Sierra Leone : The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
In a previous article we delved into the definition of propaganda and what it constitutes!
Now we will turn my attention to a specific case study — that of Sierra Leone’s Minister of Information and Civic Education, Chernor Bah.
The aim of these articles is not to jump to any conclusion’s about said Minister’s guilt or innocence but instead to use open source materials to conduct an investigation into his online and official activity.
This article however will aim at contextualizing said Minister’s activities within the wider context of the political state of Sierra Leone and all its successes and failures.
Future articles meanwhile will delve deeper into Bah himself — assessing his multiple accomplishments and shortcomings with the aim of better contextualising his role within Sierra Leone’s controversial government!
Troubled Roots
Sierra Leonne’s wider history is both fascinating and tragic.
However, a deep dive into the country’s story goes well beyond the scope of this journalistic case study!
The relevant historical summary for contextualizing the present day though should begin from the tragic events of the Civil War that ravaged the nation throughout the 1990’s.
A war that’s ramifications today are still felt not only due to the physical damage that it caused but also in educational deficiencies in the country, attributable to many children getting enlisted into the Civil War as child soldiers!
Curiously however, despite its highly chequered past the nation has nonetheless been able to muscle through the 2000’s with relatively low state instability (especially in relation to the Civil War)!
As since the Civil War power has see-sawed between Sierra Leone’s 2 largest political parties (after precedent elections) — the Sierra Leone’s People’s Party (SLPP) and the All People’s Congress (APC)!
The country also an active participant in ECOWAS a regional West African bloc aimed at promoting regional cooperation and also at the forefront of gender rights in the region!
In this sense Sierra Leone may resemble something that seems to be a success story in the vast African context!
This however is certainly not to say that the state is some utopia. In fact some would claim the opposite to be the case.
Today the country is lead by its President Julius Maada Bio leader of the SLPP.
Bio however is a very controversial leader as he has presided over a massive economic downturn that has seen inflation rise at terrifying rates. A massive issue within the highly impoverished nation who’s populace often stand right on the line of poverty and subsistence.
The situation leading to protests in August 2023 that turned violent — in turn sparking heavy criticism towards the government’s response to said protests!
This situation providing a glimpse of the less glamorous aspects of post civil war Sierra Leone and the trouble that lies beyond the surface!
Hybrid Regime
Elections are no guarantee of democracy!
In this sense whilst Sierra Leone does conduct elections on a consistent basis — this does not necessarily translate to a full democracy.
This concept is reflected succinctly in The Economists’ Democracy Index which designates different levels to a country’s democratic levels.
The first — full democracy which holds common traits of free and fair elections, freedom of speech, separation of powers and more!
Then second we have partial democracies - often nicknamed as illiberal democracies cosmetically these regimes tend to resemble full democracies in official function. Beneath the surface however they are often plagued by problems such as government interference in courts, threats to the safety of journalists, potential SLAPP proceedings aimed at critics and more.
As the least democratic form meanwhile we have authoritarian regimes which essentially refer to full dictatorship with completely centralized power, no elections and no free speech — something in the mould of North Korea!
And where does Sierra Leone lie on this list?
Well, neither of them, as Sierra Leonne falls under what is referred to as a hybrid regime — referring to a state that lies in a transitionary phase between a partial democracy and an authoritarian regime.
Said states often susceptible to election fraud/meddling, coups, abuses on free speech, state violence and more!
A category which present day Sierra Leone seems to tick many boxes for not only in the aforementioned violent protests but also in a disputed 2023 general election that triggered a series of red flags amongst a wide array of independent election monitoring agencies!
Then, an additional curiosity in this regard relates to the arrest of the famous Sierra Leonean rapper who goes by the name of King Boss LAJ, who after composing a song critical of the serving government was later on arrested by the Sierra Leonean authorities! Said charges related to armed robbery — controversial charges that sparked widespread rumours of said arrest actually being politically motivated!
With related reports pointing to the rapper having his human rights breached during captivity as he had his dreadlocks forcibly cut off and was apparently injected with strange liquids!
The final controversy meanwhile is the most recent one and probably also the most polarizing one.
That being the failed coup d'état of 2023 when on the 26th of November several locations within Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown were attacked in what has been described as an attempted overthrow of the government!
And though the former President Ernest Bai Koroma has been designated as a suspect in the case a lot of information about the plot remains highly murky as news stemming from Bah’s Ministry of Information and Civic Education remains a topic of controversy — thus sparking a lot of conspiracy theories in this regard!
In the next article we will jump into the meat and potatoes of this saga by conducting our OSINT analysis on Chernor Bah so as to properly understand his official function and to properly contextualize whether he primarily functions as a propagandist or not!
