Child Soldiers in Africa

Alcinda Honwana. Child Soldiers in Africa. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. 216 pp. Index. $45.00. Cloth. $22.50. Paper.

Of all the tragedies that have befallen African societies in recent years, one of the most complex and far-reaching is that of children bearing arms. Although in violation of woefully inadequate international conventions, the use of children in war has escalated in recent times, leaving its young victims socially and psychologically traumatized, thus threatening their nations' very future.

Alcinda Honwana is particularly well-equipped to analyze the difficult problem of how to heal children coerced into actively participating in killing. She begins by noting that in both Mozambique and Angola-the focal points to her research-children are incorporated into productive activities when they are considered "able" to make contributions to their families and communities, generally at a much earlier age than in Western countries. In Africa, the transition from "child" to "adult" is accompanied by well-defined rituals teaching children how to assume adult responsibilities. However, when children are forced into combat and taught to kill, preparation for adulthood is replaced by training in violence, leaving them unequipped for conventional adult roles in their society.

Drawing on Appadurai and Nordstrom's concepts of war-scapes, Honwana proposes that in the face of war, the scourge of the AIDS pandemic, and scarce income sources, conventional family values weaken; for many young Africans, a weapon at...