Happy new year netters,
The ongoing discussion on whether chiefdoms should possess para-military forces or not, is clear testimony that question of the organization, deployment and use of arms, force, and violence, in Sierra Leone (and, indeed in all of Africa) should be on the top of the agenda. We can not resolve the war, and deal with the undemocratic exercise of power and authority, if we do not deal with the instruments and institutions that sometimes give dubious legitimacy to those that control them.
Rather than scurrying off2participate in elections of dubious utility and integrity, the political class in Sierra Leone should be engaging itself on the issue of peace, and the use of violence, and the place of the armed forces in the society, especially in the post-war era. In my short stay in Sierra Leone, the sentiments and concerns expressed by the majority of people was how to ensure peace, contain the violence, and keep unsavoury characters out of power.
What this unprecedented tragedy offers us is an opportunity to rethink our society, and the place of everything in it. Otherwise, history will, even after the storm has settled, replayed its cruel farce on us again.
rashid.
ps. I notice a certain tendency to frequently use the United States as a reference point in our discussions. While I understand that the interlocutory value of the example, I doubt very much the cross - comparative utility for Sierra Leone. I was very much how amused, and at the same educated on how not to compare cowboys, bandits and outlaws from US history and popular imagination and "rebels" and "sobels" in Sierra Leone. Kelfala's attempt to compare the US federal army and national guard to his proposed military arrangement of Sierra Leone also struck me as being in the same mode. Apart from the fact that the average US state about the size of Sierra Leone, correct me, if I am wrong, every county does not necessarily have its own militia.
That, however, is besides the point. What I want to point out is that whenever we want to draw examples from the US, we must be conscious of history, experience, culture and dominant ideology of that country. Although Americans hate the word "ideology", it is undeniable that they do operate within a certain dominant culture and ideology. Except we create a world in the image of America in Sierra Leone, we should be careful, how we stretch and apply the American experience to Sierra Leone.