Religion, Ritual, and Fear: The Moral Architectures of Oath-Taking in Sierra Leone

This article examines the moral architectures of oath-taking in Sierra Leone’s plural legal system, where formal courts and customary justice systems employ divergent religious and cultural logics to enforce truth-telling. Drawing on eleven expert interviews, twelve focus group discussions, and eleven key informant interviews, the study analyzes how sacred texts, ritual spaces, and fear shape the perceived efficacy of oaths. Formal systems rely on standardized rituals using the Bible and Quran, often perceived as symbolic yet ineffective due to weak enforcement and cultural dissonance. In contrast, customary systems embed oaths within local cosmologies, invoking immediate fear of ancestral retribution that sustains moral accountability. However, the study also reveals fear’s double-edged nature as both a guarantor of truth and a potential tool of coercion. By treating oath-taking as a diagnostic ritual, the article contributes to debates on state legitimacy, legal pluralism, and ritual power in postcolonial African societies.