Sierra Leone: History

Pre-20th-Century History

Sierra Leone has had a very eventful 500 years. The country was a major player in the beginning and end of the slave trade, but inequalities between the Krio freed slaves who developed the modern nation and indigenous peoples caused bitterness and conflict. Krios have long ceased to rule the roost in Sierra Leone, but the same old inequalities between the Freetown elite and the poor of the interior remain alive, and were a factor in the recent, savage, decade-long conflict that left the country in ruins.

The American slave trade was effectively launched from Freetown in 1560, and by the 18th century Portuguese and British trading and slaving settlements lined the coast. In the late 1700s, freed slaves from places such as North America were brought to the new settlement of Freetown. Soon after, Britain abolished slavery and Sierra Leone became a British colony. Many subsequent settlers were liberated from slaving ships intercepted by the British navy. These people became known as Krios and assumed an English lifestyle together with an air of superiority, long dominating the government and trade of the country.

But things didn't all run smoothly in this brave new world. Black and white settlers dabbling in the slave trade; disease; rebellion; and attacks by the French were all characteristics of 19th-century Sierra Leone. Most importantly, indigenous people were discriminated against and in 1898 a ferocious uprising by the Mende began, ostensibly in opposition to a hut tax.

Modern History

Independence came in 1961, but the 1960s and 1970s were characterised by coups (once there were three in one year, an all-African record), a shift of power to the indigenous Mende and Temnes peoples and the establishment of a one-party state (which lasted into the 1980s). By the early 1990s the country was saddled with a shambolic economy and rampant corruption. Then the civil war began.

It's entirely possible that buried in the depths of Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was a desire to end the corruption and abuses of power committed by ruling, military-backed, elites in Freetown who'd successfully turned the country into a basket case. Many of RUF's founding members were also involved with Charles Taylor's conquest of neighbouring Liberia and had his support. But any high ideals were quickly forgotten, replaced by a ferocious desire for Sierra Leone's diamond and gold fields, with looting, robbery, rape, mutilation and summary execution all tools of the RUF's trade. While their troops plundered to make ends meet, Charles Taylor and the RUF's leaders made huge amounts of money from diamonds smuggled into Liberia.

The Sierra Leone government was pretty ineffective and tried using South African mercenaries against the RUF who, bolstered by disaffected army elements and Liberian irregulars, were making gains across the country. In 1996 elections were held and Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was declared president, but a year later, after peace talks had brought hope then despair, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) grabbed control of government and decided to share power with the RUF. By this time factionalisation and desertion on all sides had led to an utter free-for-all, with the civilian population suffering atrocities at every turn.

In March 1998 Ecomog, a West African peacekeeping force led by the Nigerian army, retook Freetown and reinstated Kabbah. Some sort of peace held until January 1999 when the RUF and AFRC launched 'Operation No Living Thing'. The ensuing carnage in and around Freetown killed 6000 people, mutilated many more (lopping a limb off was a RUF calling card) and prompted the government to sign the Lomé Peace Agreement. A massive UN peacekeeping mission (Unamsil) was deployed, but 10 months later it came under attack from the RUF. Three hundred UN troops were abducted, but as the RUF closed in on Freetown in mid-2000 the British government deployed 1000 paratroopers and an aircraft carrier, ostensibly to allow for UN reinforcements. In effect this was to prevent a massacre and to shift the balance of power to Kabbah's government and UN forces.

Recent History

By February 2002 the RUF was disarmed and its leaders captured, thus bringing an official end to the war. Free and fair elections were held a few months later; Kabbah was re-elected and the RUF's political wing soundly defeated.

UN and donor cash began to be pumped into the country in vast amounts and the peace has held firm. There is now nowhere out of bounds for visitors. A UN-sponsored war crimes tribunal was set up in 2004 to try senior militia leaders on both sides, although not ex-RUF leader Foday Sankoh, who died in early 2003, or President Kabbah, who testified to a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that he'd had no role in military command. By February 2004 some 70,000 ex-combatants had been disarmed and rehabilitated and three months later the first free local elections in a generation were held. The UN peacekeepers left in 2005 and were replaced by the United Nations Integrated Office for Sierra Leone, which will promote government accountability, reinforce human rights, oversee development, and prepare the nation for the 2007 elections. In March 2006, Charles Taylor was arrested and will be the first former African head of state to be tried for war crimes as a result of his support for the RUF.

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