Culture, Religion, and the Reintegration of Female Child Soldiers in Northern Uganda

The Author: Bård Mæland is Professor of Systematic Theology at the School of Mission and Theology in Stavanger, Norway, where he also serves as the President. Mæland previously served as a chaplain and researcher in the Norwegian Defence Forces. He is the author of many books and scholarly articles within interreligious hermeneutics, systematic theology, and military ethics. His previous book is Enduring Military Boredom (2009). Mæland is the founding editor of The Journal of Military Ethics.

• Contents: Bård Mæland: Culture, Religion, and the Reintegration of Female Child Soldiers in Northern Uganda – Milfrid Tonheim: Where Are the Research Gaps? Reviewing Literature on Former Girl Soldiers’ Reintegration in the African Context – Tor Arne Berntsen: Negotiated Identities: The Discourse on the Role of Child Soldiers in the Peace Process in Northern Uganda – Bård Mæland: Constrained but Not Choiceless: On Moral Agency Among Child Soldiers – Deusdedit Nkurunziza: The Dynamics of Children Associated with Armed Forces and Challenges of Building Peace in Uganda – Chris Coulter: Domesticating the Bush – Christine Mbabazi Mpyangu: The Acholi Worldview: Why Rituals Are Important for the Reintegration of Formerly Recruited Girls in Northern Uganda – Fiona Shanahan/Angela Veale: ‘The Girl Is the Core of Life’: Social Reintegration, Communal Violence, and the Sacred in Northern Uganda – Emeline Ndossi: Stigma as Encountered by Female Returnees and the Role of the Church in Northern Uganda – Miranda Worthen/Susan McKay/Angela Veale/Michael Wessells: ‘I Had No Idea You Cared About Me’: Empowerment of Vulnerable Mothers in the Context of Reintegration – Therese Tinkasiimire: Women and War in Northern Uganda: A Theological Reflection on the Dignity of a Woman in the Reintegration Process – Helen Nkabala Nambalirwa: «The Lord Destroyed the Cities and Everyone Who Lived in Them»: The Lord’s Resistance Army’s Use of the Old Testament Sodom/Gomorrah Narrative – Marta Høyland Lavik: Killing Children with God’s Permission? The Rhetoric of Retaliation in Psalm 193 – Knut Holter: Women and War in Northern Uganda and Ancient Israel: The Interpretative Role of Academia – Magnar Kartveit: Authentic Reading of the Bible – Kjetil Fretheim: Moral Principles and Participation in Practice: Ethical and Methodological Issues in Research on Formerly Recruited Children – Ragnhild Dybdahl/Nermina Kravic/Kishor Shrestha: Are Psychosocial Interventions for War-Affected Children Justified? – Thor Strandenæs: Interviewing Formerly Abducted Children as Informants in Research: Some Methodological and Ethical Considerations – Gerd Marie Ådna: The Interaction Between Interviewees and Interviewers: Perspectives from Religious Studies.

«This is an important book that tackles the multifaceted moral, political, spiritual, religious, and psychosocial realities of girls and young women associated with fighting forces in Sub-Saharan Africa. The book’s most significant contributions take the contexts of culture, family, and community seriously as the authors delve into the violence and transformation in wars and the resulting implications for healing for females and their communities. For most of these females there was no return to normalcy following war. The contributors reveal the complexity of females’ attempts to make meaning of their experiences, rebuild a sense of respect and dignity, and how all of this has to be understood within processes of renegotiating and rebuilding relationships within their communities.» (Dyan Mazurana, Associate Research Professor, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and Research Director, Feinstein International Center, Tufts University)