The war in Sierra Leone between 1991 and 2002 challenged the view of women as only being victims in wars. This is one of the conclusions that PhD in anthropology Chris Coulter could draw after interviewing women during one and a half years of field studies in the country. At a lecture in the Swedish School on February 15 she shared her findings.
"Many women were victims and were kidnapped and raped but some were also fighters in the war", says Chris Coulter.
Many had come to the Swedish School on 15 February to listen to Chris Coulter’s lecture on women´s role in the civil war in Sierra Leone. The one hour long lecture was followed by continued discussions at the Swedish school´s bar at the pool side.
The standard image of a soldier, a man in short hair and uniform, was challenged in Sierra Leone and other African wars according to Coulter. When she first heard of female fighters in Sierra Leone in 1997 she decided to study the phenomena.
"We don’t really expect women to be fighters, so when I heard about female fighters this led me to Sierra Leone", says Coulter.
She visited Sierra Leone in 1998, 2001, 2003 and 2004 and she spent in total one and a half years in the country, some of the time in the capital Freetown but mostly in Kabala, a town in the north of the country.
"When I talked to UN as part of my preparations I discovered that this part of the country was the least developed and least visited by UN and NGO´s. As nobody seemed interested in this part of the country, I decided to go there."
Interviewing some 100 women affected by the war gave Coulter a diversified picture of women´s role in the war. The rebels would attack villages and kidnap young women, some as young as nine, to help the rebels carrying and cooking. In the beginning they were severely abused.
"They were locked into a house and raped by many men for days."
The gang rapes were often stopped by a senior commander who afterwards claimed the raped woman as his “wife”. This saved the women´s life and a sense of loyalty towards the rebels started to grow. Many got pregnant and became in charge of supplying the rebels with food. Others became soldiers and even commanders. “Black Diamond” in neighboring Liberia was one of the more famous female commanders that astonished the world.
"BBC would not describe the female rebels in Sierra Leone as normal soldiers but rather as street wise girls. And the violence they committed was often described as more vicious and cold blooded than male soldiers."
The war in Sierra Leone and other African countries also challenged the stereotype of how a male soldier looks like. The rebels were often young men in hip hop clothes, high on drugs and undisciplined. Some rebels turned the soldier stereotype completely upside down. In Sierra Leone and Liberia there were soldiers wearing bras, wigs and women´s dresses.
"The West looked upon these rebels as totally crazy and they reinforced the image of the savage African. But in many West African countries it is not a pure masculinity that gives strength and potency, like in the West, but a crossing between the sexes and this goes back hundreds of years."
When the war ended in January 2002, a process of disarmament and reintegration of the rebels started. Many rebels, especially the female rebels, had great difficulties in returning back to normal life. Many women were young, some not more the nine when they were kidnapped and they could spend up to 10 years with rebels which is very formative years in a young girl´s life.
"These women were illiterate and came from traditional families in small villages. With the guns in their hands they could change the normal hierarchies in society. When they were rebels they could get dresses, jewels and anything they wanted. When they returned after the war many could not stand traditional village life."
But returning home after the war also meant facing the victims of the rebel killings. Many had been forced to kill relatives in the village in order to survive. Many families refused to forgive them but they were also afraid that they would kill other relatives if coming back.
But also the women´s new tougher attitude and language and big city outfits developed during the rebels years, was an obstacle for reintegrating to normal family life.
"Many were loud, swearing and were using drugs. Not only their families had problems accepting them but also local NGO´s complained that they did not know what to do with these women."
The destiny of the rebel women after the war differs. Some got married with a man in the village, others stayed with the rebel husband even if society never accepted these marriages. Some got involved in the “loving business” after returning home, either with some steady boyfriends or as prostitutes. This would support their village family financially and give the women some space of negotiations when returning home.
Chris Coulter is a lecturer and researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden. If you are interested in finding out more about women during and after the civil war in Sierra Leone, Chris Coulter´s book “Bush Wives and Girl Soldiers – women´s lives through war and peace in Sierra Leone” is now available at Planet Books in Arcades.
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