Chapter 5 Probing the roles of governance and greed in civil strife in West Africa

• Pages: 71-87
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1572-8323(2010)0000014009
• Date: 08 July 2010
• Published date: 08 July 2010
• Author: Helen Ware,Dele Ogunmola

CHAPTER 5

PROBING THE ROLES OF

GOVERNANCE AND GREED IN

CIVIL STRIFE IN WEST AFRICA

Helen Ware and Dele Ogunmola

ABSTRACT

Purpose – This chapter aims to explore the causes of civil war in West

Africa, including the perspectives of those directly involved, both those

involved voluntarily and those involved against their will. To this end, we

examine the three contiguous war – aff‌licted coastal countries of Sierra

Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast and as a counterweight, Ghana which has

escaped civil war.

Methodology – Brief country case studies are used to explore the

motivations of leaders and followers which often diverge. This chapter

examines four West African countries:

Sierra Leone and Liberia, which have suffered classic brutal, ‘third war’

civil wars (Holsti, K. (Ed.). (1996). Wars of the third kind. In: The state,

war and the state of war. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Ivory Coast, once seen as the West African ‘beacon of stability’

(Royce, E. (2003). Testimony. US House of Representatives Subcom-

mittee on Africa, 2nd February, p. 12) but now suffering a seventh year

of civil conf‌lict.

Economics of War and Peace: Economic, Legal, and Political Perspectives

Contributions to Conf‌lict Management, Peace Economics and Development, Volume 14, 71–87

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ISSN: 1572-8323/doi:10.1108/S1572-8323(2010)0000014009

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Ghana, the counter case, which has so far survived multiple military

coups without descending into national conf‌lagration.

To demonstrate the basic features these countries share in common and to

suggest some areas where they diverge, we present core socio-economic

data in Table 1.

The respondent data on which much of the analysis is based was

collected by Dele Ogunmola from individual interviews, and focus group

discussions. In the case of Ivory Coast, there was also an e-interview with

a medical missionary who experienced the early stages of the war. Given

the tense nature of the situation, for both the individual interviews and the

focus groups the selection of participants was purposive. People were

selected who were willing to talk about their involvement and could

represent a range of different roles and experiences. Thus, for example,

the Makeni focus group quoted was recruited at Sumbaya village, which

was virtually razed by the rebels. Minor warlords were interviewed

but not, regrettably, randomly selected. We also refer to the interviews of

ex-rebels conducted in 2009 by John-Idriss Lahai, a former member of the

Sierra Leonian Civil Defence Forces and current PhD Student at the

University of New England.

Findings – Interviewing in these countries still requires courage on both

sides, and while we accept that respondents (especially those at risk of

prosecution) may well prevaricate, the overall impression is one of the

striking frankness. Most argued that the war was messy and the

participants had mixed motivations. The f‌indings conf‌irm that, while

grievances play a signif‌icant role in providing the fuel for West African

civil wars, the greed of both national and international players serves to

prolong them. Though Sierra Leone and Liberia experienced opportunis-

tic wars, the Ivory Coast is torn apart over the def‌inition of citizenship.

Ghana has survived due to leadership which facilitated economic growth,

curbed corruption and prioritised provision of basic services.

Limitations – This is not the place to detail the multitude of coups, wars

and treaty negotiations that make up the troubled history of the region

(see Adebajo, A. (2002). Building peace in West Africa: Liberia,

Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner. Parallel

timelines for each country would demonstrate many interactions across

the region, such as the spread of subaltern coups, but at the cost of

presenting a long and confusing history. It is enough to stress that these

colonially def‌ined countries are linked across borders that are porous to

ideas, rebels, refugees and diamonds alike.

HELEN WARE AND DELE OGUNMOLA72