Abstract
This paper examines the paradoxical elevation of the child soldier to the status of a folk hero in Ugandan popular culture, drawing parallels with the veneration of the Ugandan Martyrs, particularly Saint Kizito. It analyzes how the historical narrative of the martyrs, celebrated for their heroic resistance and ultimate victim-to-victor transformation, inadvertently provides a cultural framework for interpreting the figure of the child soldier during the National Resistance Army (NRA) era of the 1980s. The study explores the dissonance between the image of the child soldier as a symbol of national resistance and the grave reality of child rights violations inherent in their recruitment. By contextualizing this phenomenon within the age-old cult of saints and creative peacebuilding efforts in Uganda, the discourse argues that the child soldier, much like the young Saint Kizito, is perceived as a victim-victor by virtue of age. The paper also touches upon the varied experiences of boy and girl child soldiers, highlighting their shared victimhood and challenging conventional notions of warrior capabilities while probing the effectiveness of the security ostensibly offered by guerrilla life in the broken communities of the time.