Origins of the Civil War in Sierra Leone

Origins of the Civil War in Sierra Leone PDF Author: Florian Seidl
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3638378039
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 10

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Book Description
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.

Free Slaves, Freetown, and the Sierra Leonean Civil War

Free Slaves, Freetown, and the Sierra Leonean Civil War PDF Author: Joseph Kaifala
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349948543
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
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.

Sierra Leone: Inside the War

Sierra Leone: Inside the War PDF Author: James Higbie
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789745241985
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
-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

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone PDF Author: David John Harris
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199361762
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
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.

A Dirty War in West Africa

A Dirty War in West Africa PDF Author: Lansana Gberie
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253218551
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
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.

A Long Way Gone

A Long Way Gone PDF Author: Ishmael Beah
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0374105235
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
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.

Between Democracy and Terror

Between Democracy and Terror PDF Author: Ibrahim Abdullah
Publisher: Unisa Press
ISBN: 9782869781238
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
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.

When the State Fails

When the State Fails PDF Author: Tunde Zack-Williams
Publisher: Pluto Press
ISBN: 9780745332215
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Compared with Kosovo and Iraq, the recent Western intervention in Sierra Leone has been largely forgotten. When the State Fails rectifies this, providing a comprehensive and critical analysis of the intervention. The civil war in Sierra Leone began in 1991 and was declared officially over in 2002 after UK, UN, and regional African military intervention. Some claimed it as a case of successful humanitarian intervention. The authors in this collection provide an informed analysis of the impact of the intervention on democracy, development, and society in Sierra Leone. The authors take a particularly critical view of the imposition of neo-liberalism after the conflict. As NATO intervention in Libya shows the continued use of external force in internal conflicts, When the State Fails is a timely book for all students and scholars interested in Africa and the question of "humanitarian intervention."

A Civil War History of Sierra Leone

A Civil War History of Sierra Leone PDF Author: Joseph Kaifala
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Sierra Leone
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
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.

Abolition and Empire in Sierra Leone and Liberia

Abolition and Empire in Sierra Leone and Liberia PDF Author: B. Everill
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137291818
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Bronwen Everill offers a new perspective on African global history, applying a comparative approach to freed slave settlers in Sierra Leone and Liberia to understand their role in the anti-slavery colonization movements of Britain and America.