Sierra Leone War Essay

Imperialism is defined as one country’s domination of the political, economic, and social life of another country. In Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, imperialism was present and growing. The main countries involved in the imperialism in Africa were the French, German, and Great Britain. The French’s empire was mainly in North and West Africa while Britain’s colonies were scattered throughout the continent. Germany ruled over such countries as Tanganyika, Togoland, and Cameroon, until their defeat in World War I.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier and the recent 2006 film Blood Diamond both depict how it was living in Sierra Leone, Africa during the Civil War in the ‘90’s. While A Long Way Gone focuses on child soldiers and what they had to live and go through for many years, Blood Diamond focuses mainly on how the country is torn apart by the struggle between government soldiers and rebel forces. The film portrays many of the atrocities of that war, including the rebels' amputation of people's hands to stop them from voting in upcoming elections. Both the movie and the book try to tackle major issues by asking the questions: how

The country known as Uganda was once a British colony just like the majority of its neighbors in East Africa. It was initially intruded into by the Arab traders led by Speke and the British explorers led by Stanley in 1862 and 1875 respectively. They both paid homage to Mutesa who was the King (kabaka) of the Buganda. Uganda remained predominantly under the colony of the British until 1962 when they were granted internal self government by Britain (History World, 2011).

The child soldier Ishmael Beah once said, “These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new life, which trigger memories from the past.” This represented what Ishmael had to go through during the war. The Sierra Leone war began in 1991. This war was fought by the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) and the National Sierra Leone Army Force. As a consequence, 10,000 child soldiers were recruited, along with them there Ishmael Beah. Beah was only 13 years old when he was forced to become a child soldier by the rebels. In addition, rebel superiors brainwashed Ishmael, along with the rest of the recruited kids by inducing them into drugs such as marijuana, brown-brown and amphetamines. Consequently, a lot of problems were

A brief historical account of Sierra Leone may provide only a glimmer as to why the Sierra

Before reading “A Long Way Gone,” I was not at all familiar with the civil wars occurring in Sierra Leone. I didn’t know anything about Sierra Leone’s political dynamics either, however I could infer much about what might be going on there if asked. At least that is what I thought. That is until I read part of Ishmael’s memoir. I figured, previously to reading the memoir, that civil wars began as a result of some generally good reason, and were continued for a generally good reason. The civil wars in Sierra Leone, as I read, were quite the opposite, rather blind fight for power, as narrated by Beah, “A lot of things were done with no reason or explanation.” It is also implied that each side in the war believed that they themselves were doing

By definition, strife precious stones are jewels that begin from mines that are under the control of revolutionary gatherings that are battling against their nation's legislature. Sierra Leone, a little nation on the west bank of Africa, (in this paragraph you need to elaborate a little bit more) has throughout the previous ten years been under the fear of an ever display common war. This war is being battled between a radical gathering known as the Revolutionary United Front and Sierra Leone's available government. The RUF took control of some of Sierra Leones wealthiest diamond mines in the mid-nineties centuries. They now utilize the benefits they make from these precious stones to purchase weapons for their armed force, made up for the

Whilst leading to civilians fleeing Sudan and Sierra Leone to start new lives. The histories behind both wars are quite similar as both were solely motivated by natural resources and power imbalance. As The Revolutionary United Front had established in 1991 as rebel army that shared one goal, which was to overthrow Sierra Leone's government. Often referred to as the “Blood Diamond” era in certain African countries. Although diamonds and natural resources were a significant motivating factor, there were other causes of the Sierra Leone Civil War. Such as the pre-war frustrations and injustices that had transpired for decades. More than twenty years of poor governance, poverty and corruption created a setting for the RUF causing a rebellion, as civilians desired for change in Sierra Leone. Corruption and mismanagement led to the downfall of the country leading to an increase of recruits for the RUF. For Sierra Leoneans who did not have access to cultivating land, joining the rebel cause was an opportunity to seize property with deadly force. After leaving over 50 000 casualties and 2.6 million citizens displaced from Sierra Leone. The war came to an end in 2002 concluding in a loss for the

Sierra Leone is one of the many countries that are on the coast of West Africa. A rich country fell victim to barbaric people. Sierra Leone was named but not founded, by Portuguese sailor, Pedro de Sintra. Sierra Leone was colonized by Great Britain in 1807 in Freetown, Sierra Leone. This was the start of their rule over West Africa.

Due to these Blood Diamonds, Sierra Leone has faced many social and economic costs. One diamond is capable of causing a civil war. That’s all, a fight over diamond control took many lives. During this civil war, rebels came and committed disgusting crimes including murder,

In the past, many incidents of genocide have occurred, like the Armenian genocide or the Rwandan genocide. While these incidents may seem unrelated to current times, similar incidents are starting to occur in many parts of the world and one such place is Congo. Many sources hint that the conflict that occurs in Congo is a genocide because many elements of genocide appear in the conflict like classification or dehumanization. While what they say has some truth in the sense that this conflict contains some element of genocide but, not enough elements are present to make it a genocide. Although many would believe that the conflict in Congo is a genocide, there is evidence of the conflict being a territorial and power dispute because some countries invading Congo want the resources, others want power, and the cause of the conflict in Congo is the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide.

Colonialism is a feature of European expansion that took control of territory and people across the world starting in the 16th century. The last wave of colonialism was in Africa during the late nineteenth century, and these African colonies did not gain independence until the end of World War II. Decolonization was followed by years of economic, political, and social instability that made living conditions worse for the individuals in society. In this era of globalization, the economic strength of Western powers has created a new type of imperialism over the developing nations. A growing inequality gap between rich and poor countries has resulted in lower living standards in areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa, where a majority of the

The government of Sudan, a country in Northeast Africa, is committing a horrendous crime against humanity. Genocide is raging on in Western Sudan against poor, helpless, innocent people. It is actually the ten year “anniversary” since the beginning of the Darfur conflict and the genocide still continues on. There are over 1.4 million people who still do not have homes to come back to, and the numbers stack higher every day. Bombings have not stopped, as there was one as recent as February 2013. The Darfur conflict in the beginning was just a brewing disaster and it eventually led to the horrendous genocides in the early 2000s due to early settlement disputes, climate change, and radical Islamic

Maj. Johnny Koroma of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council overthrew sitting President Kabbah in 1997, and invited rebel army Revolutionary United Front (RUF) to join the government (the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service, 2002). After 10 months in office, Maj. Koroma ousted and the democratically elected government of President Kabbah returned to office in March 1998. Another unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the government resulted in the loss of life and destruction of

War has been a part of human culture since it's birth. It has led to a great many massacres and has shown us the evil that exists within the souls of humanity. Some have even gone as far as saying that war is human nature. To better understand the reasons behind war and how it affects others, I've examined several different societies and cultures so as to better understand the necessity of war and see the cause of their external war attitude. To do so, different variables from two topics (military institutions and external war attitude) were matched up and crossed so as to look into the answers to these questions. The variables were then calculated and through these graphs, I was able to find different societies in which