Witnessing Lived Experience in Sierra Leone
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DOCTORAL THESIS Peace and recovery witnessing lived experience in Sierra Leone Twort, Lauren Award date: 2015 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 26. Sep. 2021 Peace and Recovery: Witnessing Lived Experience in Sierra Leone By Lauren Twort [BA, MA] A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Department of Business University of Roehampton 2015 Peace and Recovery: Witnessing Lived Experience in Sierra Leone Abstract Peace and Recovery: Witnessing Lived Experience in Sierra Leone A critical re-examination of the liberal peace is conducted to explore the ways in which certain ideas around peace have come to dominate and to be regarded as “common sense”. The foundation of my critique comes in the personalisation of peacebuilding through the stories of people who are the intended beneficiaries of its actions. This thesis seeks to open up and challenge the current measures of success and the location of power by introducing voices and experiences of Mende people located in the Southern and Eastern provinces of Sierra Leone. I have attempted to open up a reflexive space where simple questions can be re-examined and the location of recovery can be seen as a space influenced, shaped and performed in the context of diverse influences. I draw on my personal experience living in Bo, Sierra Leone for two months in 2014 and local level actors' subjective reflections on individual and communal notions of recovery, post-conflict. My findings are reflected in “building blocks” that uncover a partial story of personal perspectives on recovery. The story suggests a de-centred and complex “local” within the existing context and realigns the understanding of subject and agency within peacebuilding. This collection of experiences, stories and encounters reshapes the notion of peace as an everyday activity with the aim of improving well-being on a personal level. It is also a part of the peacebuilding process that exists outside of the traditional organisational lens. My main contribution has been in allowing alternative space(s) of peacebuilding and peace-shaping to have a platform that is not restricted by the confined epistemic “expert” community toward an understanding of “progress” as an experiential and subjective process of recovery. This 2 Peace and Recovery: Witnessing Lived Experience in Sierra Leone approach sought to challenge the current site of legitimacy, power and knowledge, and in order to achieve this aim I drew on a new methodological toolkit and the absorption of key concepts from other disciplines such as managerialism and the sociological concept of the “stranger”. My research offers an opportunity to observe and utilise information sourced from the creativity and spontaneity of the everyday lived experiences of Sierra Leoneans and ordinary phenomena connected with this. Key words: Bo Development Liberal Peace Managerialism Neo-Liberalism Peacebuilding Performance Indicators Positionality Post-Conflict Poststructural Power Recovery Reflexivity Sierra Leone Success 3 Peace and Recovery: Witnessing Lived Experience in Sierra Leone Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………...….……...………..2 Table of Contents………………………………………..……....…...4 Acknowledgements………………………………….…..……...…….9 List of Figures……………………………………….………....……10 List of Acronyms…………………………………………...…..…...12 Part I Chapter One: Space and Time: Introduction to the Liberal Peace and its Local Antithesis…………………………………………………..……….15 I. Introduction……………………………….………………………15 II. Background to My Research………………….………….…..…. 18 III. The Contested Nature of Peacebuilding………………….............23 IV. The Business of Peace…………………………….……...............26 V. Research Questions………………………………….……...…...31 VI. Overview of the Thesis…………………………….……...…......37 Chapter Two: The Danger of a Single Story…………………...……….42 I. Introduction………………………………………………………42 II. A Story of Peace?...........................................................................44 III. Setting the Scene…………………………...…..…….….…..…...46 IV. The Main Character- The Liberal Agenda……...….……......…...49 V. The Illusion of Simplicity: Legitimacy and Graduations in the Liberal Peace Model …………….………….……………....….…...54 VI. Discourses and Designs……………………………..............….60 4 Peace and Recovery: Witnessing Lived Experience in Sierra Leone VII. From Liberal Ideology to Free Markets…………….…………..67 VIII.Peacebuilding as Security…………………………..…………...71 IX. Conflicting Bodies of Knowledge………………….…………...81 X. Summary………………………………………………...……..89 Chapter Three: A Critical Re-evaluation: From Peacebuilding to Peace- shaping……………………………………………………………………91 I. Introduction………………………………………….………….91 II. The Narrative and Discourse of Success in Sierra Leone………95 III. A Critical Re-evaluation…………………………….….……....98 IV. Liberal Peace and Quantum Mechanics………………….…....103 V. A Poststructural Lens…………………………………...……105 VI. Discourses, Myths and Imaginary……………….…………….110 VII. Empty Signifiers, Logics, Articulation and Rhetoric…….......118 VIII. Ideology and Hegemony in Peacebuilding…………………...125 IX. Managerialism: Legitimacy through Performability…..……..134 X. Whose Success?.........................................................................140 XI. Ebola as a Social Critique……………………………..….…..143 XII. Summary………………………………………………..........146 Chapter Four: The Researcher: My Place in the Space…………..….151 I. Introduction……………………..……….……………..………..151 II. Putting the “I” into Research…….………………….……..…...154 III. Care Ethics……………….…………………..…..…….……....159 IV. Spaces: From London to New London ……………..…....…..164 5 Peace and Recovery: Witnessing Lived Experience in Sierra Leone V. Methodology: Getting Stuck In………………………………... 166 (i) My Initial Trip and General Observations………...…...169 (ii) Reflections from My Initial Trip………………………172 (iii) Preparing for the Main Trip………………….…….…. 177 (iv) What’s Happening? Witnessing Lived Experience.... ………………….………………………………………….. 180 (v) Operationalisation…………………………………… 185 (vi) Making Sense of the Trips………………………….. 194 VI. Summary…………………………………………………….. 201 Part II Chapter Five: Finding Bo…………………………………………………205 I. Introduction………………………………………………… 206 II. Where is the Local?: Bo……………………………………… 209 III. What is the Local?......................................................................212 IV. Who are the Local?................................................................... 213 V. The Mende People…………………………………….............216 VI. You’re British? You Used to Rule Us [laughs]…………..…...219 VII. You People [British] Brought Independence to this Land with No Preparation for Us [laughs]…………………………………............223 VIII. A New Era of “Leadership”…………………………………..226 IX. Youth, Gerontocracy and Generational Conflict……………...232 X. Civil War…………………………………………………….. 234 XI. Summary……………………………..……………………….237 Chapter Six: The Space for Change…………………………………….. 240 6 Peace and Recovery: Witnessing Lived Experience in Sierra Leone I. Introduction…………………………………………………….241 II. Stranger Danger?....................................................................... 243 III. The Familiar Stranger…………………………………………..249 IV. The Researcher from “Stranger” to “Guest” to “Big Woman” …………………………………………………………………..…. 255 V. Hey, White Girl…………………………………….………….. 258 VI. Peacebuilder as “Newcomer”…………………….…………… 266 VII. Summary………………………………………..……………. 277 Chapter Seven: Discussion- The Person-ification of Peace Through Multiple Stories…………………………………………………………… 280 I. Introduction……………………………………………………. 283 II. “Shake it for Jesus”…………………………………………….. 285 (i) Religion and Peace Formation………………………… 292 (ii) Religion, Magic and Protection …………………….. 297 iii) After the War…………………………………………... 299 III. The Oxford of the South………………………….…………… 310 (i) Centennial Secondary School……………….………… 310 (ii) Unrest at Njala………………………………………… 313 (iii) Free Education? ……………………………………... 315 IV. “We Celebrate Thieves Here” ……………….……………...324 V. “I Am a Football Supporter, Manchester is My Only Football Team” ……………………………………………………..….…… 333 VI. Well-being as an Alternative Approach……………….…....….343 VII. Summary…………………………………………………….…345 Part III Chapter Eight: Conclusions- The Tug of Peace………………………....349 7 Peace and Recovery: Witnessing Lived Experience in Sierra Leone I. Introduction……………………………………………..……...349 II. Rethinking Peace and Recovery………………….……….……354 III. Contribution to Knowledge……….………..………………..….366 IV. Limitations of This Study and Future Research……..….…..... 373 V. How have I been affected by my Research?.............................. 375 VI. Postscript: Ebola………………………………….…………... 378 VII. Final Thoughts……………………………………….......…….379 Table of Interviews……………………………………….……………..381 Appendix…………………………………………………….………….....390 References………………………………………………….………….…393 8 Peace and Recovery: