Diasporas Advocacy in Sierra Leone: A New Framework for Transitional and Transformative Justice

The thesis engages diverse scholarship and debates on transitional justice, transformativejustice, and diasporas studies, by placing the Sierra Leone diasporas into greater spotlight and complexity in understanding the country’s post-war transition and efforts towards peace and development building. Diasporas issues have transformed remarkably in just a few decades from being characterized as burdens by host states and brain drain by sending nations. This narrative has improved, however, due to their transnational roles in enhancing the socio-political and economic development of the homeland and attracting the attention of policy and development experts, peace agents, and academics alike. This thesis argues that the diasporas is essential to both short and long-term changes essential to transitional and transformative justice. The thesis draws from in depth interviews and a survey of the Sierra Leone diasporas, and it places the diasporas at the center of analysis of Sierra Leone’s transitional and transformative justice processes through an intimate ethnographic methodology.