1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910821081503321

Autore

Peters Krijn

Titolo

War and the crisis of youth in Sierra Leone / / Krijn Peters

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge ; ; New York, : Cambridge University Press, 2010

ISBN

0-511-86223-7

1-107-22094-7

1-283-01201-4

9786613012012

0-511-86023-4

0-511-86110-9

0-511-85849-3

0-511-85762-4

0-511-97689-5

0-511-85936-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xv, 274 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

The international African library ; ; 41

Disciplina

966.404

Soggetti

Children and war - Sierra Leone

Youth - Sierra Leone - Social conditions

Rural development - Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone History Civil War, 1991-2002 Participation, Juvenile

Sierra Leone History Civil War, 1991-2002 Social aspects

Sierra Leone Rural conditions

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. Voices from the battlefield: ex-combatants' views on root causes of the war and their reasons for participation -- 2. The socio-economic crisis of rural youth -- 3. Conflict in Sierra Leone and recruits to the war -- 4. The world of the RUF -- 5. Malfunctions and atrocities -- 6. Cultivating peace: RUF ex-combatants' involvement in post-war agricultural projects -- 7. Footpaths to reintegration?: agrarian solutions for the reintegration of ex-combatants -- 8. Conclusion: the RUF as a rural underclass project.



Sommario/riassunto

The armed conflict in Sierra Leone and the extreme violence of the main rebel faction - the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) - have challenged scholars and members of the international community to come up with explanations. Up to this point, though, conclusions about the nature of the war are mainly drawn from accounts of civilian victims and commentators who had access to only one side of the war. The present study addresses this currently incomplete understanding of the conflict by focusing on the direct experiences and interpretations of protagonists, paying special attention to the hitherto neglected, and often underage, cadres of the RUF. The data presented challenges 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.