Abstract
AbstractRural‐based insurgencies disrupted the forest margins of Upper West Africa in the 1990s. A subsequent return to peace was accompanied by strong growth in small‐scale trade in foodstuffs and other agrarian produce in high demand in towns. Motor cycle taxis are a feature of this increased rural–urban market integration. It was a mode of transport pioneered by ex‐combatants. Where rural women were once attacked by rural young men without job prospects press ganged into fighting for the rebels, bike taxi riders now carry them to rural periodic markets, many of which are new since the end of conflict. The study provides an analytical account of these developments, drawing on discussions with villagers in three heavily war‐affected localities of Sierra Leone. The evidence indicates that communities divided by conflict have quietly built new cooperative links conducive to peace based on local agricultural production and petty trade.
Highlights
Was there local support for the proposition that better rural–urban connectivity fostered peace? Given that ex-combatants had pioneered the motorcycle taxi (Denov, 2011) was there any long-term legacy of disquiet linked to the gender-based violence of the civil war period? Given the perception that accidents involving motorcycle taxis were especially common, was road safety an issue about which people were deeply concerned, and what did they want to do about it? Were young male riders reckless, and would more female riders improve road safety?
How did they view the main means of improved connectivity—the rural motorcycle taxi, given that it was a transport innovation pioneered by ex-combatants? Does it deliver the benefits often claimed—of better access to markets and health? Or do risks of gender-based violence or physical danger of accidents mark out motorcycle taxis as a problematic sphere of service provision? Our method was to encourage informants to talk about these issues in their own terms
New forms of market integration based on cell phones, motorcycle taxis and petty trade in periodic markets are almost without exception considered welcome developments
Summary
We collected data through the medium of group interviews (conducted in April and May 2017) focused on the impact of transport services in general and motorcycle taxi services (given their dominance in rural areas) as tools of agrarian connectivity in three locations in Sierra Leone, with further data gathered through motorcycle taxi operator and passenger surveys. As further supporting information, we ran traffic censuses on two of the tracks in the areas we chose for study—the Woreh Bana and the Fala–Gondama track—on nonmarket and market days. We collected data through the medium of group interviews (conducted in April and May 2017) focused on the impact of transport services in general and motorcycle taxi services (given their dominance in rural areas) as tools of agrarian connectivity in three locations in Sierra Leone, with further data gathered through motorcycle taxi operator and passenger surveys.. In no case did we ask participants to identify themselves as former combatants or war victims. The war ended in 2002, and it is locally considered problematic to reopen a ‘settled’ issue. Where respondents in focus groups spoke about the origins of motorcycle taxi riding and about security risks associated with improved rural connectivity, these topics arose spontaneously in the flow of conversation about the benefits and disadvantages of motorcycle taxis
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