Jeunes combattants parlant de la guerre et de la paix en Sierra Leone

Abstract "When they Say Soldiers are Rebels, ifs a Lie": Young Fighters Talk about War and Peace in Sierra Leone. — Anthropologists have lately begun to report the voices of victims of Africa's recent conflicts but little attention has so far been given to the experiences and interpretations of the actual combatants, many of whom fall within the age range 10-18. Young people are among the major victims of recession, structural adjustment and war. Many have been conscripted into militia forces against their will. Democratization hardly reaches these young victims of social exclusion (in a number of countries a majority of Africans is under the voting age). Politicians and diplomats, to their own advantage, continue to characterise war in Africa as unbridled anarchy. There is an urgent need to begin to understand war from the perspective of youthful participants. The present article (one in a series) presents three in-depth interviews with combatant volunteers from the government side in the war with the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone. The material suggests that even under-age combatants have considerable political understanding of their predicament, and throws considerable light on the collapsed peace process and why hostilities are likely to continue beyond the restoration of the democratic regime.