ABSTRACT
We now move from theory to case study. This may entail some repetition, for which I must ask in advance for the reader’s indulgence. The two case studies have been carefully chosen for their contrasts. Each emerges from a very different local context and each is structured and operates in vastly different ways. The contrasts vividly illustrate the striking diversity of Fifth-Wave groups. Our first case study, the Lord’s Resistance Army, is oppositional in nature. It opposes the Ugandan government and the traditional tribal structure of the Acholi people it once aspired to represent. At its core, the LRA are an apocalyptic millenarian cult led by a charismatic prophet, Joseph Kony. The Sudanese Janjaweed, by contrast, were the creation of the Sudanese government-a kind of Frankenstein’s monster who grew too large to control and too unwieldy to use efficiently. They have brought down the wrath of the world community on the Sudanese government, brought the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir the unwanted distinction of being the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Demands that the Court add a charge of genocide to the indictment are being heard from influential voices in the international community.1 Fifth-Wave movements both, yet the LRA and the Janjaweed would on the surface appear to be two very different beasts. We will revisit the analytical link between these two groups after the case studies are presented. First, the Lord’s Resistance Army.
