Sierra Leone: The political economy of civil war, 1991-98

This article looks at the causal factors for the May 1997 military intervention in Sierra Leone which unleashed complex political emergencies engulfing the entire country. The paper argues that the causal factors are historical, reflecting the political economy of underdevelopment in that country. Attention is drawn to the role played by personalised rule of the APC leadership, and structural factors such as deteriorating terms of trade and the irrationality of the post-colonial development strategy. Particular attention is drawn to the role played by IMF and World Bank Structural adjustment programmes in creating a corp of socially excluded intellectuals who could not find jobs either within the state or private sectors.