Culture and Conflicts in Sierra Leone Mining

Fenda A. Akiwumi is an environmental and social geographer whose research is at the intersection of the sciences, social sciences, and the humanities, with an applied, policy, and community-engaged focus. Using an interdisciplinary, holistic approach, she interrogates the relationship between resource conflicts, cultural heritage, and sustainable mining development in Africa.

• List of Figures and Tables; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; 1.Introduction: Culture in Commodity Chains; 2.Sierra Leone’s Global Incorporation Through Mining; 3.Cultural Difference: Policy and Legislative Dilemmas; 4.Sacred Places: Local Ontology Meets Global Capital; 5.Strangers, Environment, and Livelihoods; 6.Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender in Mining; 7.Between a Rock and a Hard Place; 8.Conclusion; References; Index

“Dr. Fenda A. Akiwumi has crafted an original contribution to the literature on Sierra Leone’s incorporation into the global capitalist system through a skillful blend of the scholarly literature and data in the areas of anthropology, political economy, and cultural dynamics manifested in culture clash, coalescence, and unequal cultural exchange in the mining area. It is a very engaging, scholarly, and interesting volume that upper-class undergraduates and graduate students, researchers, and general readers will find very useful. It is a concise, but at the same time detailed, vivid, and rigorous portrayal of the several themes that are predicated on the interactive dynamics of traditionalism and modernity during colonial and postcolonial periods.” —Dr. Earl Conteh-Morgan, University of South Florida, USA.