Representations of Child-Soldier Trauma in Biyi Bandele’s Burma Boy

Abstract

The exploration of child trauma in literature has received robust attention in Africa. Though, this study is focused on the phenomenon of child-soldier trauma narratives in African literature. This study, investigated the representations of traumatised child-soldiers in Biyi Bandele’s Burma Boy (2007). The selected text was subjected to qualitative, literary analysis, identifying the traumatic experiences suffered by the child-fighters featured in them. The study utilised the tenets of trauma theory to account for the mental state of the characters. The analysis reveals that there are different episodes of trauma like fear, anxiety, aggression, depression, hallucination, manifested by the child-soldiers in the novel. Bandele’s Burma Boy imaginatively explores how young fighters (Chindits) were traumatised during the Second World War. In the novel, the child-fighters including Ali Banana, became traumatised as a result of their exposure to the devastating experience of war and deaths. The examined novel highlights the traumatic experiences of child soldiers especially Ali Banana thereby resulting in anxiety and depression. It also facilitates psychological health awareness, and this makes the research relevant to fields like clinical psychology and trauma studies.

Keywords: Trauma Studies, Child-Soldier, War, Mental Health, Fear.