The narratives on human rights in a neopatrimonial state, 1967–1984

Under Siaka Stevens's rule, human rights were determined by his personal beliefs in what he felt was right, and his unequivocal rejection of a neoliberal Sierra Leone. The first narrative purported that "the neoliberal agenda behind the universalization of the western conception of human rights was hegemonic, oppressive and a neocolonial instrument to control the postcolonial state." The second narrative posited that "the neopatrimonial Stevens regime, however violent, offered the best possible developmental outcomes for Sierra Leone." From a Foucauldian standpoint, the disciplinary outlook of United States foreign policy in the decade-plus following Sierra Leone's independence created political anxieties in many African countries. In part, this uneasiness was created by the response of the United States to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The regime's lumpenproletariat understanding of human rights was based on the assumptions that "rights" are legitimate only if they promote the best possible outcomes for the patron and his clientele.