Chris Coulter - Bush Wives and Girl Soldiers

To Stella Loyce, Martha Brae, and Mary

A work of anthropology is not only the result of a process of reading, thinking, and writing, but as much, if not more, of being in the field. Leaving my home to live in rural Sierra Leone with two young children could have entailed some practical difficulties had it not been for the enormous help and assistance of many kind and generous people. The people in Koinadugu District made me a welcome stranger to their lives and I thank them all, especially Joseph, Kumba, Theresa, Paul and Mary Kortenhoven, and Pa Morowa and his family. Although I am not at liberty to share their names, all the women, and the few men, with whom I worked in Sierra Leone made this research possible through the trust they granted me by sharing some of the worst experiences of their lives, sometimes at great emotional cost. When they asked me how my research would help them, I always answered that I did not know, but that I hoped that by talking to me I could share with my readers their strength and resilience in the face of hardship. This work would have been inconceivable without the tireless and unwavering support of my research assistant/interpreter Mary Korsarow Jalloh Kowa. In Freetown we were always welcomed to rest and reconvene at the house of our dear friends the Kabba family. We cannot thank them enough for their great hospitality, for the love they showed us and in particular our children. It was in the Kabba household I learnt Krio,una tenki! Other invaluable friendships in Freetown include OBai Kamara, Unisa Bangura, Petra Lindberg, and many others. Cecilia Utas and Tommy Garnett require a very special thanks, as do Mats and Umu Utas. I wish to thank all my colleagues for their support and encouragement, and for reading and commenting on various papers and chapters over the years, especially Staffan Lfving, Becky Popenoe, Lars Hagborg, and Eva Evers Rosander. I want to thank all the members of the Living Beyond Conflict (LBC) Seminar, and many of our inspiring guest lecturers, Michael Jackson, Paul Richards, Begoa Aretxaga, Harri Englund, Carolyn Nordstrom, and Don Handelman, among others. Other avid scholars on Sierra Leone with whom I have shared many common interests are Mariam Persson, Danny Hoffman, Rosalind Shaw, and Susan Shepler. No acknowledgment is complete without thanking those institutions who made this work possible. For funding my dissertation work I thank Sida/SAREC, and for generously funding my fieldwork I thank the Swedish Research Council, Olof Palmes Memorial Fund, Lars Hiertas Memorial Fund, the Nordic Africa Institute, the Swedish Royal Academy of Letters, and the Wallenberg Foundation. A book is not written on its own. It is the result of a long and sometimes cumbersome process. As the process of writing stretched over years, family and friends have also played a big part in why I came to be where I am. I dedicate this dissertation to my wonderful children who have endured malaria, typhoid, conjunctivitis, and so many other things while accompanying me to Sierra Leone. I hope, and know, that your lives too will have been enriched by living in Sierra Leone, Sweet Salone, and hope you will carry with you those memories always. I also dedicate this dissertation to the most important person in my life, my husband Mike Barrett. You are my favorite anthropologist, thank you for intellectual challenges, a sharp eye for proof reading, and our continual conversations. Your love and support throughout this process belong to a realm of experience that does not easily translate into words, but I think you know what I mean. This is for you.

Map 1. Sierra Leone

Map 2. Koinadugu District