Do you remember #BringBackOurGirls? Or the Yezidi women forced into marriage by members of ISIS? They are two of many examples of conflict-related forced marriage. Across many but not all conflicts, a similar pattern emerges. Women and girls are taken by male fighters, forced to marry them, and subjected to various forms of physical, sexual and psychological violence. Forced wives are used as a low-cost payment system and seen as a reward for fighters’ bravery. The number of forced wives then also becomes a status symbol with higher ranking fighters being assigned, or allowed to choose, more wives than fighters of lower rank. In addition to indicating a fighter’s social status, forced marriage also indicates his status as an adult man by providing an opportunity to fulfil a masculine ideal of marriage, parenthood and being the provider for, and protector of, wives and children. Forced wives, in turn, become an inherent part of a fighting group’s organisational structure and are coerced into participating in direct combat, performing domestic work and acting as wives to their forced husbands and as mothers to the children born into forced marriages. Forced families create bonds and dependency structures that are intended to form the basis of a new social order, increase unit cohesion and stability, and reduce the likelihood of escape in an already extremely coercive environment. Externally, forced marriages are intended to demoralise and disable the opponent by dissolving social bonds that previously existed.
Some of these patterns are illustrated in Army Of God: Joseph Kony’s War in Central Africa. It is a non-fiction graphic novel that tells the story of a survivor, Patricia. Patricia is a girl who was abducted by fighters of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the Congo. She is taken to an LRA camp and forced into marriage with a fighter. As a forced wife, she witnesses and experiences various acts of violence before she escapes.
The comic shows that forced marriages are literally formed with a flick of the hand. Patricia’s husband-to-be simply points at abducted girls he wants as his wives and exclaims: “I want that one.”
What exactly he wants them for is said and shown in the next scene. The man is seen coming out of one tent and entering another saying: “Ah, Patricia my new bride.” He labels her as his wife and expects her to fulfil her conjugal duties. Rather than graphic depictions, word clouds saying “sob” and “grunt” as well as “No, please!” and “Shut up, bitch!” make clear that those duties are primarily sexual. And they make clear that Patricia does not have a say in it. She does not consent, neither to the marriage, nor to sex.
While the comic highlights the sexual elements of forced marriage, it does not address the psychological power of the label ‘wife’ that manipulates forced wives into loyalty towards, and socio-economic dependence on, their forced husband.
However, the psychological coercion and physical harm forced wives experience are shown when Patricia refuses to kill another abductee. Her forced husband punishes her physically as well as by saying that he will only see her that day after he had seen all his other wives.
With these words, the scene also demonstrates the partly exclusive nature of forced marriages in the LRA. Women are expected to be faithful to their forced husbands. Men, however, have more than one wife. They are a status symbol and fighters would literally walk over dead bodies to improve their position. This also becomes clear when Patricia first arrives at the LRA camp. Initially, a younger fighter wants her as his wife. But an older man presumably of higher rank tells him: “You know the rules. You can have what’s left over. I’ll take this one”. Later in the story, another fighter kills one of the older man’s wives out of jealousy. With that, the story challenges the idea that forced marriages create unit cohesion and that forced marriage is a way for men to fulfil a masculine ideal that involves the protection of their forced wives.
The scene in which Patricia refuses to kill another abductee is also important because it changes the narrative about her. Until then, she is portrayed as a passive victim. In the beginning of the story, Patricia witnesses the murder of her father. Consequently, one can imagine that she fears that the same might happen to her. Patricia’s fears might be increased by the ubiquity of weapons; they are visible in almost every panel. This contributes to a general situation of uncertainty for Patricia. She doesn’t know what’s going to happen to her and appears to be at the complete mercy of the fighters. After she arrives in the camp, she never says a word or moves at her own will. Only the men talk, about her and her fate, and physically pushed her around. But, when Patricia refuses to kill another abductee as an initiation into the LRA, she actively opposes her forced husband. This is the first scene after her arrival at the camp where Patricia speaks. The scene shows that forced wives are not only passive victims but have agency and actively influence their situation. They make decisions, even if they are choiceless choices between a rock and a hard place. The scene also indicates that forced wives not only reproduce their feminine roles as wives and mothers but also break with traditional gender roles by becoming, or being forced to become, perpetrators of war violence. In this case, violence can be a unifying force that creates group cohesion.
The destruction of social bonds by forced marriage is shown in the story’s portrayal of Patricia’s life after her escape from the LRA. Patricia resettles in a civilian community. There, she is ostracised and stigmatised as an LRA bride. People fear her because they believe she is a rebel and killer.
The crimes committed by the LRA have also been addressed in law. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Joseph Kony, the LRA’s leader. However, he is still at large. But one of his commanders, Dominic Ongwen, has been convicted, amongst others of forced marriage, and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. The judgment delivered against him is over 1000 pages long. It includes harrowing testimonies of survivors. And while it makes for a difficult read, the legal script creates a distance between survivors’ experiences and the reader. Army of God bridges that gap. The reader cannot look away.
Written by Hannah Baumeister
Drawing on Forced Marriage 