Integrating strangers : Sherbro identity and the politics of reciprocity along the Sierra Leonean coast / Anais Menard.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Chapter 1. Anatomy of a Rurban Space -- Chapter 2. Narratives of Colonial Encounters -- Chapter 3. Framing Reciprocity -- Chapter 4. Discourses of the‘Civilized Man’ -- Chapter 5. The Tactics of Concealment and Disclosure -- Chapter 6. The Social Dynamics of Double Membership -- Chapter 7. Initiation as Ethnic Transformation -- Chapter 8. Lands, Livelihoods and Politics -- Conclusion

"Drawing on an ethnography of Sherbro coastal communities in Sierra Leone, this book analyses the politics and practice of identity through the lens of the reciprocal relations that exist between socio-ethnic groups. Anais Menard examines the implications of the social arrangement that binds landlords and strangers in a frontier region, the Freetown Peninsula, characterized by high degrees of individual mobility and social interactions. She showcases the processes by which Sherbro identity emerged as a flexible category of practice, allowing individuals the possibility to claim multiple origins and perform ethnic crossovers while remaining Sherbro"-- Provided by publisher.