Society and Polity in West Africa: Empathic Discourses on Sierra Leone

The book takes a very extensive but insightful journey into many topics of pivotal sociological interest for persons keen on understanding many socio-cultural and political situations in Sierra Leone and wider West Africa. The author maps out value systems underpinning certain behaviour relating to health as when he talks about the 'soutoura' and the tragedy of Ebola; and about the different epidemiological models that influence the fight against Covid and their interplay in, and implications for African countries like Sierra Leone. The author is bold in his discussion of issues relating to examination fraud, non-state integration as could be seen in the chapter on the 'pampa' boats that ply the seas of Guinea and Sierra Leone. The work also pushes conceptual boundaries as witnessed in its treatment of 'patrimoniality' and 'bureaucratism'. Readers would find the author's discourse analysis of the political trajectory of state construction and reconstruction in Sierra Leone very refreshing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mohamed Gibril Sesay grew up in Crojimmy, Eastern Freetown. He was educated at Fourah Bay College, where he now teaches Sociology. Sesay has published several non-fiction works, including Excess Sociology: An African Journeying 2022; The Falling Down and Getting Up of Snake Paddy: State Construction and Reconstruction in Sierra Leone, 2019: and Civil Society In Africa: Models, History and Explosions of Civic Action In Sierra Leone 2019. His creative writings include Falang and Other Short Stories (ed) 2023; Destiny Drive and Other Stories (Short Stories) 2021; Citizens of the Night and Other Freetown Poems 2021; The Fate of the Foetus (Novel) (2017); Mouths of the Junction (Novel) 2017; This Side of Nothingness (Novel) 2015; River Blindness (Short Story) 2013; The Child Survives (short story) 2015; 'Halfman and the Curse of the Ancient Buttocks' (Short Story) 2009; Songs That Pour the Heart: Poems From Sierra Leone (ed)2004; Monkey Teeth, (Short Story) 1999. Sesay has also authored several book chapters; worked with civil society organizations, and as a newspaper columnist, a senior public official and a consultant for several national and international organizations.