The Mask of Anarchy: The Destruction of Liberia and the Religious Dimension of an African Civil War

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Liberia has been one of Africa's most violent trouble spots. During the 1990's thousands of teenage fighters laid siege to the capital and the world took notice. Since then Liberia has been through devastating civil upheaval. What began as a civil conflict has spread to other West African nations as well. Stephen Ellis traces the history of the civil war that has blighted Liberia in recent years and looks at the political, ethnic and cultural roots of a conflict that led to the 1997-2003 presidency of Charles ...
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More About This Book

Overview

Liberia has been one of Africa's most violent trouble spots. During the 1990's thousands of teenage fighters laid siege to the capital and the world took notice. Since then Liberia has been through devastating civil upheaval. What began as a civil conflict has spread to other West African nations as well. Stephen Ellis traces the history of the civil war that has blighted Liberia in recent years and looks at the political, ethnic and cultural roots of a conflict that led to the 1997-2003 presidency of Charles Taylor - now indicted as a war criminal. He focuses on the role religion and rituals have played in shaping and intensifying this brutal, war. In this edition, with a new Preface by the author, Ellis provides a current picture of Liberia and describes how many of the same problems still exist, providing a challenge that international policymakers will ignore at their peril.

About the Author:
Stephen Ellis is a senior researcher at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands

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Editorial Reviews

Foreign Affairs

Outstanding. . . . A fascinating and profound exploration of what Ellis sees as Liberians' deep spiritual anarchy, manifested during the war in extreme brutality, incidents of cannibalism, and the fighters' bizarre sartorial affectations. . . . Ellis's persuasive analysis of Liberian religious ideology and culture does more than make sense of these strange phenomena. It offers rare insight into the way political, physical, and spiritual power can be linked and legitimized in the popular imagination. . . . A model of lucid writing, thorough research, and pentrating interpretation, this is one of the best books on Africa in recent years.(FOREIGN AFFAIRS)

Choice
Ellis's important and profoundly disturbing book contains a detailed narrative of the Liberian civil war, together with a theoretically provocative analysis of the underlying causes of the vicious bloodletting that destroyed the mental as well as the physical terrain of the tiny country.
From the Publisher

"Important and profoundly disturbing."

-Choice,

"A model of lucid writing, thorough research, and penetrating interpretation, this is one of the best books on Africa in recent years."

-Foreign Affairs,

"Ellis has written a very honest and brave book about a ghastly human experience which has, one learns, much less to do with the primordial past than about the future."

-Ecclesiastical History,

"Outstanding. . . . A fascinating and profound exploration of what Ellis sees as Liberians' deep spiritual anarchy, manifested during the war in extreme brutality, incidents of cannibalism, and the fighters' bizarre sartorial affectations. . . . Ellis's persuasive analysis of Liberian religious ideology and culture does more than make sense of these strange phenomena. It offers rare insight into the way political, physical, and spiritual power can be linked and legitimized in the popular imagination. . . . A model of lucid writing, thorough research, and pentrating interpretation, this is one of the best books on Africa in recent years."

-Foreign Affairs,

"Careful field inquiry was pursued in risky environments."

-World Politics,

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780814722190
  • Publisher: New York University Press
  • Publication date: 3/1/2001
  • Edition description: First Edition
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 350
  • Product dimensions: 5.24 (w) x 8.56 (h) x 0.68 (d)

Meet the Author

Stephen Ellis is a senior researcher at the Afrika-Studiecentrum, Leiden University and co-editor of African Affairs.

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Table of Contents


Acknowledgements     vii
Acronyms     xiii
Introduction: African wars     1
A death in the night     1
War and barbarism     17
A Chronicle
The First of the Warlords     31
A frontier society     31
Government, trade and politics     43
Chairman Doe     54
Quiwonkpa's legacy: the NPFL     65
Lean and Hungry Years     75
The Nimba County campaign     75
Splits in the NPFL     80
Greater and Lesser Liberia     87
New factions     94
Monrovia, 1996: the final battle     104
The Mechanics of War     110
Punishing Monrovia     112
The profit motive     120
Factions as political organisations     132
Military organisations and civilian life     141
Business and Diplomacy     150
The West African balance of power     151
The game of nations     158
Markets and rackets     164
Colonies and non-colonies     181
An Inquiry
A Nation Long Forlorn     191
Settlers and others     191
The politics of statelesssocieties     198
Liberian administration     206
The Liberian state     211
Men and Devils     220
Poro business is eating business     223
Secret societies under Liberian administration     237
The political assimilation of religious ritual     245
Ritual killing and modern politics     249
War, power and the spiritual order     259
The psychology of transformation     266
False Prophets     281
Politicians     281
A conflict of generations     285
Culture and imagination     291
Some implications for the wider world     304
The family tree     309
Annexes
Casualties of the Liberian war, 1989-97     312
List of principal characters     317
Bibliography     321
Index     339
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Sort by: Showing all of 2 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted April 13, 2004

    The Forgotten Dimension of Conflict Analysis and Resolution

    Stephen Ellis presents a fascinating account of the forgotten dimension of most contemporary conflict analysis and resolution: religion. Developed countries are, by and large, so secularized that they forget that many other places have retained close ties to a sense of the numinous. Agree with it or not, we cannot afford to ignore this aspect of international social and political conflict. Ellis is to be commended for this groundbreaking study of the influence of religion - or, rather, the instrumentalization of religious symbols - in the recent West African conflict.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 19, 2000

    The Traumas of Terror in Liberia

    Stehen Ellis is not a Liberian.Yet,he writes an account of a war that surely depicts the horror and traumatic experiences of a nation besieged by inhumane and blood-thirsty warlords and and the external powers that helped wrecked Liberia and its people. He gives a graphic account that tells another dimension of the war: the deep spiritual and psychological powers/ belief systems embedded in the psyche of Liberians. I hope so many can read this book. Artemus W. Gaye

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
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