A Very African War

The 1991 to 2002 war in Sierra Leone today conjures a melange of images but the overall impression of the war is its nihilism: its lack of purpose and its randomness in the application of extreme violence. However, to regard it as purely nihilistic, is to forego the opportunity to understand what happened and why; and it is only by achieving this understanding that we can hope to learn something from it: why it happened, and why it developed in the form it did. Although no two wars are the same, they are also not totally unique. By understanding one war, we can add to our corpus of knowledge to help understand other wars. This book is a case study of a single, but important, war in Africa. Its purpose is to deepen our understanding of African wars and hence help not just the historian, but also those who have in some way to deal with conflict in Africa, today and in the future, whether they be policymaker, aid worker or soldier.