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The Legacy of a Revolution that Never Happened: The Post-War Politics of Former Rebel Party RUFP in Sierra Leone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2019

Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs Open the ORCID record for Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs [Opens in a new window]
Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs*
Affiliation:
Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs, Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA), Sweden
*
*Corresponding author. Email: mimmi.soderbergkovacs@fba.se
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Abstract

The former rebel party Revolutionary United Front Party (RUFP) in Sierra Leone has struggled with a discredited wartime reputation and electoral defeats throughout the post-war period. In spite of this, the party has remained loyal to its wartime revolutionary ideas, symbols and political rhetoric. Why is this the case? In this article, I argue that the answer lies in the premises of party politics in war-torn states and new democracies on the African continent. In a political landscape where brokerage is power, retaining wartime identities can sometimes serve as a valuable source of (potential) patronage. With few other options for access to resources and opportunities, the core of the party membership has clung to its past as a means to both rally electoral support among the marginalized ex-combatant community and to get access to the long-awaited funds that were promised to them in the peace negotiations.

Keywords

rebel grouppolitical partypost-warRUFPSierra Leone
Type
Article
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 56 , Issue 2 , April 2021 , pp. 245 - 259
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2019. Published by Government and Opposition Limited and Cambridge University Press

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