Traditional reconciliation rituals in the reintegration of child soldiers

by Nahla El-Menshawy

The disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of ex-combatants and increasingly also child soldiers is now an integral part of peace missions worldwide. Uganda and Sierra Leone show that international donors should not neglect cultural and traditional reconciliation rituals in the reintegration of child soldiers.

Reintegration processes that integrate former combatants into civilian life are an important principle in peace processes. Comparatively little attention is paid to the reintegration of former child soldiers in these processes. In Sierra Leone, for example, 36.5 million US dollars were made available for the UN DDR program between 1999 and 2004, but less than one million dollars of this was invested in measures for child soldiers. Yet it is often these child soldiers who need special support, as they lack family socialization or schooling. In post-conflict societies, their involvement in war violence threatens stigmatization and rejection. Drug and alcohol addiction, depression, anxiety or behavioral disorders can also make their reintegration process even more difficult.

Reintegration of child soldiers is therefore not just about returning to their families or providing economic support and psychological care to help them cope with their trauma: the reintegration of child soldiers is not a technical process. There is no universal program for the reintegration of former soldiers that will be able to capture the experiences and needs of child soldiers in their entirety.

A particular problem is the socialization and indoctrination of children in rebel groups with the help of spiritual and cultural elements. Rebel groups often use spiritual practices and abuse religiosity to manipulate children and make them compliant for acts of violence. This article argues that such practices can also break up years of indoctrination and support healing processes. Various studies from Uganda and Sierra Leone show that traditional reconciliation rituals therefore have great potential in the DDR process.

Child soldiers in Uganda

The Lords Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group founded by Joseph Kony in 1987, began as a resistance movement against the Ugandan government, but quickly mutated into a "spiritual movement"which (according to its own statements) fought "in the name of God" to "purify" Uganda.

Interviews with child soldiers in a study show that they initially remained in the LRA due to intimidation, violence and fear of punishment, but later often developed into convinced fighters. Many of them reported a strong sense of belonging. They found a new family in the LRA, made friends and also gained a new sense of power with their weapon. Robbing villages and killing "disobedient" children became the norm, also with the help of spiritual rituals. "Shea butter" ceremonies, for example, were intended to turn children into "newborn" soldiers. The application of shea butter has a special significance for the Acholi culture - an ethnic group based in northern Uganda - and is used for healing. The children are told in the LRA that it should protect them from bullets.

In the reintegration process, children received psychological trauma therapy. But many GDR programs are subject to Western concepts of trauma. Derek Summerfield, a renowned psychiatrist and expert in international mental health research, problematizes these Western therapy measures, which he describes as detached from "personal, social and cultural variables". Furthermore, a long-term study conducted in 2010 by Christopher Blattmann and Jeannie Annan showed "remarkable" psychological resilience in former Ugandan child soldiers. They found that children's psychological stress was of secondary importance. What the children suffered from in particular, however, was spiritual indoctrination.

For example, the extensive exposure to the traditional myths and esotericism of the LRA remained relevant for many children long after the war, as these are also firmly anchored in Acholi culture. They believed they were haunted by the spirit of their victims. Several studies have therefore come to the conclusion that cultural and traditional measures were fundamental to bringing these children back into the community. In northern Uganda, many communities required traditional purification ceremonies before reintegrating the children. Fearing the "evil spirits" (cen) of deceased victims who would carry children into the community, families arranged expulsion ceremonies in which these "cen spirits" were compensatedby offerings. One example is the "nonyo tong gweno", a ceremony in which the child walks on broken egg shells. The egg symbolizes purity and walking on eggshells symbolizes the taking on of a new life and the reconciliation of social relationships. This was followed by a purification ceremony that required an offering. After the ritual, festivities gave the children the feeling of being part of the community again.

Child soldiers in Sierra Leone

The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was founded in 1991 to overthrow the government in Sierra Leone. As in the LRA, abducted children in the RUF were socialized for a long time in an environment dominated by violence. They were forced to plunder their villages and, in the worst cases, to kill their own parents. As a qualitative study by Richard Maclure and Myriam Denov shows: 'This process of "forced persuasion" resulted in a relationship of dependency on the RUF. In regular motivational speeches by commanders, children were promised a better future. Tattoos also promoted group cohesion and were used when the children fought successful battles.

In the reintegration process, former child soldiers were initially sent to intermediate care facilities to prepare them for civilian life. When they came of age, they were allowed to register for the new army; others were able to learn manual work. Sierra Leone also shows that culturally specific rituals and traditions were indispensable in the reintegration process. This was the conclusion of a long-term study published in June 2020 by the Boston College School of Social Work, which revealed that a stronger focus on family and community in the reintegration process of former child soldiers promised more successful social reintegration.

This also supports the findings of Lindsay Stark's 2006 study, which summarizes: Traditional cleansing ceremonies were an effective symbolic gesture for former child soldiers to demonstrate that they wanted to be accepted back into the community. Many abducted girls reported, for example, that they had been "defiled" ("noro") by rape. They wanted ritual cleansing in order to be able to lead a normal life again. The cleansing of "noro" represented a symbolic break from the past in the armed group. Even if the underlying structural violence that women and young girls are exposed to as a result of these values was in no way resolved, the recourse to these rituals was a first step towards enabling the integration of girls into the community in the first place.

This examination of the literature on child soldiers in Uganda and Sierra Leone thus shows the ambiguity and ambivalence of spiritual practices in conflict contexts. Cultural and spiritual practices are an instrument of indoctrination that binds children to armed groups. In order to break this, it can be helpful to include spiritual healing and purification rituals in reintegration programs and thus do more justice to the cultural and political context. However, there is still a risk of reproducing forms of structural violence to which women, for example, are exposed. Overall, the examples show that cultural practices, with critical reflection on the respective context, can be a possible building block for helping former child soldiers to become part of a community again. Finally, by recalling traditions, communities can find a way to draw symbolic conclusionsand open up paths for mediation and peace processes.