Reshuffling an Old Deck of Cards? The Politics of Local Government Reform in Sierra Leone

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Periodical article

Title:	Reshuffling an Old Deck of Cards? The Politics of Local Government Reform in Sierra Leone
Author:	Jackson, Paul
Year:	2007
Periodical:	African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society
Volume:	106
Issue:	422
Period:	January
Pages:	95-111
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Sierra Leone
Subjects:	chieftaincy decentralization local government reform Politics and Government Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/4496417
Abstract:	This article examines the relationship between chiefdom authority and decentralization in post-war Sierra Leone. The chieftaincy has been in crisis for some time and is widely thought to be responsible for contributing to rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) recruitment. However, chiefs remain an important influence in Sierra Leone, and there is little demand for an end to the chieftaincy system. Rather than an abolition of chieftaincy, governance at local level requires constructive relationships between chiefdoms and local governments and not simply a reshuffling of agrarian class relationships or old ways of doing politics. This in turn requires a reform of the chieftaincy system and the resolution of local political tensions arising from decentralization. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]