Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma

Founding member and advisor to the University of Western Ontario's Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma.

Ambushed: A War Reporter's Life on the Line (published also as Freetown Ambush: A Reporter's Year in Africa

Penguin Group Canada; Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill; Vision Books (UK and Commonwealth Countries); ABC Books (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian and New Zealand)

AMBUSHED is a fascinating, in-depth look at the extraordinary day-to-day life of a war correspondent. Stewart presents a compelling portrait of the often surreal world that journalists inhabit as they bear witness to violence and give voice to the unspeakable. Appalled by the level of cruelty he witnessed, Stewart was shocked by the indifference of the outside world. Though his stories were sometimes buried deep inside the daily papers, or published not at all, he kept reporting the truth. When armed rebels entered Sierra Leone's besieged capital of Freetown, Stewart and two of his colleagues were ambushed while driving down the street on assignment. One of his colleagues was killed instantly, and Stewart, shot in the head, had a twenty-percent chance of surviving. Astonishingly, he did. With frankness and courage, Stewart tells the story of his extraordinary recovery and the tremendous risks he and other journalists take to give us the news.

Ambushed: A War Reporter's Life on the Line (published also as Freetown Ambush: A Reporter's Year in Africa

Penguin Group Canada; Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill; Vision Books (UK and Commonwealth Countries); ABC Books (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian and New Zealand)

AMBUSHED is a fascinating, in-depth look at the extraordinary day-to-day life of a war correspondent. Stewart presents a compelling portrait of the often surreal world that journalists inhabit as they bear witness to violence and give voice to the unspeakable. Appalled by the level of cruelty he witnessed, Stewart was shocked by the indifference of the outside world. Though his stories were sometimes buried deep inside the daily papers, or published not at all, he kept reporting the truth. When armed rebels entered Sierra Leone's besieged capital of Freetown, Stewart and two of his colleagues were ambushed while driving down the street on assignment. One of his colleagues was killed instantly, and Stewart, shot in the head, had a twenty-percent chance of surviving. Astonishingly, he did. With frankness and courage, Stewart tells the story of his extraordinary recovery and the tremendous risks he and other journalists take to give us the news.

The Tenacity of Bondage: An Anthropological History of Slavery and Unfree Labor in Sierra Leone

Unpublished doctoral dissertation; University of Michigan Doctoral Program in Anthropology and History

Sierra Leone was purportedly conceived of the Enlightenment’s growing antislavery movement in the 18th and 19th centuries. Its earliest origins can be traced to a growing discourse of human rights and a critique of slave labor for economic gain through the production of sugar, cotton and other commodities. Yet, by the late 20th century this country was embroiled in a civil war that employed contemporary slavery in the form of child soldiery for economic gain from illicit diamond-, narcotics- and gun-smuggling. On the surface, the motives, means and methods of warfare in this nation appear to be a wholesale abandonment of the antislavery principles upon which it was founded. However, this dissertation contends that Sierra Leone’s war and its apparent affiliation with contemporary slavery represent the latest manifestation of a centuries-long adaptive process that began on the eve of the American Declaration of Independence in 1775. My dissertation argues that the use of child soldier-slaves, which I term terrorist slavery, is only the most recent form of forced servitude following a long history of post-emancipation adaptations of unfree labor. My dissertation traces the national history of Sierra Leone in order to examine how slavery and unfree labor persisted through numerous reinventions in Sierra Leone from the late 18th century to the early 21st century. Sierra Leone, was, in essence, a laboratory of unfree labor — from share cropping to debt bondage to apprenticeship labor and domestic slavery. My work examines the processes that temporally and spatially span the Atlantic World from revolution and slavery in late 18th century America to revolution and slavery in late 20th century West Africa. I examine how myriad transnational factors and socio-cultural interpretations of concepts such as freedom and slavery have perpetuated unfreedom in this West African nation.

Ambushed: A War Reporter's Life on the Line (published also as Freetown Ambush: A Reporter's Year in Africa

Penguin Group Canada; Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill; Vision Books (UK and Commonwealth Countries); ABC Books (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian and New Zealand)

AMBUSHED is a fascinating, in-depth look at the extraordinary day-to-day life of a war correspondent. Stewart presents a compelling portrait of the often surreal world that journalists inhabit as they bear witness to violence and give voice to the unspeakable. Appalled by the level of cruelty he witnessed, Stewart was shocked by the indifference of the outside world. Though his stories were sometimes buried deep inside the daily papers, or published not at all, he kept reporting the truth. When armed rebels entered Sierra Leone's besieged capital of Freetown, Stewart and two of his colleagues were ambushed while driving down the street on assignment. One of his colleagues was killed instantly, and Stewart, shot in the head, had a twenty-percent chance of surviving. Astonishingly, he did. With frankness and courage, Stewart tells the story of his extraordinary recovery and the tremendous risks he and other journalists take to give us the news.

The Tenacity of Bondage: An Anthropological History of Slavery and Unfree Labor in Sierra Leone

Unpublished doctoral dissertation; University of Michigan Doctoral Program in Anthropology and History

Sierra Leone was purportedly conceived of the Enlightenment’s growing antislavery movement in the 18th and 19th centuries. Its earliest origins can be traced to a growing discourse of human rights and a critique of slave labor for economic gain through the production of sugar, cotton and other commodities. Yet, by the late 20th century this country was embroiled in a civil war that employed contemporary slavery in the form of child soldiery for economic gain from illicit diamond-, narcotics- and gun-smuggling. On the surface, the motives, means and methods of warfare in this nation appear to be a wholesale abandonment of the antislavery principles upon which it was founded. However, this dissertation contends that Sierra Leone’s war and its apparent affiliation with contemporary slavery represent the latest manifestation of a centuries-long adaptive process that began on the eve of the American Declaration of Independence in 1775. My dissertation argues that the use of child soldier-slaves, which I term terrorist slavery, is only the most recent form of forced servitude following a long history of post-emancipation adaptations of unfree labor. My dissertation traces the national history of Sierra Leone in order to examine how slavery and unfree labor persisted through numerous reinventions in Sierra Leone from the late 18th century to the early 21st century. Sierra Leone, was, in essence, a laboratory of unfree labor — from share cropping to debt bondage to apprenticeship labor and domestic slavery. My work examines the processes that temporally and spatially span the Atlantic World from revolution and slavery in late 18th century America to revolution and slavery in late 20th century West Africa. I examine how myriad transnational factors and socio-cultural interpretations of concepts such as freedom and slavery have perpetuated unfreedom in this West African nation.

Childhood in Wartime Sierra Leone

CICS International Connections

Feature essay profiling the plight of former child soldiers after the 199102002 civil war in Sierra Leone

Ambushed: A War Reporter's Life on the Line (published also as Freetown Ambush: A Reporter's Year in Africa

Penguin Group Canada; Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill; Vision Books (UK and Commonwealth Countries); ABC Books (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian and New Zealand)

AMBUSHED is a fascinating, in-depth look at the extraordinary day-to-day life of a war correspondent. Stewart presents a compelling portrait of the often surreal world that journalists inhabit as they bear witness to violence and give voice to the unspeakable. Appalled by the level of cruelty he witnessed, Stewart was shocked by the indifference of the outside world. Though his stories were sometimes buried deep inside the daily papers, or published not at all, he kept reporting the truth. When armed rebels entered Sierra Leone's besieged capital of Freetown, Stewart and two of his colleagues were ambushed while driving down the street on assignment. One of his colleagues was killed instantly, and Stewart, shot in the head, had a twenty-percent chance of surviving. Astonishingly, he did. With frankness and courage, Stewart tells the story of his extraordinary recovery and the tremendous risks he and other journalists take to give us the news.

The Tenacity of Bondage: An Anthropological History of Slavery and Unfree Labor in Sierra Leone

Unpublished doctoral dissertation; University of Michigan Doctoral Program in Anthropology and History

Sierra Leone was purportedly conceived of the Enlightenment’s growing antislavery movement in the 18th and 19th centuries. Its earliest origins can be traced to a growing discourse of human rights and a critique of slave labor for economic gain through the production of sugar, cotton and other commodities. Yet, by the late 20th century this country was embroiled in a civil war that employed contemporary slavery in the form of child soldiery for economic gain from illicit diamond-, narcotics- and gun-smuggling. On the surface, the motives, means and methods of warfare in this nation appear to be a wholesale abandonment of the antislavery principles upon which it was founded. However, this dissertation contends that Sierra Leone’s war and its apparent affiliation with contemporary slavery represent the latest manifestation of a centuries-long adaptive process that began on the eve of the American Declaration of Independence in 1775. My dissertation argues that the use of child soldier-slaves, which I term terrorist slavery, is only the most recent form of forced servitude following a long history of post-emancipation adaptations of unfree labor. My dissertation traces the national history of Sierra Leone in order to examine how slavery and unfree labor persisted through numerous reinventions in Sierra Leone from the late 18th century to the early 21st century. Sierra Leone, was, in essence, a laboratory of unfree labor — from share cropping to debt bondage to apprenticeship labor and domestic slavery. My work examines the processes that temporally and spatially span the Atlantic World from revolution and slavery in late 18th century America to revolution and slavery in late 20th century West Africa. I examine how myriad transnational factors and socio-cultural interpretations of concepts such as freedom and slavery have perpetuated unfreedom in this West African nation.

Childhood in Wartime Sierra Leone

CICS International Connections

Feature essay profiling the plight of former child soldiers after the 199102002 civil war in Sierra Leone