Ransoming the state: elite origins of Subaltern terror in Sierra Leone

Abstract

Elite practices that valorised pillage, massified society, banalised violence and ‘sobelised’ the army are central to understanding the tragedy of subaltern terror in Sierra Leone. The appropriation of lumpen violence and thuggery by the political class undermined security and paved the way for the political ascendancy of armed marginals. By heavily recruiting thugs, criminals and rural drifters into national security apparatuses, incumbent political elites sowed the seeds of their own political demise as well as that of the state. Socially uprooted and politically alienated, lumpenised youth are inherently prone to criminal adventurism and when enlisted in the army are more likely to become ‘sobels’ or renegade soldiers. This article situates the transformation of praetorian violence from a tool of political domination to a means of criminal expropriation in the engendering context of elite parasitism and repression.

International Norms, Commerce, and the Political Economy of Insecurity in Sierra Leone

“…This economic collapse led to increased rates of unemployment, particularly among able-bodied young men. Second, the collapse of the formal economy gave rise to a shadow economy of smuggling, drug and arms trafficking, and money laundering that was outside the control of the president (Kandeh 1999). Exports of natural resources remained high, but the state was too weak to tax this trade.…”

From Discontinuity to Continuity: Tertiary Education Institutions, Conflict and Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone

“…A possible explanation of this lassitude on the part of the postindependent (pseudo-) educated political elite could be premised on the fact that they were not adequately schooled in the importance of gender-aware education in promoting nation building before they proceeded into state governance and became largely predators of the economy. 17 And where they pretentiously see themselves as honoring both (and mediating between) human security and the rights of education for youth (men and women) through affirmative actions, their political understanding of the role of education in nation building was problematic. Imbibed in what could best be understood as illiberal political pragmatics-that, at best promoted patriarchal authority and the entrenchment of militarized masculinities-these lifescapes created by these politicians have a distinct gender structure relating to the intersecting roles of masculinities, age, class ethnicity, location, and political affiliation that ignored the aspirations of the youth and agentive possibilities that educational reforms (in line with the international standards of the former British colonial government) would promote nation building and economic development.…”

Diamond Wars? Conflict Diamonds and Geographies of Resource Wars

“…All of these movements had broader constituencies, domestic and regional agendas, and geopolitical dimensions (Power 2001). Yet homelessness, injustice, and corruption in the diamond sector did provide a cause, or at least a ratio-nale, for some combatants to join and support the RUF in Sierra Leone (Kandeh 1999;Omasombo Tshonda 2001;Richards 2003;Humphreys and Weinstein 2004). Moreover, labor struggles, negative social and environmental impacts, highly unequal benefits, embezzlement by ruling elites, and abuses by security forces and mercenaries relating to diamonds figure prominently in political discourses of emancipation and social mobilization by radical organizations in Sierra Leone (Hayward 1972;RUF 1995;Abdullah 1998).…”