An Ethnographic Examination of People’s Reactions to State-Led COVID-19 Measures in Sierra Leone

This paper explores how individuals—defined along lines of gender, age, life experience, financial capital and profession—experience and react in nuanced ways to the impacts of state-led COVID-19 measures, in Sierra Leone. The findings are based on ethnographic data collected from Makeni city and three rural communities in Bombali District, north Sierra Leone during the outbreak of COVID-19, between 23rd March and 6th May 2020. The findings show how state-led measures—indefinite district lockdown, three-day total lockdowns and mask wearing—were experienced and responded to in myriad ways, including adapting, not complying and resisting. The diverse ways members of society experience, react and shape the effects of internationally and nationally informed health policies during a global pandemic in Sierra Leone highlight the nuances of individual experience and agency in specific socio-political contexts. These findings contribute to the emerging Social Science debate on state–society relations in the COVID-19 pandemic response.