Review: 'Child Soldier: Fighting for My Life', by China Keitetsi
In the context of growing interest in youth participation, child protection organisations are increasingly calling for more input from children and youth themselves. However, this focus on the “voices of youth” is often translated solely into circumscribed forums, such as contests, three-minute interventions at the UN Security Council or a spotlight of fame on a radio broadcast. Too rarely do we get an in-depth glimpse into the thought processes, experiences and opinions of young people caught up in poverty and war. Child Soldier: Fighting for My Life by China Keitetsi provides a different perspective: over 200 pages of reflections on China's early childhood in rural Uganda, her involvement as a child soldier in the National Resistance Movement (NRM, which brought current Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni into power), her eventual flight to Denmark via South Africa and her opinions on past and current political developments in Uganda.
VOICES OF YOUTH: FROM LIP SERVICE TO ACTION, A BOOK REVIEW OF CHILD SOLDIER: FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE1
In the context of growing interest in youth participation, child protection organisations are increasingly calling for more input from children and youth themselves. However, this focus on the “voices of youth” is often translated solely into circumscribed forums, such as contests, three-minute interventions at the UN Security Council or a spotlight of fame on a radio broadcast. Too rarely do we get an in-depth glimpse into the thought processes, experiences and opinions of young people caught up in poverty and war.
Child Soldier: Fighting for My Life by China Keitetsi provides a different perspective: over 200 pages of reflections on China’s early childhood in rural Uganda, her involvement as a child soldier in the National Resistance Movement (NRM, which brought current Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni into power), her eventual flight to Denmark via South Africa and her opinions on past and current political developments in Uganda.
In the preface, China explains that the book grew out of a suggestion by a Danish Integration Officer to tell her story as a way of coming to terms with her often shocking experiences. In this way, the book reads like a personal diary or revelations to a confidante, powerfully demonstrating the psychosocial effects of her early life. China’s underlying guilt is forcefully revealed in the way she admits responsibility for all “bad” things that she has done – from wetting her bed to stealing food to terrorizing civilians. China also describes a permeating feeling of powerless, and an endless quest for love and affection. Instead of the latter, she encounters verbal, physical and sexual abuse and is forced to witness, experience and participate in atrocities. Confronted with such deeply intimate reflections, the reader feels like a trespasser at times.
But Child Soldier: Fighting for My Life is more than an autobiography. China’s experiences are a microcosm of child soldiering in Uganda -- both past and present. China shows how poverty and desperation can drive children to take up arms. Her experiences also reveal the powerlessness of civilians, particularly children, in a militarised society, which attracts young people seeking a sense of belonging, power and camaraderie in a military structure. The book demonstrates how armed forces and groups are only too eager to capitalize on the desperation and idealism of youth for their own ends, or to force children to take up arms where there are not enough willing recruits. The ultimate result is a generation of young people brutalized, militarised and robbed of their childhood. As China says: “Sometimes I feel as if I am six years old, and sometimes it’s as though I am 100 years old because of all I have seen.”
China’s revelations often leave the reader feeling uncomfortable. In some cases, the events described are so shocking as to be almost incredible. At times, one wishes that the book were fictitious, and President Museveni’s government has tried hard to prove that it is. While the veracity of some historical events does pose some questions, there would be little motivation to invent a story that clearly implicates the author in several morally questionable situations. In any event, the crux of the story – China’s family life in grinding poverty and her participation in the NRM as a child soldier – is undeniable. These facts alone should galvanize the Government of Uganda and the international community into action, focusing more resources and political will on reducing poverty, preventing the recruitment and use of child soldiers, and promoting their demobilisation and reintegration.
In fact, the book is presented as a call to action. China begins with the hope that the book will “make people aware of the terrible suffering of child soldiers” and concludes with a probing letter to President Museveni. This is a positive step forward in dynamic youth participation. China’s book adds a powerful voice to other young peoples’, challenging us to pay more than lip service to the role of youth and recognize them as actors in their own right, with the ability to impact on their own environment.
Christina Clark, 15 August 2003
Word count: 667