I Did It to Save My Life

1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-0-520-27379-5
Verlag: University Of California Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 24, 296 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 397 g

Reihe: California Series in Public Anthropology

Utilizing narratives of seven different people—soldier, rebel, student, trader, evangelist, father, and politician—I Did it To Save My Life provides fresh insight into how ordinary Sierra Leoneans survived the war that devastated their country for a decade. Individuals in the town of Makeni narrate survival through the rubric of love, and by telling their stories and bringing memory into the present, create for themselves a powerful basis on which to reaffirm the rightness of their choices and orient themselves to a livable everyday. The book illuminates a social world based on love, a deep, compassionate relationship based on material exchange and nurturing, that transcends romance and binds people together across space and through time. In situating their wartime lives firmly in this social world, they call into question the government’s own narrative that Makeni residents openly collaborated with the rebel RUF during its three-year occupation of the town. Residents argue instead that it was the government’s disloyalty to its people, rather than rebel invasion and occupation, which destroyed the town and forced uneasy co-existence between civilians and militants.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bolten, Catherine

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Afrikanische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

List of Acronyms

Timeline of the Key Events of War and Aftermath, 1991–2003

Note on Sources

Introduction: Sierra Leonean Emotions, Sierra Leonean War
Chapter 1: Understanding Makeni and Nested Loyalties: Marginality and Collaboration in the Northern Capital

Chapter 2: “I Must Be Grateful to Them for Freeing Me”: The Soldier

Chapter 3: “They Said Nobody Would Hide from This War”: The Rebel

Chapter 4: “I Held a Gun but I Did Not Fire It”: The Student

Chapter 5: “The Government Brought Death, the Rebels Allowed Us to Live”: The Trader

Chapter 6: “It Was the Lord Who Wanted Me to Stay”: The Evangelist

Chapter 7: “They Really Damaged Me”: The Father

Chapter 8: “The RUF Thought I Was on Their Side”: The Politician

Epilogue and Conclusions: Makeni, May 2010

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Catherine Bolten is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Peace
Studies at the University of Notre Dame.