The Kalashnikov Generation
An Anthropologist Inside Congo's War
Luca Jourdan (Author),
Category: African Studies, Anthropology, Political Science, Social Science
ISBN: 9789462705302
Publication date: March 1, 2027
€42.00 (including 6% VAT)
COMING SOON
Available to pre-order two weeks before date of publication.
Number of pages: 300
Size: 234 x 156 x mm
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For EU: 2 to 3 weeks
For other countries: 4 to 5 weeks
An immersive ethnographic account of Congo’s child and youth fighters in three decades of conflict.
Written in a vivid, direct style, The Kalashnikov Generation takes us into the heart of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, amid the hills and forests of Kivu and Ituri, where thousands of young people and children fight with Kalashnikovs in the many militias and armies that have fueled a war of staggering complexity and brutality for three decades. Exceptionally rich in strategic minerals, the Congo has long been the focus of regional and international ambitions. Rwanda continues to stoke rebellions in the east, while the government in Kinshasa and the national army struggle to assert sovereignty. This book enters the lives of young combatants to explore their world, their motivations, and the meaning of their experience. Both actors and victims, they stand at the center of a conflict that has claimed millions of lives.
English translation of Generazione Kalashnikov: Un antropologo dentro la guerra in Congo, Luca Jourdan (Editori Laterza 2014)
An extraordinarily well-written and illuminating anthropological journey into the experiences, expectations and meanings of being a child soldier: unexpected eyes to look at war and life in our world. - Riccardo Ciavolella, EHESS, Paris, and Director of research, CNRS, France
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