Traditional leaders rule Sierra Leone's countryside

Sierra Leone’s traditional leaders, paramount and lesser chiefs, hold considerable power in the countryside. When war broke out in Sierra Leone in 1991, they were targeted by the rebels as illegitimate, and yet they were quickly able to reestablish their position after peace was officially announced in 2002.

How come? This article in African Studies Review by Peter Albrecht explores the question. Via a historical and ethnographic analysis, it shows how the concept of hybridity can be used analytically to explore the emergence of paramount and lesser chiefs, and their role as figures of authority at the local level and in national politics.

The concept of hybridity supports the articulation of networked governance structures in which authority is not seen as emerging from a clearly defined center of power.

The paper critiques ahistorical applications of the concept that are particularly prevalent in peace and conflict studies. The article offers insight into the processes of hybridization that chiefs constitute, and are constituted by, as they draw on multiple sources of authority, including what one scholar calls their “extremely localized” sense of belonging, as well as the legislation of a centrally governed bureaucracy.