Acan’s and Amony’s experiences as girls caught between rebel and state forces informs their perspective on war. As Amony stated in her presentation at the University of Manitoba (2019):

I was abducted by [the] LRA when I was twelve years old. [The] LRA is a group of rebels that are fighting against the Uganda government [...] The Lord’s Resistance Army rebels took me to South Sudan [...]. Before I was abducted I was living with my parents [...]. I was separated from my parents from 1994 until to 2005. Then I got a chance to escape from the Lord’s Resistance Army. When I returned I wasn’t in a position to talk about what happened to me because I was so sad from being taken as a child and being raped. [...] But after writing [my] book I got courage[.] The reason I am here today is because, in 2005, when I entered an ambush, I survived death by 12 bullets. I was shot [by the Uganda Peoples' Defence Force] and my skirt has holes. I brought that skirt here to the museum. [...] [I]n 2004, when different countries united with the Ugandan government, they went to fight the LRA. That’s when I lost my daughter and after that I don’t know where she is, I am still looking for her. [W]e are advocating for justice for women and we have to make the world know that war is dangerous. Our interest is that war should be stopped, abductions of young children should be stopped, and war must stop with us. 

Sexual violence and conjugal slavery remain neglected parts of armed conflict and there continues to be barriers for justice for survivors. Even though survivors’ experiences of abduction and captivity are different and unique, the CSiW partnership has found many similarities. These similarities are especially noticeable particularly regarding the stigma survivors face (Bitu Tshikudi, 2019). 

However, in Acan’s and Amony’s statements to the news media, their message goes far beyond advocating for justice and reparations. They argue for sustained movements for peace and the abolition of war. The instrumentalization of women and girls in armed conflict has been an important tactic used to sustain social reproduction within the LRA and to push the LRA message (Bitu Tshikudi, 2019).


In there conversations with news media, both Acan and Amony explain how they were mistreated and revictimized by the Ugandan government through its amnesty mechanism. In a CBC Day 6 (2019) piece, the article states:

“The [amnesty] card is meted out to LRA fighters who are forgiven for fighting against the government of Uganda. It’s hard to see what exactly she’s being forgiven for, Amony said. ‘It [was] not our will to be in the bush,’ Amony clarified. And Acan stated that, ‘My life was destroyed. I didn’t hold a gun against the government, so why should I sign that I fought against the government?’ [...] ‘There was no government to protect me, to bring me back’” (2019).