Sierra Leone

Works Cited

Cockburn, Andrew. "Diamonds: the Real Story." National Geograpic Mar. 2002: 2-35.

Samura, Sorious. "History: From 1990 to 1999." Cry Freetown. 3 Feb. 2000. BBC. <http://www.cryfreetown.org/90s.html>.

Samura, Sorious. "History: Pre 1990s." Cry Freetown. 3 Feb. 2000. BBC. <http://www.cryfreetown.org/pre90s.html>.

"Sierra Leone: History." Infoplease. 2007. Columbia University Press. <http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0861084.html>.

"Sierra Leone; History, Geography, Government, and Culture." Infoplease. 2007. <http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107959.html>.

"Timeline: Sierra Leone." BBC News. 2 Mar. 2008. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1065898.stm>.

Sierra Leone is a small country in western Africa, yet it has some big problems. The UN has ranked Sierra Leone as the world's “least livable” country, based on its poverty and the poor quality of life. Its rich history dating all the way back to the first tribal settlers around 500 BC, to its most recent presidential election without the help of the UN peacekeeping force, is filled with war, violence, money, and recently diamonds.

It all started with the first tribe called the Bulom tribe, then later in the 15th century, there was another group of tribes called the Mende and the Temne tribes. Sierra Leone has very thick rainforests that made it difficult for major African empires to erupt and for exploration of western peoples. It remained populated with small tribal villages until the British settled the first major colony in 1787. Freetown, also called the “Province of Freedom”, served as a home for blacks that were discharged from the British armed forces, as well as rescued slaves. It also served as the headquarters of all the British West African Territories. Sierra Leone was the only African country with a European-style university. In 1808 Freetown became a crown colony. In 1896 Britain set up a protectorate over Freetown.

Throughout most of the early 20th century Sierra Leone dealt with its government, as well as internal conflicts. Surprisingly though, Sierra Leone achieved independence without any violence or conflict. Sir Milton Margai, a veteran medial doctor was elected in 1951. He valiantly led the route to independence through the support of the country’s ethnic majorities. In 1960, he sent a request to Great Britain asking for the country to be independent and Britain accepted in 1961. Sierra Leone became an independent state under the commonwealth.

The country’s early independence was very controversial and unstable. The political situation was volleyed back and forth between multi-party and single party constitutions. In May 1982,The House of Representatives declared Sierra Leone to be a one-party state.

A difficult dispute began after Albert Margai, the brother of Milton Margai, resigned and declared Siaka Stevens, leader of the APC (All-People’s Congress), to be the new prime minister. Within hours, Brigadier General David Lansana led a national coup trying to overthrow Stevens. This attempt was successful, but the Lansana government was easily overthrown. Military officers failed in their attempt to eliminate the election results and were imprisoned. Siaka Stevens was then returned to power.

In 1985, the first single party election was carried out. It was an issue of approving a candidate through a yes or no kind of vote. The election itself was bloodless and successful, and Joseph Saidu Momoh was brought into power. After his election, he immediately began to deal with the economy of the country and spurred the biggest military rebellion in the country to date.

As diamonds are its most important natural resource, the diamond industry has been the only real economic asset to Sierra Leone. Put mildly, the diamond industry is the only thing that has kept Sierra Leone on its feet, but has also created the largest conflicts. The country made an agreement with the DeBeers mining company back in 1935, so they would have exclusive rights over the mining in Sierra Leone. Over the years, this agreement has been the major source of diamond controversy. After only 20 years there were 75,000 illegal miners in the heart of the diamond mines. That lead to smuggling and a general breakdown of law and order. After only another 15 years many countries even established offices around the fields, and reduced the DeBeers Company down to the size of only two diamond fields. President Stevens and President Momoh both supported and urged illegal mining outside of DeBeers. A Lebanese businessman, Jamil Mohammed,