Becoming family: futurity and the soldier-father

Abstract

ABSTRACT How does the process of becoming family shape a male soldier’s rendering of an imagined future in the precariousness of war? We consider this in relation to the experiences of former combatants in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), where polygamous family units were formed under capricious and coercive conditions. To govern a diverse population abducted as youth and forced to labour in the organization involved strict regulations of gender and sexual relations. The LRA sought to sever past kin relations to build a new nation, or people, through rituals that ‘cleansed’ one of civilian mentality and forged new relations. With the birth and care of children from forced conjugal unions, the LRA imagined a future nation cleansed of moral impurities. As soldiers became fathers, loyalties to their new biological and non-biological families usurped their allegiances to the LRA, which frequently led to soldiers releasing their wives, children, junior soldiers, and their own eventual escape. Drawing on life-history and semi-structured interviews with 12 former male fighters, we examine how the conflicting demands on the soldier-father’s performative and future-oriented roles ironically created the conditions for a counter-movement.