Abstract
Betty1 looked down and whispered, “They call me Lakwena . . . it hurts me so much,” as a rare tear rolled down her face (interview, July 2007). Lakwena, in this instance, is a derogatory slang for “rebel” and references Alice Lakwena, founder of the Holy Spirit Movement in northern Uganda formed in reaction to persecution by government soldiers. The other children at her school use terms like Lakwena to taunt Betty, a shy yet vibrant 16-year-old student, who happens to also be a former child soldier, abducted to serve in the northern rebel army.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
American Psychiatric Association. 2000. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed., text revised Washington, DC: Author.
Amone-P’Olak K. 2004. “A Study of the Psychological State of Former Abducted Children at Gulu World Vision Trauma Centre”. Torture 14 (1): 24–34.
Barenbaum, J., V. Ruchkin, M. Schwab-Stone. 2004. “The Psychosocial Aspects of Children Exposed to War: Practice and Policy Initiatives”. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 45 (1): 41–62.
Blattman, C. and J. Annan. 2010. “On the Nature and Causes of LRA Abduction: What the Abductees Say”. In The Lord’s Resistance Army. Myth and Reality, edited by T. Allen and K. Vlassenroot. London: Zed Books, 132–155.
Cheney, K. 2010. “Deconstructing Childhood Vulnerability: An Introduction”. Childhood in Africa 2 (1): 4–7.
Cheney, K. 2010. “Expanding Vulnerability, Dwindling Resources: Implications for Orphaned Futures in Uganda”. Childhood in Africa 2 (1): 8–15.
DeJong, K. 2001. “Uses and Abuses of the Concept of Trauma: A Response to Summerfield”. In Refugee Experience: Psychosocial Training Module, edited by M. Loughry and A. Ager. Oxford: Refugee Studies Centre, 129–132.
Derluyn I., E. Broekaert, G. Schuyten, and E. De Temmerman. 2004. “Post-traumatic Stress in Former Ugandan Child Soldiers”. The Lancet 363 (9412): 861–863.
Dolan, C. 2009. Social Torture: The Case of Northern Uganda, 1986–2006. New York: Berghahn Books.
Epstein, A. 2010. “Education Refugees and the Spatial Politics of Childhood Vulnerability”. Childhood in Africa (2) 1: 16–25.
Herman, J. 1997. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence from Domestic to Political Terror. New York: Basic Books.
Hinz, L. 2009. Expressive Therapies Continuum: A Framework for Using Art in Therapy. New York: Routledge.
Honwana, A. 2005. “Innocent and Guilty: Child Soldiers as Interstitial and Tactical Agents”. In Makers and Breakers: Children and Youth in Post-colonial Africa, edited by A Honwana and F.D. Boeck. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 31–52.
Kaiser, T. 2006. “Songs, Discos and Dancing in Kiryandongo, Uganda”. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 32 (2): 183–202.
Kramer, E. 2006. Art as Therapy. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Learmonth, M. 2007. “With All Their Tenderness Intact: The Arts, Otherness, and Political Violence”. Insider Art. http://www.insiderart.org.uk/. Accessed August 30, 2011.
Let Art Talk. 2008. http://www.letarttalk.org/. Accessed May 28, 2011.
Levine, P. 2010. In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
Malchiodi, C.A. 1998. The Art Therapy Sourcebook. Los Angeles: Lowell House.
Malchiodi, C.A. 2006. Art Therapy Sourcebook. New York: McGraw-Hill.
McClain, L. 2010. “The Art of Creative Conflict Resolution: A Critical Evaluation of Approaches to Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Northern Uganda”. Pursuit: The Journal of Undergraduate Research at the University of Tennessee 1 (1): 89–101.
McDonald, L.S., R. Bhasin, and R.F. Mollica. 2005. “Project 1 Billion: A Global Model for the Mental Health Recovery of Post-conflict Societies”. In Perspectives in Cross-cultural Psychiatry, edited by A. Georgiopoulos and J. Rosenbaum. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins.
McNiff, S. 1992. Art as Medicine: Creating a Therapy of the Imagination. Boston: Shambhala Publications.
Mergelsberg, B. 2010. “Between Two Worlds: Former LRA Soldiers in Northern Uganda”. In The Lord’s Resistance Army: Myth and Reality, edited by T. Allen and K. Vlassenroot. London: Zed Books, 156–276. Otiso, K.M. 2006. Culture and Customs of Uganda. London: Greenwood.
Papadopoulos, R.K. 2006. “Refugees and Psychological Trauma: Psychosocial Perspectives”. Good Practice Website Project. http://www.ncb.org.uk. Accessed August 30, 2011.
Pham, P., P. Vinck, and E. Stover. 2007. Abducted: The Lord’s Resistance Army and Forced Conscription in Northern Uganda. Berkeley/Tulane: Initiative on Vulnerable Populations.
Summerfield, D. 1999. “A Critique of Seven Assumptions behind Psychological Trauma Programs in War-Affected Areas”. Social Science and Medicine 48: 1449–1462.
Summerfield, D. 2002. “Effects of War: Moral Knowledge, Revenge, Reconciliation, and Medicalised Concepts of ‘Recovery’”. British Medical Journal 325: 1105–1107.
Van de Put, W. and M. Eisenbruch. 2004. “Internally Displaced Cambodians: Healing Trauma in Communities”. In The Mental Health of Refugees: Ecological Approaches to Healing and Adaptation, edited by K. Miller and L. Rasco. Mahwah. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, 133–159.
Weiss, D.S. and C.R. Marmar. 1996. “The Impact of Event Scale–Revised” In Assessing Psychological Trauma and PTSD, edited by J. Wilson and T.M. Keane. New York: Guilford, 399–411.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2012 Marisa O. Ensor
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hanebrink, J.R., Smith, A.J. (2012). Painting a Picture of Creative Arts Therapy For War-Affected Youth in Northern Uganda. In: Ensor, M.O. (eds) African Childhoods. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137024701_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137024701_15
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-43861-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-02470-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)