IntroductionDuring the 19th and 20th centuries, West Africa experienced nearly fifty conflicts ranging from acts of extreme civil disobedience to large-scale civil war. The levels of atrocities are among the most depraved acts committed against one human being against another in modern history. Often the outside world watches these countries destroy each other, and given that many of these countries possess valuable natural resources, the capacity to continually perpetuate conflict remains present. The main objective of this article will be to discuss many of the consequences associated with the integration of democracy in emerging West African countries at the end of the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism. Could the integration of democracy within intrinsically tribal cultures be a causal effect of the civil war in West Africa? The main premise will focus on the case of Sierra Leone and the descent into a series of civil wars that turned the country into a failed state for over a decade in modern history. Methodology The hypothesis of this article will present the idea that civil war in West Africa is often the result of weak central governments that use the guise of democracy as a vehicle to create pseudo-nepotistic governmental institutions. -tribal. Ultimately, large swaths of the population are marginalized by a small group of elites who control the majority of the country's wealth. population as part of the emergence of democratic governance. The democratic entity ultimately becomes the tool to perpetuate nepotism, corruption and other egregious phenomena...... middle of article ......d Visions of race, science and of Religion (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2010).LeVert Suzanne, Sierra Leone (New York: Benchmark Books (NY), 2007).Miller Joseph Calder, Way of Death: Merchant Capitalism and the Angolan Slave Trade, 1730- 1830 (place of publication: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996), 1. Mulaj Kledja, ed., Violent Non-State Actors in World Politics (Columbia/Hurst) (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), page 280. Pham , J. Peter. Child soldiers, adult interests: the global dimensions of the Sierra Leonean tragedy. New York: Nova Science Pub Inc., 2005. “HISTORY OF ANGOLA.” HISTORY OF ANGOLA. World History, nd Web. April 14, 2014. Wright, Gavin Slavery and American Economic Development (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History), reprinted ed. (place of publication: Louisiana State University Press, 2013).