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.
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).