Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice in Sub-Saharan Africa’s Post-Conflict Societies: The Role of Traditional Forms of Justice in Post-Civil War Sierra Leone.

Abstract: The prevalence of violent conflicts over the last few decades has left numerous countries in the need of thorough rebuilding; from Afghanistan to Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Somalia or Rwanda. In order to assist in the recovery of these post-conflict societies, various peacebuilding strategies and transitional justice mechanisms have been implemented by a range of different actors. However, most approaches have so far failed to perform adequately due to the overwhelming tendency of using top-down, Western approaches; especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. A growing emphasis has therefore been put on including traditional forms of justice within the peacebuilding and transitional justice mechanisms applied within post-conflict societies. This has been the case in post-civil war Sierra Leone, where attempts were made to integrate traditional approaches. This thesis aimed to explore the role of traditional forms of justice within peacebuilding processes and transitional justice mechanisms in Sub-Saharan Africa’s post-conflict societies. Departing from a socio-legal perspective, a Critical Discourse Analysis based on Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model was carried out within the context of a single case study about Sierra Leone’s transitional justice mechanisms: the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Fambul Tok. This was combined with the use of postcolonial theories of law and legal pluralism. The thesis concluded that while traditional forms of justice have the potential to successfully contribute to peacebuilding processes and transitional justice mechanisms, Western approaches still heavily dominate and undermine the use of traditional approaches while the presence of strong postcolonial dynamics, power imbalances and the lack of recognition of legal pluralism lead to more issues.