VIOLENCE, MEMORY AND THERAPEUTIC MEASURES IN SELECTED MEMOIRS OF AFRICAN WAR CHILDREN

Abstract

Violence as a phenomenon is detrimental to both individual members as well as the given society where it occurs. Its effects are felt physically, socially and psychologically. This paper investigates the effects of violence on victims’ memories as portrayed by Emmanuel Jal and Ishmael Beah in War Child: A Boy Soldier’s Story and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier respectively. With the use of trauma and postcolonial theories, the texts are analyzed and through the exploration of the memoirists’ experiences, it is discovered that dreams and hallucinations; flashbacks of past events; imaginative images; and antisocial personality disorder are the ways through which the effects of violence on memory are manifested. The experiences of these writers are so presented to equally project the state of many postcolonial and post – independent African nations. This paper advocates for a violent-free society where citizens, especially children can live peacefully.