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Child Soldiering Global Perspectives and in the Democratic Republic of Congo

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Child Soldiers and Restorative Justice

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Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the historical background of child soldiering, its causes (pull and push factors), as well as the variations in modes of recruitment (conscriptions and voluntary enlistments). The use of children in armed conflict is referenced to three worldviews, where childhood is explained in dynamic terms and how this conceptualisation of childhood differs from African and Western perspectives, and from the point of view of international legislation. This chapter further explores the variations in child soldiers’ recruitment, paradoxical child soldiering portrayals, child agency and resilience. It finally examines the concept of globalisation and the challenges that it poses to the child soldiering phenomenon, and the opportunities it offers to protect children and prevent them from joining fighting forces.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Folk music by Koffi Olomide’s band in the Congolese Rhumba in the (DRC).

  2. 2.

    Folk music by Papa Wemba, one of the celebrities of the Congolese Rhumba (DRC).

  3. 3.

    A condition marked by prolonged silence and refusal to communicate, even when provoked.

  4. 4.

    Interview with Noir (pseudonym), a psychologist working with traumatized child soldiers in a rehabilitation centre , North Kivu, Goma, 4 September 2017.

  5. 5.

    Personal interview with Zorro, a former child soldier of the Movement de Liberation du Congo [Liberation Movement of the Congo] (MLC) who had joined the DRC Marines, onboard Emmanuel Boat, Goma, 16 June 2014.

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  1. International Centre of Nonviolence, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa

    Jean Chrysostome K. Kiyala

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Kiyala, J.C.K. (2019). Child Soldiering Global Perspectives and in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In: Child Soldiers and Restorative Justice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90071-1_3

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