Embodiment and Emotion in Sierra Leone

Abstract

In this article, drawing on in-depth multi-sited ethnographic field research, a description is given of how an 'amputee and war-wounded' community formed in Sierra Leone after a 10-year civil war from 1991 to 2002. Through the shared experiences of life in a camp, medical care, participation in the rebuilding of the nation-state, to the 'managing' of the everyday structural violence of poverty, people find themselves dealing with new local and global spaces created in a post-conflict environment. The way that people understand how to negotiate these new spaces is gendered, embodied and also spiritual. The article thus argues that social recognition in terms of reparations or reintegration has to take into account these understandings. Interventions have to be material, spiritual (visible and invisible) and embodied (true inclusion) to have an impact in reintegrating people who become amputees or are wounded during a conflict.

Mental health problems among children in Sierra Leone: Assessing cultural concepts of distress

“…Although many ethnic groups in Sierra Leone have a history of identifying and paying homage to certain “devils” (e.g., in secret society meetings, or during seasonal festivals or ceremonial offerings) and participation in such ceremonies is socially and culturally important (Cannizzo, 1979), the type of supernatural associated with fred fred is considered distinctly abnormal, unexpected, and inducing real feelings of fear among children. Furthermore, though material, physical, and social suffering in Sierra Leone is often linked to witchcraft or the influence of demons or devils (Berghs, 2011), as are explanatory models of mental illness (van Gog, 2009; Yoder et al., 2016), these forces are socially recognized but not actually seen, nor do they tend to elicit the same degree of fear as experienced in fred fred . Contextualized in the context of war, this fear may have ties to rebel acts, which included attacks on secret society spaces and dressing in society-devil costumes (Henry, 2006).…”

Body Memories as a Neglected Legacy of Human Rights Abuses: Exploring Their Significance for Transitional Justice

“…In Berghs' work with disabled people in post-conflict Sierra Leone, for example, embodied peace was partly about reintegration into the community. The particular challenges posed by disability, however, underscored the fact that any interventions aimed at reintegration would need to 'work on several different layers of understanding respectful of an African ontology and epistemology but also of the modern realities and real needs of life post-conflict' (Berghs, 2011(Berghs, : 1415. The broader point is that body memories powerfully underline the limitations of transitional justice processes if the latter 'ignore the lived experience of those drawn into their influence' (Gill-Leslie, 2020: 121).…”

Contesting disabling conditions of life in the Global South: disability activists’ and service providers’ experiences in Guyana

“…There is, however, a small but growing literature concerned with rethinking processes giving rise to and exacerbating impairment and disability from a southern standpoint (Barnes and Sheldon 2009;Berghs 2011;Campbell 2011;Chouinard 2012Chouinard , 2014Connell 2011;Erevelles 2011;Evans and Atim 2011;Grech 2011;Kalayanpur 2014;King and King 2011;Lang 2011;Meekosha 2011, Meekosha andSoldatic 2011;Mizra 2011;Soldatic 2013;Soldatic and Biyanwila 2006;Zook 2010).…”