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1
Harris, David. "Sierra Leone: A Political History." Hurst, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/17555.
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NoSierra Leone came to world attention in the 1990s when a catastrophic civil war linked to the diamond trade was reported globally. This fleeting and particular interest, however, obscured two crucial processes in this small West African state. On the one hand, while the civil war was momentous and brutal, affecting all Sierra Leoneans, it was also just one element in the long and faltering attempt to build a nation and state, given the country’s immensely problematic pre-colonial and British colonial legacies. On the other, the aftermath of the war precipitated a huge international effort to construct a ‘liberal peace’, with mixed results, and interrupted by the devastating Ebola pandemic. This made Sierra Leone a laboratory for both post-conflict and health crisis interventions. Sierra Leone examines over 230 years of its history and sixty years of independence, placing state–society relations at the centre of an original and revealing investigation of those who have tried to rule or change Sierra Leone and its inhabitants, and the responses engendered. It interweaves the historical narrative with sketches of politicians, anecdotes, the landscape and environment and key turning-points, alongside theoretical and other comparisons with the rest of Africa. It is a new contribution to the debate for those who already know Sierra Leone and a solid point of entry for those who wish to.
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Forsberg, Sanna. "Violence Against Civilians in Civil War : A Comparative Case Study of the Sierra Leone Civil War." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för freds- och konfliktforskning, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-314790.
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Jones, Lindsay. "[The] marginalization of girl soldiers in Sierra Leone’s Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration program : an analysis based on structuration theory." Thesis, McGill University, 2008. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=109914.
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Note:An estimated 48,000 child soldiers were involved in the violent civil war in Sierra Leone between 1991 and 2002. It is suggested that approximately 12,000 were girls. Lacking material possessions and facing other negative structural factors, the majority was in need of some form of assistance post-conflict. Although international aid response was substantial, only 500 girls entered the countrywide Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) program. The remainder followed a variety of different courses. Giddens' structuration theory offers a useful theoretical framework to explore the reasons for their absence in the program, as it permits a focus on the role of structure and agencyin understanding behaviour. Social stigmatization and a gender-biased DDR program, within a broader structure of gender inequality, are identified as the principal problems .
On estime que 48,000 enfants soldats ont été impliques dans la violente guerre civile en Sierra Leone entre 1991 et 2002.11 est suggéré que prés de 12,000 d'entre eux étaient des filles. Avec des lacunes importantes au niveau matériel et faisant face a d'autres problèmes d'ordre structurel, la majorité de ces filles ont eu besoin d'une certaine forme d'assistance post-conflit. Bien que l'aide internationale ait été importante, seulement 500 filles ont été inscrites au programme national de Désarmement, démobilisation et réinsertion (DDR). Les autres filles ont suivies différents parcours. La théorie de structuration de Giddens offre un cadre théorique utile pour étudier les raisons de leur absence dans le programme car il permet de focaliser sur le rôle de la structure et de I' agence dans la compréhension du comportement. La stigmatisation sociale et une inégalité de genre au sein du programme de DDR, situe dans une structure plus généralisée d'inégalité de genre, sont identifiées comme étant les problèmes principaux .
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Cutter, S. M. "Grassroots perspectives of peace building in Sierra Leone 1991-2006." Thesis, Coventry University, 2009. http://curve.coventry.ac.uk/open/items/60c223ee-7526-0337-dc66-c66796335b38/1.
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This study is about peace building in Sierra Leone, during and after the civil war (1991-2002). The initial hypothesis was that the impact of externally driven peace building activities was reduced because of insufficient attention to local culture and priorities. This hypothesis was underpinned by a number of assumptions based on the author’s personal experience and the views of Sierra Leoneans met in the early post-war period.
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Gross, Deanna Katherine, and deanna gross@adelaide edu au. "POLITICS AND PLUNDER: Civil war and regional intervention in Africa." Flinders University. School of Political and International Studies, 2007. http://catalogue.flinders.edu.au./local/adt/public/adt-SFU20080502.111658.
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Over recent decades, civil wars in Africa have taken millions of lives and caused widespread destruction of whole states and regions. The living standards of peoples residing in such states in Africa which have been devastated by war are often deplorable, with violence, disease and poverty characterising life there. Lawlessness is another feature of such wars, making these states optimal places for international terrorist groups to operate in, and from. For both the above reasons, the West should not turn a blind eye to this issue.
These wars that have occurred in a number of African states, including Rwanda, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan, have often become regionalised with surrounding states increasingly becoming involved. This is particularly the case when economic gain can be sought through involvement in the civil war. The introduction of regional actors into domestic civil wars frequently serves to intensify and prolong the conflict, through an increase of arms and troops entering the fighting. The surrounding state actors largely claim to be involved for political reasons, namely to provide security to their own state. However, numerous credible reports have shown that vast plundering of natural resources has been carried out in war-time by surrounding states in the war-torn state. Consequently, this thesis examines the motives of surrounding state actors when deciding to participate in domestic civil wars of their neighbours. To do this, I compile case studies on both Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo since both states had been ravaged by violent and drawn-out civil wars involving regional actors. Furthermore, the regional actors in both cases (Liberia in Sierra Leone, and particularly Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe in the DRC) have been accused of participating in the wars for economic gain.
The case studies showed that while political motivations largely drive the initial decision by regional actors to participate in civil wars in their region, it is subsequently economic gain that both allows and compels them to continue their involvement in the civil war. Henceforth, in the final chapter, I put investigate policy suggestions for the future including: prevention of resources being used to fuel warfare through controlling their access to legitimate channels; the use of aid to reduce the likelihood of those in poverty turning to war in pursuit of sustenance, including opportunities to target aid and use compliance with particular peace agreements as a prerequisite for attaining the funding; diversification of the economies of these weak states through development assistance to reduce risks produced by a high dependency on primary commodity exports for income and financial sanctions in the form of freezing of assets or asset blocking. These policy suggestions seek to address both the political and economic motivations of the surrounding state actors in participating in civil wars in Africa.
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Binneh-Kamara, Abou. "Media reporting of war crimes trials and civil society responses in post-conflict Sierra Leone." Thesis, University of Bedfordshire, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10547/618559.
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This study, which seeks to contribute to the shared-body of knowledge on media and war crimes jurisprudence, gauges the impact of the media’s coverage of the Civil Defence Forces (CDF) and Charles Taylor trials conducted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) on the functionality of civil society organizations (CSOs) in promoting transitional (post-conflict) justice and democratic legitimacy in Sierra Leone. The media’s impact is gauged by contextualizing the stimulus-response paradigm in the behavioral sciences. Thus, media contents are rationalized as stimuli and the perceptions of CSOs’ representatives on the media’s coverage of the trials are deemed to be their responses. The study adopts contents (framing) and discourse analyses and semi-structured interviews to analyse the publications of the selected media (For Di People, Standard Times and Awoko) in Sierra Leone. The responses to such contents are theoretically explained with the aid of the structured interpretative and post-modernistic response approaches to media contents. And, methodologically, CSOs’ representatives’ responses to the media’s contents are elicited by ethnographic surveys (group discussions) conducted across the country. The findings from the contents and discourse analyses, semi-structured interviews and ethnographic surveys are triangulated to establish how the media’s coverage of the two trials impacted CSOs’ representatives’ perceptions on post-conflict justice and democratic legitimacy in Sierra Leone. To test the validity and reliability of the findings from the ethnographic surveys, four hundred (400) questionnaires, one hundred (100) for each of the four regions (East, South, North and Western Area) of Sierra Leone, were administered to barristers, civil/public servants, civil society activists, media practitioners, students etc. The findings, which reflected the perceptions of people from large swathe of opinions in Sierra Leone, appeared to have dovetailed with those of the CSOs’ representatives across the country. The study established that the media’s coverage of the CDF trial appeared to have been tainted with ethno-regional prejudices, and seemed to be ‘a continuation of war by other means’. However, the focus groups perceived the media reporting as having a positive effect on the pursuit of post-conflict justice, good governance and democratic accountability in Sierra Leone. The coverage of the Charles Taylor trial appeared to have been devoid of ethno-regional prejudices, but, in the view of the CSOs, seemed to have been coloured by lenses of patriotism and nationalism.
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Sonsiama, Doris A. M. "A critical analysis of the jurisprudence of the special court for Sierra Leone on the use of child soldiers." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/18649.
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The use of child soldiers in armed conflicts has been common the world over for a long time now. However, over the last few decades, this practice has become widespread in Africa where armed groups recruit children as part of their war strategy and to help sustain their campaigns. This practice has left thousands of children physically and psychologically bruised with many still suffering from post war effects long after the end of such conflicts. Many negative effects still haunt many of the children who were recruited into the ranks of the government and rebel forces during the decade civil war in Sierra Leone. The civil war in Sierra Leone has been considered to be one of the most gruesome in the history of conflicts in Africa not only because of its high level of brutality but also in the manner in which children were forced into combat and abused both physically and psychologically. It is estimated that between 7000 - 10 000 children below the age of 15 years, some as young as seven were recruited into armed forces or groups during the war.Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2011.
http://www.chr.up.ac.za/
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Centre for Human Rights
LLM
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Brown, Rachel Jane. "'I fall down, I get up' : stories of survival and resistance following civil war in Sierra Leone." Thesis, University of Hertfordshire, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2299/13299.
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The academic study of how people respond to adverse life experiences has been dominated by Western conceptualisations of distress, resilience and growth. The current literature base regarding responses to adversity has been criticised for focusing on one response trajectory (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; PTSD). This criticism stems from the privileging of Western understandings of the self and for negating to consider sufficiently the role of context (the available social, cultural and political discourses). The significance of this void in the literature is that it has led to the development of models and theories which could be considered culturally insensitive, if applied outside of the context from which they have derived. This research addresses the highlighted gap in the literature by exploring how the context of Sierra Leone influences how people respond to the experience of Civil War and continuing adversity. Nine in-depth interviews were carried out within two ‘mental health’ organisations in Sierra Leone. The participants were nine individuals and one group, consisting of both ‘patients’ and staff members. The qualitative methodology of Narrative Analysis was used to analyse both the stories people told and the stories which may have remained unexpressed. A focus was placed during analysis on the role of context and the dialogic process. The main findings of the research indicated that the cultural resources within Sierra Leone both influenced and constrained the narratives which individuals were able to tell. ‘Stories of Survival’ seemed to be told through two dominant social narratives of ‘Bear it, and Forget’ and ‘Because of Almighty God, we Forgive’. ‘Stories of Resistance’ however, demonstrate what was implied but often left unsaid, this is characterised by two main unexpressed stories; ‘We Cannot Forget’ and ‘Why God?’. Furthermore, findings suggest that it is the relationship between the dominant social narratives and individual meaning-making which influences the trajectory of stories told. The implications of this research request a commitment to valuing the role of social context in conceptualisations of distress, resilience and growth following adversity. Finally, the need to establish ways of offering support to individuals and communities, which fully considers the role of social context, is emphasised. This paper concludes by exploring the relevance of social content for the planning of services, training programmes and continuing clinical practice.
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Krige, Greta. "Perspectives on "New wars" in Africa: the case of Sierra Leone." Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/2601.
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Thesis (MPhil (Political Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008.The primary goal of this thesis is to explore, analyse and apply the New War theory to the West African case of Sierra Leone. The motivation for conducting a study of this nature was that much literature exists on the assumption that the Sierra Leonean conflict equates to a resource war. This research project attempts to bridge the gap between the New War schools of thought and those who maintain a resource war approach. Although Kaldor’s (2006) work on New Wars is significant, she does not place much emphasis on Africa. In order to supplement this, William Reno (2001) and Paul Collier (2000) have also been studied. Both write about Africa. The RUF virtually razed the Sierra Leonean society to the ground. The overtly violent methods employed were dissimilar to the interstate and intrastate wars of the past. Blatant exploitation of the country’s mineral wealth aggravated the situation. In attempting to reach a relevant finding, this study is divided into distinctive sections. Chapter two documents the theoretical background. The writings of Kaldor (2006), Reno (2001) and Collier (2000) are explored and applied. The third chapter investigates the factors in the conflict. Issues such as the resource factor (diamonds) and poverty are discussed; the failed state in Sierra Leone; criminal networks; social conditions; arms; and the role of youth and children. The general finding of this chapter indicates that Sierra Leone fits this model. Chapter four describes and analyses the actors. Identity was not an issue in the Sierra Leone war; thus a large part of Kaldor’s theory becomes redundant. In the final assessment the study establishes what Sierra Leone’s position is: New War or merely resource war? The bulk of the applied theory proved to be applicable to this case; but the study also acknowledges the mistaken views regarding Kaldor’s identity theories. Collier and Reno’s works prove to be significantly more relevant. This study was able to determine that Sierra Leone was indeed an example of New Wars, albeit considerably affected and influenced by greed.
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Tsegay, Tesfamicael Negash. "Accomplishments, shortcomings and challenges : evaluation of the Special Court for Sierra Leone." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/1236.
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"In response to President Kabah's request of June 2000, the United Nations Security Council called on the Secretary-General to negotiate an agreement with the government of Sierra Leone for the creation of a special court for Sierra Leone (hereafter SCSL), to investigate the atrocities committed within the country, by Resolution 1315 of 14 August 2000. Under the agreement concluded in February 2001, the SCSL has jurisdiction over crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed since November 1996. The author assesses in detail the efficacy of the SCSL in dispensing justice up to date. The author concludes that, although the SCSL has accomplished much, it has shortcomings and faces changes that hamper the attainment of its objectives. ... This study is divided into five chapters. Chapter one provides the context in which the study is set, the focus and objectives of the study, its significance and other preliminary issues, including a statement of the problem and the literature review. Analysis of the conflict in Sierra Leone are necessary to grasp the graveness and the nature of the human rights violations and to understand the nature and extent of justice already meted out. Chapter two focuses particularly on the historical background of the conflict and the reasons that necessitate the establishment of the SCSL. The SCSL was established specifically to respond to human rights abuses committed during the civil war in Sierra Leone. Chapter three examines the major achievements of the Court in dispensing justice, and chapter four identifies the shortcomings and the challenges that confront the Court in its aim to fulfil its mandate." -- Chapter one.Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2006.
Prepared under the supervision of Professor Lovell Fernandez, Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape
http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html
Centre for Human Rights
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Van, Schalkwyk Denver Christopher. "Vervalle state, hulpbronoorloë en vredemaking : die gevalle Sierra Leone." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/53776.
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Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2003.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis explores the issue of collapsed states with reference to William Reno's (2001) theory. Since the end of the Cold War we find in many places that the state itself has collapsed. According to this thesis state collapse refers to a situation where the structure, authority, laws and political order have fallen apart. The phenomenon of collapsed states is historic and worldwide, but nowhere are there more examples than in contemporary Africa. Sierra Leone is an example of a collapsed state in Africa. The state in Sierra Leone was after the commencement of the conflict in 1991 not capable of performing the duties which are required of a state when a state wants to be called a state. Governments in collapsed states lack the capacity to make binding, effective decisions. As a basic institution, the state loses its sovereignty as the most central institution in the society. Resource wars are nowadays a characteristic of collapsed states like Sierra Leone. Resources are used by key figures in the resource wars to enrich themselves. They also exploit the resources to finance their actions and propaganda. Diamonds was the resource which was exploited commercially by the 'government' and Foday Sankoh, a rebel/insurgent, as well as Charles Taylor, a warlord. The resource war was one of the reasons why the state in Sierra Leone collapsed further. It had lead to the total collapse of the state in Sierra Leone. With the commencement of the conflict in Sierra Leone, the issue of peacemaking came to the fore in Sierra Leone. The conflict in Sierra Leone was an intrastate conflict. The primary goal of the United Nations (UN) is to maintain international security and peace. Intrastate conflicts do not form part of the UN's traditional mandate regarding peacemaking. The UN thus had no basic framework of how to get involved in the intrastate conflict in Sierra Leone. The UN only became involved in 1999 in the form of UNAMSIL. Before the intervention of the UN, the 'government' of Sierra Leone turned to Private Military Companies (PMC's) in the form of Executive Outcomes and Sandline International. The problem with the intervention of PMC's in a conflict is that they are not sanctioned by international organisations like the UN. As a regional initiative, ECOWAS in the form of ECOMOG, also became involved in Sierra Leone. The intervention of both ECOMOG and PMC's in Sierra Leone failed to produce peace or the restoration of the state. Only the UN achieved peacemaking and the holding of an election. The conclusion of this thesis is that Sierra Leone fits in the theory of Reno (2001 ) re collapsed states. Sierra Leone is a typical example of a collapsed state and it also illustrates the validity of the concept. This however does not mean that Sierra Leone will be a collapsed state forever. There is the possibility that Sierra Leone can make a transition from a collapsed state to a stronger state to a more stable and functional state. It need, however, be noted that all conclusions in this thesis are of a preliminary nature. The conclusions will therefore be subject to further confirmation by later studies.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis verken die kwessie van vervalle state met verwysing na William Reno (2001) se teorie. Sedert veral die einde van die Koue Oorlog vind ons die tendens dat verskeie state verval het. In hierdie tesis verwys die konsep van 'n vervalle staat na 'n situasie waar die struktuur, gesag, politieke orde en wette uitmekaar geval het. Die verskynsel van vervalle state is histories en kom wêreldwyd voor. Kontemporêre Afrika verskaf egter die meeste voorbeelde van vervalle state. Sierra Leone is 'n voorbeeld van so 'n vervalle staat. Na die aanvang van die konflik in 1991 was die staat in Sierra Leone nie meer daartoe instaat om die funksies te verrig wat van 'n staat vereis word indien so 'n staat as 'n staat geag wil word nie. Die 'regering' in 'n vervalle staat beskik nie meer oor die kapasiteit om bindende, effektiewe besluite te neem nie. Die staat, as 'n basiese instelling, verloor sy soewereiniteit as die sentrale instelling in die samelewing. Die verval van 'n staat word toenemend met die uitbreek van 'n konflik- in hierdie geval 'n- hulpbronoorlog gekenmerk. Hulpbronne word deur die sleutelfigure, wat betrokke is in die hulpbronoorlog in die vervalle staat, gebruik om hulself te verryk. Hierdie hulpbronne word ook gebruik om die sleutelfigure se aksies en propaganda te finansier. Diamante is as hulpbron in Sierra Leone deur die 'regering' en Foday Sankoh, 'n rebellinsurgent, asook Charles Taylor, 'n oorlogsbaron, kommersieël uitgebuit. Die burgeroorlog met sy talle fasette, het tot die totale verval van die staat aanleiding gegee. Die kwessie van vredemaak het met die uitbreek van die konflik in Sierra Leone na vore getree. Die konflik in Sierra Leone was 'n intrastaatkonflik. Die primêre doel van die Verenigde Nasies (VN) is om internasionale vrede en sekuriteit te handhaaf. Intrastaatkonflikte as sulks maak nie deel uit van die tradisionele opdrag van die VN betreffende vredemaak nie. Die VN het gevolglik nie oor 'n basiese raamwerk beskik van hoe om by die intrastaatkonflik in Sierra Leone betrokke te raak nie. Die VN het eers in 1999 in die vorm van UNAMSIL in Sierra Leone betrokke geraak. Voor die intervensie van die VN het die 'regering' van Sierra Leone hom tot Private Militêre Bystand (PMB) in die vorm van 'Executive Outcomes' en 'Sandline International' gewend. Die problematiek insake PMB is dat dit nie deur internasioale organisasies soos die VN gesanksioneer word nie. As 'n regionale inisiatief het ECOWAS ook in die vorm van ECOMOG by die intrastaatkonflik in Sierra Leone betrokke geraak. In hierdie tesis sal daar gemeld word dat beide ECOMOG en PMB, met die uitsondering van die VN, se pogings vir vredemaak in Sierra Leone gefaal het. Die slotsom waartoe hierdie tesis kom is dat Sierra Leone inpas by Reno (2001) se teorie insake die verskynsel van vervalle state. Sierra Leone is 'n tipiese voorbeeld van 'n vervalle staat en dit illustreer die geldigheid van die konsep. Dit beteken egter nie dat Sierra Leone permanent 'n vervalle staat hoef te wees nie. Die moontlikheid bestaan wel dat Sierra Leone die oorgang vanaf 'n vervalle staat na 'n stabieler, meer funksionele staat kan maak. Dit dien egter gemeld te word dat alle afleidings in hierdie tesis as voorlopig van aard beskou kan word. Hierdie afleidings is onderhewig aan verdere bevestiging of weerlegging deur latere studies.
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Strober, Rashida. "The Impact of Structural Adjustment on Health, Education and Employment: A Case Study on Sierra Leone." Scholar Commons, 2005. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7115.
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Since their inception in African countries, structural adjustment has tended to cause more harm than help. This thesis aims to answer the question, in what ways have structural adjustment policies impacted Africa in general and Sierra Leone in particular? This question is highly relevant when it is considered that Africa is one of the poorest regions in the world and has experiences much conflict and suffering. In addition, much is known about the impact of structural adjustment in many African countries. However, little has been written on the impact of structural adjustment in Sierra Leone, especially in terms of the impact of structural adjustment on conflict. The hypothesis of this thesis is that the impact of structural adjustment policies has tended to increase poverty. Poverty has led to frustration and conflict in Africa in general and Sierra Leone in particular. In order to substantiate this hypothesis I have elected to focus on the years between 1960 and the late 1980s. The finding contained within this thesis show that structural adjustment policies may have led to a reduction of social services that include health, education and unemployment.
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Osborn, Barrett J. "Peacekeeping and Peace Kept: Third Party Interventions and Recurrences of Civil War." UKnowledge, 2013. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/polysci_etds/7.
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Civil wars have become more prevalent in modern times and present unique challenges to conflict resolution. Third parties often intervene in civil wars attempting to insure that peace is imposed and will persist. However, the impact of third parties on intrastate conflicts remains incomplete. The civil conflict literature does not sufficiently distinguish how third parties promote peaceful outcomes during a peacekeeping operation and why a state remains stable after the peacekeepers leave. By examining data on third party interventions from 1946-2006 and individually examining the case of Sierra Leone, this research concludes that peacekeeping missions promoting transparency, credible information sharing, and strong signals of commitment present the best possibilities for peace during and after the mission. Analysis from empirical tests and case study support that peacekeeping missions are most effective when they allow for credible and reliable communication between domestic adversaries. Ultimately, third parties must promote a political solution between rebel and government factions in civil wars so that peaceful methods of dispute resolution are promoted in the absence of a third party preventing the recurrence of war.
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Stanley, Richard. "Micro-macro paradoxes : the effects of war and aid on child survival." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.669843.
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Wlodarczyk, Nathalie. "Magic and war: the role of ritual and traditional belief in the Kamajor civil defence forces in Sierra Leone and beyond." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.558564.
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This thesis argues that magic contributes significantly to the social and cultural context in many contemporary African settings in which acts of violence and war are carried out and interpreted. It can be understood as appropriate and logical practice, as opposed to a marker of irrationality and backwardness. To do this the thesis (a) explores the actual roles played by magic in contemporary African warfare, and (b) considers this in relation to the way we think about war and the practices that underpin it. Part I (chapters 2-4) argues the case for engaging with magic as a serious influence on wartime behaviour and suggests a conceptual toolkit for doing so, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's work on the formation of practice. It shows that magic and traditional beliefs are still relevant to political and social relations in Africa in peacetime and war. It also suggests a set of tools for thinking about magic and warfare without succumbing to either purely functionalist or relativistic explanations. Part II (chapters 5-8) applies these tools to the case study of the Kamajor civil defence forces in Sierra Leone, arguing that by looking at the interconnected dimensions of habitus, field, capital and interest (borrowed from Bourdieu) we can understand how the Kamajor's use of magic was both logical and appropriate. This is done by looking at the context of the war, the cosmology of people who joined and interacted with the Kamajors, and how these made magic a valuable resource for mobilisation as well as battlefield tactics. Part III concludes the thesis and argues that thinking about magic, and in extension cultural practice more broadly, in relation to Bourdieu's notion of practice formation helps us sharpen our analysis of warfare in a way that can be applied also beyond the study of magic and Africa.
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Barklin, Cathrine. "'A Perfect Storm' A case study of how the Ebola response played into conflict dynamics in Sierra Leone." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-22827.
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Between 2014 and 2016, West Africa was struck by the largest ever Ebola epidemic. In Sierra Leone, the outbreak occurred only about a decade after the end of an eleven-year long civil war, which left the country with little capacity to contain the virus. While many have investigated the crisis that the Ebola outbreak caused West African countries, few have turned their attention directly towards the response to it. Following that line of thought, this case study explores how the Ebola response carried out by local, national and international actors played into conflict dynamics in the aftermath of the Sierra Le-onean civil war. By applying the theoretical perspectives of ‘the fortified aid compound’ and ‘dependent agency’, I argue that the response embodied a militarised approach and that it was insensitive towards local customs, which showed in shifting acts of compliance and resistance by beneficiaries. Lastly, by applying the theory of ‘protracted social con-flict’, I argue that conflict dynamics from the civil war were amplified by the Ebola re-sponse to some extent. The study concludes that future responses to epidemics, particu-larly in conflict affected settings, should consider potential negative effects connected to response structures and measures to a greater extent.
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Raddatz, Rosalind. "Blood, Sweat, and Canapés: Assessing Negotiators and Their Tactics to End the Liberian and Sierra Leonean Civil Wars." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/34185.
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Current political research on peace negotiations is fundamentally incomplete because it lacks the capacity to explain individual intents, choices and actions. This dissertation asks what impact individual negotiators, their approaches and choices of tactics have on peace talks and their outcomes. Individual people—be they representatives of rebel groups, non-governmental organisations or states—negotiate peace agreements. Consequently, an examination of individual motivations and actions in negotiations yields important knowledge. A fuller understanding of political negotiations, negotiators, and their tactics in Sierra Leone and Liberia is facilitated through a multidisciplinary consideration of the psychology, law and management studies literatures that consider individual motivations, biases, and behaviours.
Based on extensive field research in Sierra Leone and Liberia, including numerous interviews with key players, I argue that individuals and their specific approaches and tactics influenced and altered the course of these peace negotiations, as well as their outcomes. Negotiators engaged in peace talks with underlying approaches (such as competitive, collaborative and cooperative styles) and then came to use various tactics (including shifting goalposts, hardball, silence, and bad faith), many of which were influenced by their innate biases and frames. Exploring these individuals’ conduct gives us previously unexplored insight into peace processes.
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Marks, Zoe E. Z. "The internal dynamics of rebel groups : politics of material viability and organisational capacity in the RUF of Sierra Leone." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:99c334c8-132d-41b7-8d9b-3ed52147dac8.
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This thesis examines the internal dynamics of the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone over the course of the civil war waged from 1991-2002. It does so in two parts, looking first at the RUF’s organizational capacity—its ability to emerge and survive as a group; and second, at its material viability—the logistics and procurement of food, weapons, and other resources required to sustain war. The RUF has become a paradigmatic case for the study of war and rebel groups in Africa. Although much has been written on the group and its violence, comparatively little is known about the inner-workings of the organization and how a largely forcibly recruited group of ill-equipped thousands managed to pose a viable threat to the state for over a decade. Through a fine-grained, case-based analysis, this study applies research on the microdynamics of violence in civil war to the structural and logistical mechanics that underpin it. Doing so contextualizes debates about resource wars, collective violence, and mobilization and onset within the RUF’s own strategies for controlling these aspects of war- making. New primary material, including rebel archive documents, describes the extensive military and civilian governance structures through which order and cohesion were established and enforced. Tracking the success and failure of these mechanisms helps explain the disconnect between rebel rhetoric and behaviour. A detailed examination of the RUF’s material capacity applies this organizational analysis to the group’s strategic priorities for survival. It reorients the resource war debate toward what actually fuels fighting on the ground. Food has long been overlooked as the primary requirement for group survival, and ammunition the basic element of military viability. These ‘low politics’ of survival explain the nature of the war and underscore the importance of shifting factors, such as territorial control, in shaping rebel behaviour. Finally, the ‘high politics’ of international arms trades and global diamond markets illumine changes in the RUF’s firepower and personalization of power, returning to the organizational failings that ultimately led to the group’s dissolution.
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Bangura, Ibrahim. "A critical assessment of the socio-economic reintegration process of ex-combatants ten years after the war in Sierra Leone." Doctoral thesis, Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2013. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-129454.
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This study examines the current socio-economic status of the ex-combatants 10 years after the conflict in Sierra Leone. It examines the job opportunities, political space, relationship with community members, challenges faced, social networks involved in, relationship with former colleagues, access to land and other issues that are significant in the reintegration process of ex-combatants. It further studies the national socio-economic environment and how ex-combatants are faring in the overall post-war recovery process in Sierra Leone. Special focus lies on the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration of Ex-Combatants (DDR) programme which was part of the Lome Peace Agreement signed in 1999. The study also comes up with recommendations as to how the challenges currently faced by ex-combatants could be overcome.
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Nilsson, R. Anders. "Dangerous liaisons : why ex-combatants return to violence : cases from the Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone /." Uppsala : Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-9414.
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Kitchen, Ashley D. "When Laws and Representation Are Not Enough: Enduring Impunity and Post-Conflict Sexual Violence in Liberia and Sierra Leone." Wright State University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=wright1363784056.
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Estrada, Corpeño Tania Melissa. "Rebel Whispers : An issue-based approach to peace agreement success and civil war resolution." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för freds- och konfliktforskning, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-413294.
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While issues remain under-researched, peace agreement success has been linked primarily to the proper treatment of the parties’ security-related concerns. This study explores why some peace agreements succeed while others fail by using an issue-based approach arguing that issues are an expression of underlying grievances, which have caused the rebel groups to engage in armed conflict. Therefore, peace agreements that do not address the issues, which reflect grievances, will fail. I tested the hypothesis and the proposed theoretical relationship through the structured focused comparison of three peace agreements: The Lomé Peace Agreement, the Accra Peace Agreement and the Final Agreement National Government – Popular Liberation Army. The method employed in this study comprised first, determining the salience the rebel groups assigned to their issues -for which it was necessary to create a measure for issue salience- and second, examining the peace agreement’s provisions to determine if the rebel group’s issues were addressed. The results show that peace agreements that included the salient issues of the groups failed; however, peace agreements that did not include them, succeeded. Hence, the findings suggest that the inclusion of the rebel group’s issues in the peace agreement cannot account for the agreement’s success or failure.
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Cooper, Neil. "The Regulation of Conflict Resources: Diamonds in Sierra Leone. Paper for the Transformation of War Economies Seminar, University of Plymouth 16-19 June 2005." University of Bradford, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/4020.
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yesThe last few years have seen the emergence of a series of regulatory initiatives that have been developed, partly in response to the twin agendas of human security and strong states, but which represent a specific reaction to the political economies deemed to underpin contemporary civil conflicts ¿ most notably the way in which local and global markets in everything from diamonds to drugs have been exploited to fund often vicious civil conflicts, particularly in environments characterised by endemic corruption. This new body of local and global regulation, what might loosely be characterised as new laws and new codes to address the political economies of the new wars, include: UN embargoes on diamonds and timber being used to fund conflicts, the development of regimes such as the Kimberley certification system, and initiatives to ensure the transparent and effective use of natural resource revenues. Generally represented as a progressive response to the political economies that drive contemporary civil conflicts, these new initiatives have produced a set of formal and informal regulatory frameworks that are, in fact, profoundly asymmetric in their scope and application. Indeed, one of the defining features of these initiatives is not so much the impartial application of regulations to firms and corrupt elites but either their selective application or, alternatively, their selective relegation in favour of an emphasis on far weaker norms and voluntary codes. The aim of this paper then, is first, to examine the operation of the new codes and regulations in general and to demonstrate the problems in their implementation. Second, the paper will then go onto examine one specific innovation ¿ the Kimberley Certification Scheme designed to prevent the trade in conflict diamonds in order to demonstrate the asymmetries that exist in current regulatory mechanisms designed to introduce ethical markets. It will do this in particular by focussing on the impact of certification for the diamond sector in Sierra Leone. A key argument in this section will be that whilst this new regime for conflict diamonds aims to transform behaviour through transparency and policing, and whilst it appears to have had some success, it has not in fact transformed the conditions that gave rise to the illicit diamond trade in Sierra Leone prior to conflict. Along with the problems inherent in broader development policy on Sierra Leone this raises serious questions. In particular, whilst there may be little short-term risk of conflict, the planned departure of UNAMSIL, continued regional instability, persistent corruption and the failure to fundamentally transform the nature of the diamond market in Sierra Leone, all raise question marks regarding the nature (and indeed sustainability) of the peace that is being created.
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Sesay, Mohamed Kanja. "La gouvernance sans Etat : une étude de cas sur les territoires contrôlés par le front révolutionnaire uni en Sierra Leone." Thesis, Bordeaux 4, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013BOR40043/document.
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La guerre civile en Sierra Leone débute en 1991 et dure jusqu’en 2002.Encore aujourd’hui, les analystes sont assez partagés sur ses causes, notamment lesmotivations des rebelles du Front Révolutionnaire Uni (RUF), mouvement àl’origine des hostilités. De son entrée en Sierra Leone à nos jours, le RUF a étél’objet de plusieurs débats et critiques, tant sur son organisation que sur sesméthodes guerrières. En questionnant d’abord la capacité organisationnelle de cemouvement, la thèse a pour objet de contextualiser les arguments souvent associésavec des guerres civiles de ce type. Ils insistent sur l’absence de sens : ces conflitsillustreraient d’abord une situation de chaos total. Elles seraient aussi laconséquence de l’absence ou de la défaillance d’un État.Cette présente étude s’inscrit dans le prolongement des débats sur le RUF.Elle démontre que ce dernier n’était pas si désorganisé que ce que racontent lescommentateurs, avertis ou non. Cette opinion répandue résulte notamment d’unemédiatisation intense de son usage intensif de la violence extrême, très réellecependant. Le RUF n’était pas qu’un groupe de voleurs de diamants sanguinairesmais aussi une force assez structurée avec une logique hiérarchique claire, voireune idéologie. Grâce à ces facteurs, il a mis en place des structures lui permettantd’établir les relations de gouvernant à gouvernés avec les populations urbainessous son contrôle. Cette force rebelle a instauré un mode de gestion de lacollectivité. Cela a modifié la nature de ce groupe armé, devenu, dans les zonessous son contrôle, un « appareil administratif » civil, loin d’être toujoursperformant mais bien identifiable comme tel.En juxtaposant les interactions complexes d’une gouvernance quotidienne,la thèse met en lumière les méthodes de gouvernance du RUF et les aspects dits« normaux » de la vie dans ces villes en guerre. Elle analyse les variables de larelation entre les membres du mouvement rebelle occupant ces communes et lapopulation locale. Une fois une ville conquise, les rebelles sont obligés d’y fairequelque chose. Le RUF impose un « système administratif » instaurant un ordre devie en commun dans toute cette zone.L’étude analyse donc ces outils de la gouvernance civile, mobilisés entemps de guerre. Au cours de cet étude, plusieurs recherches de terrain en SierraLeone, ont été menées. Ces séjours sur place ont permis la réalisation de plusieursentretiens, individuels et collectifs. Ils soutiennent les idées générales exposéesdans cette thèseThe war in Sierra Leone began in 1991 and ended in 2002. Analysts remaindivided on the question of its cause, particularly on the issue of the motivations ofthe rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), the armed group which started thehostilities. From its entry into Sierra Leone to date; the RUF has been the subjectof much debate and criticism, both on its organization and its methods of wagingwar. By asking questions relating to the organizational capacity of the RUF, thisstudy aims to contextualize the central arguments often associated with civil warsof the Sierra Leonean kind: they insist on the absence of meaning; these conflictsillustrate a situation of chaos and/or are devoid of political reflections. They arealso the consequence of the absence or failure of a State.This present study continues these discussions in relation to the RUF, bydemonstrating that this guerilla force was not as disorganized as often portrayed,despite increased media coverage on its use of violence. The RUF was not a groupof murderous diamond thieves but also quite structured with a clear hierarchicallogic or ideology. Through this internal organisation, it set up structures toestablish governor/governed relations with urban populations under its control.The rebel force thus established a system to manage these local communities. Suchconsiderations changed the nature of the armed group in the areas under itscontrol, where it established a civil "administrative unit", far from being efficientbut identifiable as such.By juxtaposing the complex interactions of daily governance, the thesishighlights the governance practices of the RUF and the aspects that characterise"normal" life in these « war torn » towns. It analyzes the variables of therelationship between members of the rebel movement occupying these towns andthe local population. Once a town is conquered, the rebels are forced to dosomething there, an "administrative system" establishing an order of coexistence inthe whole area is imposed.The study therefore analyzes the tools of civil governance, mobilized intime of war. During this study, several field research trips to Sierra Leone, wereconducted. These trips have allowed the realization of several interviews,individual and collective. They support the general ideas presented in this thesis
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Conaway, Matthew Bolyn. "When "Boys Will Not Be Boys": Variations of Wartime Sexual Violence by Armed Opposition Groups in Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, and Nepal." Wright State University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=wright1340376879.
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Cole, Festus. "Sierra Leone and World War I." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 1994. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/26223/.
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Gberie, Lansana. "War and state collapse, the case of Sierra Leone." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp04/mq24378.pdf.
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Negash, Tesfamicael. "Accomplishments, shortcomings and challenges: evaluation of the Special Court for Sierra Leone." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2006. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=gen8Srv25Nme4_4727_1183988504.
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This thesis assessed the effectiveness of the Special Court in relation to the impact is has made in cultivating the rudiments of a human rights culture, dispensing justice, ending a culture of impunity, effecting unity and national reconciliation in post war Sierra Leone.
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Quipp, Rosemary. "MAPs without direction:media assistance projects in post-war Sierra Leone." Thesis, McGill University, 2011. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=103602.
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Sierra Leone's brutal civil war devastated the country's population and left its infrastructure in disarray. Over the last decade, international organizations have provided financial and technical assistance to many areas of society, including journalists and the media. Media assistance programs, or MAPs, are designed to promote democratization and development by fostering a free and independent press. This free press – also known as the fourth estate – is intended to disseminate accurate and unbiased information upon which citizens can base informed choices in their personal and political lives. In this thesis, it is first argued that current underlying political and socio-economic conditions in Sierra Leone prevent the emergence of a true fourth estate, despite the efforts of MAPs. Secondly, it is argued that MAPs could have a greater impact through a more holistic approach to media assistance, engaging in institution-building to target the root causes of Sierra Leone's biased and politicized media landscape.La guerre civile au Sierra Leone a dévasté la population du pays et a détruit son infrastructure. Au cours de la dernière décennie, les organisations internationales ont fourni une assistance financière et technique à de nombreux domaines de la société, y compris les journalistes et les médias. Les programmes d'aide des médias (MAPs) sont conçus pour promouvoir la démocratisation et le développement en favorisant une presse libre et indépendante qui diffuse des informations précises et impartiales. Cette presse libre – connu aussi comme le quatrième état – est destinée à diffuser des informations sur la base desquelles les citoyens peuvent fonder des choix éclairés. Dans cette thèse, il est d'abord soutenu que les conditions politiques et socio-économiques au Sierra Leone empêchent l'émergence d'un véritable quatrième état, malgré les efforts des MAPs. Deuxièmement, il est soutenu que les MAPs peuvent améliorer leur impact grâce à une approche plus holistique de l'aide aux médias, en s'engageant au renforcement des institutions pour cibler la vraie cause du biais et la politisation des médias au Sierra Leone.
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Doe, Samuel Gbaydee. "Indigenising post-war state reconstruction : the case of Liberia and Sierra Leone." Thesis, University of Bradford, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/4468.
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Current approaches to post-war state reconstruction are primarily dominated by the liberal peace thesis. These approaches tend to ignore the indigenous institutions, societal resources and cultural agencies of post-conflict societies, although such entities are rooted in the sociological, historical, political and environmental realities of these societies. Such universalised and 'best practice' approaches, more often than not, tend to reproduce artificial states. The Poro and Sande are the largest indigenous sodality institutions in the 'hinterlands' - a pejorative term attributed to rural Liberia and Sierra Leone. Both the Poro and Sande exercise spiritual, political, economic and social authority. In this thesis, I use critical realism and the case study approach to investigate: a) the extent to which the liberal peace practitioners who are leading state reconstruction in Liberia and Sierra Leone recognised the role and potential utility of the Poro and Sande institutions; b) the extent to which the Poro and Sande were engaged; and c) the implications for the quality and viability of the reconstructed states. This evidence-based research suggests that the liberal peace project sidelined indigenous institutions, including the Poro and Sande, in the post-war recovery and rebuilding exercises. The disregard for indigenous and emerging resources in the context of state reconstruction in Liberia and Sierra Leone has contributed to the resurgence of 19th century counter-hegemonic resistance from the sodality-governed interior of both countries. At the same time, the reconstructed states are drifting back towards their pre-war status quo. Authority structures remain fragmented, kleptocracy is being restored, webs of militarised patronage networks are being emboldened, and spaces for constructive dialogues are shrinking. This thesis underscores the need for indigenisation as a complementary strategy to help reverse the deterioration, and to maximise gains from massive investments in peacebuilding.
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Baio, Andrew C. M. "Governance of the Marine Capture Artisanal Fisheries of Post-War Sierra Leone." Thesis, University of Portsmouth, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.507801.
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Stovel, Laura. "Long road home: building reconciliation and trust in post-war Sierra Leone /." Burnaby B.C. : Simon Fraser University, 2006. http://ir.lib.sfu.ca/handle/1892/2621.
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Doe, Samuel G. "Indigenising post-war state reconstruction. The Case of Liberia and Sierra Leone." Thesis, University of Bradford, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/4468.
Full textAbstract:
Current approaches to post-war state reconstruction are primarily dominated by the
liberal peace thesis. These approaches tend to ignore the indigenous institutions,
societal resources and cultural agencies of post-conflict societies, although such
entities are rooted in the sociological, historical, political and environmental realities
of these societies. Such universalised and `best practice¿ approaches, more often than
not, tend to reproduce artificial states. The Poro and Sande are the largest indigenous
sodality institutions in the `hinterlands¿¿a pejorative term attributed to rural Liberia
and Sierra Leone. Both the Poro and Sande exercise spiritual, political, economic and
social authority. In this thesis, I use critical realism and the case study approach to
investigate: a) the extent to which the liberal peace practitioners who are leading state
reconstruction in Liberia and Sierra Leone recognised the role and potential utility of
the Poro and Sande institutions; b) the extent to which the Poro and Sande were
engaged; and c) the implications for the quality and viability of the reconstructed
states. This evidence-based research suggests that the liberal peace project sidelined
indigenous institutions, including the Poro and Sande, in the post-war recovery and
rebuilding exercises. The disregard for indigenous and emerging resources in the
context of state reconstruction in Liberia and Sierra Leone has contributed to the
resurgence of 19th century counter-hegemonic resistance from the sodality-governed
interior of both countries. At the same time, the reconstructed states are drifting back
towards their pre-war status quo. Authority structures remain fragmented,
kleptocracy is being restored, webs of militarised patronage networks are being
emboldened, and spaces for constructive dialogues are shrinking. This thesis
underscores the need for indigenisation as a complementary strategy to help reverse
the deterioration, and to maximise gains from massive investments in peacebuilding.
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Datzberger, Simone. "Peacebuilding and the depoliticisation of civil society : Sierra Leone (2002-2013)." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2014. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/1037/.
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Over the past two decades, there has been a rapid increase in funds made available by the international donor community to support local civil society actors in fragile states. Current peacebuilding and development efforts support and strive to recreate an active, vibrant and ―liberal‖ civil society. In the case of Sierra Leone, paradoxically, the growing support has not strengthened civil society actors based on that liberal idea(l). Instead of empowering individuals, enhancing democratic ownership and pro-active participation stemming from the civil sphere, Sierra Leone‘s civil society landscape appears to be neutralised, depoliticised if not instrumentalised to provide social services the state is either too weak or unwilling to deliver. In critically assessing how Sierra Leone‘s civil sphere became depoliticised during the country‘s peacebuilding and development phase, the thesis advances three main arguments. First, it supports the commonly agreed consensus in scholarship that postwar civil societies have become instrumentalised to serve a broader liberal peacebuilding and development agenda in several ways. Second, a deeper inquiry into the history of state formation and political culture of Sierra Leone reveals that Ekeh‘s (1975) bifurcated state is very much alive. In short, Western idea(l)s of participatory approaches and democracy are repeatedly challenged by a persisting urban-rural divide as well as socially entrenched forms of neopatrimonialism, elite-loyalism and tribalism. Sierra Leonean civil society finds itself currently in the midst of renegotiating those various intersections of a primordial and civic sphere. Third, the effects colonialism has had on African societies are still reflected in the current monopolisation of wealth and power among a few (elites) next to a vast majority living in abject poverty. More concretely, how abject poverty, human development and above all the lack of education affect activism and agency from below remains a scarcely addressed aspect in the peacebuilding and development literature.
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Solomon, Christiana. "The Role of Women in Economic Transformation: Market Women in Sierra Leone." University of Bradford, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/4188.
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yesVarious research has concluded that economic life did not die out during the conflict in Sierra Leone, but took on different forms. Different stakeholders at all levels were engaged in economic activities during the war. The specific roles of women in the shadow economy are under-researched with the result that most analysis and policy-options are inadequate. While some of Sierra Leone¿s Market Women strategically participated in war economies to `do well out of war¿, most did so out of the need to survive. With the end of the war, market women have been able to make a successful transformation to peace economies through micro-credit assistance.
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Viktorova, Milne Jevgenia. "Returning culture to peacebuilding : contesting the liberal peace in Sierra Leone." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/938.
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This thesis investigates the advantages and limitations of applying culture to the analysis of violent conflict and peacebuilding, with a particular focus on liberal peacebuilding in Sierra Leone. While fully aware of the critique of the concept of culture in terms of its uses for the production of difference and ‘otherness,’ it also seeks to respond to the critique of liberal peacebuilding on the account of its low sensitivity towards local culture, which allegedly undermines the peace effort. After a careful examination of the terms of discussion about culture enabled by theoretical approaches to conflict in Chapter 2, the thesis presents a theoretical framework for the analysis of cultural aspects of conflict and peace based on the processes and effects of meaning-generation (Chapter 3), developing the conceptual apparatus and vocabulary for the subsequent empirical study. Instead of bracketing out the recursive nature of cultural theorising, the developed approach embraces the recursive dynamics which arise as a result of cultural ‘embeddedness’ of the analyst and the processes which s/he seeks to elucidate, mirroring similar dynamics in the cultural production of meaning and knowledge. The framework of ‘embedded cultural enquiry’ is then used to analyse the practices of liberal peacebuilding as a particular culture, which shapes the interaction of the liberal peace with its ‘subjects’ and critics as well as framing its reception of the cultural problematic generally (Chapter 4). The application of the analytical framework to the case study investigates the interaction between the liberal peace and ‘local culture,’ offering an alternative reading of the conflict and peace process in Sierra Leone (Chapter 5). The study concludes that a greater attention to cultural meaning-making offers a largely untapped potential for peacebuilding, although any decisions with regard to its deployment will inevitably be made from within an inherently biased cultural perspective.
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Du, Rand Amelia Elizabeth. "From war economies to peace economies : the challenge of post-conflict reconstruction in Sierra Leone." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/28089.
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The difficulty of transforming war economies into peace economies has become increasingly problematic in the search for long-term peace and stability in Africa. In many African countries such as Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, conflict actors have created distinct war economies in order to maintain the conflict in these countries. The enduring nature of the war economies presents a unique challenge to actors involved in ensuring that peace returns to a country by applying a peacebuilding strategy. The economic environment during a conflict has a vast influence on a post-conflict economy and a post-conflict reconstruction strategy. Although post-war rebuilding occurred during the reconstruction of Europe and Japan after the Second World War, the terms "post-conflict peacebuilding" and "post-conflict reconstruction" have only came to prominence during the mid-1990s. Using the case study of Sierra Leone, this study explores the challenge of war economies and its impact on post-conflict reconstruction. Sierra Leone presents an appealing case study as the country experienced a very profitable war economy during the armed conflict in the country between 1991 and 2002, and continues to struggle to transform this war economy into a peace economy. The case study of Sierra Leone is well researched, however, most studies focus on the conflict period, and only briefly look at the post-conflict period. In addition, discussions of post-conflict reconstruction in Sierra Leone have failed to adequately address the challenges presented by the war economy. This study uses existing analyses about the war economy in Sierra Leone, and links these to the current post-conflict reconstruction strategy, focusing specifically on the economic dimension. Therefore, this study represents a departure from traditional approaches to exploring war economies because it considers the direct impact these economic systems have on the process of post-conflict reconstruction.Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010.
Political Sciences
unrestricted
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Mitchell, David Scott. "Voicing the Silent War Crime: Prosecuting Sexual Violence in the Special Court for Sierra Leone." Miami University Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1146448301.
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Gassama, Diakhoumba. "Accountability and prosecution in the Liberian transitional society: lessons from Rwanda and Sierra Leone." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2005. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=init_3458_1180416748.
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In the aftermath of World War Two, the International Community has shown a renewed commitment towards the protection of human rights. However, whether during wars or under dictatorial regimes, numerous human rights abuses occurred everywhere in the world, from Latin America to Eastern Europe and from Southern Europe to Africa. Countries which experienced oppressive governance or outrageous atrocities has to address the legacies of their past on the return of democratic rule or peace. In other words, they had to emerge from the darkness of dictatorship or civil war in order to establish a democracy. Today, after 14 years of civil war, Liberia is faced with the challenge of achieving a successful transition where the imperatives of truth, justice and reconciliation need to be met. The purpose of this research paper was to make some recommendations on the way the accountability process in Liberia should be shaped as far as prosecution is concerned.
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Fithen, David Caspar. "Diamonds and war in Sierra Leone : cultural strategies for commercial adaptation to endemic low-intensity conflict." Thesis, Boston Spa, U.K. : British Library Document Supply Centre, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=1&uin=uk.bl.ethos.300097.
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Skelt, Joanna Kay. "The social function of writing in post-war Sierra Leone : poetry as a discourse for peace." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2014. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/4990/.
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This thesis considers how creative writing contributes to social recovery and conflict transformation and uses Sierra Leone as a test case. In order to do this, existing theory in relation to the role of the writer and conflict in Africa is examined and a detailed social and literary context outlined. The civil war of 1991-2002 prompted a poetic outpouring amongst new and existing creative writers despite a chronic lack of readership. Interviews with poets based in the capital, Freetown, reveal strong social motivations to write combined with heightened feelings of agency experienced as writers. An examination of texts provides insights into the process of recovery amongst Sierra Leone’s writer-intellectuals. These combined investigations suggest that writing offers an important location for peaceful counter debate and for re-imagining and recreating the nation in the aftermath of war. Poetry texts and discussions amongst writers come to represent a significant discourse for peace. The very practice of writing in a severely impoverished environment offers a radical form of social engagement while writing in English serves as a unifying force. This thesis contributes a new sociological perspective on literature and conflict which may be transferable to other post-war and volatile settings.
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Kamara, Abdul Rahman. "From model conflict resolution to post-war reconstruction in failed states: The case of Sierra Leone." Thesis, University of Bradford, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/4459.
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The purpose of this study is to understand the causes of the Sierra Leonean conflict and to analyse the reconstruction programmes that followed it. Post-war reconstruction programmes must not be limited to the re-joining of families or reintegration of communities. It must also go a long way in providing an improved situation for all those affected by the war. Notably, where post-war reconstruction programmes fail to focus on the original causes of the conflict, it may result in reinforcement of the original social structures and prejudices and in continued marginalisation of certain groups. Using post-conflict Sierra Leone as a case study, the study attempts to examine the notion that ¿post-war reconstruction programmes tend to reinforce earlier social structures and prejudices rather than create opportunities for the previously marginalised¿. The work focuses on the role of the Department for International Development (DfID)-funded Community Reintegration Programme (CRP). Considering the Sierra Leone post-war scenarios, the causes and political resolution of the conflict and the situation in 2001 when the conflict officially came to an end, the thesis reviews the philosophy, planning, policies, practices and activities of donor agencies in general and CRP in particular before assessing impact on the process of rebuilding communities in Sierra Leone.
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Ibrahim, Aisha Fofana Huff Cynthia Anne. "War's other voices testimonies by Sierra Leonean women /." Normal, Ill. : Illinois State University, 2006. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=1225131381&SrchMode=1&sid=3&Fmt=2&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1177687798&clientId=43838.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2006.Title from title page screen, viewed on April 27, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Cynthia Huff (chair), Ronald Strickland, Rebecca Saunders, Perle Besserman. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 216-230) and abstract. Also available in print.
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Sandy, Julius Fofanah. "The civil service system and governance in a conflict environment : the case of Sierra Leone." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.419822.
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Kamara, Mohamed Bendu. "Law enforcement and human rights in post-conflict African Societies: the case of Sierra Leone." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/8060.
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The principal aim of this study is to examine law enforcement and human rights in a
post war African society: Sierra Leone. The major question addressed in the course of this research is: should respect for
human rights be relevant to law enforcement and should law enforcement officials in
post conflict societies (such as Sierra Leone) be bound by national and international
standards in domestic law enforcement in their countries? Also explores the use of dissuasive measures such as prosecution to minimise the culture of impunity by law enforcement officials especially during conflict and post conflict periodsThesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2008.
A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Professor Tsegaye Regassa, Faculty of Law, Addis Ababa University – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
http://www.chr.up.ac.za/
Centre for Human Rights
LLM
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Workman, Anna. "Success versus failure in local public goods provision : council and chiefly governance in post-war Makeni, Sierra Leone." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2013. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/702/.
Full textAbstract:
Post-war Sierra Leone faces a deep deficit in the supply of basic public goods which is detrimental to quality of life and remains a risk factor for future conflict. The government, under substantial donor influence, seeks to address this deficit through democratic decentralization. However, evidence of the link between decentralization and improved public goods provision remains weak. I approach the public goods deficit from a different angle; rather than assuming that an imported solution is needed, I consider what can be learned from existing patterns of public goods provision. At the core of this study is a comparison of ‘success versus failure’ in local public goods provision in the city of Makeni, with the aim of understanding key dynamics that lead to divergent outcomes. While I set out to focus on cases of public goods provision led by two main categories of local government actors — elected councils and chiefs — I found that it in all four cases, citizens played a substantial role. I therefore analyze the cases as instances of coproduction of public goods. I find that coproduction is an important means of maintaining a basic supply of local public goods when state capacity is weak. With this in mind, I draw on the case study evidence to develop a set of propositions about the conditions under which coproduction is more likely to succeed in contemporary Sierra Leone. These propositions are suggestive of an alternate institutional approach to addressing the public goods deficit—one that is based on the development of workarounds for key obstacles rather than institutional overhaul. However, coproduction is no ‘magic bullet’; it has troubling implications for social equality and the development of state capacity over the longer term and thus judgements about the desirability of coproductive arrangements are likely to involve complex trade-offs.
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Hedkvist, Elin. "Girls and Boys at War : Child Soldiers in International Law." Thesis, Örebro University, School of Law, Psychology and Social Work, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-9453.
Full textAbstract:
The recruitment, enlistment and use of children younger than fifteen to participate actively in hostilities is prohibited in customary international law as well as in several international legal instruments. The use of child soldiers is, despite of the prohibition, a widespread phenomenon with 300 000 as the estimated number of child soldiers in national armies as well as in various rebel and insurgent groups in the world today. Although the problem is world-wide; most recent focus have been on Africa where children have served and still serve in ongoing conflicts in various functions including but not limited to front line soldiers, messengers, guards and sex-slaves. Many of the world‟s child soldiers are girls that are facing the risks of sexual abuse and discrimination. In this thesis the 1996-2002 civil war in Sierra Leone will serve as an example of a conflict were children were used as soldiers.Prohibition against the use of child soldiers can be found in international legal instruments in both human rights law and international humanitarian law. It can also be found in instruments in the fields of international labor law and prohibition against slavery. The provisions differ in their definition of a child soldier; concerning age limit as well as the child‟s function during the conflict. There are also differences in the responsibility of states to protect children against being used as soldiers. This particularly affects girl soldiers since they often have their primary tasks behind the front line and thus are not usually included in the more narrow definitions of child soldiers.Two courts; the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) are used as examples of enforcement mechanisms. The SCSL as being the first court to deliver convictions for the use of child soldiers as well as thoroughly discussing the illegality of the use of child soldiers has been of importance in the fight against the use of child soldiers. The ICC will be the enforcement mechanism of the future and it has already prosecuted for the use of child soldiers. The SCSL has raised the awareness and started the struggle against impunity for those responsible for using child soldiers but it is the ICC that will have to continue the fight, although with some obstacles to overcome.
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Mitton, Kieran. "Approaches to understanding atrocity in the Sierra Leonean Civil War (1991-2002)." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 2012. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/approaches-to-understanding-atrocity-in-the-sierra-leonean-civil-war-19912002(33248496-aa45-4b36-b669-365ff397511a).html.
Full text
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Kent, Gregory. "Diaspora Power: network contributions to peacebuilding and the transformation of war economies." University of Bradford, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/4180.
Full textAbstract:
yesHow economies of countries at war (war economies) transform in `peace¿ is a critical new area of research in political economy and war and peace studies. The dynamics that affect the way war economies perpetuate or mutate after a peace agreement is signed is the context for this examination of non-state actor roles ¿ normally attention is on state and international organisations ¿ in the problems of peacebuilding. Here the focus is on diaspora networks, what might be described as national or transnational civil society groupings whose role is autonomous but carried considerable potential to assist reconstruction of the war-torn homeland.
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Tarawallie, Idrissa Mamoud. "Public services and social cohesion at risk? : the political economy of democratic decentralisation in post-war Sierra Leone (2004-2014)." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 2018. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/26185/.
Full textAbstract:
On account of the many failures of the centralised state, decentralisation has become the preferred mode of governance in many countries in the developing world. Widely supported by international development agencies, it promises efficiency and equity in public service delivery and social cohesion in post-war societies by bringing government closer to the people. Crucial in the decentralisation promise, is resource diversion through clientelistic networks at the local level to consolidate political strongholds. But despite the ubiquitous nature of decentralisation interventions in sub-Saharan Africa, the continent has the smallest number of formal political economy-based analytical reviews of decentralisation and public service delivery, and research into the nexus between decentralisation and social cohesion remains an unexplored academic territory. This thesis seeks to compensate for this literature gap, provide critical insights into the politics of post-war governance reform and its neoliberal institutionalism, and the unexplored relationship between decentralisation and social cohesion in post-war Sierra Leone. Based on a qualitative multi-site case study in four local councils selected across Sierra Leone's geo-political divide, the thesis unpacks the politics of democratic decentralisation and its neoliberal governance reform agenda. It provides a thick critical analysis of the motivations of Sierra Leone's post-war decentralisation reform and its uneven public service delivery across localities. It argues that Sierra Leone's decentralisation project is a patchwork of disparate socio-political, economic and ideological interests at the local, national and international levels. And while some progress has been made in local public service delivery, this cannot be linked solely to decentralisation. In addition, Sierra Leone's decentralisation project lacks a holistic inclusion of crucial elements of social capital and has negative effect on social cohesion, especially in ethnically diverse localities. The thesis concludes that political affiliation does not necessarily determine a council's service delivery and management performance outcomes. And measuring councils' performance outcomes with technocratic tools unproductively seeks to transform political entities into barometers to measure donor investment in the decentralisation process, and not councils' accountability to their electorates. Such a technocratic approach to governance is both normatively intricate and empirically unrealistic.