Breaking the cycle of violence : understanding the social worlds and resettlement prospects of adolescent combatants in the Sierra Leone civil war

This study aims to contribute to current debate on adolescent combatants in Africa, their demobilization and social reintegration. The focus is on anthropological/sociological rather than pyschological and therapeutic issues. The number of children actively taking part in African armed conflicts is increasing. Why this is so and what can be done to reverse the trend are main themes of the proposed research. The main tasks include: 1) to clarify the relative importance of, and interconnections among, social and demographic factors associated with high and rising levels of youth participation in armed conflicts (resource pressures, rising numbers of young people, family and education failures, incomplete integration of national terrain, etc), 2) to provide reliable and well-contextualised accounts by adolescent combatants about why they fight and what alternatives they envisage for more peaceful development, 3) to consider constraints and opportunities for peaceful rehabilitation of under-age ex-combatants, 4) to explore a theory-guided agenda concerning the socialization of captive adolescents in ‘total institutions (guerrilla enclaves). The work will be linked to various practical support activities for at-risk youths and demobilizing young combatants in Sierra Leone.