Chain work: the cultivation of hierarchy in Sierra Leone’s cannabis economy

Abstract

Violence is often treated as an organisational complement to illicit drug production in the global South. The article challenges this view with reference to the ‘chain work’ undertaken by Sierra Leone’s cannabis cultivators. Life histories reveal that the migration of cultivators from Kingston, Jamaica to Sierra Leone’s Hastings and Waterloo established apprenticeship as the means by which young men participated in the cannabis economy under the guidance of those they referred to as ‘shareholders’. These shareholders acted as gatekeepers for access to land, cross-border exchange and extra-legal networks. The resulting structural advantages limited challenges by newcomers for an activity usually understood to be ‘naturally’ contestable. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology, cultivators are shown to reproduce practices that maintained the dominance of bosses without recourse to violence.

[Travail à la chaine : la culture de la hiérarchie dans l’économie du cannabis en Sierra Leone.] La violence est souvent considérée comme un complément organisationnel à la production illicite de drogues dans le Sud. En se référant au « travail à la chaine » entrepris par les cultivateurs de cannabis de Sierra Leone, cet article défie cette perspective. Les histoires de vie révèlent que la migration des cultivateurs de Kingston, Jamaïque, vers Hastings et Waterloo en Sierra Leone a permis l’établissement de l’apprentissage comme un moyen par lequel les jeunes hommes participaient à l’économie du cannabis sous la direction de ceux qu’ils appelaient les « actionnaires ». Ces actionnaires agissaient comme des gardiens pour l’accès à la terre, le commerce transfrontalier et les réseaux illégaux. Les avantages structuraux qui en résultent limitaient les défis rencontrés par les nouveaux arrivants pour une activité habituellement considérée comme étant « naturellement » contestable. Comme décrit par la sociologie de Pierre Bourdieu, les cultivateurs semblent reproduire les pratiques qui ont maintenu la domination des chefs sans recours à la violence.

Keywords:

• illegality
• drugs
• youth
• Bourdieu
• violence
• organised crime

Mots-clés:

• illégalité 
• drogues 
• jeunes 
• Bourdieu 
• violence 
• crime organisé

Note on contributor

Christopher Suckling is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics. His research interests lie in youth, illicit economies and the development of Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology in the context of sub-Saharan Africa.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Pseudonyms are used throughout to protect the identities of my interlocutors. The interviewees are listed by name, place of interview and date after the references.

2. The article draws on field research undertaken between December 2012 and December 2013 in the towns of Hastings and Waterloo in Sierra Leone’s Western Area Rural District. Evidence is drawn from a combination of 55 interviews and life histories recorded from cultivators and dealers, a network analysis of labour relations in production (n = 123) and extra-legal relations with law enforcement (n = 132), in addition to detailed financial accounts and price data collected during a survey of cultivators covering dry and rainy season harvests in 2013 (n = 58).

Additional information

Funding

The author gratefully acknowledges the Economic and Social Research Council studentship he was awarded.