The use of child soldiers in armed conflicts has been common the world over for a long time now. However, over the last few decades, this practice has become widespread in Africa where armed groups recruit children as part of their war strategy and to help sustain their campaigns. This practice has left thousands of children physically and psychologically bruised with many still suffering from post war effects long after the end of such conflicts. Many negative effects still haunt many of the children who were recruited into the ranks of the government and rebel forces during the decade civil war in Sierra Leone. The civil war in Sierra Leone has been considered to be one of the most gruesome in the history of conflicts in Africa not only because of its high level of brutality but also in the manner in which children were forced into combat and abused both physically and psychologically. It is estimated that between 7000 - 10 000 children below the age of 15 years, some as young as seven were recruited into armed forces or groups during the war. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2011. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / nf2012 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

This thesis illustrated Gregorio Martinez Sierra's social philosophy: motherhood, marital relationships, relationships between parents and children, and the social even of spain.

Yes / The history of the electoral process in Sierra Leone is at the same time tortuous and substantial. From relatively open competitive multi-party politics in the 1960s, which led to the first turnover of power at the ballot box, through the de facto and de jure one-party era, which nonetheless had elements of electoral competition, and finally to contemporary post-conflict times, which has seen three elections and a second electoral turnover in 2007, one can discern evolving patterns. Evidence from the latest local and national elections in 2012 suggests that there is some democratic consolidation, at least in an electoral sense. However, one might also see simultaneous steps forward and backward – What you gain on the swings, you may lose on the roundabouts. This is particularly so in terms of institutional capacities, fraud and violence, and one would need to enquire of the precise ingredients – in terms of political culture or in other words the attitudes and motivations of electors and the elected – of this evolving Sierra Leonean, rather than specifically liberal type, of democracy. Equally, the development of ‘electoral rituals’, whether peculiar to Sierra Leone or not and whether deemed consolidatory or not, has something to say as part of an investigation into the electoral element of democratic consolidation.1 The literature on elections in Africa most often depicts a number of broad features, such as patronage, ethno-regionalism, fraud and violence, and it is the intention of this article to locate contemporary Sierra Leone, as precisely as possible, within the various strands of this discourse.

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This dissertation focuses on slaves and peasants as self-consciousness actors in northwestern Sierra Leone between 1896 to 1956. During this period, which covers almost the entire duration of British colonial rule in the region, these subaltern groups used covert and violent actions to protest the various demands---labour, tribute and taxation---of the state and the local elite. Covert actions like evasions, escapes and migrations became interwoven into the fabric of colonial rule. / Violent actions, which tended to be spasmodic, erupted when social and economic conditions deteriorated sharply. Four major rebellions occurred during colonial rule in region. The first, spearheaded by local rulers, took place within the general context of African resistance to colonialism in 1898. After the rulers were coopted by the colonial state the burden of resistance fell on peasants and slaves. In 1919, after enduring excruciating war-time experiences, peasants, petty-traders, slaves and the urban unemployed rioted against Syrian traders who they believed hoarded and profited from rice. The rural destitution created by the Great Depression and a major locust attack led many ex-slaves and peasants to join the millenarian movement of the itinerant muslim cleric, Idara Konthorfili in 1931. Ware called on his followers not to pay colonial tax and tried to mobilize them to fight against the state. In 1955 and 1956, peasants and other rural groups throughout northwestern Sierra Leone rebelled against high taxation and the despotism of their chiefs. In its timing and virulence the anti-chief rebellion of 1955 and 1956 represented a major paradox in African history. It had occurred during the moment of decolonization; a period when the colonial transfer of power to the new African elite was following formulaic and relatively peaceful lines. / The state responded to subaltern protest with repression, paternalism and readjustments in existing social relations. By their actions, slaves and peasants forced the state and elite groups to acknowledge and respond to their concerns. The balance which emerged out of this process of resistance, repression and accommodation became the moral economy of colonialism in Sierra Leone.

Note: / An estimated 48,000 child soldiers were involved in the violent civil war in Sierra Leone between 1991 and 2002. It is suggested that approximately 12,000 were girls. Lacking material possessions and facing other negative structural factors, the majority was in need of some form of assistance post-conflict. Although international aid response was substantial, only 500 girls entered the countrywide Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) program. The remainder followed a variety of different courses. Giddens' structuration theory offers a useful theoretical framework to explore the reasons for their absence in the program, as it permits a focus on the role of structure and agencyin understanding behaviour. Social stigmatization and a gender-biased DDR program, within a broader structure of gender inequality, are identified as the principal problems . / On estime que 48,000 enfants soldats ont été impliques dans la violente guerre civile en Sierra Leone entre 1991 et 2002.11 est suggéré que prés de 12,000 d'entre eux étaient des filles. Avec des lacunes importantes au niveau matériel et faisant face a d'autres problèmes d'ordre structurel, la majorité de ces filles ont eu besoin d'une certaine forme d'assistance post-conflit. Bien que l'aide internationale ait été importante, seulement 500 filles ont été inscrites au programme national de Désarmement, démobilisation et réinsertion (DDR). Les autres filles ont suivies différents parcours. La théorie de structuration de Giddens offre un cadre théorique utile pour étudier les raisons de leur absence dans le programme car il permet de focaliser sur le rôle de la structure et de I' agence dans la compréhension du comportement. La stigmatisation sociale et une inégalité de genre au sein du programme de DDR, situe dans une structure plus généralisée d'inégalité de genre, sont identifiées comme étant les problèmes principaux .

M.A. (Politics) / This purpose of this study was to analyse the nature of women’s involvement in peace-building in Sierra Leone. The various dimensions of peace-building as set out in the African Union’s Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development (PRCD) programme, adopted in June 2006 by heads of governments in Banjul, The Gambia, served as the framework for analysis. The PCRD emphasises the incorporation of women in all peace-building efforts (and the mainstreaming of gender in all policies), and sets out a range of areas in terms of which women are required to be included. These are: political transition, government and democratisation; security; human rights, justice, and reconciliation; humanitarian emergency assistance; and socio-economic reconstruction and development. The analysis of the nature of women’s involvement in peace-building in Sierra Leone in these areas is structured in terms of efforts made by the government in complying with the PCRD, the efforts made by women’s groups (local, national, provincial, regional) in the country and the involvement of international organisations in partnership with either the government or women’s groups to provide assistance to female victims of violence. This study found that the government had many policies and laws which provided for women’s inclusion in peace-building efforts in the country (i.e. de jure commitment). However, its de facto commitment is questionable, since very few of these policies have in fact borne fruit. Women, for example, were not included in the 1996 Abidjan and 1999 Lomé Peace Accords – in both these agreements they were portrayed as victims needing protection, rather than as agents of change. Moreover, female representation in parliament over the past 12 years has not exceeded 14.5 per cent; the DDR programmes was largely gender-blind; the transformation of the security sector (such as the police and military) did not result in women’s inclusion in decision-making positions within these institutions; and, finally, despite the fact that the government specifically emphasised the importance of resuscitating economic activities among women in the 2005 Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, there was no concrete strategy to achieve these goals. This has affected women’s involvement in the economy, since obstacles in the form of male attitudes towards their role in the economy continue to persist. However, women’s groups, on the other hand, were actively involved in facilitating women’s inclusion in peace-building efforts in the country. Groups such as the 50/50 Group have been active in mobilising for the implementation of the 30 per cent quota for women’s representation in parliament. It also conducted capacity-building workshops and training programmes to empower potential female candidates for both local and general elections. The Sierra Leonean chapter of the Forum of African Women Educationalists (FAWE-SL) played a pivotal role in addressing the trauma caused by sexual and gender-based violence. Further efforts by women’s groups include: providing capacity-building programmes to empower women (including female ex-combatants) excluded from the DDRR programme; addressing the psycho-social needs of female survivors of war (in collaboration with international organisations); providing financial and medical assistance as well as trauma counselling and healing programmes to female and child victims of domestic violence and rape; running skills training centres and other educational activities in order to increase literacy and education among women, and building emergency schools for girls whose schools were destroyed during the conflict as well as providing educational information at entry points to female returnees on their rights; and, finally, providing micro-credit loans (by the Sierra Leone Market Women’s Association (SLMWA). This has been an important aspect of the efforts of women’s groups to resuscitate economic activities among women.

The Republic of Sierra Leone is situated on the Northwest African coast and occupies an area of 28,000 square miles. It is bounded on t he north and the east by the Republic of Guinea, on the south by Liberia, and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of 2.5 million people, comprised of thirteen tribes. The main tribal grouping are the Limbas, Mendes, Temnes, and Creoles. With the exception of the descendants of former slaves residing in t he Colony area, most of t he occupants of the interior are believed to have emigrated into Sierra Leone from neighboring West African territories at an earlier period. Largely illiterate and primitive in some aspects, these interior tribes rely mainly on subsistence farming. They contrast sharply with the settlers or Creoles who reside in the colony area. The Creoles are highly literate, "civilized" and practice western culture and traditions more than any other group in Sierra Leone. Due to British policy and the obvious dislike of European influence by the inhabitants of the hinterland, it took a long time before development programs could be instituted in that part of the country. In fact, the northern tribes, the subject of my paper, because of their stranger traditional opposition to western culture lagged behind in improvement and social reforms. For instance, while schools were opened in the colony area in 1787, and in the southern and eastern provinces in 1906, the north did not get its first high school until 1950. In the first part of this work I intend to examine t he social institutions of the Northerners with particular emphasis on their family system. I shall devote the second part to analyzing the changing attitudes of literate and illiterate Sierra Leoneans from the North towards family relationships. I shall also explain how far the assimilation of European culture by these people has affected the traditional African Society. In my conclusion, I shall make recommendations and suggestions on how the two cultures, Western and African, can be used to benefit the inhabitants of the north.

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