Becoming Cowardly: Automatic Rifles and the Change of Bodily Experiences in East African Battlefield

The Daasanach in the border regions of Ethiopia, Kenya, and the South Sudan have fought with neighboring pastoral groups, viewed as “enemies”, for more than a half-century. The Daasanach claim that their primary motive for going to war is the demonstration of masculinity, allowing men to be recognized as “brave” by community members. Various cultural mechanisms praise the “brave man” who kills a member of enemy group and who raids their livestock. Since the 1980s, the proliferation of automatic rifles in East Africa has increased the seriousness of conflicts. It has been reported that the youth are drawn to the destructive power of the automatic rifle, and their behaviour is carelessly destructive of the social order. However, many Daasanach youth told me that recent war experiences with automatic rifles had led them to “renounce war”. Two main types of experiences contributed to such decisions. First was the bodily (including “physical” and “mental”) pain of war, such as being grazed by a bullet or surrounded by dead bodies. Second was the shameful conflict that could occur among the Daasanetch during the course of a war. In wartime, the unity of “we Daasanetch” could break down under the violence. Many persons who “renounce wars” said, “I became cowardly” as a result of such experiences. In this presentation, I will discuss how the change of weapon influence on the forms of war and bodily experiences in the battlefield, and how people reflect their pain and suffering in the battlefield to their life.