The Struggle for Sierra Leone

Abstract

Chapter 6 provides a comprehensive account of the causes and evolution of the civil war in Sierra Leone. It first discusses historical factors (Sierra Leone’s pre-colonial and colonial inheritance) that laid a weak foundation for the modern state and its path to dictatorship, corruption, state failure, civil war and state collapse. It then offers a brief overview of the nature of the civil war in Sierra Leone. The chapter argues for the need to understand the crisis in Sierra Leone in terms of the long-term causes such as colonialism and colonial inheritance, and short-term causes including state and community failure in order to deal effectively with the post-war situation.