Edited
by Ibrahim Abdullah
Published January 2004; 274 pages; illus. and tables
Between Democracy and Terror
is
the first serious study to engage the Sierra Leone civil war. It
explores the genesis of the crisis; the contradictory roles of
different internal and external actors; civil society and the
fourth estate; the regional intervention force; the demise of
the second republic; and the numerous peace initiatives to end
the war.
This study articulates how internal actors tread the multiple
but conflicting pathways to power, why the war lasted for as
long as it did, and how non-conventional actors were able to
inaugurate and sustain an insurgency that called forth the
largest concentration of UN peace keepers the world has ever
seen. The rich and fascinating book challenges tendencies to
reduce all these happenings, these ‘thick descriptions’/
histories, to a footnote in a narrative that privileges the
economic factor, thereby devalorising research and scholarship
in understanding and changing the reality in Sierra Leone.
Students of post-colonial Sierra Leone and Africa would find
Between Democracy and Terror timely, innovative and
provocatively instructive.
Ibrahim Abdullah
is a historian who specializes in colonial and post-colonial
history. He has published in the area of African social/labour
history and has taught in universities in America, Canada,
Nigeria, South Africa and Sierra Leone. He is currently working
on a book titled Youth Culture and Counter-Hegemony in Sierra
Leone.
2004; ISBN 2-86978-123-7 (pb) £20.00 /$25.00/
10 000CFA
Contents
Part I: Context and actors
-
Chapter 1:
The Political and Cultural Dynamics of the
Sierra Leone War
Yusuf Bangura
-
Chapter 2:
Bush Path To Destruction: The Origin and
Character of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF/SL)
Ibrahim Abdullah
-
Chapter 3:
Student Radicals, Lumpen Youth, and the Origins
of Revolutionary Groups in Sierra Leone, 1977–1996
Ismail Rashid
-
Chapter 4:
Corruption and Political Insurgency in Sierra
Leone
Sahr Kpundeh
-
Chapter 5:
State Complicity as a Factor in Perpetuating
the Sierra Leone Civil War
Arthur Abraham
Part II: One step forward, two steps backward
-
Chapter 6:
In Search of Legitimacy: The 1996 Elections
Jimmy D. Kandeh
-
Chapter 7:
The 25 May Coup d’état in Sierra Leone: A
Lumpen Revolt?
Lansana Gberie
-
Chapter 8:
Unmaking the Second Republic: Democracy On
Trial
Jimmy D. Kandeh
-
Chapter 9:
Civil Society Against the State: The
Independent Press and the AFRC-RUF Junta
Olu Gordon
Part III: Other players in the drama
-
Chapter 10:
The Elusive Quest For Peace: From Abidjan to
Lome
Arthur Abraham
-
Chapter 11:Nigeria,
ECOMOG, and the Sierra Leone Crisis
Funmi Olonisakin
-
Chapter 12:
‘Smallest Victims; Youngest Killers’: Juvenile
Combatants in Sierra Leone’s Civil War
Ibrahim Abdullah and Ismail Rashid
-
Bibliography
For orders :
Africa:
Publications and Communication
CODESRIA
Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop x Canal IV
BP 3304
Dakar 18524 Senegal
Email:
codesria@codesria.sn
Web: www.codesria.org
Rest of the world:
African Books Collective
The Jam Factory
27 Park End Street, Oxford, OX1 1HU
Email:
abc@africanbookscollective.com
Web:
www.africanbookscollective.com
