{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.017953321364452424, 'fraction_numerical': 0.00718132854578097, 'mean_word_length': 4.962566844919786, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
The Real and Symbolic Importance of Food in War: Hunger Pains and Big Men's Bellies in Sierra Leone

This paper explores the central material and symbolic role of food, during and after the eleven-year war (1991-2002) in Sierra Leone, West Africa. In postconflict Sierra Leone, food is often central to narratives about the wartime experience. The point of this work is to use food as a medium to talk about the everyday experiences of the war and to foreground quotidian suffering over the spectacular. I investigate the cultural meaning of food with respect to sociality, reciprocity, and political clientelism. The idiom of food is used to describe the greediness of politicians deemed responsible for the war, as well as personal stories of wartime privation told with reference to hunger. The everyday strategies of food finding under rebel control and in refugee and IDP camps make up the narratives of shifting personal agency under shifting moral regimes. Finally, new methods of food preparation with new ingredients serve as everyday reminders of innovation during displacement and a new cosmopolitanism.