This chapter introduces the lives of Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in Uganda, suggesting that these lives are too complex to be understood through the simple moral lens of humanity. It uses “against humanity” as a heuristic to think about the problems posed by the uses of humanity (including the “crime against humanity”)—a social construct that must be critically interrogated rather than taken as natural. Being “against humanity” means thinking about the richness of human life that exists outside limited notions of the good—life beyond humanity. Also included is important historical context for the LRA war, including its leader, Joseph Kony, as well as ways in which LRA rebels have been expelled from humanity.
Abducted children and youth in Lord’s Resistance Army in Northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): mechanisms of indoctrination and control