Within two decades, Sierra Leone's ‘cliques’ have transformed from peripheral social clubs to warring Crips, Bloods, and Black street gangs at the heart of criminal and political violence. Nevertheless, they remain severely under-studied, with scholarship on Sierra Leonean youth marginality heavily focused on ex-combatants. Drawing on extended fieldwork with Freetown's cliques as they played the ‘game’ – the daily hustle to survive and resist the ‘system’ – this article offers two main contributions. First, it addresses the knowledge gap by charting the origins, evolution and contemporary organisation of these new urban players. Second, it argues that although this history reveals continuity in perennial forms of youth marginalisation, it also shows that the game itself has changed. Cycles of escalating violence and growth are hardwired into this new game. Exacerbated by a political system that sustains and exploits them, cliques present a far greater challenge to everyday peace than has hitherto been recognised.

二十年内，塞拉利昂的“帮派”已经从外围社交俱乐部转变为交战的 Crips、Bloods 和 Black 街头帮派，处于犯罪和政治暴力的核心。尽管如此，他们的研究仍然严重不足，关于塞拉利昂青年边缘化的研究主要集中在前战斗人员身上。借鉴弗里敦的派系在玩“游戏”时进行的扩展实地调查——为了生存和抵抗“系统”的日常喧嚣——本文提供了两个主要贡献。首先，它通过描绘这些新城市参与者的起源、演变和当代组织来解决知识差距。其次，它认为尽管这段历史揭示了青年边缘化的长期形式的连续性，但它也表明游戏本身已经发生了变化。不断升级的暴力和增长周期与这款新游戏密不可分。由于维持和利用他们的政治制度加剧，小集团对日常和平的挑战比迄今为止所认识到的要大得多。