Turnings and Epiphanies: Militarization, Life Histories, and the Making and Unmaking of Two Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone

The militarization of children and their active participation in conflict continues to be a global phenomenon affecting hundreds of thousands of children. Yet many of the realities of child soldiery remain unclear and continue to be under-researched. In particular, the process of militarization and how it impinges on the identities and actions of children who are drawn into conflict remains poorly understood. Similarly, the experiences of children undergoing demobilization and a return to post-conflict, non-militarized social circumstances are essentially undocumented. Through the use of a life-history approach, this paper examines the making and unmaking of two Sierra Leonean child soldiers, one female and one male, in relation to the militarization of social systems and subsequent efforts to demobilize belligerent social groups. The paper reviews the turnings and epiphanies of these children's lives—particularly how these children became implicated as combatants in Sierra Leone's civil war, the manner and degree to which they assumed a militarized 'identity', and their subsequent efforts to re-adapt to civilian life in a context of post-war demilitarization.