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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:To Fight or to Farm? Agrarian Dimensions of the Mano River Conflicts (Liberia and Sierra Leone)
Author:Richards, PaulISNI
Year:2005
Periodical:African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society
Volume:104
Issue:417
Period:October
Pages:571-590
Language:English
Geographic terms:Liberia
Sierra Leone
Subjects:civil wars
rural youth
rural areas
Military, Defense and Arms
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Law, Human Rights and Violence
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3518807
Abstract:The wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone have been linked to the condition of urbanized youth. Recent research in southeastern Sierra Leone and northwestern Liberia suggests the rural context is of greater significance. The fighting was mainly in rural areas, involved mainly rural youth, and adapted itself to their local concerns. A model of war as the work of urban criminal gangs, reflecting local student politics in the 1970s and embraced internationally, is ripe for replacement by a model of war as agrarian revolt. This would open up the possibility of a more coherent regional analysis of recent West African conflicts. The key to conflict resolution in the region, it is suggested, is an emphasis on agrarian justice, including reform of customary land and marriage law. (Revised and extended version of an article first published in French in: Afrique contemporaine, no. 214 (2005), p. 37-57.) Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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