Unlocking the Voices of Child Soldiers in Sub-Saharan African Novels, Films and Autobiographies

In this dissertation, I examine a variety of Francophone African novels, films, and autobiographies with female and male child-soldiers as main characters. My corpus includes well-known works such as Johnny Mad Dog by Emmanuel Dongola, Allah n'est pas obligé by Ahmadou Kourouma and Ezra by Newton Aduaka, as well as lesser-known works such as Les Anges Cannibales by Jean-Claude Derey and J'étais enfant-soldat by Lucien Badjoko. After explaining the phenomenon, the identity of child soldiers and my use of trauma theory in my introduction, I dedicate a chapter to each medium. In my analysis of the fictional works, I demonstrate how the writers use textual techniques such as intertextuality, repetition, alternating narrators and repetition in order to situate the creation of child soldiers, their trauma and violence in its historical, political and socio-cultural context. I also reveal how these works underscore the need to transmit the child soldier's story orally and textually. In my analysis of cinematic works, I examine how the filmmakers use cinematic techniques such as contrasting spaces to expose the child soldier's horrific experience and its damaging effects on the child and the community, and to transform the spectator into a witness to the child soldier's trauma and violence. In my last chapter, I examine how former child soldiers use their works to exorcise their trauma and draw attention to the real life difficulties linked to the phenomenon such as the difficulties that demobilized child soldiers face and our own ethical viewing and response to the trauma and violence of the child soldier. This dissertation will demonstrate how all these works accord a voice to the child soldier (in their witnessing of his/her traumatic and violent experiences) and offer invaluable insight into the phenomenon and its implications in Sub-Saharan Africa.