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African Affairs Advance Access published online on November 9, 2006
African Affairs, doi:10.1093/afraf/adl038
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© The Author [2006]. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal African Society. All rights reserved

Article

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

Paul Jackson 1

1 Director of the Department of International Development, University of Birmingham, and Director of the Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform


  Abstract

This article examines the relationship between chiefdom authority and decentralization in post-war Sierra Leone. The chieftaincy has been in crisis for some time and is widely thought to be responsible for contributing to rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) recruitment. However, chiefs remain an important influence in Sierra Leone, and there is little demand for an end to the chieftaincy system. Rather than an abolition of chieftaincy, governance at local level requires constructive relationships between chiefdoms and local governments and not simply a reshuffling of agrarian class relationships or old ways of doing politics. This in turn requires a reform of the chieftaincy system and the resolution of local political tensions arising from decentralization.


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