Decolonising law in the postcolonial nation-state in Sub-Saharan Africa: The case of Sierra Leone

This thesis examines the enduring legacies of colonial law in Sierra Leone and explores pathways for decolonising the nation’s legal order. It introduces the concept of the colonial deficit as a unifying analytic to explain how inherited legal structures—spanning land tenure, criminal justice, plural legal systems, and constitutional governance—continue to undermine sovereignty, equity, and reform. Drawing on postcolonial theory, TWAIL, and Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò’s framework of African agency, the study situates Sierra Leone within broader sub-Saharan patterns of continuity, hybridity, and rupture in legal reform. Through a critical historical and comparative analysis, the thesis demonstrates how colonial legal architectures persist in shaping social, political, and epistemic hierarchies, producing exclusionary practices in both statutory and customary domains. It engages with the findings of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission and comparative experiences from Ghana, South Africa, Rwanda, and Uganda to illuminate possibilities for harmonising customary and statutory systems, promoting gender inclusion, and advancing participatory constitutionalism. The study proposes an integrated reform roadmap centred on four interdependent domains: land reform, criminal justice reform, constitutional redesign, and epistemic renewal. By linking structural reform with epistemic transformation, the roadmap demonstrates how law can be reimagined not merely as an inherited scaffold but as a tool for sovereignty, justice, and African-led norm creation. Ultimately, the thesis contributes to postcolonial legal scholarship by offering a contextually grounded analysis of Sierra Leone, advancing theoretical frameworks for decolonisation, and providing actionable strategies to reclaim legal futures. It affirms that the decolonisation of law is not simply a process of critique or reversal but a forward-looking project of creation—one that recognises African agency, pluralism, and the potential for emancipatory justice across generations.

Funder

University of Galway

Publisher

University of Galway

Rights

CC BY-NC-ND

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University of Galway Theses (PhD Theses)