Description
In Colombia’s post-conflict context, the narratives of ex-combatants frequently circulate within the moral and legal framework of confession, often viewed as acts of truth-telling, repentance, or accountability. However, such frameworks can inadvertently limit the range of meanings that these voices encompass and the roles they occupy in the transitional landscape. This paper advocates for a broader understanding of confession, not as a fixed category, but as a relational and performative practice through which ex-combatants negotiate issues of legitimacy, vulnerability, and belonging.
Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork with former FARC members, the paper examines the multiple registers in which “confessional” narratives operate: from silence and hesitation to justification and storytelling. These utterances do not simply reveal guilt or remorse; they also reconfigure the boundaries between victims and perpetrators, public and private, individual and collective responsibility. By engaging critical approaches to testimony, affect, and the politics of voice, the paper invites a rethinking of what it means to “listen” to ex-combatants.
Engaging with critical military studies and feminist approaches to voice, the paper proposes a shift from asking what ex-combatants confess to examining what their confessions do: how they rearticulate authority, belonging, and recognition in the aftermath of war. In doing so, it contributes to broader discussions about militarised subjectivities, the governance of speech, and the politics of transition in the Global South.
