Religion, Tradition, and Restorative Justice in Sierra Leone

Lyn S. Graybill

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780268101893
• eBook ISBN: 9780268101916
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: African History
• Index: Social Sciences

In this groundbreaking study of post-conflict Sierra Leone, Lyn Graybill examines the ways in which both religion and local tradition supported restorative justice initiatives such as the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and village-level Fambul Tok ceremonies.

Through her interviews with Christian and Muslim leaders of the Inter-Religious Council, Graybill uncovers a rich trove of perspectives about the meaning of reconciliation, the role of acknowledgment, and the significance of forgiveness. Through an abundance of polling data and her review of traditional practices among the various ethnic groups, Graybill also shows that these perspectives of religious leaders did not at all conflict with the opinions of the local population, whose preferences for restorative justice over retributive justice were compatible with traditional values that prioritized reconciliation over punishment.

These local sentiments, however, were at odds with the international community's preference for retributive justice, as embodied in the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which ran concurrently with the TRC. Graybill warns that with the dominance of the International Criminal Court in Africa—there are currently eighteen pending cases in eight countries—local preferences may continue to be sidelined in favor of prosecutions. She argues that the international community is risking the loss of its most valuable assets in post-conflict peacebuilding by pushing aside religious and traditional values of reconciliation in favor of Western legal norms.

APPENDIX 1

THE INSTRUMENT

What is your understanding of the concept of reconciliation? How closely is it tied to the need for acknowledgment of wrong on the one hand and forgiveness on the other?

Is there a difference in the religious and secular approaches to reconciliation?

What is needed in [Sierra Leone] to achieve reconciliation?

To what extent and in what ways has the TRC contributed to national reconciliation?

To what extent have [perpetrators] come to accept personal and social responsibility for [the war] as a result of TRC hearings?

To what extent have the survivors of gross human rights violations benefited from the TRC?

Was it helpful to have a religious person on the TRC which was a national government appointed body?

What can and what does the religious community do to foster reconciliation? As far as your specific faith group is concerned, are the commitment, energy and resources available? Or are there other priorities?

What is the task of the religious communities at this time in [Sierra Leone]?

In your view, how important is confession to reconciliation? Can rituals replace apologies? Should local understandings of reconciliation be taken into account when devising a national truth commission?

How do you compare the value of what the Special Court is doing with what the TRC accomplished? What in your opinion is the relationship between justice and reconciliation?

How important is it that the government enact the TRC’s recommendations? Which recommendations do you believe are most important to advance reconciliation?

Any other comments on the reconciliation process?

APPENDIX 2

INTERVIEWS OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS

Umaru Sillah Bah, national president, Supreme Islamic Council, July 3, 2007

A. A. Bangura, general secretary, Emmanuel Baptist Convention, July 24, 2007

Marie Barnett, pastor, Evangelical Lutheran Church, July 24, 2007

Tom Barnett, bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church, July 18, 2007

George Biguzzi, bishop, Catholic Church, Diocese of Makeni, July 12, 2006

Prince Charles Brainard, secretary general, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Gambia and Sierra Leone, July 3, 2007

Abu Bakarr Conteh, chief imam, Hamdallah Mosque, United Council of Imams; former missionary, Muslim World League; and senior lecturer, Freetown Teacher’s College, July 5, 2006

Daniel Desay, pastor, Pentecostal Church, July 13, 2006

Reuben Dove, general superintendent, Countess of Huntingdon Connexion, July 31, 2007

M. O. Ekemode, evangelist, Christ Apostolic Church, July 24, 2007

Aiah D. Foday-Khabenje, general secretary, Evangelical Fellowship of Sierra Leone, August 1, 2007

Usman Fornah, interim secretary general, Inter-Religious Council, June 28, 2007

Joseph Humper, bishop, United Methodist Church, and former Chairman of the TRC, July 4, 2006

Alie Kallay, senior cleric, Sierra Leone Muslim Missionary Union, August 1, 2007

Solomon Kampbell, general secretary, Baptist Convention of Sierra Leone, July 23, 2007

Abdul Babatunde Karim, secretary general, Sierra Leone Muslim Congress; and professor, Fourah Bay College, July 30, 2007

Moses Khanu, former director, Inter-Religious Council; and commissioner, Human Rights Commission, July 17, 2007

S. Paul Khazali, founder and head, National Christian Evangelical Mission, July 19, 2007

Joseph Konteh, national superintendent, Wesleyan Church, July 5, 2007

Abdul Karim Koroma, Muslim Brotherhood Islamic Mission, August 6, 2007

Tamba Koroma, general superintendent, National Pentecostal Mission, August 6, 2007

Bankole Large, pastor, African Methodist Episcopal Church, July 26, 2007

J. O. P. Lynch, bishop, Anglican Church, Diocese of Freetown, July 14, 2006

Mariatu Mahdi, president, Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations of Sierra Leone, July 6, 2006

Milton Marah, pastor, Missionary Church of Africa—Sierra Leone, August 8, 2007

Mabel Mbayo, Women’s Desk, Inter-Religious Council, August 2, 2007

John P. Meindy, national field secretary, Church of God of Prophecy Mission, July 19, 2007

Francis S. Nabieu, bishop, Methodist Church of Sierra Leone, July 23, 2007

F. T. C. Randall, canon in residence, St. George’s Anglican Church, July 11, 2006

Sahr Kemoore Salia, general secretary, Council of Churches in Sierra Leone, July 3, 2006

Henry C. Samuels, pastor, Vine Memorial Baptist Mission, July 25, 2007

Paul M. Sandi, chancellor, Catholic Archdiocese of Freetown and Bo, July 11, 2006

Ahmed Tejan Sillah, chief imam, Freetown Central Mosque; United Council of Imams, July 5, 2006

Billy K. Simbo, general superintendent, United Brethren in Christ Church, September 10, 2007

D. M. Speck, general superintendent, West African Methodist Church, July 24, 2007

Fomba Abubakar Swaray, chief imam, Madingo Central Mosque; Sierra Leone Muslim Missionary Union; and station manager of Voice of Islam radio station, August 1, 2007

NOTES

Preface

1. See Lyn S. Graybill, Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Miracle or Model? (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2002).

2. Harold Strachan, letter to the editor, Mail and Guardian, July 25, 1997.

3. Quoted in Wilhelm Verwoerd, “Forgiving the Torturer but Not the Torture,” Sunday Independent, December 14, 1998.

4. Richard Wilson, “Reconciliation and Revenge in Post-apartheid South Africa: Rethinking Legal Pluralism and Human Rights” (paper presented at the Truth and Reconciliation Conference on Commissioning the Past, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, June 1999).

5. Quoted in Mark Gevisser, “The Ultimate Test of Faith,” Mail and Guardian, April 12, 1996.

6. Richard Wilson, The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Legitimizing the Post-apartheid State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 11.

7. Daniel Philpott, Just and Unjust Peace: An Ethic of Political Reconciliation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 2.

Introduction: Postwar Transitional Justice

1. Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, January 16, 2002.

2. Bishop Joseph Humper, quoted in William A. Schabas, “The Relationship between Truth Commissions and International Courts: The Case of Sierra Leone,” Human Rights Quarterly 25 (2003): 1038.

3. Thomas Mark Turay, “Civil Society and Peacebuilding: The Role of the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone,” Accord 9 (2000): 50.

4. See Audrey R. Chapman and Bernard Spong, eds., Religion and Reconciliation in South Africa: Voices of Religious Leaders (Philadelphia: Templeton Press, 2003).

5. Ibid., 17–18.

6. Rosalind Shaw, “Memory Wars: Commissioning Truth and Reconciliation in Sierra Leone” (unpublished paper, n.d.).

7. Alcinda Honwana, “Sealing the Past, Facing the Future: Trauma Healing in Rural Mozambique,” Accord 3 (1998): 75–80; and Alcinda Honwana, “The Collective Body: Challenging Western Concepts of Trauma and Healing,” Track Two 8, no. 1 (1999): 30–35. For a critique see Lyn S. Graybill, “Pardon, Punishment, and Amnesia: Three African Post-conflict Methods,” Third World Quarterly 25, no. 6 (2004): 1117–30.

8. Rosalind Shaw, “Rethinking Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: Lessons from Sierra Leone,” USIP Special Report 130 (February 2005).

9. Tim Kelsall, “Truth, Lies, Ritual: Preliminary Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone,” Human Rights Quarterly 27, no. 2 (2005): 361–91.

10. Wilson, Politics of Truth.

11. Graybill, South Africa, 25–37.

12. Luc Huyse, “Introduction: Tradition-Based Approaches in Peacemaking, Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Policies,” in Traditional Justice and Reconciliation after Violent Conflict: Learning from African Experiences, eds. Luc Huyse and Mark Salter (Stockholm: IDEA, 2008), 5.

13. Erin Daly and Jeremy Sarkin, Reconciliation in Divided Societies: Finding Common Ground (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), 61.

14. Desmond Tutu, No Future without Forgiveness (New York: Doubleday, 1999), 51.

15. See for example Martha Minow, “Maki...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction: Postwar Transitional Justice
• One: Role of the Inter-Religious Council
• Two: The Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission
• Three: Women and Transitional Justice
• Four: Popular Views of the TRC and the Special Court
• Five: Perceptions of Religious Leaders
• Six: Traditional Reconciliation Practices
• Seven: Unfinished Business
• Conclusion
• Appendix 1. The Instrument
• Appendix 2. Interviews of Religious Leaders
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index