New soldiers on the block: the emergence of disciplined soldier subjects in the Ghana Armed Forces’ transformation process

Abstract

ABSTRACT Based on ethnographic engagement with the Ghana Armed Forces, this study examines the creation of new soldier subjectivities in the process of institutional transformation. It does so by foregrounding interpersonal relations as manifestation and mediation of transformation. As a result of the restoration of military order in the barracks after the breakdown of and subsequent reinstallation of discipline in the Ghana Armed Forces since the 1980s, new disciplined soldier subjectivities have emerged. In this paper, I present three sub-categories of the disciplined soldier subject, and how they have been received by representatives of the old military order. The article explores how the emergence of these new types of soldiers is changing the social conventions in the barracks based on their use of technological devices, such as the mobile phones, tablet or computers, but also new types of social and political reach of society into the barracks, especially the so-called ‘protocol-list’ and ‘big man backing’. The article addresses how the new types of soldiers incorporate new forms of interactions and engagements with technology, society and the military institution, thus translating the goals of its transformation process into everyday military practice.