The Hybrid Authority of Sierra Leone’s Chiefs

Abstract

Abstract:On the basis of a historical and ethnographic analysis, this article shows how the concept of hybridity can be used analytically to explore the emergence of paramount and lesser chiefs in Sierra Leone and their role as figures of authority at the local level and in national politics. At the same time, it critiques the ahistorical applications of the concept that are prevalent in peace and conflict studies. The article offers insight into the processes of hybridization that chiefs constitute, and are constituted by, as they draw on multiple sources of authority, including what one scholar calls their “extremely localized” sense of belonging, as well as the legislation of a centrally governed bureaucracy.

Civil society in Kono District, Sierra Leone: Capacity, constraints, and potential to contribute to local Sustainable Development Goals

“…There was very little literature on Kono District's civil society and Kono people. What was available focused on diamond mining, the resource curse (Johnston-Taylor, 2015), conflict, chiefs, elite (Albrecht, 2017;Fanthorpe and Maconachie, 2010) and rural livelihoods (Bateman 2017;Binns 1980). Studies relating to Sierra Leonean civil society were at national or African regional level and did not disaggregate findings to subnational levels.…”

When the mountain broke: disaster governance in Sierra Leone

“…At local level, different modes of local governance coexist, particularly in states where traditional authorities function as mediators between the state and society (Menkhaus, 2007; Olivier de Sardan, 2011). In patrimonial societies such as Sierra Leone, traditional structures occupy both formal and informal governance roles and are reshaped to accommodate modern state structures (Albrecht, 2017; Albrecht and Moe, 2015). Rather than the central state's will simply being translated through decentralised bodies, the state is also shaped from below through interaction between the central state and local authorities (Titeca and de Herdt, 2011).…”

“…Regarding disasters, of particular relevance are the Office of National Security (ONS); the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs; and the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA), all of which were established after the civil war. State-building processes revolved around the decentralisation of the state, where scholarly attention is directed to the contentious relationship between paramount chiefs and Disaster governance in Sierra Leone other formal state structures (Albrecht, 2017;Clayton et al, 2015;Jackson, 2007;Keen, 2005). However, much less is known about the roles and relations of ceremonial chiefscustomary leaders in the Western Area including Freetown.…”

Provisional police authority in Maputo’s inner-city periphery

“…They constituted a de facto local police force, which was founded both on dispensing popular justice and on using state police techniques and instruments. In that sense, they resembled ‘hybrid structures’ (Abrahamsen and Williams, 2009; Albrecht, 2017) or ‘twilight institutions’ (Lund, 2006) that are neither purely state nor non-state but situated in a blurred place between state and popular or private domains of ordering. Much the same could be said about how the low-rank officers, like Eduardo, operated.…”