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War and the Crisis of Youth in Sierra Leone
Krijn Peters 
Swansea University Author:
Krijn Peters
Abstract
The armed conflict in Sierra Leone and the extreme violence of the main rebel faction - the Revolutionary United Front - have challenged scholars and members of the international community to come up with explanations. But so far conclusions about the nature of the war and the RUF are drawn from acc...
| ISBN: | 9780511976896 |
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| Published: |
Cambridge
Cambridge University Press
2011
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa11348 |
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| Abstract: |
The armed conflict in Sierra Leone and the extreme violence of the main rebel faction - the Revolutionary United Front - have challenged scholars and members of the international community to come up with explanations. But so far conclusions about the nature of the war and the RUF are drawn from accounts of civilian victims, or are based on interpretations and rationalizations offered by commentators with only access to one side in the war. The present study tries to address this one-sided view, by focusing on the direct experiences and interpretations of protagonists, paying special attention to the hitherto neglected cadres of the RUF.The data presented challenge the widely canvassed notion of the Sierra Leone conflict as a war motivated by “greed, not grievance”. Rather, it points to a rural crisis expressed in terms of unresolved tensions between landowners and marginalized rural youth, further reinforced and triggered by a collapsing patrimonial state |
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| Item Description: |
The book was highlighted for an honorable mention in the category of best book published on African politics in 2011 by the African Politics Conference Group (APCG) of the American Political Science Association (APSA). |
| Keywords: |
War, youth, rural crisis, RUF, Sierra Leone |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |