Download or read book Origins of the Civil War in Sierra Leone written by Florian Seidl and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2005-05-16 with total page 10 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2004 in the subject African Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3 (=75%), University of Cape Town (Department of History / Faculty of Humanities), course: Africa: colonial and post-colonial encounters, language: English, abstract: This work is an essay written for an undergraduate course in African history at the University of Cape Town (South Africa), and deals with the social origins of the guerilla war in Sierra Leone.
Download or read book A Dirty War in West Africa written by Lansana Gberie and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2005-12 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1991, this West African nation has been brought to its knees by a series of coups, violent conflicts, and finally, outright war. The war has ended today, but it is clear that things are hardly settled. Focusing on the group spearheading the violence, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), journalist Lansana Gberie exposes the corruption and appalling use of rape and mutilation as tactics to overthrow the former government. Gberie looks closely at the rise of the RUF and its ruthless leader, Foday Sankoh, as he seeks to understand the personalities and parties involved in the war.
Download or read book Sierra Leone Inside the War written by James Higbie and published by . This book was released on 2017-07-31 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: -The only account of this brutal ten year war that includes first-hand narratives from a wide array of the participants themselves -One of the most brutal and tragic events in recent African history, the Sierra Leone civil war is remembered in the West for its horrific exploitation of children and its various factions' use of 'blood diamonds' to fund their vicious fight -Of interest to students of international conflict, African studies, and the informed general public In 1991 a brutal civil war broke out in Sierra Leone, a small country on the west coast of Africa. Masterminded by Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and Charles Taylor of Liberia, the war engulfed the poverty and corruption-ridden country for ten years. Notorious for 'blood diamonds' and amputations, the war saw child soldiers murdering and mutilating civilians, and young people abducted to be fighters and sex slaves. Sierra Leone: Inside the War includes a detailed history of the civil war and narratives from over thirty Sierra Leoneans who witnessed or took part in the fighting, including child soldiers. Through the historical facts and the narrators' words, readers can gain a comprehensive understanding of the politics of the war, the motivations of the fighters, and the feelings and thoughts of people caught up in the tragic violence that swept through the country. Contents: Part 1: History: Country And People; Before The War; The Rebel War: 1991-2002; After The War Part 2: Narratives: The East: Rebel Territory; Kono District: Diamonds and Blood; The South: Self-Defense; Freetown and the North: Confrontations; The End of the War Appendices, Glossary, Sources, Index
Download or read book Between Democracy and Terror written by Ibrahim Abdullah and published by Unisa Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the most authoritative study of the Sierra Leone civil war to emanate from Africa, or indeed any publications' programme on Africa. It explores the genesis of the crisis, the contradictory roles of different internal and external actors, civil society and the media; the regional intervention force and the demise of the second republic. It analyses the numerous peace initiatives designed to end a war, which continued nonetheless to defy and outlast them; and asks why the war became so prolonged. The study articulates how internal actors trod the multiple and conflicting pathways to power. It considers how non-conventional actors were able to inaugurate and sustain an insurgency that called forth the largest concentration of UN peacekeepers the world has ever seen.
Download or read book Child Soldiers written by Myriam S. Denov and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-03-25 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the experiences of child soldiers in Sierra Leone during and after war and examines the implications of their participation.
Download or read book A Civil War History of Sierra Leone written by Joseph Kaifala and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1991-2002 Sierra Leone endured a brutal civil war that became synonymous with amputations, blood diamonds, child soldiers, cannibalism, kidnappings, rape and sexual slavery. The question of how a peace-loving country descended into such a violent civil war in which multiple factions committed the most macabre war crimes and crimes against humanity is what its Truth and Reconciliation Commission set out to investigate at the end of the conflict and it is a question that underlies this narrative. Many Sierra Leoneans, especially those born after the war, do not understand how their country became so engulfed in a protracted civil war that in the end ruined countless lives and property. This book does not set out to offer definitive answers - it merely provides a path to understanding the cumulative effects of entrenched corruption, human rights violations, and bad governance that made war inevitable. It is a comprehensive history of the Sierra Leonean civil war that is intended as a starting point for those who are interested in delving deeper into the labyrinth of diplomacy, violence, treachery, and claims to supernatural powers that rendered the Sierra Leonean civil war complex and nearly impossible to end.
Download or read book Representations of Violence written by Russ Feingold and published by Twenty-First Century African Youth Movement, Inc.. This book was released on 2005 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unprecedented exhibition of viscerally potent art focuses on how Sierra Leonean Artists have documented the atrocities of war and how these representations of violence spur conscious action.
Download or read book Free Slaves Freetown and the Sierra Leonean Civil War written by Joseph Kaifala and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-11-22 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a historical narrative covering various periods in Sierra Leone’s history from the fifteenth century to the end of its civil war in 2002. It entails the history of Sierra Leone from its days as a slave harbor through to its founding as a home for free slaves, and toward its political independence and civil war. In 1462, the country was discovered by a Portuguese explorer, Pedro de Sintra, who named it Serra Lyoa (Lion Mountains). Sierra Leone later became a lucrative hub for the Transatlantic Slave Trade. At the end of slavery in England, Freetown was selected as a home for the Black Poor, free slaves in England after the Somerset ruling. The Black Poor were joined by the Nova Scotians, American slaves who supported or fought with the British during the American Revolution. The Maroons, rebellious slaves from Jamaica, arrived in 1800. The Recaptives, freed in enforcement of British antislavery laws, were also taken to Freetown. Freetown became a British colony in 1808 and Sierra Leone obtained political independence from Britain in 1961. The development of the country was derailed by the death of its first Prime Minister, Sir Milton Margai, and thirty years after independence the country collapsed into a brutal civil war.
Download or read book Rebels in a Rotten State written by Kieran Mitton and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-01-10 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The atrocities of civil wars present us with many difficult questions. How do seemingly ordinary individuals come to commit such extraordinary acts of cruelty, often against unarmed civilians? Can we ever truly understand such acts of 'evil'? Based on a wealth of original interviews with perpetrators of violence in Sierra Leone's civil war, this book provides a detailed response. Moving beyond the rigid bounds of political science, the author engages with sociology, psychology and social psychology, to provide a comprehensive picture of the complex individual motives behind seemingly senseless violence in Sierra Leone's war. Highlighting the inadequacy of current explanations that centre on the anarchic nature of brutality, or conversely, its calculated rationality, this book sheds light on the critical but hitherto neglected role played by the emotions of shame and disgust. Drawing on first-hand accounts of strategies employed by Sierra Leone's rebel commanders, it documents the manner in which rebel recruits were systematically brutalised and came to perform horrifying acts of cruelty as routine. In so doing, it offers fresh insight into the causes of extreme violence that holds relevance beyond Sierra Leone to the atrocities of contemporary civil wars.
Download or read book Sierra Leone written by David John Harris and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new political history of the former British colony in West Africa, best known for its diamonds and recent violent civil war, this covers 225 years of history and fills a gap in African studies.
Download or read book Civil Wars in Africa written by Kelechi A. Kalu and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-05-05 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Civil Wars in Africa, edited by Kelechi A. Kalu and George Klay Kieh, Jr., examines civil conflicts throughout various African countries. They argue that civil wars in Africa are by-products of the contradictions and crises engendered by the post-colonial state-building and nation-building projects in Africa. With few exceptions, the post-colonial states in Africa have failed to build societies that invest in the material well-being of their citizens; protect their political, civil, and other rights; promote accountability, transparency, the rule of law, judicial independence, and the holding of free and fair elections; and promote ethnic pluralism, tolerance, mutual respect, and peaceful co-existence, among others. In addition, the contributors show that the post-colonial states in Africa have been ruled by corrupt and autocratic leaders, who are obsessed with the maintenance of state power as the pathway to ensuring the private accumulation of wealth through sundry illegal means, including bribery, extortion, and theft of public funds. In sum, this volume addresses how the failure of the post-colonial African state to shepherd the process of building democratic societies based on the centrality of human security has led to the erosion of the legitimacy of the state and its custodians. Thus, once the contradictions and crises reached their crescendo, these post-colonial societies than implode into civil wars, even at the micro-level.
Download or read book Child Soldiers Adult Interests written by John-Peter Pham and published by Nova Publishers. This book was released on 2005 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book weaves a narrative of the history of Sierra Leone, from its foundation as a settlement for black slaves who fought for the British Crown during the American Revolution through the events of the civil war, with a discussion of more general geopolitical lessons to be learned from the recent conflict, its origins, and settlement. In addition, the book contains six appendices that render the present work -- the first comprehensive history of Sierra Leone since the classic studies published more than a generation ago by Christopher Fyfe and John Peterson -- an invaluable reference on conflict resolution in general as well as the West African country in particular, including a chronology of select events in the history of Sierra Leone and the texts of the peace agreements and other post-conflict documents.
Download or read book Sierra Leone written by Bankole Kamara Taylor and published by New Africa Pres. This book was released on 2014-02 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work looks at Sierra Leone, its people and history. Other subjects are also covered to provide a general introduction to the country. It is not intended for academic specialists, and it is not an in-depth study of the country. It is written from the perspective of a layman or general reader who simply wants to know some important things about this West African country. Sierra Leone is one of the oldest countries in Africa. And before it won independence in 1961, it was also one of the oldest colonies on the continent. Only two African countries won independence in 1961, both from the same colonial power, Great Britain. They were Sierra Leone, on 27 April, and Tanganyika on 9 December. The history of Sierra Leone is also one of the most tragic. But Sierra Leone still is one of the most fascinating countries on the continent in spite of the horrendous tragedy it went through during the civil war in the 1990s. The fact that it emerged intact from that brutal conflict is strong testimony to the resilience of the Sierra Leonean people against overwhelming odds which could have broken weaker souls.
Download or read book When the State Fails written by Tunde Zack-Williams and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Was western intervention in Sierra Leone a genuine case of humanitarianism?
Download or read book A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-02-13 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My new friends have begun to suspect I haven’t told them the full story of my life. “Why did you leave Sierra Leone?” “Because there is a war.” “You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?” “Yes, all the time.” “Cool.” I smile a little. “You should tell us about it sometime.” “Yes, sometime.” This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived. In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.
Download or read book The Underneath of Things written by Mariane C. Ferme and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2001-09-14 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this erudite and gracefully written ethnography, Mariane Ferme explores the links between a violent historical and political legacy, and the production of secrecy in everyday material culture. The focus is on Mende-speaking southeastern Sierra Leone and the surrounding region. Since 1990, this area has been ravaged by a civil war that produced population displacements and regional instability. The Underneath of Things documents the rural impact of the progressive collapse of the Sierra Leonean state in the past several decades, and seeks to understand how an even earlier history is reinscribed in the present.
Download or read book Sierra Leone written by David Harris and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-06-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sierra 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, brutal and affected 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 thus made Sierra Leone a laboratory for post-Cold War interventions. Sierra Leone examines 225 years of its history and fifty 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 know.
