Fighting for the Rain Forest: War, Youth & Resources in Sierra LeonePaul Richards argues that the war in Sierra Leone and other small wars in Africa do not manifest a new barbarism. What appears as random, anarchic violence is no such thing. The terrifying military methods of Sierra Leone's soldiers may not fit Western models of warfare, but they are rational and effective. The war must be understood partly as performance, in which techniques of terror compensate for lack of equipment.Richards points out that Sierra Leone's war is a crisis of modernity. Sierra Leone's youth belongs to a modern, trans-Atlantic culture. In remote diamond-digging camps, young people watch Rambo videos and listen to BBC news. These are part of the cultural resources with which the war is fought. The frustrations of these young people underlie the crisis. Not only the soldiers but most of the commanders are teenagers. Their aspirations are for schools and jobs. Financial stringency and the decay of the patrimonial state led directly to the government's surrender of much of the countryside.The rain forest is also central to the war. The war is fought in the rain forest and can only be understood in the context of old traditions of social and technical management of the forest. There is no evidence that a crisis of deforestation or overpopulation has contributed to the war.Rebuilding the state -- and giving young Sierra Leoneans confidence in it -- is essential for peace. But in the meantime, many people are learning to live with war and building limited peace locally. Richards argues that aid agencies must learn from these initiatives to avoid becoming part of the economy of conflict. |
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Page 66
... Farmers may have first settled around naturally occurring grassy vents in the forest favoured by elephants in the dry season . Elephants are powerful agents of environmental change , and wallowing and foraging among climbers and fruit ...
... Farmers may have first settled around naturally occurring grassy vents in the forest favoured by elephants in the dry season . Elephants are powerful agents of environmental change , and wallowing and foraging among climbers and fruit ...
Page 68
... farmers . This changes the normal picture ( farmers entering the forests first as subsistence cultivators , later to be connected to a wider commercial world by a savanna trading diaspora ) . Ford's analysis stresses that Dan kola ...
... farmers . This changes the normal picture ( farmers entering the forests first as subsistence cultivators , later to be connected to a wider commercial world by a savanna trading diaspora ) . Ford's analysis stresses that Dan kola ...
Page 158
... farmers need new kinds of seeds ( or abandoned favourites ) to cope with the contingencies of war . Farmers in Pujehun in 1992 were responding positively to a hardy rice type introduced from northern Sierra Leone as part of a relief ...
... farmers need new kinds of seeds ( or abandoned favourites ) to cope with the contingencies of war . Farmers in Pujehun in 1992 were responding positively to a hardy rice type introduced from northern Sierra Leone as part of a relief ...
Contents
in Sierra Leone in Africa? | 1 |
State Recession The Political Culture | 34 |
Forest The Making | 61 |
Copyright | |
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African agriculture areas army attack Barbarism Bopolu bush camp Cape Mount cent Chapter chiefdom civil civilians coast conflict Côte d'Ivoire creolization cultural diamond mining ECOMOG economic elephant elite environmental Executive Outcomes farmers farming fighters fighting films Foday Sankoh forest conversion Forest Reserve forest society Freetown global Gola Forest Gola North government troops Guinea hostages ideas initiation insurgency intellectual interviewees Kailahun District Kambia Kenema Kono Krio Lalehun language leader Liberia Liberia and Sierra Liberian border London Mende military modern Momoh Monrovia movement NPFL NPRC Pandebu patrimonial peace Pendembu perhaps political population Pujehun District radio rain forest Rambo rebels recruited refugees regime rice Richards RSLMF RUF leadership RUF/SL rural savanna Shining Path Siaka Stevens Sierra Leonean slaves strangers Taylor Toffler town trade tributors ULIMO Upper Guinean forest villages violence West Africa women young Sierra Leoneans youth zone