Children of Rebellion : Socialization of Child Soldiers within the Lord's Resistance Army

Abstract

Why do child soldiers remain with rebel groups? What exactly induces these children to live under such severe conditions faced when being part of a rebel group? The answers to these questions are far from obvious and appear to be a complex mixture of various motivating factors. As child soldiering is a global phenomenon, scholars have written extensively about the topic. Yet, these studies tend to focus on the processes concerning the recruitment of children as well as on recovering and reintegrating former child soldiers into society. Surprisingly little is known about what happens in the period between joining and leaving a rebel group, thus the period during which children are actively involved within a rebel group. This thesis illustrates how socialization processes within rebel groups create allegiance among child soldiers by using a case study of the Lord's Resistance Army. Extensive field research was conducted to analyze how socialization contributes to the fact that the Lord's Resistance Army remains a cohesive body. Given that the LRA relies on abduction as the main method of recruitment, it is striking how this organization manages to create high allegiance among its rebels by using efficient socialization processes.