In/visible Girls: ‘Girl Soldiers’, Gender and Humanitarianism in African Conflicts, c.1955-2005

Abstract

Girls were largely absent in early humanitarian campaigns against the recruitment and use of child soldiers despite evidence that around one-third of the child soldiers were female. This chapter explores why African girl soldiers have been so marginalized in the delivery of humanitarian aid and action despite the prominence of girls in humanitarian images and discourses. It analyses the emergence of the “girl soldier” as an object of humanitarian concern, before investigating the marginalization of girls within demobilization and rehabilitation programming, highlighting the gendered assumptions which have underpinned humanitarian interventions to rehabilitate and reintegrate former girl soldiers. The chapter questions how ideas of age, race and gender have intersected to shape contemporary humanitarianism, highlighting tensions between constructions of girls’ victimhood and evidence of their agency.