"This volume rests solidly upon the best available modern research into the political culture of Sierra Leone, and its Creole community in particular, as well as upon thoroughly original field research by Professor Cohen into the symbolic and ritualistic dynamics of what he rightly calls 'state elites' in the Sierra Leone polity. There is simply nothing quite like it in the literature of moder African politics. It will rank at the top of the literature on political culture." --Martin Kilson