This post discusses the political history of Sierra Leone starting from the early history to colonial Era, the independence and the Government.
Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It shares its southeastern border with Liberia, and the northern half of the nation is surrounded by Guinea. Covering a total area of 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi), Sierra Leone has a tropical climate, with diverse environments ranging from savanna to rainforests. The country has a population of 7,092,113 as of the 2015 census. Freetown is the capital and largest city. The country is divided into five administrative regions, which are subdivided into 16 districts.
EARLY HISTORY
Archaeological finds show that Sierra Leone has been inhabited continuously for at least 2,500 years; populated successively by societies who migrated from other parts of Africa. The use of iron was adopted by the ninth century, and by 1000 AD, agriculture was being practiced along the coast. Over time, the climate changed considerably, altering boundaries between different ecological zones, affecting migration and conquest.
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Sierra Leone’s dense tropical rainforest and swampy environment were considered impenetrable; it was also host to the tsetse fly, which carried a disease fatal to horses and the zebu cattle used by the Mande-speaking people. This environment protected its people from conquest by the Mandinka and other African empires, and limited the influence of the Mali Empire. Islam was introduced by Susu traders, merchants and migrants from the north and east, becoming widely adopted in the 18th century.
COLONIAL ERA (1800–1961)
The settlement of Sierra Leone in the 1800s was unique in that the population was composed of displaced Africans who were brought to the colony after the British abolition of the slave trade in 1807. Upon arrival in Sierra Leone, each recapture was given a registration number, and information on their physical qualities would be entered into the Register of Liberated Africans. Oftentimes the documentation would be overwhelmingly subjective and would result in inaccurate entries, making them difficult to track. In addition, differences between the Register of Liberated Africans of 1808 and the List of Captured Negroes of 1812 (which emulated the 1808 document) revealed some disparities in the entries of the recaptures, specifically in the names; many recaptures decided to change their given names to more anglicized versions which contributed to the difficulty in tracking them after they arrived in Sierra Leone.
In the early 19th century, Freetown served as the residence of the British colonial governor of the region, who also administered the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and the Gambia settlements. Sierra Leone developed as the educational Centre of British West Africa. The British established Fourah Bay College in 1827, which rapidly became a magnet for English-speaking Africans on the West Coast. For more than a century, it was the only European-style university in western Sub-Saharan Africa. Samuel Ajayi Crowther was the first student to be enrolled at Fourah Bay. Fourah Bay College soon became a magnet for Sierra Leone Creoles and other Africans seeking higher education in British West Africa. These included Nigerians, Ghanaians, Ivorians and many more, especially in the fields of theology and education. Freetown was known as the “Athens of Africa” due to the large number of excellent schools in Freetown and surrounding areas.
The British interacted mostly with the Krios in Freetown, who did most of the trading with the indigenous peoples of the interior. Educated Krios held numerous positions in the colonial government, giving them status and well-paying positions. Following the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, the British decided that they needed to establish more dominion over the inland areas, to satisfy what was described by the European powers as “effective occupation” of territories. In 1896 it annexed these areas, declaring them the Sierra Leone Protectorate. With this change, the British began to expand their administration in the region, recruiting British citizens to posts and pushing Krios out of positions in government and even the desirable residential areas in Freetown.
1960 INDEPENDENCE CONFERENCE
On 20 April 1960, Sir Milton Margai led the Sierra Leonean delegation in the negotiations for independence at the constitutional conferences held with Queen Elizabeth II and British Colonial Secretary Iain Macleod, at Lancaster House in London. All twenty-four members of the Sierra Leonean delegation were prominent and well-respected politicians including Sir Milton’s younger brother lawyer Sir Albert Margai, trade unionist Siaka Stevens, SLPP-strongman Lamina Sankoh, Creole activist Isaac Wallace-Johnson, Paramount chief Ella Koblo Gulama, educationist Mohamed Sanusi Mustapha, Dr John Karefa-Smart, Professor Kande Bureh, lawyer Sir Banja Tejan-Sie, former Freetown Mayor Eustace Henry Taylor Cummings, educationist Amadu Wurie, and Creole diplomat Hector Reginald Sylvanus Boltman.
On the conclusion of talks in London, Britain agreed to grant Sierra Leone Independence on 27 April 1961. Stevens was the only delegate who refused to sign Sierra Leone’s Declaration of Independence, on the grounds that there had been a secret defence-pact between Sierra Leone and Britain; another point of contention by Stevens was the Sierra Leonean government’s position that there would be no elections held before independence which would effectively shut Stevens out of Sierra Leone’s political process.Upon their return to Freetown on 4 May 1960, Stevens was promptly expelled from the People’s National Party (PNP).
EARLY INDEPENDENCE (1961–1968)
Sir Milton Margai administration (1961–1964)
On 27 April 1961, Sir Milton Margai led Sierra Leone to Independence from Britain and became the country’s first prime minister. Sierra Leone retained a parliamentary system of government and was a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. In May 1962, Sierra Leone held its first general election as an independent nation. The Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) won plurality of seats in parliament and Sir Milton Margai was re-elected as prime minister.[87][88] The years just after independence were prosperous, with money from mineral resources being used for development and the founding of Njala University.
Sir Albert Margai administration (1964–1967)
Upon Sir Milton Margai’s death in 1964, his half-brother, Sir Albert Margai, was appointed as Prime Minister by parliament. Sir Albert’s leadership was briefly challenged by Sierra Leone’s Foreign Minister John Karefa-Smart, who questioned Sir Albert’s succession to the SLPP leadership position. Kareefa-Smart received little support in Parliament in his attempt to have Margai stripped of the SLPP leadership. Soon after Margai was sworn in as Prime Minister, he immediately dismissed several senior government officials who had served under his elder brother’s government, as he viewed them as traitors and a threat to his administration.
Unlike his late brother, Sir Milton, Sir Albert Margai proved unpopular and resorted to increasingly authoritarian actions in response to protests, including the enactment of several laws against the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) and an unsuccessful attempt to establish a one-party state.
Three military coups (1967–1968)
The APC narrowly won a small majority of seats in Parliament over the SLPP in a closely contested 1967 Sierra Leone general election, and APC leader Siaka Stevens was sworn in as Prime Minister on 21 March 1967 in Freetown. Within hours of taking office, Stevens was ousted in a bloodless military coup led by the commander of the army, Brigadier General David Lansana, a close ally of Sir Albert Margai who had appointed Lansana to the position in 1964. Lansana placed Stevens under house arrest in Freetown and insisted the determination of office of the prime minister should await the election of the tribal representatives to the house. On 23 March, a group of senior military officers in the Sierra Leone Army led by Brigadier Andrew Juxon-Smith overrode this action by seizing control of the government, arresting Lansana, and suspending the constitution. The group constituted itself as the National Reformation Council (NRC) with Juxon-Smith as its chairman and Governor-General.[90] On 18 April 1968, a group of senior military officers who called themselves the Anti-Corruption Revolutionary Movement (ACRM) led by Brigadier General John Amadu Bangura overthrew the NRC junta. The ACRM juntas arrested many senior NRC members. The democratic constitution was restored, and power was handed back to Stevens, who assumed the office of prime minister.
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Sierra Leone is a constitutional republic with a directly elected president and a unicameral legislature. The current system of the Government of Sierra Leone is based on the 1991 Sierra Leone Constitution. Sierra Leone has a dominant unitary central government and a weak local government. The executive branch of the Government of Sierra Leone, headed by the president of Sierra Leone has extensive powers and influences. The president is the most powerful government official in Sierra Leone.
Within the confines of the 1991 Constitution, supreme legislative powers are vested in Parliament, which is the law-making body of the nation. Supreme executive authority rests in the president and members of his cabinet and judicial power with the judiciary of which the Chief Justice of Sierra Leone is the head.
The president is the head of state, the head of government and the commander-in-chief of the Sierra Leone Armed Forces. The president appoints and heads a cabinet of ministers, which must be approved by the Parliament. The president is elected by popular vote to a maximum of two five-year terms. The president is the highest and most influential position within the government of Sierra Leone.
To be elected president of Sierra Leone, a candidate must gain at least 55% of the vote. If no candidate gets 55%, there is a second-round runoff between the top two candidates.
The current president of Sierra Leone is former military junta leader Julius Maada Bio.[115] Bio defeated Samura Kamara of the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) in the country’s tightly contested 2018 presidential election. Bio replaced outgoing President Ernest Bai Koroma after Bio was sworn into office on 4 April 2018 by Chief Justice Abdulai Cham. Bio is the leader of the Sierra Leone People’s Party, the current ruling party in Sierra Leone.
Next to the president is the vice-president, who is the second highest-ranking government official in the executive branch of the Sierra Leone Government. As designated by the Sierra Leone Constitution, the vice-president is to become the new president of Sierra Leone upon the death, resignation, or removal of the President.