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>> xiii Acknowledgments With so many debts incurred, I hardly know where to begin. Sincere appreciation is due to so many. To my colleagues at Gbendembu Secondary School, who were my friends, fellow palm wine drinkards, and first informants before I knew what the term “informant” meant. To graduate school friends at Berkeley who helped me out of my illfitting identity as a mathematician and into my new identity as a union organizer and social theorist: Eric Hsu, Lily Khadjavi, Concha Gomez, and Jim Freeman. And of course, to my “tribe”: Steven Hillion, Jordan Tircuit, John Fox, Mary Crabb, and Mark Dolan. To friends in Sierra Leone, old and new, who welcomed me home after a decade away, despite their own difficult circumstances: M. T. Bangura, Sonny Joe, Michael Kamara, Shellac Sonny Davies, Frances Fortune, Pinkie McCann-Willis, Nell White, and my students and colleagues at Milton Margai College of Education and Technology. To all the child protection workers who tolerated my incessant questions at Family Homes Movement, Caritas Makeni, the International Rescue Committee, Children Affected by War, and elsewhere. To the Sierra Leonean communities who made me welcome, and in true Sierra Leonean fashion asked me to share in the little they had as they were rebuilding from chaos. To the many young men and women who revealed something of their lives to me. To Jean Lave, much more than a dissertation advisor, a model for how to live a committed intellectual life. That dinner at Chez Panisse, the night before I blithely left for a war zone, meant more than I can say. To other professors who profoundly shaped my thinking and the contents of this book, Gillian Hart and Mariane Ferme. xiv << Acknowledgments To a community of scholars who engaged with me and my ideas in various rough drafts around Berkeley. In the Graduate School of Education , Mary Crabb, Raymond June, Amanda Lashaw, and Pam Stello. In the Reconstructing Communities in Crisis Working Group, Robin Delugan, William Hayes, Joseph Nevins, Krisjon Olson, and Susana Kaiser. In a lifesaving dissertation-writing group, Aaron Bobrow-Strain, Nitasha Sharma, and Rebecca Dolinhow.My fieldwork and write-up were funded by a number of generous organizations. The Rocca Memorial Fellowship for doctoral research in African Studies, from the Center for African Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, allowed me to travel to Sierra Leone for two rounds of fieldwork, even when the war was officially ongoing. The American Association of University Women, the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, and the Harry Frank Guggenheim foundation all provided valuable dissertation fellowships. Other scholars of Sierra Leone, of child soldiering, and of youth and conflict have been mentors or coconspirators; included among them are Aisha Fofana Ibrahim, Susan McKay, Kristen Cheney, Ibrahim Abdullah , Bidemi Carrol, and Doug Henry. In addition, American University and the School of International Service have provided a wonderfully collaborative home and support, financial and otherwise, for my ongoing research in Sierra Leone. Thank you to all my colleagues in International Peace and Conflict Resolution , and to a number of research assistants including Janelle Nodhurft , Sharyn Routh, and Cate Broussard. To my “Sohos”: Rachel Robinson , Brenda Werth, Kristin Diwan, Kate Haulman, Adrea Lawrence, and Elizabeth Worden. Finally to my husband, Wusu Kargbo. I couldn’t have done it without you. ...

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