Contentious Reconstructions: Scholarship, Conflict, and State Reconfiguration in Sierra Leone, 1990–2002

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The process of state failure, war, conflict resolution, and state reconfiguration in Sierra Leone between 1990 and 2002 was not a linear narrative but a complex, and sometimes indecipherable, script. Historical contingency and expediency were as important as the claims, ideas, plans, and policies of all of the different actors in the script. Over its duration, scholars provided varying interpretations of the Sierra Leone war that raised issues of ownership, power, representation and agency, and the relationship between insiders and outsiders. The article explores the extent to which these interpretations actually captured concrete historical realities on the ground. It points out not only the dissonances in interpretations of outsiders and insiders, but also highlights that in many instances, the scholarly analysis lagged behind or misinterpreted the unfolding phenomenon on the ground.