396: What if you were held captive by child soldiers?

5 snips

Mar 3, 2026

Dave Muller, a South African sailor and author who survived capture by RENAMO child soldiers, tells a harrowing survival story. He and his family face armed teenage fighters, march inland, live in a rebel camp, and endure attacks before a dramatic naval rescue. Later he returns to Mozambique, writes Not Child's Play, and works to process and give back after trauma.

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ADVICE

Use A Diary To Anchor Your Sanity In Captivity

Dave began writing a diary immediately as therapy to record events and survive psychologically while captive.
He credits the diary as the start of his mental coping and later the foundation for his book Not Child's Play.

ANECDOTE

Mortar Attack That Should Have Killed Them

The camp endured at least one coordinated attack intended to kill Dave's family; mortars and follow-up infantry assaults terrified them but the fighters prioritized feeding the captives afterward.
Post-attack the commander admitted the raids had targeted them specifically, deepening their fear.

ANECDOTE

A Ritual That Terrified The Camp

Dave recounts a ritual where a blindfolded man walked into an invisible barrier then later appeared in uniform performing a selection that ended with a chicken's throat being slit.
The scene unsettled him and reinforced his sense of unknown spiritual forces at work in the camp.

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When a family sailing journey ends in capture by child soldiers during Mozambique’s civil war, a man must protect his children while confronting the unsettling truth that his captors are both perpetrators of violence and children shaped by it.

Today’s episode featured Dave Muller. Dave has written about his experiences in a book entitled, “Not Child’s Play”, available where books are sold or at https://notchildsplay.co.uk/

You can email Dave at dave.muller@notchildsplay.co.za

Dave is on Instagram @davenotchildsplay, on Facebook @Dave Muller and on YouTube @DaveMuller-NotChildsPlay

In the 1960s and 1970s, both South Africa and Mozambique were part of the larger decolonization of Africa, with South Africa gaining full independence from Britain in 1961 and Mozambique gaining independence from Portugal in 1975. However, in the decolonization process, both were thrown into proxy battles, between old structures clinging to power and the larger global cold war between communist and capitalist superpowers. South Africa, even after independence, was still ruled by a white minority government, under the National Party. The National Party was populated mostly by the white ethnic group known as Afrikaners who spoke a language called Afrikaans. The National Party instituted apartheid, a brutally oppressive system of institutionalized racial segregation and white supremacy enforced in South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. South Africa shares a northeastern border with Mozambique. When Mozambique gained independence in 1975, they were ruled by the Communist party known as FRELIMO. FRELIMO became a major force opposing apartheid in neighboring South Africa. The South African apartheid government, in response to FRELIMO’s opposition, actively destabilized Mozambique from the inside by propping up a rebel group known as RENAMO. This led to a violent 15-year civil war in Mozambique, between the ruling, communist-backed FRELIMO party and the South African-backed RENAMO rebel group.

In the first part of today's episode, you'll hear our storyteller speak about growing up in South Africa during apartheid as a white man, but he was not an Afrikaner, and grew up in a family that was opposed to apartheid. The second part of the story takes place in Mozambique, where he and his family are held by the RENAMO rebel group and caught in the chaos and fighting between FRELIMO and RENAMO, the two warring factions in the civil war there.

Of course there is much more to say about all of this, and Dave will speak to some of these issues as he experienced them. I encourage you all to read more about the brutal and complex history of decolonization and apartheid in Africa.

And one final note, you’ll hear Dave talking about “Arwen” several times. In case it isn’t clear right away, he is referring to his boat that he built.

Producers: Whit Missildine, Andrew Waits, Aviva Lipkowitz

Content/Trigger Warnings: War and armed conflict, Child soldiers, Kidnapping / hostage situation, Graphic violence, Murder (including stabbing / bayoneting), Violence against the elderly, Exposure to blood, Threats of execution, Weapons (guns, rockets, mortar fire), Terrorism / militant groups, Civil war, Psychological trauma, PTSD, Panic attacks / emotional breakdown, Spiritual distress, Political violence, Forced recruitment of children, Coercion and intimidation, explicit language

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Intro Music: “Sleep Paralysis” - Scott Velasquez

Music Bed: Sparse_Reflections__a__APM

Services

If you or someone you know is struggling with the effects of trauma or mental illness, please refer to the following resources:

National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Text or Call 988

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National Sexual Assault Hotline (RAINN): 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)

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