Sustaining Peace in Sierra Leone Through Collaboration of the Dominant Ethnic Groups

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study

Introduction

In March 1991, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a rebel group, trained and

funded by former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor and former Libyan dictator Muammar

Gaddafi, attacked the government of Sierra Leone. The resulting civil war lasted 10 years

and has cost this nation in many profound ways (Apori-Nkansah, 2008). It caused the

displacement of millions of people and the death of thousands, most through the effects of

disease and malnourishment intensified by dislocation. It left in its wake a generation of

traumatized children and young adults and a loss of trust among and across communities

immeasurably difficult to regain. It destroyed the education and healthcare systems and

disrupted transportation and mass communication infrastructures. Due to damage to the

country’s ecology, from its land and waterways to its flora and fauna, Sierra Leoneans

have been besieged with numerous floods and an Ebola pandemic that resulted in the

death of hundreds (Youde, 2014). All these catastrophes occurred while the government

lacked the capability to govern effectively and the incapacity to respond to those pressing

national emergencies (Williams, 2011). Simply put, the war has left a scar on Sierra

Leone’s national character and integrity that may take many years to heal.

When the war ended in 2002, the international community and the government

combined their efforts to confront the issues that caused the war, and worked tirelessly to

bring normalcy to the war-torn nation. However, these efforts were overshadowed by

calls from human rights and international humanitarian groups to bring all those who may

have committed war crimes with impunity to account. Thus, the Sierra Leonean

government collaborated with international community actors to establish and operate a

dual accountability transitional justice mechanism simultaneously, as part of its

sustainable peace-building initiative (Apori-Nkansah, 2008). A truth and reconciliation

commission (TRC) and a special court especially designed for Sierra Leone (SCSL) were

convened (Apori-Nkansah, 2008). The TRC was set up to administer restorative justice,

and the SCSL was convened to render retributive justice.

However, as Apori-Nkansah (2008) argued, the two individual mechanisms were

poorly planned and coordinated. The author explained that rather than the operations

being made to work together as two distinct mechanisms with the same objective, they

were instead made to counteract each other, thereby weakening their specific authorities

and creating tensions in their efforts to achieve sustainable peace. In the process, key

fighters from the rebel group, and fighters from the civil defense forces, (CDF), the

militia groups that fought alongside the government and regional forces, were arrested,

summarily detained, and charged with war crimes. The RUF leader, Foday Sankoh, who

was already serving in a cabinet level capacity on a power sharing agreement, was

brought before the tribunal, tried, and convicted of war crimes. He later died in detention.

The leader of the CDF, Chief Hinga Norman, who in part was credited for flipping

the war in favor the government forces and forcing the RUF to the negotiating table, was

stripped of his cabinet position, arrested, and convicted of war crimes. He too would die

in detention. Also, two of the CDF’s high-ranking battlefield commanders, Moinina

Fofana and Allieu Kondewa, were also arrested and convicted of war crimes, including

aiding and abetting war crimes, particularly murder, cruel treatment, burning of civilian

property, collective punishment, and enlisting children as combatants. They are serving

life sentences in The Hague. Consequently, the Civil Defense Forces felt betrayed and the

fragile peace that was brokered unraveled, leaving the nation vulnerable and politically

unstable.

Today, as the nation struggles with the legacy of violence and devastation, prewar

political and socioeconomic patterns have reemerged. The All Peoples Congress (APC)

party, the ruling political party whose leadership was widely blamed for creating the

preconditions of war, was overwhelmingly voted back into power in 2007, barely five

years after the conflict was declared officially over (Batty, 2010; Gberie, 2005;

OjukutuMacaulay & Rashid, 2010). Also, political elites from the dominant ethnic groups

who were known to have stoked ethnic tensions are now back in charge of major

government bureaucracies.

Consequently, there are strong signs of social unrest to echo the growing

dissatisfaction with the ruling government. Observers therefore caution that a resurgence

is imminent should current political trends continue, and sustainable peace-building

regimes are not pursued (Gberie, 2005; see also Hanlon, 2005; Jang, 2012; Wolfenden,

2012).

In recent memory, many conflict-prone nations in Africa have opted out of the

United Nations-sponsored war crimes tribunals, citing reasons ranging from the tribunal’s

bias toward African nations to the Court’s inability to resolve political conflicts in Africa

(Hirsch, 2012). Currently, four African nations, Gambia, South Africa, Burundi, and

Kenya, have taken steps through their respective legislatures to withdraw from the

International Criminal Court (ICC) tribunal. However, proponents of retributive justice

argue that because the ICC was modeled on the Nuremberg trials of infamous Nazis after

World War II, it therefore can help to build a unified political community in post conflict

nations in Africa as well. However, as Hirsch (2012) argued, when applied to cases of

transitional justice, several questions arise that are troubling to the fundamental precepts

of social justice as espoused by Rawls’ (1985) and Habermas’ (1985) basic assumptions

of social justice. Accordingly, the question is, if resolution must be attained and deep

disagreement and disrespect are ruled in advance, how ought people cope politically with

conflicts that remain deeply irresolvable? To this end, advocates of the restorative process

argue for constructive engagements between opposing warring factions as means of

achieving sustainable peace. They argue that postconflict retributive judicial processes

only result in fragile peace with the potential of making the nation politically vulnerable

and unstable rather than secure.

For instance, Cobban (2006) disputed the stated goals of retribution on the basis

that no evidence exists to show that these goals are attainable. The author maintained

that the notion that prosecutions help to build peace and advance the cause of human

rights is inconclusive. The author further asserted that it was not always clear whether

victims sought retribution of their own volition. Also, it was not clear if prosecutions of

war crimes deter future recurrence or if amnesty encourages impunity. Other criticisms

against retributive justice include the fact that it is expensive, timeconsuming, and does

not address the needs of victims. Furthermore, evidence required to bring perpetrators

to trial is very difficult to obtain; hence, even when trials commence, perpetrators may

not be successfully prosecuted. A more salient criticism is that prosecution is

counterproductive to national reconciliation.

These criticisms notwithstanding, proponents of retribution believe trials are

desirable in situations where breaches of international law had occurred. Thus, crimes

against humanity, breaches of humanitarian law and international human rights, demand

punishment. In Uganda for instance, despite efforts by legislators to give blanket amnesty

to the Lord’s Resistance Army who have been engaged in decades old terror campaign

against the Ugandan population, the president, a staunch proponent of the ICC, vetoed the

initiative and forced the leadership of the Lord’s Resistance Army and its militants

underground, placing them on the ICC most wanted list, thereby precluding a peaceful

resolution to decades of bloody conflict.

Schaap (2005) argued that reconciliation between major causal actors of war

within societies divided by a history of ethnic and political violence emerged as a central

term of political discourse when the Cold War ended. Thus, this concept has been

promoted as a way of reckoning with past wrongs while opening a pathway for peace. For

instance, in Mozambique, decades of brutal civil war came to a peaceful end through

successful constructive engagement processes and negotiations with all parties to the

conflict. Despite a ruthless military history, the country’s unconditional pardon and

clemency to all combatants was instrumental in resolving political disputes between the

two major political parties, allowing their candidates to compete in free and fair elections

peacefully and democratically.

Also in Columbia, a Cuban government-mediated peace agreement between the

Columbian government and FARC rebels has resulted in a unilateral declaration by the

rebels to end all hostilities for an indefinite period, thus, bringing an end to five decades

of conflict that resulted in the deaths of over 220,000 people since 1960 (BBC News, 24

November 2016). While total peace has not been realized, the process has at least opened

dialogue between all parties to the conflict.

Drawing from examples in South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, Mozambique, and

Colombia, I aimed in this study to explore an alternative approach to conflict resolution

between former adversaries, with specific reference to postconflict Sierra Leone. With

convincing evidence from the literature to support the notion that the major orchestrators

of ethnic wars are competing dominant ethnic groups, it seemed reasonable to explore

their collaboration on sustainable peace-building initiatives. In this study, I therefore

closely examined the 3 dominant ethnic groups, Krio, Mende, and Temne of Sierra Leone.

As the dominant ethnic groups who possess enormous political and socioeconomic power

and influence, the aim was to understand how key factors in their political behavior, such

as political views, ideologies, practices, and participations could work in collaboration to

support sustainable peace-building in Sierra Leone. Those key factors are the “processes

through which dominant groups influence and interpret the political context within the

polity” (Bangura, 1996, p. xii).

This chapter comprises the historical background of Sierra Leone and its complex

ethnic composition. In it I also summarized the research problem, the purpose of the

study, the main research and subquestion that guided the inquiry, the assumptions, scope,

delimitations, limitations, significance, and implications for positive social change. The

chapter also presents an overview of the theoretical and conceptual lenses, which Miles

&Huberman (1994) suggest are the system of concepts, assumptions, expectations,

beliefs, and theories that support and inform key aspects the study to which the main

research and subquestion are addressed. Also, it presents key terms and concepts used in

the study with which the reader may not be familiar.

Background of the Problem

Williams (2011) has echoed the sentiments of most African commentators that,

post-colonial African nations suffer from some of the most intractable and egregious

conflicts on this planet. The author reasoned that the number of peace agreements all

parties to the conflict usually sign is indicative of the difficulty in resolving them. For

instance, Gberie (2005) conceded that the 10-year ethnic conflict in Sierra Leone resulted

in numerous peace agreements brokered by international and regional partners, to end

hostilities, yet, none resulted in sustainable peace.

The notion that wars in most African states are caused by competing ethnic groups

is hardly a matter of dispute (Chomsky, 2006; see also Easterly & Levine, 1997;

Elbadawi & Sambanis, 2000; Wong, 2012). However, studies that explore their

collaboration in supporting sustainable peace-building in postconflict settings are

nonexistent. For instance, after the war ended in Sierra Leone, the United Nations

collaborated with the government to cosponsor a dual accountability transitional justice

mechanism as part of a peace-building initiatives in postconflict Sierra Leone. However,

focused solely on retribution and devoid of any reconciliation and restorative incentives,

the fragile peace deal between the warring factions unraveled, leaving the nation

politically unstable. According to Apori-Nkansah (2008), poor coordination and

improper planning of the two mechanisms resulted in the failure of the two processes to

achieve their individual mandates (Apori-Nkansah, 2008). This conforms Hirsh’s (2012)

argument that while TRCs, ICCs and public confessionals have tried to heal the brunt of

violence, these processes have not always worked. This was the case not because of their

concurrent operations but because they do not result in sustainable peace, leaving the

nations politically vulnerable and the intended peace fragile at best. Therefore, lessons

learned from nations where postconflict transitional mechanisms were implemented with

limited success, such as Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Uganda, and other postconflict

nations, are relevant in understanding the need for alternative means of conflict

resolutions than the paradigmatic processes that have precluded meaningful dialogue

between perpetrators of conflict.

A need therefore exists to explore whether the three dominant ethnic groups in

Sierra Leone can collaborate through their political behavior to support lasting peace in

Sierra Leone. My hope is for this study to influence strategic collaborative initiatives in

lieu of transitional justice mechanisms that are focused on retributive and restorative

initiatives, with very little in way of reconciliations.

Statement of the Problem

In recent times, TRCs, ICCs and public confessionals are the conventional means

that have been used to heal the brunt of violence in postconflict nations around the world

(Hirsch, 2012). In most of those nations, the United Nations collaborated with the host

governments to cosponsor peace-building initiatives through a dual accountability

transitional justice mechanism, whereby the TRC and/or the ICC are engaged in

restorative and/or retributive justices (Apori-Nkansah, 2008). In Sierra Leone, a United

Nation-sponsored SCSL and the TRC were set up and concurrently engaged. However,

due to poor coordination and improper planning, the two mechanisms counteracted each

other, and thus failed to fulfil their individual mandates (Apori-Nkansah, 2008).

While the government’s intent for requesting the establishment of SCSL was

aimed at the rebel leadership, the SCSL’s wide-ranging applicability to all combatants as

outlined in the statutes of the SCSL did not preclude members of the CDF from

prosecution, despite the case that they had fought alongside government forces during the

war. Consequently, the fragile peace deal that was reached between all parties unraveled.

Lessons learned from experiences in Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Uganda, and other

postconflict nations are relevant in understanding the need for alternative means of

conflict resolutions than the paradigmatic processes that have precluded meaningful

dialogue between causal agents of conflict. A need therefore exists to explore whether the

three dominant ethnic groups in Sierra Leone can collaborate through their political

behavior to support lasting peace in Sierra Leone. I hope through this study to influence

strategic collaborative initiatives in lieu of transitional justice mechanisms that are

focused on retributive and restorative initiatives, with very little in way of reconciliations.

I further hope that this study will become a prototype for sustainable peace in troubled

regions.

Purpose of the Study

Williams (2011) has argued that in conflictprone nations in Africa, “ethnicity

kills” (p.24). This means that wars in Africa are tribal conflicts fought between competing

dominant ethnic groups. Nonetheless, studies that explore the collaboration of these

dominant groups in supporting sustainable peace-building are nonexistent. Hence,

conducting this inquiry of examining the three most politically and socially influential

ethnic groups, Krio, Mende, and Temne of Sierra Leone was to fill this identified gap.

The aim was to understand and explain whether key factors in the groups’ political

behavior such as political views, ideologies, practices, and participations could be used to

promote collaboration in supporting sustainable peace-building in Sierra Leone. The

rationale for examining those key factors in their political behavior was drawn from

Bangura’s (1996) assertions that those were “processes through which dominant groups

influence and interpret the political context within the polity” (p. xii). With this study I

hope to give insight to all stakeholders, including policy makers within both the national

government and traditional institutions, and broaden understanding of ethnic group

dynamics and what drives cooperation between ethnic groups.

Research Question

Following the purpose, and taking the problem as a guide, the proceeding

principal research question emerged:

RQ1: How did collaboration between the Krio, Mende, and Temne support the

peace-building process in Sierra Leone?

To answer this question, the four political behavioral factors of the groups were examined

to provide the contextual elements upon which the collaboration of these three groups

could be determined. Hence the secondary question:

RQ2: How did the political views, ideologies, practices and participations of the

Krio, Mende, and Temne support the sustainable peacebuilding efforts in Sierra

Leone?

Conceptual and Theoretical Framework

The conceptual frameworks for this exploratory inquiry were provided by

Kaufman’s (2004), and Sidanius & Pratto (1999), through their respective works,

Rethinking

Ethnicities, Majority Groups and Dominant Minorities, through their work, Theory of

Social

Hierarchy and Oppression.

The theoretical lens was provided by Bell (1980), through the interest

convergence principle. Bell advanced this principle in the context of a critical race theory,

by critically appraising the decision handed down by the United States Supreme Court in

Brown versus Board of Education Civil Right Case of 1954.

Through Kaufman (2004), the dominant ethnic groups, Krio, Mende, and Temne,

were closely examined in the context of group dominance, thereby allowing for a deeper

understanding of the nature and characteristics of their political power and dominance.

Then, using Sidanius and Pratto’s (1999) social hierarchy and oppression theory, the

underlying assumptions of the political behaviors of these groups including their

ideologies, views, practices, and participations were examined, affirmed, and explained.

Thus, the two conceptual frameworks, in their own unique ways steered the

course of the study by providing answers to the main question of the research: How did

collaboration between the Krio, Mende, and Temne support the peace-building process in

Sierra Leone?

The appropriate theoretical lens grounding this study was the interest convergence

principle by Bell (1980), advanced by a critical review of the Brown versus Board of

Education decision of 1954 through the critical race theory. In that critique, Bell argued

that the favorable judicial ruling in Brown versus Board of Education was the extent to

which the interests of Blacks to end segregation in public schools coincided with the

United States’ interests abroad. Bell reasoned that it was the desire to polish the United

States international image during the cold war that motivated the Brown decision and not

the desire to ease black suffering under racial segregation as was widely conceived.

Again, five decades after the Brown decision, Bell detected similar motivations with the

Grutter versus Bollinger decision of 2003 (539 U.S. 306) in which the United States

Supreme Court confirmed the limited use of race as an admissions criterion.

Bell’s precept has implications for Sierra Leone in that it affirms the

preconception that to the extent the national interest of the nation was at stake, it was

incumbent upon the three dominant groups to collaborate in supporting sustainable peace

building in Sierra Leone. Bell provided the appropriate lens through which the convergent

interests were examined. For instance, the theoretical assumption that these dominant

ethnic groups, Krio, Mende, and Temne express their power and influence through their

political behavior, constituted an analytical behavioral phenomenon. Thus, I sought

literature with similar theoretical propositions to collaborate and affirm these convictions.

Kaufman’s (2004) study on ethnic groups advanced through Rethinking

Ethnicities, Majority Groups and Dominant Minorities, distinguished, organized, and

contextualized dominance into easily identifiable and memorable categories. For instance,

Kaufman used the majority/minority dichotomy to differentiate the groups into two

hierarchical components, that is, majority groups and dominant minorities, to define the

dominant groups in this study. The Mende and Temne are Sierra Leone’s ethnic

majorities. This is because the Mendes account for 32% of the population and the Temne

with a slightly larger population, 35%. Primarily, these two ethnic groups derive their

dominance from numeric superiority. The Krio, however, are the dominant minority.

Numerically, they only account for 4% of the population. However, they derived their

dominance on heterogeneous backgrounds and strong colonial legacy as descendants of

freed slaves who settled the land from England, North America, and the Caribbean to

become a powerful ethnic group in Sierra Leone. Their dominance is political rather than

numeric. Thus, Kaufman took the abstract concept of ethnicity and described and

contextualized it into two distinct and separate identities, thus establishing both the

numeric and political contexts within which each group was examined, analyzed, and

interpreted. Mende and Temne were examined and analyzed as majority groups and the

Krio was examined and analyzed as the dominant minority.

Through Sidanius & Pratto’s (1999) theory on social hierarchy and oppression, the

political behaviors of the dominant ethnic groups, Krio, Mende, and Temne of Sierra

Leone, were thoroughly examined and analyzed. This included their political views,

ideologies, practices, and levels of political participation, processes through which they

have impacted the nation’s social, political, and economic trajectories (Bangura, 1996).

For this study, therefore, Sidanius and Pratto’s (1999) theory on social and

intergroup dominance and oppression, Kaufman’s concept on ethnicity, and Bell’s interest

convergence principle were the fitting conceptual and theoretical lenses by which this

study’s units of analyses were examined. In this study, the Krio, Mende, and Temne are

the units of analyses because they are the main entities being analyzed. In other words,

they are the what or who that is being examined, studied, and analyzed. The theoretical

and conceptual frameworks gave a point of focus to critically examine the Krio, Mende,

and Temne ethnic groups in the context of their dominance, their political behaviors, and

their need to collaborate to support sustainable peace-building in Sierra Leone. The

frameworks will be discussed further in succeeding chapters and sections.

Nature of the Study

Creswell (2007) has stated that qualitative research is the means by which social

science researchers explore, understand, and explain the meanings individuals and/or or

groups attribute to social and/or societal problems. This qualitative expert interview study

was no exception. Thus, this design and methodology provided the context within which

the political behavior of the targeted dominant ethnic groups was closely examined,

allowing for a deeper understanding of their political influence and control (Rudestam &

Newton, 2007). Background information derived from historic accounts about these

dominant groups was helpful in augmenting existing documentary sources to address the

research problem and help answer the research questions.

Main data sources were composed of expert interviews, observational field notes,

and journal entries. Twenty-One Sierra Leonean experts living in the United States were

purposively sampled and selected for interviews. Data were then analyzed through

content analysis because understanding the political behavior of the targeted ethnic

groups helped identify key collaborative factors of the dominant ethnic groups, Krio,

Mende and Temne, and their roles in supporting the peace-building process.

Definitions of Key Terms

Causative agents: Acting as a cause, any group or individuals whose actions or

behavior causes an event. In this context, causative agents are the dominant ethnic

groups, Krio, Mende, and Temne.

Creoles/Krios: Descendants of emancipated salves who were repatriated to Sierra

Leone in 1787 and those who were later freed after slavery was abolished, including

Recaptives, who were captured on the high seas by British antislavery squadrons (Cole,

2013; see also Renner-Thomas, 2010; Fyle, 2006).

Hinterland: Any part of a country where there are only a few people and where

the infrastructure is underdeveloped (Crooks, 1903).

Mende Tribe: A major ethnic group found in the southeast of Sierra Leone

(Renner-Thomas, 2010).

Poro: A secret cult of the Mendes of Sierra Leone, which symbolizes the rite-

ofpassage to manhood. Membership is exclusively restricted to members of the Mende

ethnic groups (Gberie, 2005).

Recaptives: Liberated slaves freed by the British Royal Navy on the high seas

(Gberie, 2005).

Temnes: A major ethnic group in the North of Sierra Leone, currently one of the

larger groups constituting 35% of the population (Cole, 2012; see also Gberie, 2005;

Renner-Thomas, 2010).

Unicameral legislation: In Sierra Leone, both the colony and protectorate were

each represented in one legislative chamber under a unicameral arrangement (Renner-

Thomas, 2010).

Assumptions

Assumptions are what a researcher initially conceives to be the case until verified

to be true. They nonetheless are useful guides in research, particularly because they are

the bases on which ontological, epistemological, axiological, and methodological

presumptions are made. For instance, Crotty (2003) defined ontology as the study of

existence. It defines what is real versus what is imagined. This study was conducted to

examine the political behavior of Sierra Leone’s dominant ethnicities, Krio, Mende, and

Temne to understand whether they could collaborate in supporting sustainable peace.

Hence, an ontological assumption was that the inquiry was about real people who would

be examined in real contexts. Thus, for this study, it was presumed that this was an

inquiry into the social world of meanings and that this social world was inhabited by

people with unique values, capable of thinking their own thoughts and interpreting things

in their own unique ways. Therefore, this inquiry was manifested in the use of an

interpretive design technique such as interviews of experts focusing on opinions, feelings,

experiences, and inner thoughts.

Epistemological assumptions defined ways in which knowledge gained through

the study was understood and interpreted (Crotty, 2003). They underpinned the

understanding of knowledge that were both adequate and genuine (Hatch, 2002; Jackson,

2009). Thus, it allowed a constructivist assumption to be made, the philosophical

viewpoint about the nature of knowing. For instance, my knowledge of the dominant

ethnic groups was derived from my nascent and subjective experiences as a native Sierra

Leonean. Hence, the desire and aspiration to study them. Since this study was

interpretive, its axiological assumption included and emphasized my subjective values,

such as intuition, and biases. As such, it played an invaluable role in the interchange of

social structure and informed my interpretation of interview and other supporting data.

With regards the methodological design used for the inquiry, I had to select from

among a number of methodological designs the most appropriate that would yield the

desired outcome for this study (Crotty, 2003). Therefore, the expert study methodology,

which Cohen, Manion, & Morrison (2011) suggested, was suitable for the study of real

people in real contexts and provided clarity to ideas being conveyed to the readers.

Finally, the open-ended interview questions were assumed the best method to elicit

information that otherwise would not be possible with structured close ended questions.

Also, the selected participants and the venue for the interview minimized both the

personal and security risk to participants. Participants of a specific economic and

academic criterion were purposefully selected here in the United States rather than in

Sierra Leone where risk to the researcher and participants may have been imminent. As

such, all information obtained accurately reflected their perceptions and experiences

without fear of retribution. It was presumed also that recruitment of participants posed no

security risk or caused any problem because prior to their acceptance to participate, the

participants availed me of their suitability for this interview by providing me with

tangible records to verify their identity.

Scope and Delimitations

A few researchers have argued that the persistent political crises facing Sierra

Leone are rooted in colonial history (Gberie, 2005). Yet, this study neither evaluated nor

sought to relate the detailed history of colonial rule in Sierra Leone. It merely presented

as briefly as possible certain landmarks to aid the reader in understanding the historic

context within which the political behavior of each of the groups—Krio, Mende, and

Temne—developed. Besides, an evaluation of the entire British rule would have exceeded

the limits of this inquiry. Therefore, the study was focused on the three ethnicities as a

bounded case and examined from the conceptual frameworks provided by Kaufman

(2004) and Sidanius & Pratto’s (1999) social dominance and intergroup hierarchy and

oppression theory. Furthermore, other native ethnic groups in Sierra Leone living in the

former Protectorate were examined incidentally, meaning that they were examined to the

extent that doing so was relevant in supporting and discussing the research problem.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Introduction

This chapter is a review of literature focused on the evaluation of the current

postconflict political status of Sierra Leone following that nation’s brutal ethnic war

fought between 1991and 2002. Therefore, relevant literature on transitional justice’s

mechanisms that were engaged to redress war wrongs and forge ahead with

reconstruction are highlighted in this chapter. The reviewed literature provided

background information for a deeper understanding of the resulting fragile peace deal that

ensued, which left the nation politically vulnerable, as evidenced by the reemergence of

prewar political patterns currently trending in the nation. Hopefully, by understanding

these issues, a direction to unravel the political complexities in postconflict settings could

be charted.

More emphasis was placed on literature that would help answer the main and

secondary research questions, support the study in filling the identified gap in the

literature, and broadening existing knowledge on postconflict sustainable peace-building

initiatives in Sierra Leone. This study would hopefully act as a catalyst for the

development of similar new peace-building concepts for other postconflict contexts in

Africa and around the world. Specifically, the reviewed literatures provided important

insight about the three ethnic groups, Krio, Mende, and Temne, through the analysis of

their political behavior, as determinants of collaborative factors that might support

sustainable peace in Sierra Leone.

This is significant for three reasons. Firstly, the three ethnic groups together

constitute over 71% of the population. Therefore, their numeric preponderances alone

give them an enormous edge in the country’s political system. Secondly, they are the most

dominant in the two distinct regions that formerly constituted the British Crown

Colony, where the Krio live, and the Protectorate where the Mende and Temne live. These

two territories were later united by Great Britain on the attainment of independence to

form the present sovereign state (see Appendix C). Lastly, they are popularly more

represented in the social and political fabric of the state than all other ethnicities

combined. The forgoing reasons establish them as what Sklar (2001) described as

“supranational groups” (p.2). Sklar’s description will be discussed later.

Then as mentioned earlier, the two leading political parties, the Sierra Leone

Peoples Party (SLPP) and APC, are dominated and controlled by members of these

dominant groups. Consequently, they have the largest number of legislators in the House

of Parliament and are well represented in the government bureaucracies. However, to

fully appreciate and understand how these ethnicities developed and became so powerful,

it was necessary to explore the historic background and the geopolitical context in which

they evolved. That is covered in the Historical Background section.

This review starts with an introduction of the research problem, key political

actors, Krio, Mende and Temne, and the sociopolitical contexts in which they developed

as dominant ethnic groups. In this chapter I provide an outline of current literature that

pertained to the research problem. I also define the strategy used to access both primary

and secondary information. In addition, I provide in the conceptual and theoretical lenses

used to examine the concepts under consideration and the phenomena being analyzed. I

identify contributing authors whose works provide the appropriate lens along with a

description of how their concepts related to the study. The review concludes with a

summary of major themes that are already known in the discipline. It also provides a

description of how the study will fill the gap in the literature and how knowledge will be

advanced in the discipline. Lastly the chapter segues from the gap in the literature into the

description of the methods in chapter 3.

Literature Search Strategy

Williams (2011) has argued that accounting for Africa’s insatiability for armed

conflicts is both challenging and daunting. Therefore, searching for and compiling

accurate information is a huge problem, not the least because it is sometimes dangerous to

collect, but also because what investigators ought to look for may not be clear-cut. In

other words, data about what goes on before, during, and after most conflicts are

inadequate. It was therefore important to recognize from the onset that in conflict zones in

Africa, the fundamentals of knowledge are markedly unstable. This fact is usually not

acknowledged.

In any case, the strategy for searching for pertinent literature was extensive and

comprehensive, and involved history books, previous research, journals, and videotapes.

The Walden University online library served as the premier hub for searching and

accessing relevant and credible literature on Sierra Leone in general and these ethnicities.

This included primary and secondary information from both classical and contemporary

sources.

I accessed other electronic databases including government, nongovernmental

organizations (NGOs), institutional, and proprietary websites, particularly those

belonging to institutions with which Sierra Leone has political and historic ties were

accessed. For instance, the Sierra Leone embassy in Washington, DC, operates a website

with a wealth of current information on Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Mission to the

United Nation located in New York City also stores both current and archived information

available to the public on demand. However, given the possibility that some materials

may be politically skewed, special filters were employed in carefully analyzing and

vetting the information for conformance to ethical standards of social science research.

Additionally, I accessed current and archived information from special sources in

America with humanitarian and philanthropic interest in Sierra Leonean affairs. In this

regard, the Sierra Leone Web founded and launched in February 1991, by its owner, P. C.

Andersen, was invaluable. Andersen launched the site primarily to expose the atrocities of

the 1991 rebel incursion. This was because Andersen believed at the time that the

atrocities of the brutal civil conflict were underreported in the Western media. Anderson

reasoned that stories filed by Sierra Leonean war correspondents do not reach the

international audience. Once the war finally came to an end in 2002, the Sierra Leone

Web remained the most sought-after source for reference materials and archived

information on postconflict Sierra Leone. It has also become a great medium for personal

interactions between Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora. The site maintains a large data base

of contact information for most Sierra Leoneans living in the diaspora, including their

limited background information of subscribers. In seeking participants for this study, the

Sierra Leone Web was invaluable.

Another invaluable source for information exchange was Friends of Sierra Leone

(FOSL). This group included former peace corps volunteers and other expatriate

Americans who served as church missionaries in Sierra Leone. FOSL became very active during

the 1991 conflict as an unofficial link between the United States State Department and asylum

seekers fleeing to seek sanctuaries in the United States. There is also a blog called the Leonenet,

the premier forum for discussions on issues relative to Sierra Leone. The forum was borne out of

the desire to connect subscribers from all over the world who take an interest in issues that affect

Sierra Leone to allow them to exchange ideas and discuss topical issues freely. Over the years, and

particularly during the war, Leonenet became influential among Sierra Leonean opinion leaders

with many ideas first broached on the forum being used to leverage pressure, and in turn, effect

social and political change in Sierra Leone.

Lastly, each one of the Google media provided invaluable and credible

information on the topic. For example, Google Play provided access to classical books on

Sierra Leone while the two regions that now constitute the sovereign state were under

British occupation. Also, there were many accessible YouTube videos on Africa that

helped focus the enquiry.

The literature review was helpful in identifying the gap in literature and provided

the practical knowledge on the research topic. The reviewed literature also helped in the

discovery of additional information on the Krio, Mende and Temne of Sierra Leone. For

instance, many Sierra Leonean political observers such as Bah (2012), Bangura (2007);

Batty (2010), Cole (2012), Gberie (2005), Ojukutu-Macaulay and Rashid (2010),

RennerThomas (2010), and Wright (2000), to name just a few, blamed the causes of most

issues facing Sierra Leone on corruption, without mentioning the political and

socioeconomic influences of the dominant ethnic groups, Krio, Mende and Temne. These

authors emphasized socioeconomic underpinnings of the conflict and offered very little

political and/or social solutions to the issues facing the nation. However, few non-Sierra

Leoneans referred to ethnicity as an important concept that needed closer examination

when discussing matters related to politics, economic development, the environment, and

social justice. In that regard, authors and commentators such as Hanlon (2005), Fanthorpe

(2005), Kaplan (2004), Bates (2000), William (2011), and Sklar (2012) commented on

the influence ethnicity has on socioeconomic development in Africa as whole. Boege,

Brown, and Clements (2008) argued for the efficient use of human capital by traditional

rather than institutional means. Not only did these analyses help focus this study, they

also provided the need for a shift in paradigm in seeking alternative measures to resolve

potential conflicts.

In an interview based on decades of research, three scholars, Alesina,

Michalopoulos, and Papaioannou (2012) of Brown, Harvard, and Dartmouth Universities

respectively, discovered the many ways ethnicity has shaped the course of human

development (Alesina et al., 2012). They illustrated how ethnicity and human

development are inextricably interlaced. They also suggested that the major causative

agents of ethnic wars are competing ethnic groups. Batty (2010) also subscribed to the

view that economic development cannot occur when social, cultural, and economic

problems are occurring. The author further maintained that people can only respond to

governmental plans if they are full participants in the political process (Batty, 2010). This

view has relevance to the people of Sierra Leone. Labonte (2011) argued that to achieve

lasting peace in a region populated by diverse ethnicities, dominant ethnic groups must be

willing to adopt attitudes that are conducive to social justice and equality by allowing all

citizens regardless of political and/or ethnic affiliation to participate fully and share

equally not only in the political process but in the allocation of limited resources. Alesina

et al., (2012) concurred that including all people in the political process promotes social

justice, equality, and fairness, which provide an atmosphere of peace and a stable

community.

The literature review begins with a historical background of Sierra Leone,

followed by a brief synopsis of the political unrest resulting from ethnic disunity that

metamorphosed into the violent conflict of 1991, which the Western press referred to as

the “Blood Diamond War.” Reference to the political behavior of the three powerful

ethnic groups, both during and after colonial rule, are particularly relevant here.

Historical Background Krio, Mende, and Temne

The historic context is presented in flashback. However, it does not provide

information regarding the origin of these ethnic groups. It starts with their political

development starting from British adventurism in West Africa before, during, and after

slavery, and progresses before and after the Berlin Conference.

Politically, the Krio, Mende and Temne emerged as dominant ethnic groups in

Sierra Leone during colonial rule (Cole, 2012; see also Gberie, 2005; Wolfenden, 2011).

Their influences in the political system in modern Sierra Leone are well documented in

the literature, and well known in most academic circles in Sierra Leone and in other

African states (Batty, 2010; see also Gberie, 2005; Renner-Thomas, 2010). Yet, given

their enormous influence in the two ruling political parties, and their impact on the

socioeconomic and political trajectories of Sierra Leone, hardly have their political

behaviors been the subject of any academic inquiry.

The history of ethnic violence was not as pronounced under colonial rule as it

became after the nation attained its sovereignty. The reason according to some African

authors, was because, ethnic conflicts were relegated to local disputes that were quickly

settled by tribal authorities. Instead ethnic groups were united against what they

considered a common enemy which was colonial rule. It was not until after independence

was granted in 1961, that ethnic conflicts started to surface. For instance, in 1967,

following the nation’s first post-colonial elections, and barely six years after the nation

gained its independence, political violence erupted between supporters of the ruling

Sierra Leone Peoples Party, most of who were Mende, and members of the opposition

APC, who were mostly Temne. After a tumultuous election, the leader of the APC party,

Siaka Stevens emerged as the winner of the disputed elections.

Unfortunately, Siaka Stevens’ victory did not end the ethnic tensions, but

exacerbated them. Stevens victory intensified the violence and led to an escalation in

factional fighting just a few short months after he assumed office. Once in power, Siaka

Stevens disbanded all opposition parties, and declared Sierra Leone a one-party state. For

decades hence, the country would be ruled by decree under a dictatorship. The economy

would plummet leading to political degradation. An undercurrent of political dissent

would finally morph into a full-fledged violent ethnic conflict in 1991 when a rebel

movement, the RUF attacked the country.

Pan Africanist scholars have often argued that colonialism bears the blame for the

root cause of most of the continent’s wars. For instance, Williams (2011) argued there are

hardly any conflict zones that cannot trace its violence to its sordid colonial history”

(p.24). The author suggested that the usual catalyst for such mechanisms were, the

preferential treatment of a one ethnic group over others and the drawing of arbitrary

boundaries which forced people from different cultures to live together, the separation of

intact and similar cultures from their main kernels, thus planting the seeds of discord.

Such was the case in Sierra Leone.

Historically, the area of Freetown, the present capital and seat of government and

several suburban villages scattered around the peninsular including the Islands of Banana

and Plantain, hitherto, constituted settlements for freed slaves who were repatriated from

England by Great Britain, in collaboration with the Abolitionists and the Church

Missionary Society (Cole, 2013; Gberie, 2005 and Ojukutu-Macaulay & Rashid, 2012).

The inhabitants were later called Krios.

Then, a decade after slavery was abolished, between 1884 and1885, the European

imperial powers met in Berlin to hold a conference, to formulate a strategy by which they

could regulate trade in Africa. This conference popularly became known as the Berlin

Conference. Some refer to it as the “Congo Conference” or more precisely the West

Africa Conference (Chamberlin, 2013). The idea came from Portugal, but it was

Germany’s Otto von Bismarck, who organized the conference. The conference

culminated in the elimination of preexisting traditional and customary institutions in

Africa through colonization, with France and Great Britain emerging as the colonial

powers, who competed for territories particularly on Western Atlantic Coast of Africa.

With respect to Sierra Leone, and as mentioned earlier, Great Britain had already

acquired the coastal territory where freed slaves, known as Krios, were resettled. It was

therefore easy for Great Britain to project its naval power inland to lay claim on the rest

of the territories adjacent to the colony where thirteen indigenous tribes already lived

under their own system of traditional rule (Gberie, 2005). To consolidate its control,

Great Britain declared those territories collectively as a protectorate of Sierra Leone and

divided them into 5 geopolitical units called Chiefdoms in 1896. Each chiefdom was

further subdivided into tribal domains headed by lower chiefs.

With the Colony and Protectorate now fully under its control, Britain would use

disparate socioeconomic and political schemes to develop the two areas as two separate

states. The most notable being Direct Rule by which it ruled the colony, and Indirect Rule,

by which it ruled the protectorate. Under Direct rule the colony was directly under the

colonial administration with the Colonial Governor, in charge of the day to day

administration of the municipalities. The protectorate on the other hand was governed,

indirectly by the Colonial Governor, through autocratic traditional chiefs (Sawyer, 2009).

In the protectorate, the Temne and Mende ethnic groups were the two main populous

groups which together constituted over three quarters of the indigenous population.

After series of social, political and legislative developments, the two areas were

brought together as one sovereign state of Sierra Leone. However, the promised hope of

establishing a seamless nation-state on the principles of unity, freedom and justice as

inscribed on the nations emblem, were dashed shortly after independence.

Following series of adverse socioeconomic and political trends, from ethnic

conflicts in the early 1960’s to one of the most egregious ethnic conflicts in 1991, the

Ebola epidemic of the mid 2014, and in recent memory, massive flooding caused by

deforestation, resulting in thousands of deaths, Sierra Leone has been rightly described as

politically fragile (Fukuyama, 2009, see also Bates, 2009; Kaplan, 2005). However, with

quite a substantial literature on its conflicts, very little if any is known about the political

dynamics of the ethnic groups. Particularly, little attention has been paid to the three

influential ethnicities, Krio, Mende and Temne who may have stoked social issues with

factors associated with their political behaviors and caused the polarization of the state

into hostile regional and political camps.

Perhaps due to the political and academic influences of the Krios who were

coagents of the British colonial government and maximum participants in the colonial

governing structure and parenthetically the curators of historic documents, much of the

existing literature does not provide substantive empirical information about the economic

disparities of the Krio of the colony over their protectorate counterparts which may have

made the Krio influential in modern Sierra Leone (Ojukutu-Macaulay & Rashid (2012).

Therefore, Sierra Leone’s complex ethnic composition has been analyzed by

researchers with very little access to and no orientation with Sierra Leone’s disparate

developments as two separate, and distinctive colonial territories whose inhabitants were

treated disparately under British rule. Consequently, interested parties have had a tough

time making a connection between the contemporary issues facing Sierra Leone and the

political behavior of the three main ethnic groups, Krios, Mende and Temne rooted in the

nation’s colonial history. This has led to the popularized belief by a few researchers that

Sierra Leone’s developmental issues result from institutionalized political corruption and

government mismanagement of its vast natural and agricultural resources (Abraham,

2001; see also Bah, 2013; Cole, 2013; Gberie, 2005; Kposowa, 2006). Most authors have

argued that dispute over the distribution of wealth precipitated by corruption and

mismanagement was incidental to what Kposowa (2006) argued was facilitated by

autocratic tendencies and suppression of civil liberties through dictatorial and centralized

unilateral power exercised by the Temne dominated government between 1968 and 1985

headed by Sierra Leone’s longest reigning dictator, Siaka Stevens.

Since independence in 1961, Sierra Leone has faced a series of political,

humanitarian, and socioeconomic challenges all overshadowed by regional, tribal and

political divisions (Cole, 2013; see also Labonte, 2011). For instance, as was indicated in

the introductory chapter, the first multiparty elections in 1967 following independence

ended in a dispute resulting in three successive military coup and counter coups (Gberie,

2005, Cole, 2013; Ojukutu-Macaulay, 2012; Jang, 2012).

After the military declared Siaka Stevens, winner of the disputed election, he

ruled Sierra Leone uninterrupted for seventeen years, from 1968 until his retirement in

1985. Stevens’s tenure was marked by unilateralism and a one-party dictatorship (Gberie,

2005; Kposowa, 2006). Upon his retirement, he hand-picked his success, former Army

Commander, Joseph Momoh over other qualified individuals who had served under him.

Momoh would continue the same policies as Stevens from 1985 up to 1992 leading to his

near fatal overthrow by young officers, who abandoned their war time post to overthrow

his government. Bah (2012) contended that it was under Momoh, that the state started to

show sign of decadence and signs of ethnic tensions much of which were suppressed

under his predecessor, Stevens.

Conceptual/Theoretical Framework

When the 10-year bloody civil war came to an end in Sierra Leone in 2002, the

government and the United Nations collaborated to confront the issues that led to war,

redress atrocities, and forge ahead in unity to restore the war-torn nation to normalcy

(Apori-Nkansah, 2008). In doing so, the government and the international community,

collaborated to cosponsor a dual accountability justice’s mechanism simultaneously, to

administer both retributive and restorative justice concurrently. However, according to

Apori-Nkansah (2008), the two mechanisms were poorly planned and coordinated and

failed to function as complimentary parts of the same process and therefore failed to meet

their individual mandates. As prewar political patterns are beginning to reemerge,

observers are concerned that unless alternative sustainable peace-building initiatives were

implemented a resurgence was eminent.

Premised on the concept that dominant ethnic groups were the major orchestrators

of ethnic wars in most conflict-prone nations in Africa, this study south to enquire

whether the three dominant ethnic groups, Krio, Mendes, and Temnes could collaborate to

support sustainable peace in Sierra Leone. Specifically, whether key factors in their

political behavior, including, political views, ideologies, participation and practices could

be collaborated to support sustainable peace. In this regard, an aggressive literature search

strategy revealed both the conceptual frameworks and the theoretical foundations through

which the main concepts of the study were examined and analyzed.

The conceptual lenses through which the system of concepts, assumptions,

expectations, beliefs, and theories that supports and informs this study were examined

and analyzed were provided by Erick Kaufman (2004), and Sidanius & Pratto (1999)

through their respective works, Rethinking Ethnicities, Majority Groups and Dominant

Minorities and Theory of Social Hierarchy and Oppression. The theoretical lens, through

which the research problem was examined, and explained provided by Bell’s (1980)

interest convergence principle, advanced through his critical review of the landmark

Brown v. Board decision of 1954 within the context of the Critical Race Theory.

Chapter One provided an overview of the conceptual and theoretical frameworks

which would allow the reader to understand their relevance to the study and their

suitability to examine each unit of analysis. In this chapter, the implications of these

framework to the concepts being examined in this study are discussed in greater detail.

Key elements of each frame work are recapped here as well.

While there were numerous conceptual and theoretical perspectives in the

literature to choose from, the final choices, Kaufman (2004), Sidanius & Pratto (1999),

and Bell (1980), were motivated by the authors articulation of the relationships between

this study’s units of analyses (Krio, Mende, and Temne), to the authors’ precepts. For

instance, Kaufman’s (2004) general proposition that all nations are formed based on

dominant ethnicities, and that globalization and interethnic conflicts have thrust upon

dominant ethnic groups the responsibility to look to the future rather than the past, and to

appreciate ethnic and cultural diversity rather than homogeneity, and finally to recognize

the claims of the minority groups for equality was a compelling factor.

The assertion by Sidanius and Pratto (1999), that societies are comprised of

sociopolitical hierarchies, ranging from dominant to subordinate groups, and the fact the

political power these dominant groups wield was underpinned in most cases by their

numeric preponderances or as in the case of the Krio of Sierra Leone by the groups

political affinity to the colonial power which established the very foundations of the

nation’s political institutions was equally compelling.

Bell’s (1980) argument, that things in the larger culture change only when the

interests of the controlling groups and the dominated groups converge was equally

appealing.

Majority Groups: Mende and Temne

Sierra Leone exemplifies multi-ethnic countries in sub-Saharan Africa, whose

national borders were arbitrarily determined by colonial powers (Kaufman, 2004). Thus,

hostility between those groups are a common sociopolitical feature. In few cases,

sovereignty and nation-building were inspired by elites of dominant ethnic groups to the

extent that it benefited the aspirations of the dominant group. As previously discussed,

Sierra Leone was divided into two confederacies under British rule: The Colony, where

Krios, freed slaves lived and the Protectorate, inhabited by 13 preexisting ethnicities,

among which the Mende and Temne were the largest. The country’s first leading political

party, the SLPP, was established and headed by Mende elites in 1951. It was not until

1959 that the Temne ethnic groups formed an opposition party called the APC party

dominated by Temne elites. However, it was the Mende dominated SLPP that ushered the

nation to independence and brought colony and protectorate together as a sovereign state.

Thus, SLPP party government predominated by Mende elites became the first

postcolonial government in 1961, headed by a Mende elite, Sir Milton Margai who later

became the nation’s first Prime Minister. It has been argued, that the Mende dominated

political party, was founded on the premise to increase Mende hegemony in Sierra Leone

(Renner-Thomas, 2010; Cole, 2010)

Minority Groups: Krio

Kaufman (2004) has stated that the struggle between founding ethnic groups and

settler communities is persistent and lingering, sometimes overtly and covertly fierce,

often with nativist anti-settler movements militantly even violently engaged in clashes

with immigrant elements. This was the situation the Krio, freed slaves encountered upon

their initial arrival to the peninsular on the Western Atlantic Coast of present day Sierra

Leone in 1787. According to Gberie (2005), shortly after their arrival in what is now

present-day Freetown, they were viciously attacked by Temne landowners who felt their

lands were falsely and forcefully acquired from them by the British government to

resettle the freed slaves. To protect the settlers, Great Britain took over the settlements

declaring them collectively as a British Crown Colony in 1808, thereby making the Krio,

British subjects. This exacerbated the hostilities even further overtime.

In 1921, the British government took the initial steps to national unification by

bringing the colony and protectorate representatives under a unicameral legislative

chamber as the first step in unifying the territories. However, these efforts were

compounded by the lopsided and disproportionate representation that favored the

minority Krio of the comparably small Colony over their indigenous counterparts in the

larger and more populous protectorate. As Gberie (2005) stated, the Colony was

represented by five elected representatives, while the Protectorate, was represented by

three authoritarian and traditional Chiefs. Following series of legislative processes in the

unification process, hostilities between the founding ethnic majorities, Mende and Temne

on one side against the settler Krio minority on the other, mounted. It was against this

backdrop that the two territories were united in 1961.

Political Behavior of Majority Groups

Sidanius and Pratto (1999) asserted that the political power was maintained,

sustained and increased through common practices such as nepotism among members of

the same ethnic group. These practices, over time, can further reinforce inequalities. In

Sierra Leone, when the Mende dominated government was in power, most of the

government vacancies in the government bureaucracies were reserved and filled by

members of the Mende and their co-ethnic groups in the Southeast. Once the Temne

dominated government assumed the reins of political power, the trend was reversed in

favor of the Temnes and their co-ethnic partners in the North.

Also, relevant to the concept of dominant ethnic groups is Richard Sklar’s work

on mixed-government as the context within which the political behavior of these groups

thrived. Sklar advanced the concept of ethnic dominance through the notion called

“supranational ethnicity” to describe how ethnic groups become dominant by being

spread across the full spectrum of the state and contiguous nations (Sklar, 2004). He cites

as examples of supranational groups, the Kurds who are spread across several regions of

the Middle East, in countries such as Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, to name just a few; and the

Tuareg who are also spread across the Arab Maghreb in the Northern African Sahel.

The same can be conceived of the Krio, Mendes and Temnes, who together

account for 70 percent of the nation’s population. The Krio live in the former British

Crown Colony, the area of the present state capital and surrounding villages. Krios speak

a mixed dialect called Creole, a pigeon English which is the dialect of choice, spoken by

all Sierra Leoneans regardless of ethnicity; as the nation’s lingua franca. Mendes are

found in the entire eastern and southeast provinces of Sierra Leone, and the Temnes

occupy the entire northern region, giving them the supranational political identity.

However, the most interesting aspect of Sklar’s presentation is the relationship between

dominant ethnic groups (Supranational groups) and state authority. To this end the author

introduces the concept of “mixed governments” as an emergent political construct in

post-colonial states. To the extent that mixed-governments have impacted the political

trajectory of the state, is examined sand hopefully explained in later chapters.

Another equally relevant context within which the dominant ethnic groups were

examined was within a hybrid political system. This concept was advanced by Boege et

al., (2008). The authors, advanced the concept of Hybrid political orders, as a garden

variety of Mixed Governments in fragile states haunted by the legacy of violent conflict.

Boege et al. (2008), stated that, the concept has gained notoriety for their deficiencies and

shortcomings from a developmental and security perspective. However, the authors

provide a more optimistic view of this concept by focusing on their distributive qualities.

This study argued that Sierra Leone may be the exception but not the rule.

However, this concept provided the focal lens through which positive factors in the

political behavior of the dominant groups was elicited to answer the research questions:

What collaborative factors exist in the political behavior of Krio, Mende, and Temne

including their political views, ideology and levels of political practice that would support

sustainable peace in Sierra Leone?

Majority Groups and Dominant Minorities

Kaufman’s (2004) work advanced an ample concept of dominant ethnicity

relevant to this study. His work encompassed the two descriptive classifications of

dominance which were used to examine the three ethnicities: “Majority Groups and

Dominant Minority” (Kaufman, 2004, p. 2). Thus, the general concept of dominance was

ascribed to all three ethnicities including the Krio, Mende, and Temne. However, in this

study, the Krios were considered and examined as the Dominant Minorities, while the

Mende and Temne were considered and examined as Dominant Majority groups.

The Mende derived its dominance by being one of the most populous ethnic

groups that occupy two of the three provinces, including the Eastern and Southern

provinces. They are predominant in all of the three districts of the Eastern Province,

including, Kailahun, Kenema, and Kono and maintains a sizable presence in all four

districts of the Southern Province, including, Bo, Bonthe, and Moyamba. However,

Kenema and Kailahun, are their major strongholds in the Eastern Province, and are

sparsely populated in all of the Southern districts (See Appendix A: Ethnic map).

The Temne on the other hand are spread across the entire Northern Province; in all

of the five districts, Bombali, Kabala, Kambia, Koinadugu, and Port Loko. Like their

Mende counterparts, the Temne are heavily concentrated in Kambia, Port-Lokko,

Tonkolili and Bombali and rather sparsely in Koinadugu (Renner-Thomas,2010).

Drawing examples from France, England, Germany, Italy and Spain, Kaufman

(2004) asserted that the ruling powers made efforts to make dominant ethnic groups

coincide with political organization. He stated further that, “this process far preceded the

blossoming of nationalism in the nineteenth century and the ambition proclaimed by

nationalist militants to make the ethnic group coincide with the nation” (p.122). In like

manner, the two major political parties that have run Sierra Leone alternately are

controlled by the three ethnic groups.

As such they have divided the nation into two hostile political camps by

coercively aligning co-regional ethnic groups in their political columns. Most of the

ethnic groups in the Southeast support the SLPP, while all of the Northern ethnicities are

aligned with the Temnes in their support of the APC (Figure 1 is the co-ethnic

configuration and alignment of major ethnic groups under the two dominant ethnicities in

the former Protectorate). However, the Temne dominated APC has had a monopoly on

political power for much of the nation’s existence as sovereign. For instance, the APC

assumed power in 1968 under, the leadership of Siaka Stevens who ruled unopposed until

1985. Upon his retirement, he handed over the reins of power to Joseph Saidu Momoh, a

member of the Limba ethnic groups closely aligned with the Temne ethnicity. Momoh

ruled uninterrupted from 1985 until his near fatal overthrow by young Soldiers in 1992,

in the midst of a preexisting brutal conflict that had begun in 1991. Following the end of

the war in 2002, the Mende dominated SLPP assumed the reigns for a brief period of

reconstruction from 2002- 2007. The Temne assumed power again.

Dominant Minority: Krio of Western Area

Kaufman (2004) has stated that, states with multiple ethnicities tend to be haunted

by persistent issues bordering on political equity and social equal representation. That, be

they democratic or authoritarian, grievances are bound to be generated over a wide array

of political and socioeconomic infringements which range from domination by the

minority, majority hegemony, skewed resource allocation to preferential treatments and

cronyism. In Sierra Leone for instance these issues were compounded and difficult to

manage due to the scope of their complexity, and the multiethnic dynamic nature of the

state. However, Kaufman (2004) conceded that these issues are hard to reconcile due to

the claims each group lay on the limited resources in proportion to the quality of their

dominance, and the peculiarity of their “conception of equity and justice and more often,

political domination by members of ethnic minority” (p.241).

In this study, the Krio are considered the dominant minority of the three dominant

ethnic groups in Sierra Leone. It that context it would seem that “dominant” was

misplaced when used to qualify a “minority” group. Yet, as explained in preceding

sections, the Krio derived its dominant status, not through a numeric preponderance but a

sociopolitical trajectory. Accounting for only 4 percent of the national population, Krio

became a very powerful ethnicity in Sierra Leone, on heterogeneous backgrounds and a

strong colonial legacy (Renner-Thomas, 2010, p.6). They are over represented in most of

the key government, and administrative bureaucracies, including the nation’s legal

systems.

As discussed earlier, the Krio’s rise to social and political prominence are deeply

rooted in Sierra Leone’s colonial history. However, the intricacies of that history are

beyond the scope of this work. Briefly however, Krio were accorded British citizens

when Great Britain took over the freed slave settlements and declared them a full British

territory (Gberie, 2005; Jang, 2012). Renner-Thomas (2010) has stated that “the

difference in social background between Krio and the rest of the indigenous population

has been further widened by the fact that the Krio are classified by certain statutes as

nonnatives” (p.7). More importantly the rift between the Krio and major ethnic groups is

deeply rooted in colonialism. The privileges and opportunities accorded the Krio under

the stewardship of Great Britain did much to create dissension between the Krio and their

protectorate neighbors.

Krio were governed directly by Great Britain and treated as British subjects. There

institutions were modeled on Western style democracies. They were not subjected to the

duality of governance that their protectorate counterparts were subjected to. They enjoyed

free and fair election as most if not all of their representative under colonial rule, were

elected rather than appointed. These sociopolitical qualities more than anything else set

the Krio apart politically from their protectorate neighbors who were governed by the

colonial government, and by traditional autocratic rulers.

Despite the preexisting disparity between the governing structures of the Colony

and Protectorate, Great Britain brought the representatives of the Colony and Protectorate

under a unicameral legislative chamber in 1924. Yet, by comparison the colony was more

represented than the Protectorate by a five to three margin (Gberie, 2005). Furthermore,

the Krio representatives were elected by their constituents while as the Protectorate

representatives, only three in number were all conservative chiefs who were handpicked

by the colonial government.

However, in 1951, the Colonial government introduced a new Constitution which

increased the number of representatives to twenty-one, thereby increasing the

Protectorate/Colony representation by a 2:1 margin; 14 for the Protectorate and 7 for the

Colony (Wright, 2000). According to Gberie (2005), the new constitution set an

irreversible trend in Protectorate-Colony relations. The new constitution gave rise to two

political parties from each side of the isles as it became quite evident that Great Britain

was pushing to bring Colony and Protectorate together under a unitary government. This

set up a raucous debate on the floors of the legislature between the representatives of the

protectorate and the colony. Fearing hegemony by the leading ethnic groups, the Krio

elites pushed for an increased stake in a resulting government that would be formed if

Great Britain were to grant autonomy to the two territories and bring them together as

sovereign state.

However, the leading ethnicities, Mende and Temne with a stronger representation

in the legislative chamber, formed a united front by rallying behind the leading political

party that sprouted from Mende dominated Southeast. In 1959, the SLPP was invited by

the British Government to form a government.

In 1961, Independence was granted under a new constitution that brought the

territories together under a sovereign state and unitary national government formed by the

SLPP, a Mende dominated political party. The first Prime Minister, Sir Milton Margai, did

all he could to establish a government of national unity. Yet with all the acrimony that

preceded statehood, the Krio elites had lost trust in the indigenous dominated national

government. The political party, the National Council for Sierra Leone (NCSL), which

sprouted from the colony has been disbanded (Gberie, 2005; see also RennerThomas,

2010; Wright, 2000). The Krio had lost ground. Left with no clear choice, the Krio

succumbed to the whims of the Protectorate elites in the new sovereign state under a

transitory stewardship of the British colonial government

However, with the Protectorate still under autocratic rulers, the national

government had to coexist with the local government structure run exclusively by

traditional chief (Sawyer, 2008) in what has come to be known as a mixed government or

a hybrid political order. These structures are discussed further in subsequent chapters of

this section. The two authors, Sklar (2004) who refer to them as mixed-governments and

Boege, et al., (2008) who refer to them as hybrid political structures, have favorable view

of both constructs which are interchangeably referred to as the same political governing

concept in this study.

In any case, Kaufman (2004) has stated that, “typically created by the colonial

importations, plural societies, lacking a common social will, are prone to instability”

(p.242). In like manner, post-colonial Sierra Leone was constituted on inherent mixed

ethnic grievances. The Mendes and Temnes of the protectorate had formed uneasy

alliances for the sole purpose of achieving autonomy from British rule. The Krio, who

until independence had enjoyed British citizenship, became unwilling partners in the new

state coalition. However, as Kaufman (2004) rightly observed, it was only a matter of

time before the state would revert to its colonial atlas, putting the Krio, back in charge of

the former colony, renamed, the Western Area, and run under a Weberian model and the

Protectorate a dualism, governed under mixed-governments and/or hybrid political

institutions. Thus, the state was prone to ethnic conflict, the magnitude that was witnessed

in 1991.

Derrick Bell’s Interest Convergence Principle

Bell (1980) advanced the theory of “interest convergence” in the context of the

critical race theory. By way of the landmark civil right case, Brown versus Board, Bell,

theorized that white people will support racial justice only as a quid pro quo proposition,

meaning that Whites will support desegregation of public schools to the extent that there

was a “convergence” between the interests of white people and racial justice for the then

Negroes. Bell asserted that the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the decision to

boost America’s image to the world, and especially the Soviet Union, during the height of

the cold war, as one that supported racial equality, civil and human rights.

The influence of Bell’s theory could be extended well beyond the borders of race

relations in America into a wide array of socioeconomic and political contexts around the

world. In Sierra Leone for instance, the political dominance of the Krio, Mende and

Temne is a controversial issue that attracts a great deal of attention in Sierra Leone,

particularly because of the enormous influence these groups exert in shaping crucial

policies both domestically and internationally. Yet, their individual interests have not been

paired with their collective interests or for that matter, the greater interest of the nation.

Given the divergence in their political culture, and a history of mixed grievances,

their collaboration in support of sustainable peace-building could pose unique challenges.

However, Bell’s (1980) interest convergence principle could provide not only the

theoretical basis but the political basis for the opposing ethnicities to reach common

grounds upon which their interests should converge for the common good of the nation in

the interest of sustainable peace-building in Sierra Leone. This will be explored further in

the last two chapters of the study.

Popularly known in the Western media as “Blood Diamond” war, the bloody civil

war was the subject of numerous books, peer-reviewed articles, journals, and video clips.

While most of the literatures were focused on the egregious nature of the conflict, few

went beyond the nature of conflict to the social, political and socioeconomic contexts of

the conflict. Yet others provided analyses of the processes that were taken to resolve the

conflict and provided a platform for retribution, restoration and sustainable peace. This

section is a preview of few outstanding seminal studies that provide evidences of the war

in the literature and provided the insight needed to undertake this study.

Sierra Leonean author, Gberie (2005) provided a provocative account of the war

in his book, A Dirty War in West Africa: The RUF and the Destruction of Sierra Leone.

This book provided the historic and political contexts within which the civil war was

fought. The author provides an insider view of the RUF, and its campaign of terror. Even

though the war was declared over in 2002, Gberie (2005) has expressed a cautious

optimism that things are far from settled. His circumspection is borne out current political

trends in the nation as the citizenry grapple with the legacies of conflict and the

government’s incapacity care for its citizens.

Former Walden University student Lydia Apori-Nkansah whose work was cited in

the introductory chapter, provided a unique perspective of the aftermath of the Sierra

Leone Civil war and the collaborative efforts of the government of Sierra Leone and the

International Community to tackle the issues that led to the war. However, as the author

would find out, the dual accountability transitional justice mechanisms which the

government simultaneously engaged were not planned and coordinated appropriately and

therefore failed in their efforts to implement their plans: a peaceful transition from war to

sustainable peace.

Sierra Leonean author, Kposowa (2006) has argued that the roots of the civil war

was supplanted during the dictatorship of the country’s longest reigning leader, Siaka

Stevens. The author makes the case that the APC divided the country and made it ripe for

a rebel insurgency.

Sierra Leonean author Batty (2010) argued for the salience of ethnicity as a

rallying point during electoral processes particularly in post-conflict environments such

as Sierra Leone and Liberia. However, very little is understood about the interactions

between ethnicity and voting patterns and which demographic groups are more likely or

less likely to be susceptible to the effects of ethnic cues, if at all, when voting or

expressing support for a political party.

Summary and Conclusion

Whereas all nations are formed based on ethnicities, globalization and interethnic

conflicts have caused dominant groups to adopt strategies that would secure their

dominance. Therefore, it has thrust upon these dominant groups the responsibility to look

to the future rather than the past, and to appreciate ethnic and cultural diversity rather

than homogeneity, and finally to recognize the claims of the minority groups for equality.

However, dominant groups have adopted common practices to increase their power and

influence in a polity. In that regard, most dominant ethnic groups have become major

causal agents of wars in conflict-prone nations in Africa. Yet, hardly ever are their

collaboration sought in post-conflict peace-building initiatives. Instead post conflict

transitional justice mechanisms have included the prosecution of war crimes with very

little emphasis on reconciliation.

It was in this backdrop that this literature review was undertaken, to compile and

review relevant literature on ethnicity in Sierra Leone in general and dominant ethnic

groups in particular. And, to examine their political behavior to identify collaborative

factors that would support sustainable peace. Political behavior, is comprised of factors

such as views, ideologies, practices and participations through which dominant groups

influence and interpret the political trajectories within a given political context.

However, literature on the political behavior of dominant ethnicity and its

relevance to peacebuilding are rare. There is abundant literature on the proliferation of

ethnic conflicts by dominant groups in Sierra Leone. But very little if any has been

discussed about their collaboration to support sustainable peace. It is hoped, therefore that

this study will fill this significant gap in the literature.

The reviewed literature was focused on accessing relevant information from

contemporaneous literature, classical and periodic articles on the subject matter. Also,

from the literature reviewed, it became abundantly clear that collaboration of dominant

ethnic groups was rarely mentioned or conceived as a solution that may contribute

towards sustainable peace building efforts. Consequently, this was the gap that this study

sought to fill. A careful examination of the reviewed literature in this chapter bears this

contention.

Chapter 2 provided a comprehensive review of contemporary, classical and

periodic literature on ethnicity in general and dominant ethnicity in Sierra Leone. It

enunciated the literature search strategy implemented to elicit relevant information.

Chapter 2 provided both the conceptual and theoretical frameworks grounding the

research. In Chapter 3, a comprehensive discussion of the specific steps to collect data

from participants will be provided. This will include an explication of the research design,

philosophical worldview guiding the inquiry, sampling strategy, main research units of

analyses, and data management and analysis, including quality assurance and ethical

considerations. In this study the main units of analyses that were examined and analyzed

were the three dominant ethnic groups, Krio, Mende and Temne. This included the

political and social contexts within which they developed and their political behavioral

characteristics, as defined.

Limitations

Typically, any qualitative study research design has certain inherent weaknesses

that would require mitigation. These weaknesses could be discussed within two limitation

contexts: (a) methodological, and (b) researcher limitations. Methodological limitations

involved the relationship between units of analyses and the sample size. For instance, the

21 expert participants interviewed may not have equivalently and/or proportionately

represented the targeted ethnic groups. This was due in part to the fluidity of ethnicity in

Sierra Leone. By fluidity, I mean, there were few participants who claimed mixed

ethnicity due to their lineage to an ethnic group based on the tribal and ancestral lineage

of one of their parents. Accordingly, few participants belonged to a patrilineal ethnic

group who defined their ethnicity as connecting between generations through the father’s

line while others belonged to a matrilineal which defined families as connecting between

generations through the mother’s line. These limitations were anticipated, and were

overcome by proper vetting and the criteria set for inclusion. However, since the quality

of the findings was dependent on the quality of data collected, a purposive sampling

strategy was used in selecting participants very carefully and deliberately who fit the

criteria for interviewing. Data collected from these participants through formal and/or

informal interviews allow conclusions to be made with confidence, while also providing

compensation for the size limitation. This supports the argument that the sampling

strategy used for selecting study participants, and settings for the study, enhance the

understanding of the purpose, problem and research question (Creswell, 2007). As such,

careful vetting and selecting the participants hopefully ensured quality of the data

collected.

Another possible methodological limitation involved literature written on Sierra

Leone under colonial rule. A common feature of these historical materials was that they

did not provide access to the authors and/or respondents. The main disadvantage was

their lack of currency or relevance to present political conditions. Therefore, to overcome

this limitation I relied exclusively on currently written peer-reviewed articles as primary

sources to corroborate historical data. This was necessary to link what was written in the

past he present.

One further limitation was the inherent nature of qualitative research as cited by

those who analyzed qualitative studies. Accordingly, there were subjectivity and personal

interpretations in the planning, management, execution, and evaluation of the study (Yin,

2009). The issue of subjectivity was fundamental given the fact that, as a native Sierra

Leonean, I had a preconceived notion with regards current political environment.

Consequently, these prejudices may have influenced the direction of the study and its

conclusion. However, these prejudices and/or biases were mitigated by differentiating

between perceptions and reality. In this regard, I limited active participation on social

media and discussion forums pertaining to Sierra Leonean politics.

This was done to reinforce the veracity of the study and its findings. (Creswell, 2009;

Patton, 2002). Furthermore, the research participants were used to validate the findings, a

process referred to as member checking.

Not only are acknowledgment of these limitations transparent, but as Patton

(2001) stated, it would provide an opportunity for further research. Additionally, it has

academic integrity implications because it will also provide an opportunity to demonstrate

to the audience that these limitations were contemplated in advance and that steps were

taken to minimize their impacts on the integrity of the study.

Significance of the Study

As Sierra Leoneans grapple with the legacy of violent conflict, the lingering

questions as to the causes of the brutal war of 1991 and how future wars may be avoided,

remain unanswered. Current initiatives undertaken by other post-conflict nations in

collaboration with the international community have not adequately and satisfactorily

provided answers. As prewar conditions are slowly remerging in Sierra Leone, and the

specter of a resurgence has become increasingly eminent, it is imperative to look at other

concepts not before considered, for answers. Within the discipline of conflict resolution,

exploring the collaboration of dominant ethnic groups in support of sustainable

peacebuilding efforts in Sierra Leone is not only considered a notable change in paradigm

but has the potential to advance knowledge in the discipline. Least not because of the

complexity that foreshadowed the studies but also studying these groups as the major

causal factors of violent conflict is emergent.

Secondly, as the war intensified and spread across the country, major ethnicities

were divided into regional domains of North and South in fighting the RUF combatants

(Gberie, 2005). They included, soldiers from the militia groups the Tamaboro, the

Kamajors, the Gbethis and Kapras, and the Donsos, each belonging to and defending each

of the two dominant ethnicities in the provinces of Sierra Leone. The warriors, known as

the Karmajor and Donsos, defended the Southeast territories while the Tamaboro, the

Gbethis, and Kapras, defended their turfs in the North. So, however indirectly it may have

involved ethnicity, it nonetheless was a result of political miscalculations masterminded

by the power elite, who manipulated the political behavior of the ethnic groups to

promote their agenda. Therefore, studying the political behavior of these groups to

identify collaborating factors that support sustainable peace also has the potential to

advance knowledge.

For practitioners, this study has the potential to provide information not only

about the political behavior of dominant groups, but how they might contribute to

supporting sustainable peace in Sierra Leone through their collaboration. As such, policy

makers, the governments, the international community including donor and business

community will make informed decisions in the dispensation of resources proportionately

and equitably among the general population. Thus, an atmosphere of equality where all

Sierra Leoneans, regardless of their ethnicity can share in the country’s limited resources

equitably can be achieved as precursor to achieving sustainable peace.

Thirdly, even though there are abundance of theories on ethnicity, few have

advanced political behavior of dominant groups in post conflict setting. Some theories are

so generic that they are neither tailored to a specific circumstance nor applicable to a

specific nation. Furthermore, studies which address collaboration between competing

groups are rare. In addition to advancing knowledge, the goal of research is its wide

applicability to a continuum of situations and circumstances. This research will hopefully

advance a unique theory of political behavior of dominant ethnic groups that would allow

peace-builders to find common factors that would support sustainable peace in post

conflict contexts.

Lastly, this study has important implications for social change. The three

dominant ethnicities, whose political behavior this study sought to understand constitute

both the majority groups and the dominant minority (Kaufman, 2004). Their political

power, their numeric size and their influence in the region has directly impacted the

political and economic trajectories of the nation. They constitute what Sklar (2004)

described as the supranational groups. Since collaborative factors in their political

behavior that could support sustainable peace could be determined from this inquiry,

hopefully this could prevent ethnic conflicts the magnitude of what the nation

experienced in 1991. The social change implication for this research is that unity among

all competing factions within each group and therefore peaceful coexistence among all

ethnic groups will be achieved through constructive engagement.

Summary

This chapter presented an overview of the devastations caused by the 11-year

brutal war fought in Sierra Leone between 1991 and 2002. It briefly discussed the

aftermath of the war, wherein, the government and the international community

collaborated to return the nation to normalcy. In this pursuit, two transitional

accountability mechanisms, the TRC and the SCSL were established. Yet, these two

mechanisms did not address the underlining issues that caused the war. In the process,

their counteractive actions, and concurrent operations resulted in their failure to meet

their mandated objectives causing the nation to become politically vulnerable and the

fragile peace deal fluid.

These observations buoyed the problem of this research. In that, TRCs,

international criminal Courts (ICC) and public confessionals which are conventional

means that have been used to heal the brunt of violence in post-conflict nations around

the world have very low success rates as evident by examples of failures noted in troubled

regions around the world. In Sierra Leone, for instance, the fragile peace deal that was

reached between all parties unraveled. Therefore, lessons learned from experiences in

Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Uganda and other post-conflict nations are relevant in

understanding the need for alternative means of conflict resolutions than the paradigmic

processes that have precluded meaningful dialogue between causal agents of

conflict.

As induced by the preceding research problem and conceptual and theoretical

framework, the purpose of this study was to examine the role of collaboration between

the three politically dominant ethnic groups in Sierra Leone-the Krio, Mende, and

Temnein supporting sustainable peacebuilding efforts in Sierra Leone. Chapter 2 built on

this foundation; first by providing the background and placing this study in the proper

historical context, and then, through a comprehensive review of the fundamental

theoretical principles and concepts grounding this study.

Chapter 3: Research Method

Introduction

The Krio, Mende, and Temne are the three most dominant ethnic groups with

enormous political and socioeconomic advantages in Sierra Leone (Renner-Thomas,

2010). Yet, their political differences have caused political instability in this fragile nation

that is still grappling with the legacies of devastation caused by the brutal ethnic war of

1991, popularly known in Western circles as “Blood Diamond War.” As such, there is

growing body of evidence to support the notion that these ethnic groups, through their

political divergence, may have orchestrated that conflict.

Yet when the war came to an end in 2002, the government and the United Nations

collaborated to confront the issues that led to war, redress atrocities, and forge ahead in

unity to restore the nation to normalcy. To this end, two transitional justice mechanisms,

the TRC, and SCSL were engaged to administer both restorative and retributive justices

concurrently. However, focused on retribution, both mechanisms counteracted each other

and failed to achieve their objectives. Consequently, the fragile peace unraveled and

prewar patterns of politics have remerged rendering the nation politically vulnerable.

With a strong evidence in the literature supporting the notion that ethnic wars are usually

caused by dominant groups, it would therefore seem plausible to seek the collaboration of

the aforementioned groups in supporting sustainable peace in Sierra Leone.

Therefore, with no studies ever conducted to explore the collaboration of those

dominant groups in supporting sustainable peace in a postconflict context, the purpose of

this study was to fill that significant gap. To that aim, in this this study I sought to

examine the political behavior of these groups in order to identify key factors in their

political behavior such as views, ideologies, practices, and participations on which they

might collaborate to support sustainable peace-building efforts in Sierra Leone. Those

key factors are the processes through which dominant groups influence and interpret the

political context within a polity (Bangura, 1996).

To this aim, I deemed a qualitative expert interview study the most appropriate

research design and methodology that would adequately address the research problem and

answer the main research question (RQ1): How did collaboration between the Krio,

Mende, and Temne support the peace-building process in Sierra Leone?

Accordingly, a qualitative study allowed for a thorough examination of the

dominant groups within the context of their political behavior as it was through that

context that they may have orchestrated the conflict. Therefore, utilizing the expert

interviews studies method to identify factors in their political behaviors provided a

narrative of how they may contribute to achieving sustainable peace through a

collaborative effort. Since these concepts are not quantifiable and cannot be captured in

statistical form, Creswell (2009) has noted that a qualitative method will allow issues to

develop from the research participants in ways not easily achievable through a

quantitative method. Accordingly, the exploratory nature of a qualitative study makes it

suitable to research topics that are relatively new as in this case.

According to Creswell (2009), a research plan or proposal must be based on three

fundamental strategies: (a) the philosophical assumptions grounding the research design,

(b) the strategy or approach of inquiry, and (c) the research methodology or data

collection strategy. As such, in the first section of this chapter, I provide a discussion of

the research design and strategy of inquiry. I deemed the choice of the qualitative expert

interviews study for identifying collaborative factors that would support sustainable peace

the most appropriate as it allowed me to collect the data from multiple sources.

Accordingly, a section has been devoted to an analysis of the data collection methods

used in this research study. The research questions are reiterated in the next section, prior

to providing details of the participants.

Given the significant role a researcher plays in a qualitative study, issues of

quality and ethical considerations are bound to arise. Thisias well articulated in this and

succeeding chapters. An initial discussion of the data management and data analysis

strategies is provided as well.

Research Design and Rationale

Research Questions

The principal research question for this study was:

RQ1: How did collaboration between the Krio, Mende, and Temne support the

peace-building process in Sierra Leone?

The secondary research question was:

RQ2: How did the political views, ideologies, practices and participations of the

Krio, Mende, and Temne support the sustainable peacebuilding efforts in Sierra

Leone?

Given the nature of the topic, research questions, and the gap in the literature, the

research design I deemed the qualitative research method appropriate for this study.

Qualitative research method involves a naturalistic, exploratory, and interpretive approach

to the research topic (Creswell, 2009). This method was considered appropriate also

because it allowed for the identification and explanation of how a sustainable peace might

be achieved in Sierra Leone through the collaboration of the three dominant ethnic

groups. Creswell (2009) explained that qualitative research is an ideal interpretive

medium through which the researcher can understand and interpret, in the case of this

study, the political behavior of these ethnic groups, and how they may be used to achieve

lasting peace in this postconflict nation. These experiences were represented from the

perspectives of the participants who were interviewed as the sample of the targeted

population through an expert interview study approach.

This approach is familiar to social scientists because of its long-distinguished

history across many disciplines, particularly in political science (Creswell, 2009). In

clarifying the intricate similarities between studying a bounded case and identifying

factors, Creswell (2009) suggested that examining a concept or behavior may not be

considered a bounded case; therefore, these factors may not have been adequately

explored using a case study’s approach. For instance, Yin (2009) ascribes expert

interviews studies to both quantitative and qualitative methods as they relate to

explanatory, exploratory and descriptive, qualitative studies.

Whereas with a case study’s approach the researcher takes the larger research

question and uses specific instances to highlight the problem of the research, in this study

I sought to understand whether specific key factors in the political behavior of the Krio,

Mende, and Temne ethnic groups could lead to collaboration to support sustainable peace

in Sierra Leone. However, since political behavior is used in an abstract sense, as in a

claim, a proposition, or an argument, such a concept can be the subject of many research

methods, not just case study research.

Specific themes included their political views, political ideology, political

practices, and participations. These themes provided the processes through which each

ethnic group interpreted and influenced the political context within the polity. Such

political context included, but were not limited to, mixed-governments or hybrid political

institutions, traditional chieftaincy, and formal institutions, such as bureaucracies. All

these were briefly explained in Chapter 2 but were examined a bit more thoroughly

during the inquiry.

Role of the Researcher

Janesick (2011) has highlighted the role of researchers as an important

characteristic of qualitative studies. However, the author noted that its incorporation in

studies are too often “forgotten or recklessly abandoned” (p.11). The author suggested

therefore that the description of the role of the researcher must include acknowledging

biases, beliefs, and values of the researcher explicitly and out front. Additionally, that the

actual specifics in terms of numbers and types of observations, length of interview times,

transcription methods, and document compilations and use are included as the role of the

researcher. Accordingly, the researcher should be responsible for managing the whole

research process and ensuring compliance with ethical considerations.

As a native of Sierra Leone, my knowledge and experience of the target

population was critical in the data collection phase. With this said, my native and

emotional ties to Sierra Leone were bound to raise ethical concerns such as conflict of

interest and biases. How I addressed these ethical considerations are discussed in more

detail in succeeding chapters. Awareness and acknowledgment of these biases are

precursory to any strategies used to overcome them (Creswell, 2008). This is particularly

important since as an instrument of qualitative research, the potential of a researcher’s

biases to taint a research finding is quite possible (Janesick, 2011) if not controlled.

Methodology

The two distinctive qualitative data collection techniques anticipated for this study

were in-depth interviews of 21 experts and observation notes taken during the interviews.

As such, creativity was required to combine informal interviews, in-depth interviews, and

observational notes to explore all aspects of the research problem. The rules governing

my interactions with participants for the purpose of collecting data through interviews

were established and governed by the university Institutional Review Board (IRB)

protocol. For instance, the protocol outlined the venue, the procedure, and the conduct of

the interviewer during the process. It even established the ethical parameters such as how

the interviewer should establish rapport by creating a congenial atmosphere for the

interview. It also established how to conclude the interview. Furthermore, the protocol

outlined subsequent interviewing processes and established the time limit for conducting

the interview.

Justification for using the Qualitative Expert Interview Study

Using an expert interview studies approach in this study had several advantages.

First, the utilization of expert interviewing as the core of the study provided a

comprehensive and an in-depth approach to examining social phenomena (Yazan, 2015).

Also, the expert interviews provided the means of integrating all relevant details within a

real-life context through participant interviews. Prior to settling on the expert interviews

study as the preferred method of inquiry, I examined four other qualitative paradigms or

traditions, including ethnography, grounded theory, phenomenology, and narrative

research, to determine which one would be best suited for this study. I concluded that

none of these could explore the phenomena as expert studies would.

The interview questions generated were consistent with the guidelines established

by the interview protocol, and by writers such as Creswell (2007), Frankfort-Nachmias

and Nachmias (2008), Janesick (2011), Patton (2002), and Silverman (2011). The

interview questions, which were open-ended rather than closed-ended (See Appendix H:

Section B), were intertwined with the research questions and were predicated upon

Patton’s (2002) suggestions that factual questions should be preceded by opinion

questions.

The use of a recording device (digital recorder) was also anticipated. However, its

use was contingent upon the consent of the participant. As such, its use was coordinated

so as not to create a distraction in the interviewing process. After the interview, all the

major highlights were summarized as soon as the interviews concluded to allow

participants to make any corrections or reiterate points that may not have been clearly

articulated. The observation activity of this research was restricted to observing the

participants only and not the settings because the interviews were all conducted here in

the United States.

My experiences in the region as a native of Sierra Leone were a major asset in

assessing the conditions in both the provinces and the Western Area. As such, the need for

direct observation, while important, would have had very little if any bearing on this

research since conditions on the ground precluded my visit at the time of this research.

The quality of the findings was enhanced by utilizing expert interviews to

corroborate the evidence. Sources of documents included but were not limited to media

articles, policy papers, legislative bills, white papers written by international NGOs (e.g.,

United Nations), and other academic studies focused on the research problem. These

sources, most of which have been referenced in this study, were carefully vetted to

determine their reputability.

Challenges of Expert Interview Study

While all research methods have their strengths and weaknesses, many factors

were considered in choosing a suitable research method for this project. One of the

challenges inherent in expert interview study is the identification of experts who are

representative of the population of interest the researcher seeks to explore (Creswell,

2009). This is so because of the ambiguity that attends the selection of a sample and the

determination whether the sample will satisfactorily support the main concept of the

inquiry.

Sample Size

According to Patton (2002), qualitative research establishes no strictures on

sample size and therefore leaves this decision at the discretion of the researcher to be

tailored to the topic. In this study, the sample size was predicated on several factors,

including purpose of the inquiry, and what was determined to be cost-effective,

meaningful, credible, and current (Patton, 2002). Pettus-Davis (2011) suggested that a

researcher should draw a sample large enough to make valid inferences about the

population yet adequate to address the research questions. However, because of several

social and political factors, both the sampling strategy and sample size required

adjustment as deemed appropriate within the guideline of the IRB. Twenty-one

participants were interviewed as the most appropriate number and quality for this study.

Ethical Protection

A qualitative case study’s method necessitates direct and intense interaction

between the researcher and the participants. Therefore, the researcher must anticipate that

this intimacy and face-to-face engagement will likely, though inadvertently create ethical

concerns that will need to be addressed. Consequently, I treated ethical issues with the

utmost of significance and prominence. Since some of these ethical considerations

included ensuring that all participants fully understood the purpose of the study, they

were informed in advance of any risks and benefits of participating in the study, and were

also informed that they were at liberty to proceed with the participation or withdraw from

the study at any time without penalty (no coercion).

The appearance of impropriety or conflict of interest was avoided at all cost and

ensured that any belief perseverance was acknowledged. Proper conformance to these

standards enhanced the spontaneity and informality of this qualitative study. However, the

enforcement of these standards was necessary not only to protect the human participants

but also to preserve the integrity of the research process. As noted, I employed both

informal and in-depth methods of collecting data from participants for this study.

Therefore, data collection was executed with confidentiality whereby, notes would not

reveal the identity of the participants (Dwyer & Buckle, 2009). Furthermore, all data

were encrypted, password protected, and will not be shared with any third parties without

the informed consent of authorized institutions as it may relate to national security of the

United States. Each case was assigned a unique identity code. The assignment of ID

number was an important step in the data analysis as it ensured that a variety of data

sources are collectively linked.

The concept of confidentiality and privacy of data were discussed in the informed

consent which were signed as a binding agreement between researcher and informant.

There was no need for a translator as English is the official language of Sierra Leone, and

in any case the nature and caliber of participants precluded such a process. The only issue

that was encountered was the cultural interpretation of English verbiages. In instances

where such a case arose, I promptly sought clarity from the participant through a mutually

consensual third party. Additionally, regular checks were conducted to ensure compliance

with Walden University’s IRB guidelines. Since this study might proceed beyond the

confines of this institution, or used in future studies, it was incumbent upon me to ensure

that the research was conducted with the utmost standards of excellence that will reflect

positively on the institution, in a manner that will protect the participants’ confidentiality

and prevent any retribution. Lastly, the research findings will hopefully resonate with the

participants as an accurate reflection of what they narrated to me.

Procedures

Sensitivity to the research participants and their setting was an important aspect of

concern for this research process. There were certain things that were considered prior to

the data collection process. The needs of the participants were a primary consideration

including but not limited to sensitivity to any culturally sensitive issues. As such, it was

critical that an evaluation of the risks and benefits of using human subjects for this

research study was submitted to the IRB for approval prior to collecting any data.

Once IRB approval was obtained (Walden University IRB approval number

(0418-17-0230057 ) and the human subjects review processes were completed, interviews

of the participants as described in the participant selection pool proceeded. To this end,

instructions regarding data collection and participant debriefing was developed and

prepared. Many of these forms and letters are part of the appendices for this study. A

letter of Introduction, including informed consent and other agreements are included in

Appendix H. At the same time, it was not farfetched to consider data storage options in

advance, including physical security of the data that will be collected. Research records

and data are kept in a locked cabinet file with access to the records restricted. Audiotape

interviews were made to corroborate written record and lend accuracy to the interviews in

addition to acting as backup in case of loss of data. However, these tapes will be disposed

of after completion of the study. Written data will be stored for at least 5 years, as

required by the university.

While qualitative researchers are not bound by strict rules and procedures, there is

still a need to adhere to institutional interview protocols. For example, the researcher is

still bound by internal regulations such as ensuring familiarity with interview protocols

and guidelines. Additionally, interview instructions and questions were verified with

trusted colleagues to ensure that each question clearly conveyed its intended meaning to

actual participants. Doing so provided an opportunity to evaluate the appropriateness and

effectiveness of the procedures and measures, and therefore, minimizing errors. Lastly,

the people who participated in the research study were purposively selected. This process

was outlined in detail in the previous sections and with further details have been outlined

in the results chapter.

Data Collection

A rigorous regime of data collection from multiple sources of information is the

cornerstone of a successful and information rich qualitative research study (Creswell,

2009). This process is both iterative and highly interactive, with constant engagement

between the participants and researcher to ensure that the final product will reflect actual

participants’ perspectives, and an unbiased, though subjective interpretation. I anticipated

therefore that data collection will be conducted over a period of up to four weeks

immediately following the approval of this proposal and upon obtaining IRB approval.

My actual research required coordination between IRB approval and the consent of my

current employer to grant me leave of absence to conduct my interviews. The interviews

were conducted either in person and/or via telephone here in the United States. The

inherently politically safe environment provided in the United States allowed participants

to discuss issues freely without fear of retribution.

The choice of data sources that generated the greatest information which helped in

answering the research questions were considered and compiled (Patton, 2002). As

already noted, this study relied on two major sources of data: documents, and interviews.

The use of these independent sources of data provided a powerful validation strategy.

This study relied heavily on expert interviews, and observational notes, and

journal entries as the primary sources of data. The reviewed literature included

international media articles, papers written by international NGOs, and other academic

studies focused on the research problem. These data were used mainly to corroborate and

augment the evidence that were gathered from the participant interviews. The use of

variety of sources as outlined in the literature search strategy yielded better results for this

study. For instance, documents were used to confirm correct details as were mentioned

during interviews and corroborated critical details which emerged from interviews, and

allowed accurate inferences that provided insight into the social problem to be drawn

(Yin, 2009).

Based on knowledge gained through prior graduate research in the past, the most

reliable, stable, and accurate sources of data were independent newspaper reports, court

records, World Bank papers, IMF reports and United Nations and Human Right and

Amnesty International sources. Additionally, publicly available documents from the

Sierra Leone Embassy and British Council Libraries both of which maintain a great

collection of historic documents on Sierra Leone were sought and reviewed. These

institutions have excellent resources including well researched white papers for public

consumption. More importantly, the location of these entities provided and established a

secured tamper-free environment for these documents therefore preserving their

authenticity and credibility. The two organizations keep comprehensive data of incidents

occurring in Sierra Leone under various administrations regardless of regime changes. In

Sierra Leone for instances most of the archived documents including vital statistic

records were looted and vandalized during the civil war of 1991. Therefore, most the

print media under government control are slim to none.

Furthermore, given the censorship and restriction on academic freedom and

freedom of the press, access to documents might have been restricted. High-quality expert

interviews being the cornerstone of the success of this qualitative study, conducting them

in Sierra Leone would have presented challenges. Therefore, conducting the interviews

here in the United States in the peace and comfort of safe and healthy environment

allowed for the spontaneity and natural interaction between the participants and the

researcher (Patton, 2002).

Data Analysis

This section provides a summary of the data analysis technique used in this study.

A detailed explanation is provided in Chapter 4.

Creswell (2013) has explained that qualitative data is often subjective, rich, and

consists of in-depth information usually transcribed into textual data from raw data- data

that has not been subjected to processing or any other manipulation, also referred to as

primary data. As such, analyses entail reading a large volume of transcripts and looking

for similarities or differences, and subsequently finding themes and developing

categories. Conventionally, researcher use manual methods for looking for

correspondences and patterns by using colored pens to categorize the data. However, the

advent of proprietary software specifically designed for qualitative data management has

reduced the arduous task, thus making the process easier particularly when dealing with

huge data.

Conventional content analysis technique was the preferred method of data

analysis used in this study. In this approach, coding categories were derived directly from

the text data. Thus, the presence of these categories and concepts were manually

determined within the text data. The meanings and associations of the categories were

then analyzed, and conclusions drawn from the information contained in the text data.

The data to be analyzed was derived from open-ended interview questions, whereby 21

expert Sierra Leoneans were asked 10 open-ended questions to determine what they

thought about ethnic relations in Sierra Leone.

Data collection, management and analysis are concurrent processes as they are

iterative and intertwined. Therefore, as Patton (2002) advised that data analysis should go

on concurrently with the two processes to avoid inundation later on in the process. Hence,

analysis should be started earlier to allow time to make the necessary adjustments to

specific research components including but not limited to the research questions, design,

or methodology. This process saved time for the grueling process of editing the data to

make those changes after the research.

Issue of Trustworthiness

A high-quality research study is characterized by a well-planned, rigorously

executed study; from its initial conception, design, analyses up to its final publication.

Therefore, enhancing quality of analysis was a crucial step, as it entailed confirming and

checking the results against the research plan—incrementally enhancing the quality of the

study (Golafshani, 2003).

Patton (2002) has emphasized that the qualitative research process was highly

iterative, implying that the researcher goes back and forth to ensure the quality of data

and to identify errors in advance of the analysis phase. This also includes constant

verifications of consistency among the research questions, purpose, theory, design, and

methodology, including data collection and analysis. This required that I was responsive,

vigilant, sensitive, insightful, and flexible—to ensure quality of findings. For this study,

data evaluation strategies were utilized. For instance, Lincoln and Guba (1985)

introduced the concept of “trustworthiness” (p. 290) as an alternative to reliability and

validity. Trustworthiness addresses the question, are the findings “worth paying attention

to” (p. 290).

According to Guba and Lincoln (1985), there are four key aspects to the issues of

Trustworthiness: credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. In

establishing credibility, it was important that the findings represented a reliable

interpretation of the participants’ unique views. Transferability was an assessment of the

extent to which my findings were applicable outside the bounds of this study.

Dependability was an evaluation of the research technique and methods that were to

collect and analyze my data for this study. Confirmability measured how well my

findings and interpretations were supported by the data that were collected from the

participants. These crucial elements were the criteria by which the quality of this study

was evaluated in order to demonstrate the strength and rigor of the research process.

In addressing credibility, the participants were vetted to evaluate and confirm the

preliminary findings (interview transcripts and my initial report). This is what Given &

Olsen (2003) refer to as member checking. Secondly, the assistance of a trustworthy

colleague and other experts in the field were only sought to assess whether the findings of

my study were verifiable and/or transferable (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Thirdly, and as

suggested in Guba and Lincoln (1982; 1985; 1989), the corroboration and triangulation of

data sources, and couple this with evaluation of the adequacy of reference material to

ensure convergence of my findings were sought. This included going over interview

transcripts with the participants to ensure accuracy and consistency.

To address transferability, the voluminous raw data, were not only maintained but

also, the verbatim quotes of the responses will be made available on demand to enhance

the quality of the findings. To address dependability and confirmability, every step of the

research process was documented and will be made accessible on demand. In addition,

acknowledgement of biases, prejudices, and personal influences on the study will be

disclosed.

One way of overcoming biases will be to adopt a critical perspective to the

research findings. This is pertinent particularly since much of the existing literature and

mainstream research are highly emotional and reflects the personal and/or political views

of the writers. Kaufman’s concept of ethnicity, advanced through his work, Rethinking

Ethnicity, Majority Groups and Dominant Minorities provided the conceptual lens for

peering at the two majority groups, Mende and Temne and the dominant minority, the

Krio of the former colony.

All the strategies described above ensured that: (a) the research findings

represented the true depiction of the ethnic behavior, (b) that proper sociopolitical context

was captured as accurately as necessary to apply the findings to other settings, (c) that the

study could be replicated by others in the future, (d) the findings will reflect the unique

and original research based on naturally occurring phenomenon and not on opinions and

fabrications.

Summary

In this chapter, an outline of the procedures used to execute the research study

including philosophical assumptions, research design, methodology, sampling techniques,

and strategies for evaluation was presented. The evaluative criteria — credibility,

transferability, dependability, and confirmability—were also illustrated. The rationale for

selecting qualitative expert interview study method of inquiry, insofar as it allowed for

the utilization of multiple data sources to adequately illustrate the phenomenon being

studied, was illustrated.

In Chapter 4, the analysis of the data collected through interviews, and document

analysis, and findings that emerge from the research questions are presented. This is

consistent with the conception that the topic being investigated, and the research

questions must dictate the research method. Consequently, in accordance with the

selection of the qualitative research tradition and the case studies approach as the most

appropriate choice for this topic of study, justification for their selection is provided.

Hopefully, as a consequent of these choices, the research questions in this study was

answered adequately.

The research design and methodology used for this study was the qualitative

expert interview studies method. With this method, expert interviews were at the core of

the study. Therefore, the study could be rightly classified as a generic qualitative expert

study. With this method, an intensive and extensive review of the literature, data

collection and participant selection criteria were employed. The role of the researcher and

the proposed sampling techniques are also discussed. The data collected were analyzed

within the qualitative tradition of content analysis to provide valuable historical insights

of the ethnicities in Sierra Leone. Themes that were generated and patterns that were

discovered during the review of literature were compared either for their consistency or

redundancy. This form of analysis allowed for the identification of the intent, focus, and

communication trends between the three influential ethnicities including the Krio, Mende,

and Temne. The chapter concluded with the reliability and validity of methods and

techniques adopted.

In the next chapter, data, analysis, and a detailed discussion on the applicability of

the findings, implications for social change, and recommendations for actions and further

studies are presented.

Chapter 4: Results

Introduction

The purpose of this study was to examine the political behavior of the three

dominant ethnic groups, Krio, Mende, and Temne, of Sierra Leone. Political behavior in

this context includes factors such as political views, ideologies, practices, and

participations. According to Bangura (1996), these are the “processes through which

dominant groups influence and interpret the political context within the polity” (p. xii).

The aim was to understand whether these groups can use each of these elements as

collaborative factors in support of sustainable peace-building in Sierra Leone. Through a

qualitative expert interview study’s approach, a representative sample of the targeted

ethnicities, including 21 Sierra Leonean expatriates living in the United States and

Canada, were sought and engaged in interviews. The interview data were then analyzed

through a detailed descriptive and interpretive process with the goal that they would

provide answers to the main research and subquestion:

The principal research question for this study was:

RQ1: How did collaboration between the Krio, Mende, and Temne support the

peace-building process in Sierra Leone?

The secondary research question was:

RQ2: How did the political views, ideologies, practices and participations of the

Krio, Mende, and Temne support the sustainable peacebuilding efforts in Sierra

Leone?

This chapter is a presentation of the findings of this study. As such, it includes a

brief description of how data was produced, collected, and documented as well as the

procedure by which meanings emerged and progressed throughout the study. I also

present in this chapter the demographic descriptions of the participants, the data analysis

processes, and evidence of quality and trustworthiness of the study. Finally, I present

answers to the research questions.

Settings

The nature and processes of solicitations and recruitment of participants precluded

any personal or organizational conditions that adversely influenced participants or their

experience at the time of the study. The fact that this study was conducted here in the

United States and not in Sierra Leone not only enhanced the trustworthiness of the study,

but it also provided the conditions that were conducive to freedom and empowerment

necessary for participants to openly participate without any internal and/or external risks

that might adversely influence the interpretations of the study results. For instance, the

inherently politically safe environment provided in the United States and Canada allowed

participants to discuss issues freely without inhibitions or fear of repercussion.

Demographics

I selected twenty-One Sierra Leoneans living in the United States and Canada for

interview by utilizing a purposive sampling technique to recruit the participants. This

ensured that only representatives of the three targeted ethnic groups were sought and

recruited. However, to conform to the rules of confidentiality, a unique naming

convention was used to identify the participants while protecting their identities. In this

regard, alphanumeric codes were established for each participant. Since this study’s main

units of analyses were Krio, Mende and Temne, Sierra Leone’s main ethnic groups, the

uppercase letters K, M, and T represented the first letter of each ethnicity, which were

followed by a numeric designator showing the order in which participants were

interviewed (example.g., K1, M2, and T3). to identify participants who were of Krio,

Mende and Temne ethnicities respectively. Take participant, K1 for an example. The

participant was a Krioand the first to be interviewed. Not included here are other

identifiers such as first letter of the last name of the participant. These are kept in separate

notes. However, participants of the same ethnic groups with last names that started with

the same letter, were differentiated by the order in which they were interviewed. A list of

Participants names and identifications from their consent forms are kept in a locked safe

accessible only to me.

The sampling strategy and settings positively influenced the interpretations of the

results of this study. Purposive and deliberate sampling in lieu of randomized sampling

ensured that the participants were representative of the targeted population of study.

The average annual income of participants was at least $75,000. This threshold

was incidental and was not established as a criterion for participation. In general, all

participants were predetermined to be well-accomplished professionals in their fields with

at least 20 years of expert knowledge in Sierra Leonean politics and history.

Religion and gender were not specifically considered as qualifying or

disqualifying factors in selecting participants for the study. However, participants came

from varying religious backgrounds, including Christianity, Islam and tribal Animism. It

must be pointed out that majority of the participants adhered to Christianity. There were

few Muslims and very few who declined any allegiance to any organized religion. In

Sierra Leone however, a majority of the citizenry claim Islam as their preferred religion

(Gberie, 2005). However, most members of the political elite adhere to Christianity

(Cole, 2010). With respect to gender, only two women among 21 potential participants

were willing to participate. This trend is reflective of a recent United States Agency for

International Development (2015) assessment that gender equity remained a challenge in

Sierra Leone. Accordingly, women have limited access to decision-making power, and

are underrepresented in governance at all levels (United States Agency for International

Development, 2015). This study could not independently verify whether these

demographics influenced the participants or their responses or whether they influenced

the interpretation of the study results. In any case, gender was not a factor in this study,

political expertise, was.

Data Collection Process

Data collection processes were conducted in three phases. The first phase started

immediately after the IRB approval to conduct research. A solicitation e-mail was posted

on two social media platforms: Leonenet and Sierra Leone Web. These two social media

platforms were described in Chapter 2 in the Literature Review Section under Literature

Search Strategy.

Leonenet is the premier forum for discussions on Sierra Leonean issues. The

forum was borne out of the desire to connect subscribers from all over the world who take

an interest in issues germane to Sierra Leone in order to allow them to exchange ideas

and discuss topical issues freely. Participation on the forum is reserved to members only.

To become a member, a person has to be sponsored by an existing member with good

standing. The forum is well-regulated with minimal intervention of an administrative

team who monitors subscriptions and interactions. Intemperate and offensive language is

not allowed, and participants are issued warnings that over time may result in permanent

expulsion from the group. Over the years Leonenet has become an influential opinion

leader with many ideas first proposed on the forum being used to leverage pressure, and

in turn, effect social and political changes in Sierra Leone.

The Sierra Leone Web, the second social media platform, was the first niche news

service on the internet. It was also the first website to archive news. During the 10-year

civil conflict that saw tens of thousands of people killed and thousands more mutilated

raged, the plight was unreported in the international press and attracted little notice in the

international community. Stories reported by Sierra Leonean journalists mostly died an

electronic death on wire services and never reached the public. The Sierra Leone Web

changed that and played its part in Sierra Leone's history. Once the war finally came to an

end in 2002, the Sierra Leone Web remained the most sought-after source for reference

materials and archived information on postconflict Sierra Leone. It has also become a

great medium for personal interactions between Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora. The

Sierra Leone Web Email and Biographical Directories was launched in February, 1996, to

reunite Sierra Leoneans and friends of Sierra Leone living both in the diaspora and inside

Sierra Leone.

The second phase started after the responses to the solicitation were received,

read, sorted, and grouped into their respective ethnicities. Thereafter, the respondents in

each group were contacted via telephone to schedule interviews. However, it is important

to note that each individual respondent was contacted independently. There were no

group or robocalls made and at no time was personal information exchanged or shared

with respondents about others, even if participants knew one another or had had private

discussion on the study among each other. In any case, the initial telephone call was to

acknowledge receipt of the participant’s interest and thank them for their response. It also

served to reiterate the purpose and significance of the study and helped confirm the

participant’s clear understanding of the terms and conditions of the interview, such as that

there was no monetary or in-kind compensation for participating.

By the time initial telephone contacts were concluded, the participant pool was

significantly streamlined and reduced by half the number that initially responded. In other

words, 30 potential participants were now considered as possible participants. However,

since the study called for only 21 participants, further vetting was required to identify the

primary interviews and the extra nine reserved as contingencies in case there were any

no-shows or cancellations due to unforeseen circumstances.

The initial telephone conversations provided the opportunity to set up a

preliminary face-to-face meeting with each potential participant before the actual

interviews. This allowed preliminary processes to be expiated before the actual

interviews, allowing the actual interview time to be focused only on the interview

questions. Therefore, in addition to personalizing the process, the preinterview face-time

served to reassure the participants of the legitimacy of the researcher and the study while

also confirming their willingness to participate. It was also used to go over the terms and

conditions of the interview, set the time and place for the interview, and finally, obtain

their signature on the consent form.

All of the 30 preinterviews were held in mutually acceptable locations. Most were

held in the personal offices of the participants where access and privacy were not an issue

and there were no time constraints. Like the actual interviews, participants were assured

they could opt out of the interview at any time they wished and for whatever reason

without providing any explanations for their decisions so that should they decide to

participate, they could do so with clear a conscience. Each was also told that whether they

participated in the actual interview or not, their names would not be disclosed to any

individual or organizations and would not be mentioned anywhere in the study. I

informed them that if they agreed to be interviewed, they would be assigned numeric

codes to protect their identities And that the assigned numeric codes would serve as their

personal identifiers during the entire process. Instead of their actual names, these codes

would be used as the header of each recorded audiotaped interview with the respondent

and any statements they disclosed during the interview starting with this preliminary

interview.

During the face-to face, the participants were apprised of their rights and

responsibilities as clearly indicated by the IRB guidelines and regulations. Even though

the consent form was previously posted on the media during initial solicitation, each

respondent did providing their consent until after the conclusion of this face-to-face

discussion during which they were asked to review it again and sign if they agreed with

the provisions. During this discussion, each respondent was given the chance to ask

questions related to the study and to sign the form.

The preliminary face-to-face concluded with a confirmation of the date and time

for the actual interview and a clear understanding of rights and responsibilities including

privacy and the protection of individuals that fall in any vulnerable category such as the

elderly, in crisis, economically vulnerable, emotional disability, pregnant, and so on. After

the preliminary face-to-face, the consent form was mutually signed by both myself and

participant in duplicates with a copy given to the participant for their records.

The actual interviews comprised ten open-ended questions with a duration of one

hour or less per participant. Locations, venues and recordings of the interviews were

prearranged and agreed to by each participant. Interview questions were disseminated via

e-mail to potential participants in advance of the actual interviews so that participants

may be familiar with the questions before hand, allowing them to ponder upon them. All

participants consented to face to face interviews. By mutual consent, each interview was

recorded using a Samsung Digital Compact Disc Recorder. Prior permission for the audio

recording was requested and granted by each of the participants.

Prior to asking the actual interview questions, selected icebreaker questions

written on notecards were asked as lead questions. While ice breaker questions are

intended to put the participant at ease, they also helped me determine the participant’s

enthusiasm and interest in the research and their preparedness to provide answers to the

questions. In addition, the questions helped the participants to be forthcoming and

emotionally focused in expressing themselves freely by revealing interesting things about

their personalities. The handwritten notes and tape recordings are all secured and locked

in a safe with restricted access. These documents will be safeguarded for a period of at

least 5 years.

Nonverbal Participant Observation

During and after each interview, impressions about participants’ demeanor,

emotion, body language, and receptiveness were observed and recorded. This process,

was a discreet research strategy for gathering data without directly interacting with the

participants. When used creatively, and without distractions it provides the means to

collect invaluable data to augment the responses. Pease &Pease (2008) argued that words

are used primarily for conveying information, while body language is used for negotiating

interpersonal attitudes and, in some cases, is used as a substitute for verbal messages.

Therefore, the goal of nonverbal communication using participant observation as a

method is to develop an understanding of the phenomena under study that is as objective

and accurate as possible given the limitations of the method used for research They

further suggested that participant observation is often used to increase the validity and

trustworthiness of the study, as observations may help the researcher have a better

understanding of the context and phenomenon under study.

Accordingly, the key to reading body language is being able to understand a

person's emotional condition while listening to what they are saying and noting the

circumstances under which they are saying it. This allows one to separate fact from

fiction and reality from fantasy. Peace & Pease (2008) argued further that in recent

memory, humans have developed an obsession with the spoken word and our ability to be

conversationalists while overlooking nonverbal cues. Therefore, most people, have

become remarkably unaware of body-language signals and their impact, even though they

know that most of the messages in any face-to-face conversation are exposed through

body signals.

However, in keeping with ethical precepts, it was important that each participant

aware that that observation notes would be taking during the interviews. Two participants

were not comfortable with it due to the subjective nature of the note. However, a majority

had no problems and were acquiescent to the idea. This method enabled me to gain a

better understanding and insight of the participant’s non-verbal cues regarding matters

that may seem uncomfortable to express verbally. It is important to mention that field

notes were collected simultaneously while also recording the interviews. Additionally,

field notes also helped remind me of crucial points made by the participants that require

special mention. Therefore, the notes served a crucial purpose in recalling the

participant’s point of view while were still fresh in my memory.

Finally, non-verbally observing participant’s activities allowed me to observe

patterns of expressions by one group but absent in others. For example, I observed that

Mende and Temne Participants’ used body languages to express opinions different from

Krio Participants.

Description of Data Analysis Process

As explained in Chapter 3, conventional content analysis technique was the

preferred method of data analysis used in this study. In this approach, coding categories

were derived directly from the text data. Thus, the presence of these categories and

concepts were manually determined within the text data. The meanings and associations

of the categories were then analyzed, and conclusions were drawn from the information

contained in the text data. The data source was from open-ended interviews of 21 expert

Sierra Leoneans who were asked 10 open-ended questions to determine what they

thought about ethnic relations among the three dominant ethnic groups in Sierra Leone.

The aim was to understand whether the three groups would collaborate to support

sustainable peacebuilding in Sierra Leone. In the context of this study, Peace-building

refers to various socioeconomic and political interventions put in place after a violent

conflict to attain lasting peace, good governance, effective conflict resolution

mechanisms and fostering good ethnic relationships among and across communities, for

peaceful coexistence.

Miles, Huberman and Saldana (2014) has explained that data analysis and data

collection should commence concurrently if the researcher is to avoid being

overwhelmed and inundated during the data analysis process. Since data analysis

involves collecting, preparing and organizing data, and reducing the data into themes

through coding, thereby presenting them in figures, tables or a discussion, it is

commonly understood then, that data coding is an essential, if not the central part of

data analysis. Therefore, following Creswell’s (2013) suggestions, a four-stage,

methodical, and step by step procedure, was utilized in the analyses of data in this

study.

The first stage naturally involved the initial collection of data, and their

management. This included, developing a list of all data collected on-site and the

preparation of journals on all aspects of the interview and participant observations data.

It was at this this phase that, preliminary coding frame were developed as the

interviews were being conducted. Data were then organized into files according to

subjects and then placed in folders. Through this process systematic codes by the use of

letters and numbers to represent the subjects as locators for easy retrieval and analysis

were developed (Creswell, 2013). This process of linking data collection, and

management, sorting and classification to the interpretation of data is central to the data

analyses process.

In the second stage, the entire transcripts from interviews, and corresponding

observational field notes were read numerous times until I was thoroughly familiar with

information to the point where specific information could be instantly recollect on

demand. This process is what Creswell referred to as reading and remembering, since

during this process, reflective notes (memos), in the form of short phrases, ideas or

memorable concepts were jotted down at the margins. It is also at this stage that initial

findings emerged, which were sent to selected participants for member checking. A

constant comparative approach was used at this stage whereby all the data were read and

reread for new insights until no new meaning or insight emerged.

The third stage is when actual analysis of data started. This involved description,

classification, and interpretation of the data (Creswell, 2013). Accordingly, a systematic

procedure to describe what is seen in the data was implemented to develop categories and

themes, interpret emerging themes and ideas, and draw conclusions from the data based

on intuitions, insights, and/or combination of personal views and facts deduced from the

raw data. For this study, the analyses were premised on the detailed description of

interview data and themes that emerged, then triangulation from multiple sources through

direct interpretation and establishing correspondence and patterns.

The fourth and final stage in the data analysis involved packaging and

presentation of findings. The technique used in the presentation of data was content

analysis. It was through content analysis that presence of certain words and concepts

within the text data were determined. The meanings and relationships of such words and

concepts were then analyzed and conclusions drawn from the information contained in

the text data.

Data Coding

The coding technique for this study was taken from Saldana’s (2016) Coding

Manual for Qualitative Researchers, wherein the author has defined a code as a word or

short phrase that representatively assigns a collective, conspicuous, essence-capturing,

and/or suggestive attribute for a portion of language-based or visual data. The data can

consist of interview transcripts, participant observation field notes, journals, documents,

literature, artifacts, photographs, video, websites, e-mail correspondence, and so on. The

portion of data to be coded can range in magnitude from a single word to an entire page

of text to a stream of moving images.

However, Saldana cautioned that coding is not a precise science due to its

interpretive nature, which relies mostly on the researcher’s knowledge, intuitions and

creativity. In this study, the interview transcripts, and field notes were analyzed through

“Content Analyses”. As explained in Chapter 3, content analysis is a method designed to

condense raw data into categories or themes based on valid inference and interpretation

using inductive reasoning, by which themes and categories emerge from the data through

the researcher’s careful examination and continuous comparison. In this context, data was

subjectively interpreted through a methodical arrangement process of coding and

identifying patterns and corresponding themes.

Patton (2002) defines content analysis as, “any qualitative data reduction and

sensible effort that takes a volume of qualitative material and attempts to identify core

consistencies and meanings” (Patton, 2002, p.453). Following Patton’s definition, the

data of the interview transcripts, and field notes were content analyzed through detailed

“description”, “categorical aggregation”, “direct interpretation”, establishment of

“patterns”, and development of “naturalistic generalization”. Each of these processes

went beyond merely counting words or extrapolating objective ideas from data, to

examining meanings, themes and patterns that may be manifest or latent in a text. They

each allowed for the understanding of social reality in a subjective but empirical manner.

For instance, a detailed description of the data was provided, by transcribing the

interview data into text data, thereby interpreting their meanings. Categorical

aggregation process allowed instances or impressions and ideas to be put together to

form a meaning. In so doing, codes were assigned to similar ideas and impressions

which were put together in a single class to form a meaning. Direct interpretation, is

self-explanatory. In that it allowed for the meanings to be identified from a single

instance of what a participant said during the interview, or from a nonverbal

observation noted in a single instance. Through the establishment of correspondence

and patterns the transcripts were coded and the data aggregated in accordance with their

incidence.

By the process of “naturalistic generalizations”, pronouncement and conclusions

were drawn based on what was understood from the data. It follows therefore that the

analysis and findings do not consist of only actualities because the data had to be

interpreted to make it comprehensible; albeit subjectively.

Evidence of Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness in a qualitative research or any study for that matter, instills

reliability in the study. Thus, it requires that issues of credibility, transferability,

dependability, and confirmability are each addressed. Therefore, checking the accuracy of

the data collected from the research participants during and after the interviews, referred

to as member checking is a sure way of establishing trustworthiness. Accordingly,

transcripts of the transcribed data were sent to the study participants for confirmation and

assurance that they were not misinterpreted or misleading.

Credibility

Credibility is to establish that the findings of the study are sincere, dependable,

and true. Achieving credibility in research therefore requires creativity, skill and

competence of the researcher. As mentioned previously, the process of Data Source

Triangulation was the strategy utilized in this study to ensure credibility of data.

Triangulation is a powerful technique that facilitates credibility of data through cross

verification from two or more sources. It refers to the application and combination of

several research methods in the study of the same phenomenon. According to Yin (2009),

the process of triangulating data sources also minimizes bias. Therefore, using a case

study for this study ensured validity by employing multiple sources of data. Wang (2011)

supported the view that using triangulation for the widespread research findings of a

single case study substantiates the results of the study. Additionally, data collection in this

study was done by interviewing participants from varying backgrounds with multiple

expertise and diversity of views.

Transferability

Merriam (2008) defines transferability in qualitative research as the extent to

which the results of a research may be applied or transferred beyond the bounds of the

inquiry. Thus, it implies that results of the research study can be applied to similar

situations or contexts. Therefore, to enhance the element of trustworthiness, a detailed

description of the research context was provided including an alternative approach to

sustainable peace-building in post-conflict settings through constructive dialogue between

major causative agents od conflicts. However, it is also important to point out the

limitations on the generalizability of this study. While some lessons learned about

political behavior of the ethnic groups may be invaluable for understanding their

collaborations, the uniqueness of each group in terms of cultural and traditional

underpinnings place limits on the transferability of the findings to other societies. Even

though most ethnic conflicts are categorized by the destructive will of all parties to such

conflicts, the background of each group of causative agents may be inimitable. Thus,

lessons we may learn from the Sierra Leonean conflict may or may not apply to all other

societies in or emerging from conflict given such unique conditions.

Dependability (Reliability)

Dependability expresses how the reliability and stability of data are sustained over

an indeterminable period. Therefore, dependability can be compared to reliability in the

sense that dependability is an evaluation of the quality of the cohesive processes of data

collection, data analysis, and theory induction. As used in this context, reliability implies

whether the study would achieve comparable results if the same methods were applied in

the same contexts.

Clear and concise descriptions of the research design, its application, and in-depth

details of the data collection processes, including but not limited to a well-thought-out

assessment of the research study are some of the ways used to ensure that this study

would be dependable (Whitmore, Chase & Mandle, 2001; see also Yazan, 2015).

Accordingly, a comprehensive information about the methods and processes used in the

study were provided. For instance, a detailed description of the data collection process,

including an in-depth description of the data gathering methods such as interviews,

observations, and the use of audio tapes for interviews were provided. This also serves as

another way to ensure the retest reliability of the data analysis process. In addition,

dependability was enhanced by the in-depth descriptions contained in the data acquired

through the interview process.

Confirmability

Confirmability which discusses the issue of reliability, refers to the quality of the

results produced by an inquiry in terms of how well they are supported by participants

involved in the study and by events that are completely independent of the researcher. So,

confirmability addresses two serious problems with case studies — expectancy effects

and atypical individuals. Expectancy effects include the researcher’s underlying biases

that might affect actions taken while conducting research. These biases can lead to

misrepresenting participants’ descriptions. Describing atypical individuals may lead to

poor generalizations and detract from external validity. Therefore, drawing inferences

from literature and findings by other investigators that confirm the researcher’s

interpretations can strengthen confirmability of the study in addition to information and

interpretations by persons other than the researcher.

To achieve confirmability steps were taken to ensure findings emerged naturally

from the collected data, and not from personal predilections. Therefore, it was important

to recognize that personal feelings and experiences could potentially bias and influence

the process unless they were mitigated. Consequently, “bracketing” was utilized to

alleviate the potentially toxic effects of preconceptions that may have blemished the

research process. In so doing, a conscious effort was made to directly quote the study

participants rather than paraphrase their words or attempt to modify or change views they

expressed. Therefore, to ensure authenticity, the transcriptions of the interview data were

returned to each of the participants to authenticate, verify, and corroborate the analyzed

data. Thus, this provided an opportunity to review and clarify any ambiguities that may

have inadvertently slipped through during the interview process. After affirming the

trustworthiness, a secret code accessible only to me, was assigned to the transcripts and

stored away.

Results

The results presented here are based on the interpretations of data from the

interviews and organized by recurring themes. Data were then coded, organized and grouped

to show correspondence and patterns. This constituted the primary focus of the data

analysis part of this study. Thus, the analysis focused on the identification and

interpretation of the most frequent themes that emerged during the interviews.

The result is therefore organized by the main research and sub-question, the

corresponding interview questions and responses, and the recurring themes which

emerged. It is important to point out that observational notes which were taken to

document non-verbal expressions of participants, including but not limited to voice

pitches, inflections, gestures and other body languages during the interviews were also

coded and grouped into recurring themes. Themes generated constituted an important

aspect of the results.

Central Research Question

RQ1: How did collaboration between the Krio, Mende, and Temne support the

peace-building process in Sierra Leone?

This central question aimed to explore the probability of collaboration between

the three ethnicities. However, given the divergent political characteristics that exists

between the Mende and Temne, and age old political grievances rooted in their colonial

past against the Krio, the question seemed too broad to operationalize. To narrow its

scope, it was necessary to turn to selected interview questions for answers.

With interview question 1, participants were asked to analyze how each group

viewed interethnic relations. The question alluded to the group’s acquiescence to

crossethnic social, political and economic relations without regard to political affiliations

and ethnicity. The question was intended to gain an insight into, and an understanding of

the political and social ideology of each group, whereby scope of the main research

question could have contextualized.

M13, a former Traditional Chief in the former Protectorate, explained that: Krio,

Mende and Temne are inherently the three most dominant ethnic groups in Sierra Leone,

who, either by numeric preponderance or sociopolitical influence have divided the nation

into three geopolitical subdivisions; Western, Southeastern and Northern regions,

respectively. It is therefore incumbent upon them to unite the nation through solidarity.

The Krio are dominant in the Western area where the state capital Freetown is located.

The Mende are dominant in the South and Southeast, and the Temne are dominant in the

North and Northwest regions. Also, these groups are divided among the two distinctive,

but hostile political camps. Majority of the Mende support the SLPP and the majority of

Temne support the APC party. Furthermore, the Mende’s and Temne’s support for the

SLPP and the APC respectively are to reinforce their political strength, their ethnic

identities and further their ethnic interests. These are enhanced through the mobilization

and recruitment of party members by the elites, among the predominant ethnic groups

and their co-regional ethnic partners. The Krio, comparatively lacking in the numeric

advantage to impact the electoral process, has acted as the lever of the balance of political

power between the two major ethnicities. So, even though Sierra Leone has a

proportionate representation which should result in split vote shares for multiple

contending political parties, votes are usually concentrated around the two leading

political parties. Consequently, election have often ended in disputes and led to the

delegitimization of the winning candidates, especially for the presidency. This has

resulted in disunity for much of the nation’s political history as a sovereign nation.

K10, a diplomat provided political context and the root causes of the ethnic

discord:

During colonial times, two political parties, with fundamentally opposing

political, and socioeconomic visions emerged from each of the former British

colonies. From the former British Crown Colony of Sierra Leone, emerged the

National Council for Sierra Leone (NCSL). This party was founded by a Krio

elite, named Dr. Bankole Bright, a conservative journalist. With the support of

other staunch Krio elites, Dr. Bright called for the preservation of existing

privileges and opportunities accorded to the Krio under the British policy of

Direct Rule, while espousing a gradualist approach to autonomy. Fundamentally,

the NCSL favored autonomy but not a uniformed merger with the former

protectorate. However, only a handful of Krio elites supported this core precept.

From the former Protectorate of Sierra Leone, emerged the SLPP. Its founder was

a Mende elite named Sir Milton Margai. The SLPP was first founded as a united

front for all protect ethnic groups. Its focus was to demand greater representation

for the protectorate which was by far the largest and most populous of the two

British territories but comparably underrepresented by a wide margin. The party’s hierarchy

comprised mostly Mende educated elites, although its rank and file included protectorate

educated elites from diverse ethnic and regional background. It was therefore, inevitable that

the SLPP party would be dominated by the Mende. However, with the increase in

protectorate representation the SLPP now became the leading advocate for the independence

movement which was gaining momentum not only in British colonies but also in French

colonies as well.

Thus, the focus of the Party’s platform shifted to a nationalist movement which

demanded independence from Great Britain for both territories and the pursuit of national

self-determination trajectories. Its leader, Sir Milton Margai was invited by the British

government to form a cabinet in preparation for establishing a state by bringing the two

territories together on the attainment of independence. By now, the NCSL has lost its

momentum and most of its elites had defected to the SLPP and other political parties.

However, by 1959, few years shy of Great Britain granting independence to Sierra Leone,

two key elites would opt out of the SLPP to establish their own parties. Albert Margai,

and Siaka Stevens co-founders and cabinet members in the pre-independent SLPP

administration left the SLPP to form their own individual parties. However, Siaka

Stevens went a bit further. Not only did he defect from the SLPP, he opposed

independence before elections, joined alliances with elites of the Temne ethnicity and

larger ethnic groups in the North to form a grassroot political party, the APC and

boycotted independence talks held in London in 1961. These three actions, especially his

collusion with Temne elites to form the APC, would become the hallmark of Siaka

Stevens fierce post-independence opposition he mounted to dislodge the SLPP from

power.

T2 a prominent scholar, and lecturer at a prestigious institution provided an

independent rejoinder:

Despite, the defections of some elites, the SLPP still enjoyed the support of most

Sierra Leoneans from all ethnic groups. However, Sir Milton Margai, the nation’s

patriarch, and founder of the SLPP, died in 1964, leaving behind a strong legacy

but a party on the verge of coming apart at the seams. For continuance, the SLPP

appointed his half-brother, Albert Margai to serve out his late brother’s remaining

term. This caused a seismic shift in the SLPP as Albert’s appointment was seen by

many within the SLPP as nepotism. Therefore, ahead of the 1967 elections, key

elites started defecting to the main opposition part, while some elites which

belonged to larger ethnic groups formed their own parties with the hope of reeling

in smaller ethnicities to form uneasy alliances against the main ethnic groups.

The APC party whose founder and leader, Siaka Stevens was the first to split from

the SLPP expanded the scope of his party. By the 1967 elections, the SLPP and

APC became the two leading contending parties in the nation. Since then serious

rifts has developed between the two ethnic groups that would take solidarity

among them to resolve their grievances.

Theme 1: Solidarity

From the foregoing responses, solidarity appeared as the recurring identified

sociopolitical theme echoed by each of the three participants, while citing the challenges

posed by the lack of this concept across and among the three dominant groups. While the

views of only few participants may not be sufficient to generalize the concept across the

entire population, the ethnic war of 1991, does indicate the breakdown in social order.

This is so particularly because, in social science, solidarity is recognized as an essential

part of the concepts of social order, class, and ethnic consciousness (Hechter, 1998). For

instance, in proposing a new general theory of group solidarity, Hechter contended that

solidarity was the moral social cohesion between groups which produces or is based on

accords of interests, aims, ideals, which refers to the ties in a society that bind groups

together for a common purpose.

However, in the context of political negotiations, the author argued that solidarity

can only be possible through the action of rational individuals in society. Thus, solidarity

is best understood from the perspectives of peace negotiations between competing groups

willing to negotiate to achieve peace as a public good. According to Hechter (1998),

groups are more important than individuals because it is a group, not the individual which

determines the collective behavior of individuals within a group. Furthermore, some or all

parts of any given individual behavior is therefore due to group affiliation. In these

responses, the need for solidarity as precursor to peaceful negotiations are discussed

through the participants’ responses.

Theme 2: Individual Freedom and Social Pluralism

The fourth interview question asked was, What does each of the dominant ethnic group

think about social pluralism; the condition in which many ethnic, religious, or cultural

groups coexisted, and were tolerant of one another within a society? The belief that such

a condition was desirable or socially, politically or economically beneficial to society.

This question captured the essence of RQ2. It was designed to lead to understanding of

each group’s attitude towards ethnic diversity and nationalism, particularly in a society as

complex, multifaceted, multiethnic, and as divided as Sierra Leone.

The question also sought to determine the probability of collaboration among the

groups to effect social change, even when this may not be popular with the group of

which they are a part. The question prompted two other recurring themes, “Individual

Freedom” and “Social Pluralism”. There was consensus among participants that each

individual Sierra Leonean aspires to freedom, be it social, political, or economic. Yet as a

part and parcel of an ethnic group, they are often constrained by their allegiance and

common loyalty to the group; known as esprit de corps. Therefore, Social Pluralism

thrusts upon individuals particularly in dominant ethnic groups, challenges underscored

by divided loyalty or as K14, simply puts it, blind loyalty. In response to the question,

K14, a prominent author reflected:

The heterogeneity of the Krio, as opposed to the homogeneity of the Mende and

Temne underpins the Krio’s sociopolitical characteristic. The Krio, in contrast to

other ethnicities in Sierra Leone, are not a monolithic group, socially or

politically. Therefore, they are not likely to support one political party over

another based on some holistic group interest or group-think, or for that matter,

elite mobilization or coercion. The development of Krio identity surpassed ethnic,

class, cultural and religious differences. What differentiates the Krio is not their

distinctiveness from other ethnic groups but the group’s capacity to imbibe

different elements from a wide variety of cultural and demographic experiences.

Therefore, constituting only 4 percent of the population, Krio tend to vote based

on a wide variety interests rather than a specific regional or group interest. As

such they have kept a non-aligned political stance during elections and voted for

the political party without being beholden to a group dogma. Thus, Krio exercise

and maintains a certain level of personal discretions in supporting a political

party.

In responding to the same question, M7, a politician echoed the same sentiment as

the earlier participant:

The common thread that runs through the Mendes is their language. Albeit that

the language itself is spoken with an accent depending upon the geographic

region. However, Mendes are segregated into regional domains. Mendes are

found in the Eastern and Southern Provinces. Those in the east consider

themselves more homogeneous and more indigenous than their Southern brethren

who during colonial times were exposed to western civilization. For instant, the

districts with the highest concentration of Mende are Kenema and Kailahun

districts in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone, where Mendes constitute over 75

percent of the local population. In the Southern province Mendes are mixed with

Sherbros, known as the Bullom people who are predominant in Bonthe district,

including the Island of Bonthe named for them. The Southern Mendes are also

mixed with the Vais, a garden variety of Mendes who live in Liberia. Southern

Mendes also share a common border with Temnes. Therefore, the political

affiliation of Mendes especially those who share borders with Temnes is therefore

fluid. Sothern Mendes are more exposed to Western civilization as their

Southeastern counterparts and tend to follow Christianity as their main religious

belief. This explains why most Southern Mendes wear Christian names. The first

Prime Minister, Sir Milton Margai was from the South as was his half-brother

Albert. It is also rumored, although not conclusive that Siaka Stevens the longest

reigning president and leader of main opposition APC party was from the South.

The proximity of the South to the former colony and the fact that most Southern

Mendes converted to Christianity before the Missionaries made inroads into the

dense uncharted and uninhabitable rain forest the east gave South access to better

educational facilities than their Eastern counterparts. Politically, southern Mendes

tend to be more liberal than the easterners who are more conservative. There is an

undercurrent of tribal feud between the South and east which is not easily

discernable by non-Mendes. Although in the past the leadership of the SLPP has

been drawn from the South, the bulk of the party’s support base is concentrated in

the East. However, after the war, and with the return of the APC party back in

charge, that concentration has been diluted somewhat.

To buttress the participants’ views on ethnic cohesion, Dr. Kenneth Little, the

author of an ethnographic account about the Mende of Sierra Leone stated this about the

Mende:

The secret societies, and the Poro in particular play a large part in the regulation

of life throughout most of Sierra Leone and Liberia. It is virtually impossible to

provide an adequate description and analyses without dealing at length with their

organizations and social functions. To the Mende, a good deal of their traditional

lore is sacred as well as secret. And cannot in any circumstance be imparted to an

outsider whether European or African. Each initiate in the secret societies take an

oath never to disclose what is learned.

With such an insider perspective of the Mende, it is abundantly clear how challenging it

would be to seek the collaboration of an ethnic group within which members have mixed

feelings of their desire for freedom against the backdrop of the groups resistance to

pluralism. K8, provided a broader national perspective:

The aftermath of the brutal civil war has resulted in the progressive deterioration

in the political freedom of individual citizens to influence the development of

their society and their personal lives. Government has seemed less and less

capable of steering social change and to formulate solutions to persistent social

and political problems. Similarly, citizens seem incapable of identifying with each

other and to organize themselves based on a substantial political program rather

than by ethnic cabals.

Theme 3: Reconciliation

The interview question asked participants to provide analyses of each group’s

view on restorative justice- a mechanism that focuses on peace and reconciliation

between victims, offenders, and the involved community as provided by the TRCs. This

question was intended to captur the extent to which each group practices and participates

in peace-building as a subset of the secondary question stated above. This question goes

to the heart of the matter upon which this inquiry was predicated, and that is, exploring an

alternative approach to post-conflict peace-building through restorative means rather than

retributive justice. Therefore, the first aim of this question was to seek clarity from the

participants. For as Walgrave (2013) has suggested, the lack of clarity can render an

inquiry moot. Because if the objective of an inquiry is not demarcated one cannot

possibly investigate it with any level of accuracy. If there are no clear distinctions

between socio-ethical choices and pragmatic findings, the credibility of the findings

becomes questionable. If the relation between knowledge that proceeds from theoretical

deduction and that which is observed with regards restorative and retributive justices is

not understood explicitly, they cannot be adequately compared. If there are no views on

the assortment and difficulty of possible restorative justice practices, conclusions based

on one type of practice cannot address restorative justice. The responses from the

participants would in the least affirm the success or failure of alternative means of

transitional justice let alone the successes of any collaboration of the groups to realize its

successes. Thus, the responses invoked reconciliation as recurring theme.

In giving an assessment, M4 stated:

I don’t think Sierra Leoneans are averse to post-conflict restorative justice. There

is a concern however, about the expansion of a restorative justice philosophy into

other areas of social life and the threats and opportunities this would pose in

criminology and democracy. Can the same standards that are applied in political

conflict be applied in criminal law without developing a more sophisticated

concept of the relationship between restorative justice and the law, and acceptance

of the need for legal regulation. After all most nations, fresh out of conflict and

preoccupied with reconstruction do not have the capacity and sophistication to

deliberate upon restorative justice. There is an uncertainty however, how far doing

justice through restoration will in the future replace the current punitive system in

response to say individual crime as opposed to war crimes. My guess is, it will

depend on many conditions, including changes in the socio-cultural and societal

atmosphere, improvement of restorative practices, the development of coherent

normative theoretical reflection on restorative justice, and finding a balanced

relation between restorative justice and the law in a constitutional democratic

state. Only problem is most nations in Africa, Sierra Leone included are not

normative constitutional democratic states, the very reason why they went to war.

T16 held a differing view:

No rational discussions on restorative justice may be undertaken as though it was

some abstract concept without referencing the vices that occasioned its

conception. Those who advocate for restorative justice over punitive justice in

Sierra Leone were either ill-informed, or have forgotten the images of the horrors

that were displayed on the world media, or, were never themselves personally

impacted. The Sierra Leone conflict, gained notoriety around the world for its

brutality and the commission of some of the worst atrocities against humans ever

witnessed in a modern conflict. By some conservative estimates, the war resulted

in the deaths of fifty thousand people, the displacement of about 2.2 million of the

country’s population of 5 million, and the maiming of thousands. So, asking me to

provide analyses of what my ethnic group’s view will be on restorative justice, a

mechanism that focuses on peace and reconciliation between victims, offenders,

and the involved community as provided by the TRCs; I have to delimit the

response to my personal views and not necessarily the views of the majority. In

my view, the setting up of any TRC was a baseless political ploy, not a rational

one. One that significantly avoided any type of criminal responsibility for the

despicable crimes committed during the conflict. If you recall, even when the

TRC was set up, supposedly to break the cycle of violence, provide a platform for

both victims and the perpetrators of human rights violations to tell their stories in

order to promote national healing and reconciliation, the fighting only intensified

in violation of the armistice provisions of the Abidjan Agreement. Even the

blanket amnesty granting the rebel leader, Sankoh personally and all other

combatants and collaborators “absolute and free pardon and reprieve” in respect

of all their depraved actions between the start of the war and the conclusion of the

Lomé Peace Agreement proved insufficient to restore peace to Sierra Leone.

Punitive action was the fitting and fleeting process that was appropriate for the

circumstances. It is unfortunate that, that too did not yield peace and stability, but

it got the perpetrators off our lives to where they belonged.

It is apparent from this response, that most Sierra Leoneans, especially those

whose lives were impacted by the war had strong feelings towards any transitional justice

mechanism that was devoid of punitive measures against perpetrators. They point to the

unavoidability of the government to seek punitive justice through the SCSL. This was

brought on by the RUF’s intransigence despite genuine efforts to integrate them into

society and overtures made to enter into power sharing agreements with the leadership for

the sake of peace.

This is how a T6, a professor at a prestigious University in the United States,

summarized the government’s inaction and helplessness in the face of insistent RUF

onslaught and violation of peace accords, until the situation became untenable with grave

international implications. He stated:

The government, which had shrunken to the whims of the RUF, and refused to

contemplate any criminal accountability option, had a significant reversal of

thought when, over five hundred UN peacekeepers were disarmed and abducted

by renegade RUF commanders. It was now evident that the rebel leader, Sankoh

had only limited if any influence and authority at all over his key battlefield

commanders. Sankoh, who had been invited to share political power with the

government, was arrested following civilian demonstrations and a shootout at his

home in the capital Freetown. He was thereafter detained at an undisclosed

location. Under renewed pressure from the local and international civil society

actors to renounce the blanket amnesty and to establish some type of criminal

accountability mechanism to prosecute the worst offenders, the government

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turned to the United Nations seeking assistance to create a credible court to try the

worst offenders, especially the RUF leadership for war crimes.

The responses from the participants indicate that some Sierra Leoneans were

ambivalent about transitional justice as it involves peaceful negotiations with causal

actors of the conflict. Some participants believe, that opting to have the SCSL, was the

last option the government had after exhausting all channels to peaceful negotiations with

the rebels. However, there was consensus that the three dominant groups bear the burden

of bringing unity to a nation divided by ethnicity and political affiliations. As such,

criminalizing the war may not be the most equitable way or for that matter, the most

ethnically and morally indispensable way to bring lasting peace to the post-conflict

nation. However, all of the three dominant groups were impacted differently by the war,

although their political behavior may have stoked the conflict.

The answers to these questions were meant to lead naturally to the main research

question, how did collaboration between the Krio, Mende, and Temne support the

peacebuilding process in Sierra Leone? However, some of the codes that emerged from

the interview transcripts, were descriptive of the views most if not a majority of Sierra

Leoneans held about post-conflict transitional justice and its impact on the social and

political trajectories, including, “no deterrent”, “impunity”, “no political stability”, “no

justice for victims”, “ethnic disunity”, “crime against humanity”, “TRC commission

ineffective”, “SCSL too costly”, “ineffective investigation of war crimes”, “ethnically

biased trials”, “economically infeasible”, “resurgence possible” . The responses had

reached saturation since they became repetitive. Over time most of the responses started

to mean the same thing but stated differently, therefore similar codes were brought

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together under one category. Tables I4 and I5 provides a summary of Codes, categories

and their frequencies.

Summary

This chapter was a presentation of the brief overview of the purpose of this study

and the research questions that the study sought to answer. It also presented the

description of the research participants, a detailed description of the settings, and the data

collection and data analyses processes. The collected data were content analyzed in a way

that allowed the placement of associated data into categories, and allowed the

extrapolation of themes based on the frequency of their occurrences from targeted and

specific responses (See Table I4). The results of the study were based on observational

notes taken during the interviews, the responses of the participants to the questions asked

in the research study and from documentary sources. Methods which were applied to

guarantee the trustworthiness of the research study were also explained. Based on the

responses of the study participants and in conjunction with the other data collected, it

appears that there are factors in the political behavior of the three dominant ethnic groups

that could be collaborated to support sustainable peace in Sierra Leone.

In Chapter 5, the interpretations of the findings of the research, a discussion of the

limitations of the study and implications for social change, and concluding with my

recommendations for future research are all presented.

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Chapter 5: Discussions, Implications, and Recommendations

Introduction

This study was predicated on the growing evidence in the literature that supports

the notion that the causative agents of most wars in African states are competing

dominant ethnic groups. Sierra Leone’s brutal 10-year civil war fought beginning in 1991

was no exception. However, there has been very limited research conducted to explore

the collaboration of these dominant groups in support of sustainable peace-building in

postconflict Sierra Leone. Therefore, this case study was conducted to examine the three

dominant ethnic groups, Krio, Mende, and Temne of Sierra Leone and to explore whether

they could collaborate to support sustainable peace-building in Sierra Leone. To that end,

I examined their political behaviors, including their political ideologies, views, practices,

and levels of political participations to understand and explain whether there were

collaborative factors that could support sustainable peace-building. Those political

behavioral factors are what Bangura (1996) defined as “processes through which

dominant groups influence and interpret the political context within the polity” (p. xii).

Based on the identified gap in the literature, stated purpose of the research study,

and data required for the inquiry, a qualitative case study design was determined the most

appropriate methodology for the inquiry. This was due to the capacity of this approach to

access multiple sources of data and build a holistic picture of the units of analyses. These

include the political characteristics of three dominant ethnic groups and analyses of their

political behavior, including key behavioral factors such as their political views,

ideologies, practices, and participations, processes through which they interpret the

political context within the polity. A review of the literature on the civil conflict in Sierra

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Leone showed very little if any credible data regarding postconflict peace-building

resolution that involved ethnic collaborations. Instead, dominant groups were seen as

major causative agents of conflicts in African states but never conceived of as part of the

solution to peace-building. The inadequacy in prior studies in this area was a compelling

factor necessitating this inquiry. Thus, an information-rich analysis such as would be

required to provide a clear understanding of group dynamics would only be realized

through a qualitative methodology and may not have been possible had a quantitative

survey been used.

Data, consisting of semistructured interviews with open-ended questions of 21

expert Sierra Leoneans, documentary sources, newspapers, and peer-reviewed articles

were content analyzed and cross-verified through the process of data source

triangulation. The participants, comprising politicians, diplomats, teachers,

academicians, and scholars from the targeted ethnic groups, were purposively selected

after carefully being vetted for their expert knowledge and diverse experiences in matters

concerning the history and politics, of each of the ethnic groups they represented. Each

participant was engaged in an interview that lasted for one hour or less during which

they responded to the interview questions discussed their experiences regarding the

postconflict political climate in Sierra Leone and the SCSL. The data were analyzed

through content analyses. This included detailed data description, categorical

aggregation, direct interpretation, establishment of correspondence and patterns, and

development of naturalistic generalization. Findings were validated through the use of

multiple sources of data, member checking, and the process of data source triangulation.

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The goal of the discussion of the findings of this research was to offer an

assessment and interpretation of the findings of the research study as indicated by the

responses of the research participants to the research questions. Hopefully the findings

will lead to solutions and conclusions drawn from the research study. The discussion

concludes by offering recommendations for further studies on related topics or concepts

that this research study may not have addressed. The conclusion of this qualitative study

is presented in this chapter.

Summary of Key Findings

The main goal of this study was to answer the central research question (RQ1):

How did collaboration between the Krio, Mende, and Temne support the peace-building

process in Sierra Leone? The following answers were the common interpretation of the

participant responses from the interview questions that were designed to answer the main

research question and secondary question:

1. Firstly, the history of mixed grievances between the three dominant groups

precluded any initial consideration by the government, international advisers,

regional partners, and civil society actors to seek the collaborations of these

groups. Since this study is both exploratory and emergent, ethnic collaboration

is an unexplored concept.

2. Secondly, the key role of each ethnic group in the peace process was not given

appropriate recognition and hence were not effectively synchronized and

integrated into the conflict resolution phase and the subsequent peace process.

3. Thirdly, after the conflict came to an end in 2002, pressure mounted on the

government from all quarters including the international community and civil

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society groups and regional partners that the truth commission alone was not

sufficient to provide amends for the human suffering that resulted from the

war. As Apori-Nkansah (2008), observed, it was generally believed that a

retributive component in the form of a criminal war crime tribunal was

necessary for justice for the victims to prevail. Thus, a special court especially

designed for Sierra Leone was deployed to augment the existing TRC

processes. Therefore, the collaboration of the dominant groups was never

factored in any postconflict resolution and/or peace-building initiatives.

4. Fourthly, since all postconflict initiatives were under the auspices of the

Mende-dominated ruling SLPP government, the idea of collaboration between

the other two groups, Krio and Temne, was the farthest conception on the

minds of political actors at the time (Gberie, 2005). This was because the

Temne dominated APC party was the opposition party with very little political

clout since it was the party that most believed orchestrated the conflict.

5. Lastly, it was widely conceived at the time by civil society actors and the

international community that the criminal prosecution through the SPSL

process based on formal rules were much better suited to prosecute war crimes

than traditional approaches that involved informal processes, which were

considered subjective and required long deliberations and collaborations

of competing interest groups. These processes were considered inappropriate

for conflict resolution.

In the study I also sought to answer the following secondary question, RQ2: How

did the political views, ideology, practices and participation of the Krio, Mende, and

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Temne support the sustainable peace-building process in Sierra Leone? Within the

contexts of ethnic dynamic and intergroup relations, these four factors are the processes

dominant groups use to influence and/or interpret the political context within the polity.

While views are related to public policy and laws that are either consistent or inconsistent

with the group’s core values and principles, ideology is a group’s attempt to project those

views to influence public policies that supports its version of social, political, and

economic order. Practices and participation on the other hand are political actions taken

collectively by a group with to win and hold control over government.

1. With regards to views and ideology, participants explained that since political

decisions and policies are usually dictated by the ruling elites of the dominant

group in power at a given time, it is likely that policies that are influenced by

one group may not be consistent with the core values and principles of the

other groups. Therefore, collaboration even if possible under such conditions,

may not be as effective due to the skewed nature of the policies and laws that

regulated the peace process.

2. In expressing opinions as to how each group uses their political participation

and practices to collaborate to support sustainable peace-building, participants

were thoughtful in their responses. That was because these two factors are the

processes groups use to achieve their vision of political control. Both require

bold ambitions beyond the limits of existing capabilities. The competitive

nature of these two factors would make collaboration highly unlikely.

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Interpretations/Discussion of the Findings

Through his work, Rethinking Ethnicities, Majority Groups and Dominant

Minorities, Kaufman (2004) provided the conceptual framework by which the study’s

units of analysis were examined, defined, and conceptualized. Then, through their

collective work, Theory of Social Hierarchy and Oppression, Sidanius and Pratto (1999)

offered another conceptual perspective by which the problem of the research was

examined and explained.

Then, Bell’s (1980) interest convergence principle, which he propagated through

his widely acclaimed critical review of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown

versus Board of Education decision of 1954 and advanced by his critical race theory

provided the theoretical basis of this study. However, no theory was set out to be

confirmed or tested in this study. As stated earlier, these frameworks provided the

appropriate lenses through which these dominant groups were examined within their

social and political contexts. The combined frameworks provided a thorough analyses

from the data collected.

I discuss the findings derived from an analysis of the interviews of the participants

and corroborated by documentary sources and reviewed literature in the succeeding

sections. As such, this chapter consists of three sections. The first section is a discussion

of what was found. Thus, it provides an analysis of each ethnic group and allows the

reader to understand their political influence, how they have used that influence to

solidify their political power, and their amenability or lack thereof in supporting peace-

building through collaboration. The second section is a review of the social change

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implications of the study with specific recommendations for all stakeholders. The

concluding section offers recommendations for future research.

This study builds on knowledge gained from experiences from the Sierra Leonean

conflict (1991-2002) as well as knowledge derived from real world experiences. For

instance, it was after the end of World War I that the League of Nations came into being

to ensure that war would never brake out again. Yet, the Versailles Treaty that preceded

the League was a punitive and retributive measure against Germany. To ensure lasting

peace after the chaos caused by the Versailles Treaty, many looked to the League of

Nations to bring stability to the world. However, as new global challenges emerged over

the course of many years, the idealistic hopes of achieving lasting peace and stability in

the world through the League of Nations vanished. The world would experience yet

another brutal war, World War II.

After World War II came to an end, a concrete plan was drafted for a new world

order to replace the obsolete and ineffective League of Nations. This led to a meeting of

representatives of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of

South Africa, and of the exiled governments of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece,

Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Yugoslavia, as well as General de Gaulle

of France. Consequently, on 12 June 1941, a declaration that led up to the founding of the

United Nations and the Charter of the United Nations was signed in London.

Correspondingly, following the brutal ethnic conflict in Sierra Leone, the dual

accountability postconflict transitional justice mechanisms that were simultaneously

engaged as part of the sustainable peace-building initiative were conceived of as the key

to sustainable peace in Sierra Leone. Yet, like the Versailles Treaty, they were focused on

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retribution and therefore failed to meet their collective mandates in bringing sustainable

peace to Sierra Leone. In the end, it left the nation politically vulnerable and prone to a

resurgence of conflict. Hopefully, this study will contribute to the knowledge base on

alternative approaches to achieving sustainable peace in lieu of paradigm-driven and

conventional processes that emphasized retribution as a vehicle for transitional justice

with very little if any regard for constructive dialogue between the major causative agents

of conflicts through reconciliation.

The discussions are centered on comments and responses to selected interview

questions carefully designed to elicit information to address the central and secondary

research questions. Below are descriptions of the common themes/meanings that emerged

from the questions as they pertained to the central research question and subquestions.

The first interview question asked participants to give their expert political

analyses of each of the dominant groups: Krio, Mende and Temne. Having established

their history, this question was intended to help understand the underpinning of each

group’s political behavior in order to contextualize the extent of their political reach.

Krio

Kaufman (2008) has said that the tendency of colonial elites to favor Krios in the

colonial power structure as well as the stronger propensity for African descendants to

adopt European culture have gave African-Krio groups the edge. The Sierra Leone Krio is

the rule and not exception. However, Kaufman (2008) observed, that as with ethnic

majorities, developing global standards pose a challenge to dominant minorities. The

author also observed that in colonial settings, the Krio enjoyed political, but not cultural

dominance. For instance, according to Harris (2014), the Berlin Conference of 1884-85

which orchestrated the partitioning of Africa among European powers, caused a shift in

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paradigm. As Great Britain moved to claim the rest of the vast interior territory lying next

to the colony, to leverage vast resources for the industrial revolution, the need to engage

with the vastly more populous protectorate shifted the social dynamics in favor of the

indigene natives and made the Krio less important to the British. However, their inherent

political dominance stayed intact though relatively diminished in a wider national

context.

There was consensus among participants about this group’s political dominance.

Participants concur that the heterogeneous background of the Krio, is central to

explaining their political and social development and as a legitimate political force to be

reckoned with in Sierra Leone (Harris, 2014). Therefore, to have an appreciation of their

political contribution to sustainable peace in post-conflict Sierra Leone, every effort must

be expended to improve one’s understanding of this group and for that matter any

dominant ethnicity. Consequently, as Kaufman (2008) recommended, we must understand

how they are responding to the pressures of the changing demographics? Are they in

decline or are they successfully negotiating the challenge of new political patterns and

values? Answers to these questions give the basis of their political analyses, and concern

their political dominance.

Renner-Thomas (2010) has said that the desire of Krios to assimilate into the

greater sociopolitical construct of Sierra Leone was on the proviso that their desires could

be reciprocated by their acceptance to own land in native territories. Yet, Kaufman

(2008) highlighted the negative consequences of such an exploit. In that, just as dominant

ethnicity may be expressed in either political or cultural terms, it can take on either

expansive or restrictive form. Accordingly, expansive dominant ethnic strategies seek to

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project dominance outward to new lands, and in so doing may be content to let dominant

ethnic particularity lapse in favor of a broader national or imperial construct.

On this account, it would seem therefore, that this group was in decline due to

their expansive strategies, in light of shifting demographic patterns in Sierra Leone after

the colony and protectorate were merged into a nation-state. However, recent activism of

the nativist Krio organization, the Krio Descendants Association (KDA), has attempted to

revitalize this group’s homogeneousness in contradiction to its heterogeneity. According

to the mission statement of this group, the purpose and mission of the Krio Descendant

Association is to reconnect to, and enhance the cultural heritage of the Krios of Sierra

Leone through reflection, Education, and charitable giving.

K8, a bureaucrat contended:

With only four percent of the total population, the Krio has kept a strong presence

in the government bureaucracies. Their status in the body politic, since

independence has been relegated to non-elective offices. Yet, as functionaries in

key organs of state, the Krio has orchestrated policies that have had significant

impacts on state’s political and economic trajectories. Krios tend to avoid running

for national political offices (tend to focus more on local elections), yet they

significant actors in the Sierra Leone’s sociopolitical construct.

While this is an accurate reflection of the current political disposition of the Krio,

it however underscores what Renner-Thomas (2010) explains as, “the difference in social

background between the Krios and the rest of the indigenous population has been further

widened by the fact that the Krio are classified by certain state and local statutes as

“nonnatives” (p.7). Consequently, these statutes were used not only as the fulcrum to

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exclude Krio from land ownership in the provinces even when Krio were considered

citizens of Sierra Leone, but from participation in general, national suffrage. This may

explain why

Krios are confined to their localities in the former Colony.

Mende

Mendes are the second most dominant majority in Sierra Leone behind the

Temne, with a commanding majority both in numbers and in political representation

(Fyle, 2006). As shown earlier, the Mende make up 32 percent of the population in Sierra

Leone. According to Kaufman, this highlights two key aspects of the Mende’s

dominance: indigenousness and political power (Kaufman, 2004).

With respect to political power, the first political party, the SLPP was formed in

the Mende heartland by a Mende elite, named Sir Milton Margai who later became the

country’s first Prime Minister after ushering the nation to independence in 1961

(RennerThomas, 2010). As such, the Mende has assumed legitimacy over their claim of

ethnic primacy for being the first to set up Sierra Leone’s national identity as a nation-

state. This has therefore directly connected the Mende to the nation. As Kaufman (2008)

suggested, indigenousness is the driving force for the Mende to assume political

prominence; the idea that the country was theirs and they deserved to be in control of its

government and territory. The Mende’s path-breaking work to achieving ethnic

dominance involved their struggle over demographic increase (manifested in ‘winning’

the census of minor coethnic groups with whom they cohabit the provinces and over

which they exercise political dominance. Leadership of the SLPP party is exclusively

reserved to indigenous members of the Mende ethnic group. This is evident by recent

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power struggles between non-Mende aspirants to the SLPP leadership and indigenous

Mende candidates.

Thus, the Mendes express their dominance both politically and culturally. Like the

Krio, they too employ, two strategies to express and maintain their dominance:

expansively and restrictively. Unlike the Krio, it is through their expansive strategy that

Mende became very populous. Expansively, they projected their dominion outwardly to

new areas in the region. For instance, the core ethnic Mende are concentrated in the

Eastern Province (See Appendix A). However, they have managed to project their

prowess as far as the Northeast and Southeastern Provinces. As such they have kept a

strong presence in the broader national construct.

Restrictively, they are focused on keeping the purity of their core ethnicity from

external influences and often involve instruments, such as secret societies, the Poro or

Purrah according to historic accounts, which were antislavery cults to protect indigene

Mende from being captured into slavery as this historic account by Crook (1903) shows:

There was (and is) a fetish institution, the Purrah, whose objects were of a

distinctive character at its foundation, whatever it may have de-' generated into

later days. Its power extended to the Timinis surrounding Freetown and even

further inland, though its home appears to be in the Sherbro District. It is

supposed to have been founded by a confederacy, or secret society, whose

numbers increased rapidly, as a protection against the nefarious scheme adopted

by the Headmen of the tribes to obtain slaves for the markets. To avoid capture

people fled into the woods and joined the Purrah, and lived there entirely in bands

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for mutual support, and no one who entered these haunts as spies ever returned.

Any man going to them for refuge had to become a Purrah. That some sort of

pagan rites and mysteries were observed by the Purrah there is no doubt, but they

have never been revealed, and it is remarkable that no women were ever admitted

to even see any of the ceremonies that took place. (Crook, 1903, pp.68-69)

Other strategies include restrictions on marriages within the ethnic group, and

only reserved to other ethnic groups willing to adopt the Mende cultural values and are

proficient in the Mende dialect.

Temne

Temnes are unarguably the most populous ethnic group in Sierra Leone,

accounting for 35 percent of the population (Fyle, 2006). The Temne hold a significant

place in the history of the Colony. This is because it was the Temnes whose lands were

coveted and defrauded by Great Britain to resettle freed slaves in the Western Peninsular

in 1787 (Renner-Thomas, 2010). Consequently, this led to direct confrontations between

the settlers and the Temne which led the British Government to intervene on behalf of the

settlers and British declaration of the slave settlements as the British Crown Colony of

Sierra Leone. Due to their proximity to the colony, the Temne were the first natives in the

forefront of the decolonization movement against British occupation (Gberie, 2005).

Later when Great Britain occupied, the remainder of the territories adjacent to the colony

laying claims to them as the Protectorate, it was the Temne Chieftain, Bia Bureh Kasseh

who mounted a formidable challenge against British imposition of the Hut Tax in 1898.

Geographically, Temnes’ proximity to the Guinean border to the Northeast, gave them a

strategic and political advantage in the civil war to fend off rebel insurgency. So, Temnes

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did not suffer the brunt of war as did their counterparts in the Southeast. Participant, T6, a

lecturer pointed out:

The Temne were very active during colonialism but stayed dormant for much of

the period leading up to independence. This was attributable to the Temnes’

inclination, and interest in the achievement of independence from Great Britain,

rather than their involvement in inter-ethnic rivalry that was prevalent between

the Krio elites of the former Colony and the former Protectorate elites, mainly

Mende during the contentious debates on the floors of the legislative chambers

from 1924-1951. Krio and Mende representatives dominated the legislature

during the process of unification. For instance, the first political party, that

sprouted out of the protectorate in 1951, was founded by Mendes elites, and its

core leadership, except for a handful of notable Temne Paramount Chiefs who

stayed loyal to the party long after independence, were Mende. However, the tide

started to turn right after independence was achieved. Participants contended that

Temne elites felt marginalized by the new postcolonial SLPP administration made

up mostly of Mende elites. Temnes were relegated to lower level cabinet level

portfolios that were inconsequential to the political interests of the Temne, and

their role in the broader interest of the independent nation.

Seizing upon this disenfranchisement, and discord that existed between the Krio

of the Colony and the Protectorate elites, Siaka Stevens, a key cabinet member in the

SLPP administration, a member of the Limba tribe, one of the larger ethnic groups in the

North, broke away from the SLPP. With the alliance of the Northern elites, Siaka Stevens

founded the APC party in 1959. The timing couldn’t have been perfect for Siaka Steven

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to launch his party. In 1961, the defiant Siaka Stevens with a large Temne entourage in

tow, sat out independence talks at Lancaster House in London (popularly known as the

Constitutional Talks). Nonetheless, Great Britain granted independence to Sierra Leone

on April 27, 1961. Consequently, the APC party with a large Temne presence became the

main opposition party in Sierra Leone.

Political Grievances between Krio, Mende, and Temne

RQ1: How did collaboration between the Krio, Mende, and Temne support the

peace-building process in Sierra Leone? The responses revealed that while collaboration

among the three dominant ethnic groups on sustainable peace-building in post-conflict

Sierra Leone was a probability, their divergence on key aspects in their political behaviors

poses formidable challenges in achieving this feat. Accordingly, most of the Mende and

Temne participants believed political divergence are products of mixed grievances that

developed between the indigenous ethnicities of the former protectorate and the Krio of

the former British Crown Colony during colonial rule.

The seed of discord was sewn when the freed slaves first arrived in the former

colony. As discussed in earlier chapters, following fatal attacks on their lives by

defrauded Temne land owners living on the fringes, and menacing tropical deceases

which threatened their extinction shortly after their arrival the Peninsular, Great Britain

took over the settlements in 1808 and declared them a British Crown Colony of Sierra

Leone, thereby making the inhabitants who were later known as Krio, British subjects.

Thereafter, following the Berlin Conference (1884–85), the Royal Navy projected

its power inland, to lay claims on the rest of the territory lying adjacent to the colony and

declared it the Protectorate of Sierra Leone. However, unlike the Crown Colony which it

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ruled directly, Great Britain ruled the Protectorate and its inhabitants indirectly through

autocratic traditional rulers known as paramount chiefs. The disparate governing strategy,

would give the Krio an unfair political and socioeconomic advantage over their

indigenous neighbors. For instance, the Krio were given access to Western styled

educational facilities, therefore allowing them to become what a prominent Krio

intellectual, Akintola Wyse, described as “Black Englishmen who would eventually be

the agents of the propagation of European civilization as beacons of light in darkest

Africa” (Cole, 2012, p.13). Also as Gberie (2005) has noted, that as early as 1840, there

were “higher proportions of children attending primary schools in Freetown, than in

Britain” (p.19). Thus, was the foundation of discord between the Krio and the rest of the

ethnicities in the former protectorate among whom the Mende and Temne were the largest

groups, constituting over 70 percent of the population in the two British territories.

This discord would reverberate over the course of British rule and leading up to

the period, Great Britain was preparing the two territories for statehood. This process of

unification was started in 1924, under the Slater Constitution, named after seating

Governor Ransford Slater. During this period, Great Britain made its first attempt to bring

the two territories under a unicameral legislative unit. The lopsided apportionment of the

colony/protectorate representation which provided for five elected representatives from

the colony, compared to only three handpicked and appointed chiefs from the Protectorate

would heighten the existing tensions between the two groups; particularly considering as

Gberie (2005) rightly noted, that the Protectorate was a dozen times larger and more

populous than the Colony.

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Participants, mostly Krio, acknowledged that while historic grievances between

the Krio elites of the Colony on one side against the Mende and Temne elites of the

Protectorate on the other are well publicized in Sierra Leonean history, yet, inter-ethnic

strife in the Protectorate between the ruling autocratic, traditional rulers and their subjects

in the Protectorate chiefdoms in 1955 and again in 1956, few years before the two

territories were united are not often discussed (Gberie, 2005). As Sawyer (2008) pointed

out, the oppressiveness and dishonesty of traditional Chiefs, who were of Mende and

Temne ethnicities, led to widespread riots and looting in the Protectorate leading to many

deaths and loss of properties. While these grievances speak to endemic inter-ethnic

discord, nonetheless, they underscore the salience of dualism or hybrid political orders

under which the protectorate was governed under British indirect rule and remained so

even today under sovereignty.

Identified Themes

Theme 1: Solidarity. When participants were asked to analyze how each group

viewed interethnic relations; acquiescence to cross-ethnic social, political and economic

relations without regard to political affiliations and ethnicity, Solidarity emerged as the

most common theme in most of the responses. Kaufman (2008) suggested that the

projection of national unity around the political culture of a dominant ethnic groups has

been met with imperfect success. Rather than the solidarity which is hoped for, instead,

the author found “conflictual, relationship between ethnic cores and peripheral ethnies, as

in states like Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, sometimes leading to open ethnic

wars, as in the former Burma, Sudan and Zaire” (p.42-43).

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Due to the mixed grievances that initiated the suspicious trends that haunted their

desire for national unity, Sierra Leone’s most dominant ethnic groups may have difficulty

with solidarity as Kaufman, envisioned around their political culture alone. Yet, Sidanius

and Pratto (1999) offer an insight into the realistic group conflict theory that suggests

among other things, the simplest of social-psychological models of intergroup relations

that was developed by many social scientists to explain intergroup phenomena such as

war, domination, and ethnocentrism. Thus, the misconception that “one group’s gain is

another’s loss, translates into perceptions of group threat, which in turn causes prejudice

against the outgroup, negative stereotyping of the outgroup, ingroup solidarity, awareness

of ingroup identity, and internal cohesion, including intolerance of ingroup deviants,

ethnocentrism, use of group boundary markers, and discriminatory behavior” (p.24).

This intergroup imbroglio between the three ethnic groups in Sierra Leone fits

perfectly within the two models Sidanius and Pratto (1999) described that are based on

two assumptions. The first is that these groups have a history of national and communal

identity and therefore a shared destiny. Second, the groups believe themselves to be in

competition over valued resources whereby political power is the vehicle that transports

them to those ends. While these two conditions are certainly sufficient to produce a threat,

nonetheless, the authors argue that “they are by no means necessary” (p.24).

However, Vasilev (2015) unravels the impasse. Solidarity he suggested, remains

the core objective for those looking for widely shared answers to problems of deep

divisions. For it is the central component of those seeking social change. However, he

conceded that there were no universally accepted precepts to its achievement and its

conditions are not underpinned by any theoretical assumptions. Instead studies on

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multicultural collaboration and solidarity such as this, are characterized by opposing

assumptions on its preconditions, with each perspective claiming not only analytical

preeminence but able to point to historical evidence that casts doubt over tenability of the

other.

In much the same way as the political dominance of the three dominant groups

has disadvantaged the rest of the minority ethnic groups in Sierra Leone, Bell (1989)

made similar claims in his interest convergence argument in the Brown versus Board

decision. Bell (1989) used Doctor Herbert Wechsler’s rejection of the notion that the

United States Supreme Court’s decision in Brown versus Board of Education was

predicated on a declaration that the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States

Constitution barred all racial lines in legislation. He goes on to say that Wechsler was also

dubious that the basis of the court’s opinion was predicated on the fact that segregation

caused injury to black children since there were no evidence to support that notion.

Instead, Wechsler argued that the court’s decision in Brown nestled the view that racial

segregation was a denial of equality to the minority group that is not dominant politically

and, therefore, had no choice in the matter. Even then, Wechsler found this argument

unsustainable as well, because, among other difficulties, it would require an analysis into

the motives of the dominant group.

After dismissing the foregoing arguments, Wechsler declared that the legal issue

in state mandated apartheid cases was the denial by the state of freedom to associate, a

denial that encroaches upon any groups or races that may be involved. Wechsler premised

his argument on grounds that if the freedom of association is denied by segregation,

integration would then force an association upon those for whom it is unpleasant or

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objectionable. In concluding arguments, Wechsler asked, that given a situation where the

state must virtually choose between denying the association to the groups who wish it or

imposing it on those who would avoid it, can a neutral ground be found where the

Constitution demands that the claims for association should prevail?

Bell’s (1989) interest convergence theory provides an ample neutral ground on

which ethnic solidarity might be achieved in Sierra Leone. Indeed, in the Brown ruling

was the greatest racial consciousness raising the United States has ever known. Therefore,

to doubt that racial segregation was harmful to blacks, and to suggest that what blacks

really sought was the right to associate with whites, was inconceivable. Undoubtedly,

therefore, the equal protection under the law, clause clearly bars racial segregation

because segregation harms blacks and benefits whites in ways too numerous for citation.

In like manner, the Krio, Mende and Temne has certain inherent privileges not

accorded to other ethnic groups. Therefore, logically, any state law requiring ethnic

solidarity, and therefore ethnic equality cannot be followed without some discomfort to

elites of the dominant groups. It is precisely here, that many in the dominant groups

would find discord with those who call for solidarity. Some may agree that other ethnic

groups are citizens and are entitled to equality under law, however, few will be willing to

recognize that the political influence wielded by the dominant groups was something that

should be sacrificed without significantly impacting the existing sociopolitical dynamics

in the nation. The extent of this unwillingness is illustrated by recent attempts by the

Temne dominated APC party government to manipulate the electoral process in order to

win another presidential term in March of 2017.

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Then within the Mende dominated political party, the SLPP, a fierce power

struggle has commenced ahead of general elections slated for March 2017. The leading

contender, former Army Major, and military head of state, Julius Maada Bio, a member of

the majority Mende ethnic group, has refused to allow other more viable candidates from

minority ethnic groups, to vie for flagberership, despite his unpopularity in the country,

amid growing concerns that his insistence on becoming the leading candidate for the

presidency will result in the party’s defeat at the polls. Major Bio, was defeated in the

2007 elections by President, Ernest Bai Koroma. In any case, most Mendes cannot

envision the potential sacrifice of their political dominance inherent in allowing a

nonMende to become the party’s leading candidate for president.

In strengthening the various responses by the participants on the concept of

solidarity, Vasilev (2015) asserted that, given the moral and practical necessities of

solidarity, it should be unsurprising that governments, social scientists and philosophers

would devote a significant amount of effort to understanding and promoting this concept.

He goes on to say further that a society characterized by breakdown in solidarity cannot

flourish. He argued that, individuals will care about the fate of their group ahead of the

fate of their nation, thereby leaving prosperity and security unevenly distributed and

incompletely realized and the practice of governance increasingly strained as citizens

resist rather than consent to political authority in the face of their disagreements. Where

this is an ingrained feature, of social life, the specter of violent conflict is never too far

away while the interactions characterizing intergroup encounters are anything but

emblematic of a healthy and vibrant multiculturalism. Thus, solidarity is a crucial concept

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required for the dominant ethnic groups to collaborate on sustainable peace building in

post conflict context.

Theme 2: Individual freedom and social pluralism. There was also consensus

among participants on the need for individual freedom and social pluralism in Sierra

Leone; a society where multiple people, groups or entities share and/or have

proportionate access to economic resources and political power. Yet according to Murphy

(2015) poignant questions relative to post-conflict Sierra Leone abound: are multicultural

policies a threat to liberty and equality? Can the state accommodate pluralism without

sacrificing peace and stability? The author critically assesses multiculturalism from the

standpoint of political philosophy and political practice.

In Sierra Leone where political power is monopolized alternatively by the two

dominant majority groups, Mende and Temne, and with the third dominant minority, Krio

acting as the balance of power, elites from these groups have on occasion expressed

doubts about pluralism a prescription for sustaining social unity in such a culturally

diverse society. They instead think it’s a recipe for division, disunity and social

disintegration by accusing the concept of promoting an unhealthy obsession with cultural

difference that not only encourages misleading interethnic policies, but which also risks

diverting attention and resources from more serious and deep-seated national malaise,

including class divisions and socio-economic inequality and deprivation.

With regard to individual freedom, individuals find themselves constrained by

their allegiance and common loyalty to the group or political party in power. Therefore,

Social Pluralism thrusts upon the individual citizen, particularly in dominant ethnic

groups, challenges underscored by divided loyalty. Yet as studies suggest, the question of

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what are the fair terms of integration in contemporary diverse societies arises out of two

opposed tendencies. One, towards diversity, is driven by several factors, including the

movement of people because of adverse conditions not of their own making. The other is

the clear need for some sort of unity within a polity. Therefore, social multiculturalism or

for a better term, social pluralism offers a framework for addressing this central and

pressing question. At its most basic, pluralism or multiculturalism upholds the importance

of individual freedom while recognizing that ethnicity can no longer be privatized if

individual freedom is to be at all meaningful. This means that at least some diversity that

exists within a polity must be recognized and actions taken that alleviate at least some of

the potential disadvantages that would otherwise occur.

Themes 3: Reconciliation. Reconciliation, in its rudimentary form is an

unconditional mutually acceptable pardon reached after series of positive engagements

and dialogue between former adversaries. Yet the lingering questions are inconceivable.

Participants were divided on the mode of reconciliation that would be morally proper

given the intensity of violence and the egregious nature of the conflict in Sierra Leone.

According to Vasilev (2015), this form of reconciliation is achievable when previous,

conflict-era identities no longer operate as the primary cleavages in politics, and thus

citizens acquire new identities that cut across those earlier fault lines (Vasilev, 2015).

Victim testimony, public testimonies of perpetrators and of those who experienced

violence, in the context of a truth and reconciliation commission may be one of the best

contemporary examples of an agonistic moment in transitional justice. However, this

regime is inadequate in that the causative agents of the conflict are spectators to the sports

they brought into fruition without themselves been summoned to participate in the

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testimony. The failure and successes of this depends to a considerable extent, the political

actors. In her summary of the impact of the concurrent existence of both the TRC and the

Special Court for Sierra Leone, Apori-Nkansah (2008) explains why the TRC failed in

Sierra Leone:

In terms of impact, first it was found that the concurrent existence of both the

TRC and SCSL mechanisms impacted on the two institutions negatively and

positively. In the case of the TRC, it came out that it suffered from lack of funding

and other resources to be able to effectively execute its mandate. The international

and donor community put their support behind the Court which was their

preferred accountability mechanism as a result, truth and reconciliation suffered.

Also, people refrained from dealing with the TRC, and, when they did, failed to

speak the truth for fear of the Court. The TRC did not have the version of the

Court’s detainees about the conflict. Because perpetrators were mostly absent in

the TRC hearings, the TRC could not create the forum of exchange between

perpetrators and victims for purposes of reconciliation. On the positive side, it

was felt that the presence of the Court helped the TRC; the Court gave the

assurance that evidence given at the TRC would not be used by the Court. This

engendered confidence and hope in the TRC process. On its part, the Court

appeared to have suffered in terms of not securing enough evidence and the

necessary witnesses required for its work because a lot of information accrued to

the TRC that was not made available to it, or which the Court did not make use

of. Generally, however, the Court was said to have benefited from the side by side

existence of the institutions by gleaning information from the TRC public

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hearings. It also came out that other factors may have contributed to the problems

the TRC had. But on the whole participants were of the view that the TRC in

comparison with the Court was marginalized whereas the Court was enhanced.

(Apori-Nkansah, 2008, p.237)

From the foregoing, the idea of utilizing two mechanisms concurrently did not

guarantee full justice and accountability or provide safeguards to victims or perpetrators

in allowing them full disclosures of their actions. The author expressed therefore, that

policymakers should have found a way to let one mechanism predicate on the other.

Throughout the study, the South African model was touted as a good example. That is,

confession through the TRC process entitled Apartheid-era adversaries a grant of

unconditional amnesty. However, in Sierra Leone, the interchange of transcripts between

the two was too risky for both the victim and perpetrators to give full disclosures. In other

words, victims and perpetrators testified concurrently before the two mechanisms.

Furthermore, the predominant international view on dealing with war crimes and

other human right breaches was to prosecute perpetrators to the full extent of the law with

no amnesty and forgiveness regardless which side perpetrators fought. There were no

good Samaritan provisions. Therefore, the international community was averse to the

TRC. As it turned out the international community’s intransigent position on retribution

versus reconciliation, had an adverse impact on transitional justice in Sierra Leone,

particular since donor nations were reluctant to fund the TRC, which they perceived as an

acquiescence to impunity. Therefore, when the government requested the Special Court,

there was unanimity on setting it up and fully funding it with some of the funds

redistributed from earmarked TRC funds to the Special Court. This was the source of

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conflict between the two mechanisms. In hindsight, the author recommended therefore

that the international community should have reevaluated its position within the unique

realities of the prevailing post-conflict transitional context. Accordingly, amnesty

provided in exchange for truth disclosures must never be used as pretext to shield war

criminals against prosecution. Using full disclosure at the TRC as an incentive to

negotiate the terms of peace was ill-conceived.

According to Hirsch (2012), most literature on reconciliation are focused on a

vision of achieving communitarian social accord; a philosophy that underscores the

individual’s relationship to the community and the social standing that ensues from such

responsibilities. That through collective acts of public apology and clemency, restitution

and restoration are conveyed, and the violent conflict of the past is substituted for by what

John Rawls termed, the ‘Overlapping consensus’ of community. That, in the moral

foundation of Truth Commissions lies the purposive democratic principles in the service

of ‘mutual respect’ and ‘common ground’.

Accordingly, such principles provide a moral justification for forgoing criminal

justice in the name of the ‘general social benefit’ that reconciliation offers. The outcome

of those benefits requires that individuals, both the aggrieved and the perpetrators ‘seek

common ground wherever it may exist, and maintain mutual respect where it may not.

Mutual respect as Gutmann (1990) asserted, is the foundation upon which deliberation

rests, requiring citizens to strive not only for agreement on basic governing structure but

also agreeing to disagree on how they deal with differences. In other words, reconciliation

means creating rational relations between historical foes based on reciprocity, common

interests, and sustainable agreements.

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Schaap (2005) argued that in societies divided by violence, reconciliation has

been promoted in politics as a way of reckoning with the legacy of political violence

while opening the way for a stable and peaceful community in the future. But, one must

recognize that reconciliation is at odds with politics. Whereas politics requires

transparency and openness, conflict and dissent, reconciliation is directed towards

closure, harmony, and compromise. How, then, might politics be reconciled with

reconciliation, is the question for those who seek to investigate its agency.

Limitations of the Study

As stated earlier, limitations are inherent characteristics of any qualitative case

study research design. Confidently acknowledging their existence, and forthrightness in

discussing them before they are pointed out by the reader, or an evaluator is not only

prudent but illustrates a clear and thoughtful analyses of the research problem, and a

thorough review of the relevant literature, and the assessment of the proper method

chosen for studying the problem. It is therefore important to note that the limitations

listed here did not diminish the validity of this research nor did they influence the results

and conclusions in any ways. These limitations are discussed within two contexts: (a)

methodological, and (b) research limitations.

Methodological limitations, called sample limitations, are those limitations

involving the relationship between units of analyses and the sample size. For instance, the

twenty-one expert participants interviewed may not equivalently and/or proportionately

represent the targeted ethnic groups. This was due in part to the fluidity of ethnicity in

Sierra Leone. By fluidity, I mean, there were few participants who claimed mixed

ethnicity due to their lineage to one or the other ethnic group based on tribal and ancestral

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lineage of one of their parents. Accordingly, few participants belonged to a patrilineal

ethnic group while few others belonged to a matrilineal grouping. A patriliny is the

practice of tracing descent through the father's line. The matriliny is contrast of the

former. These limitations were anticipated, and were overcome by proper vetting and the

criteria set for inclusion.

However, since the quality of the findings was dependent on the quality of data

collected, this study utilized a purposeful sampling strategy to select participants carefully

and deliberately who fit a preconceived profile for interviewing. Data collected from

these participants through formal and/or informal interviews allowed conclusions to be

made with confidence, while also providing compensation for the size limitation. This

supports the argument that the choice of participants and settings for the study were

purposefully made to provide an understanding of the purpose, problem and research

question (Creswell, 2007). As such, careful vetting and selecting the participants

hopefully ensured quality of the data collected.

Another possible methodological limitation involved Sierra Leone’s colonial

history. Typically, historical materials were not current and there was no access to the

authors for verification or clarification. The main disadvantage was their lack of currency

or relevance to present political conditions. Therefore, to overcome this limitation,

reliance was exclusively on currently written peer-reviewed articles as primary sources to

corroborate historical data. This was necessary to establish a link between what was

written in the past and what has been written in the present.

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Another limitation was the inherent nature of qualitative research as cited by those

who analyzed qualitative case studies. Accordingly, there were subjectivity and personal

interpretations in the planning, management, execution, and evaluation of the study (Yin,

2009). The issue of subjectivity was fundamental given the fact that, as a native Sierra

Leonean, I had a preconceived notion with regards current political environment.

However, these prejudices and/or biases were mitigated by differentiating between

perceptions and reality. In this regard, I limited active participation on social media and

discussion forums pertaining to Sierra Leonean politics. This was done to reinforce the

veracity of the study and its findings (Creswell, 2009; Patton, 2002). Furthermore, the

research participants were used to validate the findings, a process referred to as member

checking.

The second set of limitations, research limitation, had to do with access or lack

thereof, of prior information on the topic. A fact not usually acknowledged according to

Paul Williams (2011), is that accounting for Africa’s insatiable appetite for armed

conflicts is a daunting task. Therefore, searching for, and compiling accurate information

is a huge problem, due to two inherent factors; it is sometimes dangerous to collect, and

also what a researcher ought to look for may not be clear-cut. In other words, data about

what goes on before, during and after most conflicts may not be accurate due to their

unavailability in post-conflict settings. It is therefore important to recognize at the outset

that when it comes to conflict zones in Africa, the fundamentals of knowledge are

markedly unstable.

With very limited literature therefore, the typology of the research had to be

exploratory rather than explanatory. As such this limitation served as an important

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opportunity to describe the need for further research. Furthermore, with very little

knowledge in the literature about the political dynamics between the units of analyses,

this limitation also served to focus the study on filling the discovered gap in the literature.

Another limitation had to do with the location where the research was conducted.

This study was conducted exclusively in the United States. Since the study was about

Sierra Leone’s dominant ethnic groups, it would have been plausible to conduct the

research on location in Sierra Leone. But because this was case studies of the political

behavior of a group, and not an observation of their culture, as in an ethnographic study,

the location limitation had no bearing on the findings and conclusions of the research.

Furthermore, conducting the research on location in Sierra Leone would’ve

required the recruitment of participants in Sierra Leone. However, due to the volatility of

the political climate in that nation, finding willing participants to interview would’ve

presented a formidable challenge. Least not because of individual inhibitions but due to

political and social consideration and constraints. Therefore, conducting the research here

in the United States provided access to an inherently free political climate, where

participants were able to freely discuss sensitive political matters without fear of

repercussion.

Recommendations for Further Study

As previously discussed, the scarcity and inaccuracy of post conflict data in

general, thrust upon researchers the need to conduct exploratory research rather than an

explanatory one. This topic is no exception. Since this study only deals with the political

behavior of the three dominant ethnic groups, Krio, Mende and Temne, and because each

of these groups are not monolithic, a need for further research to better understand the

132

impact of demographics and other factors on the political behavior of each group as it

may influence collaboration is recommended.

For instance, Cole (2013), a prolific author of the widely acclaimed book, The

Krio of West Africa, Islam, Culture, Creolization, and Colonialism in the Nineteenth

Century argued vociferously against an enduring myth that has been proliferated about

the Krio. Cole suggests that the mindset of researchers as they discuss this heterogenous

group is the belief that they are mostly Christian. This, the author discounted as a myth

which has been spread by other renowned commentators of Krio descent. In fact, those

authors, Cole suggested, use Creole, instead of Krio to define this group which has a large

Islamic adherence. This study did not consider the impact a group’s core religious belief

would have on the collective political behavior of the group. Therefore, further research

that would factor religion is highly recommended for each of the ethnic groups. Also, the

sample size of twenty-one may not have adequately represented the population of

interest, particularly for reasons which border on demographics as cited above. While a

qualitative research places no limits on sample size, increasing the sample size could

compensate for the for the demographic limitations of the study.

Implications for Social Change

The implications for social change in this study are focused on improving ethnic

relations, and building coalitions and partnerships between former adversaries for the

achievement of sustainable peace and strengthening democracy in post conflict and

conflict prone nations. However, these implications can only be realized in the targeted

nations if major causative actors of conflict found common grounds whereupon their

interests may converge on the greater national good. In that regard, Derrick Bell’s (1980)

133

interest convergence principle underpinned both the theoretical and principled bases for

the achievement and success of these social implications.

However, one could argue that Bell’s interest convergence principle was

premised on racial injustice and inequality that African-Americans suffer in America.

Therefore, its implications for ethnic inequality in post-conflict contexts in African

nations would seem remote and unparalleled. The exegesis of the theory notwithstanding,

Bell’s theory would find its universal implications through the late Martin Luther King

Jr’s, letter from Birmingham jail, April 16, 1963: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice

everywhere.” Furthermore, succeeding sentences in Kings letter was the fulcrum that

could tie Bell’s theory to a wider African context: “We are caught in an inescapable

network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly,

affects all indirectly.” This central thesis to Bell’s interest convergence principle is the

nexus from the Brown decision to the corridors of ethnic divisions in Sierra Leone. The

Whites are the dominant groups in America, in much the same as whites are the most

powerful and dominant minority in Apartheid-era South Africa, or as powerful Tutsi

minorities, were over Hutus in Rwanda or for that matter as the Krio, Mende and Temne

are in Sierra Leone. The common feature among all the nations mentioned is that they are

or were conflict nations, or conflict-prone nations.

Bell’s interest convergence principle, provided the lens through which the political

behavior of the dominant ethnic groups in Sierra Leone were evaluated, planed, guided,

and directed toward the collective interest of the groups upon which they could converge

to promote peace for the greater national interest.

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However, the Brown decision, illustrated how the Court’s unanimous decision was

predicated upon the interest of Blacks to achieve civil rights trough the desegregation of

public schools, which converged with the national interest of the nation to illuminate

America’s image, albeit an incorrect one. However, for Sierra Leone, using Bell’s

principle could have positive social change implication in that, Sierra Leone’s image

around the world is as Kaufman (2008) described, a politically and socioeconomically

unstable nation barely emerging from the brinks of war. And a nation, Wiafe-Amoako

(2014) said, has come last in the UN Development Program ranking of human

development indicators of 179 countries in the last two consecutive years. Therefore, it is

in the interest of the government of Sierra Leone, international donor nations, the United

Nation, and regional partners that Sierra Leone’s major ethnic groups collaborate to

support peace-building in Sierra Leone.

Therefore, peering through Bell’s theory, this study would contribute to positive

social change by identifying key political behavioral factors of the three dominant groups

that could be collaborated not only to support but to achieve sustainable peace in Sierra

Leone. This is because Bell’s interest convergence theory provides the ample theoretical

basis for understanding those factors that are of mutual interest to the three groups upon

which they could converge to support sustainable peace-building efforts.

It is hoped that pursuant to their interest convergence, this would lead to what

Kaufman (2008) described as “a fully developed nation-state, as we know it from Western

societies after the Second World War; indeed, a more inclusive, more accountable, more

equitable, and universalistic form of politics” (Kaufman, 2008, p.64).

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However, it has long been the view, that the elites of the dominant ethnicities bear

the responsibility for stoking and exacerbating ethnic tensions. Therefore, the state's elites

are unable to provide these collective interests to the entire population of the national

state. Therefore, the collaboration of the ethnic groups as Kaufman (2008) envisions,

would develop on sub-national, ethnic basis. Accordingly, “the polity will then be

solidarity” (p.65).

Findings from the study show that the three dominant groups have divergent

political views, ideologies, and participations. Nonetheless, they have a convergent

interest in a peaceful coexistence, which is needed to enable the development of

appropriate institutions to ensure a stable and after-conflict environment for states coming

out of violent conflict (Wiafe-Amoako, 2014). Without which, there will be no

investment or development.

This information in and of itself is significant in that it provides invaluable

information about the political behavior of ethnic groups, of which there was very little

knowledge. It also provides invaluable information regarding their divergence as well as

where their interests converge. This is significant given that the identified behavioral

factors wherein they differ are the very ones Bangura (1996), said, are “processes through

which dominant groups influence and interpret the political context within the polity” (p.

xii). Therefore, knowledge about these facts is important for policy makers, international

observers, NGOs. These stakeholders can use this information in ways that would be of

great benefit to the ethnic groups and the nation.

Equipped with an understanding of the political behavior of dominant ethnic

groups, policy makers can use this information to improve the political climate of the

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nation by instituting policies that support ethnic cooperation and tolerance. The

government will be better informed about the allocation of limited resources and public

goods, that will be just and equitable. International commentators, can use the

information to apprise the international community, of sociopolitical factors that are not

factored into assessing the nation’s developmental indices. Non-governmental agencies

will be better prepared to carry out their tasks in the equitable dispensation of resources.

Taking everything else into account, the collaboration of ethnic groups, would not

only break down barriers between adversaries, but would create opportunities for the

public to recapture lost traditions and institutions by eradicating ethnic and political line

of demarcations. It will deprive party bosses and elites of political and economic

influence that they could use to stifle reform. This will signal a commitment to individual

freedom and the revival of democratic institutions and the reestablishment of

constitutional precedents that may deter future leaders from repeating the abuses of their

power.

Conclusions

In recent times, nations divided by a history of violence and conflict, and

transitioning from war to peace have sought to heal wounds and bring about

reconciliation by the employment of transitional justice mechanisms. These mechanisms

have been expressed through the concept of truth, justice and reconciliation. For instance,

shortly before the end of the 10-year civil conflict in Sierra Leone, the TRC was the

primary means by which the government and rebels entered negotiations for the cessation

of hostilities. The terms of the cease-fire would be violated by the rebels, forcing the

government to request for and set up the Special Court to augment the existing TRC.

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However, with both mechanisms set up and ran concurrently, there was an overlap in their

individual mandates, creating tensions in their efforts to implement their plans (Apori-

Nkansah, 2008). Devoid of any reconciliation mechanism, and a sustainable peace-

building initiative, the fragile peace deal, that was reached unraveled rendering the nation

politically vulnerable. According to Hanlon (2008), the same old men who were

responsible for starting the war are back in power, both in government and in the

reinstated chieftaincy system, and corruption is still rampant, while young people remain

unemployed and unemployable. Thus, with prewar political patterns remerging,

international observers are circumspect that a resurgent could be eminent, unless real

sustainable peace-building initiatives were undertaken.

Therefore, this research was conducted to explore an alternative sustainable

peace-building initiative in Sierra Leone. In doing so, an aggressive literature review on

the concept of transitional justice, as sponsored and deployed by the United Nation in

collaboration with the governments of host nations was conducted. There were many

instances where the international criminal court and the TRC were deployed concurrently,

and few cases where reconciliation was the sole mechanism. For instance, drawing on a

wide range of case studies, from South Africa to Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Rwanda and

Australia, researchers have argued for an alternative approach to postconflict thought that

include community development through the collaboration of ethnic groups (Hirsch,

2012; see also Miller, 2010). In so doing, they found encouragement in ideas of politics

by pluralist, pragmatist, and especially agonistic political theory. In most of those studies,

the South African model was one that was touted as the most successful due to its reliance

on a pluralist, pragmatist and a non-agonistic theory of unconditional reconciliations.

138

During the literature search strategy and an ambitious review process, a

proliferation and an abundance of existing knowledge about the role dominant ethnicities

play in fermenting violent conflict was discovered. For instance, Williams (2015) is

among the growing list of authors who have argued that the major causative agents of

wars in Africa are competing dominant ethnic groups. However, hardly has there been

any research undertaken to explore their collaboration in support of sustainable peace in

post-conflict setting. In Sierra Leone for instance, the Krio, Mende, and Temne, are the

most powerful and dominant groups in the country. Numerically, they account for 70

percent of the population, with the Krio constituting four percent, the Mende 32, and

Temne with 35 percent. However, these groups have not been studied within the context

of collaboration in supporting any initiatives relative to post-conflict peacebuilding.

Consequently, the Mende and Temne have used the two contending political

parties, the SLPP, and APC as their platform for political control. The Krio, has acted as

the lever of the balance of power between the two. Thus, the Mende and Temne have

divided the nation into Southern and Northern regions, by forging alliances with coethnic

groups in their regional spheres of influence to maintain political control in the region.

Armed with this knowledge, the idea to explore ethnic collaboration in support of

sustainable peace-building in Sierra Leone by closely examining the three dominant

ethnic groups was conceived. Consequently, in-depth interviews of twenty-one expert

Sierra Leoneans to gain insight into their experiences and knowledge about the political

behavior of the targeted ethnic population was conducted. Selection of participants was

through purposive sampling. Success of which, according to Yin (2009), depends on the

accessibility of participants who are well-informed about the phenomenon being studied,

139

and the researcher’s knowledge and ability of the population. Since, participant

interviews alone could not have effectively captured the full essence of the phenomenon,

participant observations and document analysis were utilized to enhance the interview

data and provide an in-depth understanding of the concepts being studied. Data collection

and data analyses were concurrently undertaken for currency and correspondence of

patterns. As indicated in the data collection section, notes were also taken to record my

observation of participants’ body language.

Designed to answer one central and four subsequent research questions, the

findings of the study added to existing scholarly, and peer reviewed knowledge on

alternative peace-building mechanisms, with emphasis on constructive engagement and

reconciliation between warring parties, rather than retribution.

The research findings suggested that the three ethnicities are very divergent in

their political views, ideologies, and markedly differ in political participation and

practices. It is important for the reader to bear in mind that in African societies,

particularly in Sierra Leone, ethnic interests underpin political behavior and elections are

mere censuses of ethnic support. Therefore, for the sake of clarity, it is important that

each of these political behavioral factors are operationalized and contrasted for the reader

to have clearer understanding of the context in which they are used in this study.

Political ideology and views: in this context, represent ideals, principles,

doctrines, myths or symbols by which ethnic group are mobilized and rally around as

common thread. Those could be based on shared cultural, traditional and customary

lineages. For instance, members of an ethnic group will support a political party based on

the group’s preference not individual preference. In Sierra Leone, majority of the Temne

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support the APC party, while the majority of Mende support the SLPP. The policy

preferences of these groups are often reflected in the administrations of these political

parties not based on national interest but ethnic interest.

Political practices – include actions that individuals and/or groups take in

promoting and supporting a political party in order to strengthen or improve its chances

of winning elections. It also involves the selection and supporting of candidates who

share the group’s values and policy preferences.

Political participation - deals with actual processes, and actions, taken by

members of a group to show their support. These include voting, campaigning, and/or

attending rallies.

So, with the research focused on their political behaviors to determine convergent

factors for collaboration, it would seem almost impossible that they would collaborate on

anything, let alone on supporting peace. Nonetheless, Bell’s (1980) interest convergence

principle can be used as a rallying point for the three ethnic groups to unify in supporting

sustainable peace-building in Sierra Leone.

However, this will not happen in a vacuum. It will need the backing and support

of all stakeholders in their unique capacities, to help the process along. Sustainable peace

in the nation is of benefit to the entire nation. It is a documented fact that post-conflict

nations where the existing peace is under threat is a haven for instability,

underdevelopment and insecurity resulting amongst other issues, a tarnished national

image (Williams, 2015). Bell contended that the United States Supreme Court’s decision

in the Brown V. Board was predicated on the notion that, a favorable ruling for school

desegregation, would result in a positive image of the United States to the international

141

community during the Cold War. While the ruling was a significant milestone in civil

rights legislation much to the discomfort of Whites, particularly in the Jim Crow South,

the overarching benefit to the entire nation was significant.

Correspondingly, the government of Sierra Leone, including the administration,

legislators, and the judiciary, and civil society actors, and the international community

can all play significant roles in enhancing the peace process by taking actions that are

uniquely within their purview. The government and policymakers can cosponsor

legislation that would facilitate a cooperative atmosphere among all ethnic groups, not

only dominant ethnicities. Civil society actors with political influence over members of

the targeted ethnicities; particularly the elites, must understand, that the achievement of

sustainable peace is a viable interest convergence for the greater good of all, and

therefore, in their best interest to help propagate its manifestation. While the three

dominant groups have been cited in this study as bearing the responsibility for enhancing

the peace-building process in Sierra Leone, the international community has been

impugned in numerous studies as counterproductive to political stability. For instance,

Hanlon (2005) argued that the policies of the international community are, inadvertently,

promoting a return to pre-war conditions. Responses from the participants echo similar

sentiments, that corporations involved in diamond exploration have not done enough to

bring development to Sierra Leone, despite Millions of Dollars in proceeds from the

diamond mines. The international community should assume advocacy for the

multinational corporations and the government to enhance local development efforts that

result in equality in the distribution of diamond wealth for all Sierra Leoneans, not only

the politically connected.

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Although the findings have added meaning and understanding to the concept of

ethnic collaborations, the sociopolitical issues highlighted but not discussed in detail due

to the studies delimitations, are suggestive of some of the broader problems Sierra

Leoneans are grappling with. As indicated earlier, the hostile political environment in

Sierra Leone precluded any attempts to conduct this research in Sierra Leone. As such

there is an opportunity for further research on numerous social and political issues when

the political climate improves. The international community should double its effort to

bring more accountability to the dispensation of donor funds, especially for disaster

relief. Quite too often funds have landed in the wrong hands and failed to trickle down to

those for whom it was intended. Therefore, future studies must be undertaken to

investigate corrupt practices at the highest level of government. In recent times, most

Sierra Leoneans have been traumatized by natural disasters and pandemics, such as

flooding and the Ebola pandemic of 2014. However, no studies were undertaken not only

to investigate how they came about, and how future attacks can be prevented.

Specifically, no studies have been done to investigate specific problems related to these

traumatic events. For instance, the Ebola pandemic left thousands of children orphaned,

and recent flooding outside of Freetown, the state capital resulted in the death of

thousands. Future studies should be devoted to investigating, psychological disorders

resulting from loss of family and property, homelessness, poverty, and gender inequality.

Understandably, the war left the nation completely bankrupt to deal with all the

issues. However, corruption has remained the most predominant vice that has bankrupted

the nation’s coffers more than the war. Civil society actors, politicians and policymakers

must all understand that reliant on international aid is an externality. By that I mean it is

143

primarily a cost that affects the citizenry who did not choose to incur that cost. Building

the nation’s economic capacity and adopting internalize policy to counter an externality,

so that costs and benefits will affect parties who choose to incur them will be the prudent

thing to do. Sierra Leone is endowed with great economic resources. However,

mismanagement of these resources remains the single most important challenge facing

the nation.

Finally, the results of this study have illustrated that the three ethnicities bear the

greatest responsibility for bringing sustainable peace to Sierra Leone, and stabilizing the

political climate. These should not be defined in terms of politics alone, nor an ethnic

grievance issue as Sierra Leone’s colonial history suggests. This is a question of morality

and what is nationally in the best interest of all citizens regardless of political affiliation

or ethnicity. This is where the interest of all citizens regardless of ethnicity, and/or

political affiliation should converge.

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