5. Kinship Tropes as Critique of Patronage in Postwar Sierra Leone

Murphy examines a key discursive strategy in postwar struggles of national reconstruction in Sierra Leone: namely, redefining and reframing the meaning of kinship tropes and norms of patronage politics. The kinship model of authority—for example, trope of leader as “father”—provides rhetorical means for criticizing “big man” patronage for not conforming to kinship norms of reciprocity and compassionate solicitude for the most vulnerable and needy. Patrons are accused, especially by socially vulnerable youth and women, of imposing harsh patriarchal power and filial servitude, which profits from clientelist dependency in a postwar political economy of widespread social and economic deprivation. This argument leads to broader theoretical questions concerning the structural tension in all crisis-ridden societies between clientelism and citizenship in nation-building.