
Tshepiso Mabula, ‘Ukugrumba: Recollecting Dry Bones: Revisiting the Aftermath of the Liberation Struggle’, Nokoko 11(2024),https://ojs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/nokoko/article/view/4948/3515.
Novels
Aboulela, Leila, River Spirit, (New York, NY: Grove Press, 2023).
Buchaillard, Sophie, This Is Not Who We Are, (London, UK: Seren, 2022).
Faye, Gaël, Petit Pays, (Paris: Éditions Grasset & Fasquelle, 2016).
Mengiste, Maaza, The Shadow King, (New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, 2019).
Ndlovu, Siphiwe Gloria, The History of Man, (Anthony, TX: Catalyst Press, 2020).
Ngamije, Rémy, The Eternal Audience of One, 2020 ed. (Polokwane, ZA: Blackbird Books, 2019).
Shuster, Robert L., To Zenzi, (Michigan: New Issues Poetry and Prose, 2021).
Vlok Louw, Johan, Sons of Mud, (Cape Town, ZA: Umuzi, 2023).
Some relevant websites
United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/
Child Protection Area of Responsibility – https://cpaor.net/
The Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers’ Initiative, https://www.dallaireinstitute.org/
UNICEF https://www.unicef.org/
Save the Children https://www.savethechildren.org/
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) https://www.icrc.org/en
International Labour Organization (ILO) ILO Homepage | International Labour Organization
Child Fund Alliance https://childfundalliance.org/
War Child https://www.warchild.net/