1. "Leave No One to Tell the Tales": The Role of Pain and Recollection in Post-Conflict Reconciliation in Africa
- Author:
- Bukola Adeyemi Oyeniyi
- Publication Date:
- 03-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Social Science Research Council
- Abstract:
- Using testimonies of child soldiers and amputees from Sierra Leone, accounts from survivors of the Rwandan genocide, and recollections of survivors of rape and sexual violence from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this essay explores the intersection between pain, its recollection, and post-conflict recovery in Africa. Between 1991 and 2002, unprecedented violence gripped Sierra Leone, leading to the death of an estimated 50,000 people. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) set up after the civil war reported that a rebel group, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), orchestrated “indiscriminate amputations, abduction of women and children, recruitment of children as combatants, rape and sexual slavery, cannibalism, gratuitous killings, and wanton destruction of villages and towns” against ethnic groups believed to be loyal to President Joseph Saidu Momoh and the All People’s Congress (APC), the party that had ruled Sierra Leone since 1968
- Topic:
- Children, Gender Based Violence, Conflict, and Sexual Violence
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Sierra Leone, and Democratic Republic of Congo