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 xxv
... intellectual response to the perceived corruption of a metropolitan patrimonial elite . Far from random , the violence is an expression of the social exclusion of a group of educated exiles determined to force patrons ' in town ' to ...
... intellectual response to the perceived corruption of a metropolitan patrimonial elite . Far from random , the violence is an expression of the social exclusion of a group of educated exiles determined to force patrons ' in town ' to ...
Page 27
... intellectual anger of an excluded educated elite.21 Parallels with Shining Path ? It seems some useful parallels might be drawn between the RUF leadership and the embittered marginalized group of Andean intellectuals who formed the core ...
... intellectual anger of an excluded educated elite.21 Parallels with Shining Path ? It seems some useful parallels might be drawn between the RUF leadership and the embittered marginalized group of Andean intellectuals who formed the core ...
Page 84
... intellectual seem really to come into their own ( Douglas 1986 ) . West African history offers some examples of localized ' peasant intellectual ' movements ( cf. Richards 1992c ) but the RUF is , seemingly , not one of them . The ...
... intellectual seem really to come into their own ( Douglas 1986 ) . West African history offers some examples of localized ' peasant intellectual ' movements ( cf. Richards 1992c ) but the RUF is , seemingly , not one of them . The ...
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Common terms and phrases
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