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Title: | Lumpen Youth Culture and Political Violence: Sierra Leoneans Debate the RUF and the Civil War |
Authors: | Abdullah, Ibrahim Bangura, Yusuf Blake, C. Gberie, Lansana Johnson, L. Kallon, K. Kemokai, S. Muana, Patrick K. Rashid, Ishmail Zack-Williams, A. |
Year: | 1997 |
Periodical: | Africa Development: A Quarterly Journal of CODESRIA (ISSN 0850-3907) |
Volume: | 22 |
Issue: | 3-4 |
Pages: | 171-215 |
Language: | English |
Notes: | biblio. refs. |
Geographic terms: | Sierra Leone West Africa |
Subjects: | youth civil wars nationalism Politics and Government politics youth organizations political conflicts Social groups Revolutionary United Front |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/43658009 |
Abstract: | How can the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), initiator of the civil war in Sierra Leone in 1991, which claims to be fighting for the poor, commit at the same time high levels of atrocities against poor people? The bulk of the RUF's fighters are very young people, and attempts to understand the nature and extent of their involvement in the war have raised a number of questions: What does knowledge of Sierra Leone's youth culture tell us about the war? Is there a relationship between specific types of youth culture and the RUF's brand of violence? Does the violence have anything to do with youth culture or are there other influences at play? What types of youth have been active in the RUF's war of 'liberation' and why has its violence assumed a bandit pattern? A group of Sierra Leonean academics in North America and Europe debated these issues in April 1997 on Leonenet, an unmoderated e-mail global forum for the discussion of Sierra Leonean issues. The debate was edited with an overview by one of the participants, Yusuf Bangura. Others who took part were Ibrahim Abdullah, Cecil Blake, Lansana Gberie, Lemuel Johnson, Kelfala Kallon, Saffa Kemokai, Patrick K. Muana, Ishmail Rashid and Alfred B. Zack-Williams. |