Sarah Delius

Affiliate Researcher in the Histories of Government Programme

Dr Sarah Delius is a political scientist and historian in the New South Institute’s Histories of Government programme.  Her research examines how systems of marriage and slavery, shaped by the Atlantic slave trade, colonial rule, and changing global and political orders, structured gender relations, labour, and political authority in Sierra Leone from the late nineteenth century through the civil war. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of the Witwatersrand and a Master’s degree in History from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, where she received postgraduate scholarships from the SOAS Faculty of Humanities. Her forthcoming book, The Same in All but Name? Marriage, Slavery, Patriarchy, and Politics in Sierra Leone, 1890–1990(Brill), examines how intimate institutions such as marriage and enslavement became arenas of contestation and political power in Sierra Leone. She has also published in leading international journals.

Her research has been supported by competitive national and international funding, including grants from the Mellon Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) through the Conjugal Slavery in War project, and the National Research Foundation. She has held fellowships at the Siebel Center for Design (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) and the University of Birmingham, and has led interdisciplinary projects that translate complex social research into actionable insights.

Sarah is committed to using historically grounded, context-driven research to inform social and institutional change in South Africa and across the African continent, producing work that engages directly with contemporary political, social, and policy challenges.

Publications

Books

1. Delius, S. (forthcoming, 2027) The Same in All but Name? Marriage, Slavery, Patriarchy, and Politics in Sierra Leone, 1890–1990. De Gruyter Brill.

Scholarly Articles

1. Delius, S. (2022) ‘The Same in All but Name? The Intersections of Marriage and Slavery in Sierra Leone, 1890–1930’, Slavery & Abolition, 43(2), pp. 320–345.
2. Delius, S. (submitted) ‘Burn Down the Town: Colonial Violence on the Liberian–Sierra Leone Border, 1880–1915’.