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| Sierra Leone | Introduction | Back to Top |
Sierra Leone, republic, western Africa, bordered on the north-west, north, and north-east by Guinea, on the south-east by Liberia, and on the south-west and west by the Atlantic Ocean. A former British colony, Sierra Leone became independent on April 27, 1961, as a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations, and a republic on April 19, 1971. The total area of the country is 71,740 sq km (27,699 sq mi). The capital of Sierra Leone is Freetown.
Official Name- Republic of Sierra Leone| Sierra Leone | Provinces | Back to Top |
3 provinces and 1 area*; Eastern, Northern, Southern, Western*
| Sierra Leone | People | Back to Top |
The estimated population of Sierra Leone in 2001 was 5,426,618, yielding an overall population density of 76 persons per sq km (196 per sq mi). Sierra Leone has a high annual population growth rate of 3.6 percent (2001). Freetown, the capital, is the largest city. Other major towns include Kenema and Bo, both in the southern interior.
There are about 18 ethnic groups that exhibit similar cultural features, such as secret societies, chieftaincy, patrilineal descent, and farming methods. The Mende, found in the east and south, and the Temne in the north form the two largest groups. Other major groups include the Limba, Kuranko, Susu, Yalunka, and Loko, in the north; the Kono and Kissi, in the east; and the Sherbro, in the southwest. Minor groups include the coastal Bullom, Vai, and Krim and the Fulani and Malinke (Mandingo), who are immigrants from Guinea concentrated in the north and east. The Creoles—descendants of free blacks who colonized the coast in the 19th century—are found mainly in the Western Area and Freetown. Ethnic complexity is further enhanced by the presence of Lebanese and Indian traders in urban centres.
| Sierra Leone | History | Back to Top |
The Sierra Leone Company, formed in 1791, administered the settlement until 1808, when it became a crown colony. Britain set up a protectorate over the hinterland of Freetown in 1896. The first elections for the legislative council were held under the constitution of 1924. The ministerial system was introduced in 1953, and Sir Milton Margai, a former physician and leader of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), was appointed chief minister in 1954 and prime minister in 1960.
Archaeological findings show that Sierra Leone has been inhabited for thousands of years. Traditional historiography has customarily presented it as peopled by successive waves of invaders; but the language pattern suggests that the coastal Bulom (Sherbro), Temne, and Limba have been in continuous settled occupation for a long time, with subsequent sporadic immigration from inland by Mande-speaking peoples, including Vai, Loko, and Mende. They organized themselves in small political units—independent kingdoms or chiefdoms—whose rulers' powers were checked by councils. Secret societies, notably the Poro society, also exercised political power as well as instructing initiates in the customs of the country.
Sierra Leone became an independent nation on April 27, 1961. The constitution of 1961 extended the right to vote to women. Following the elections of 1962, Margai remained prime minister. Margai died in 1964 and was succeeded by his half-brother, Albert Margai. In 1967, as a result of disputed elections, in which Siaka Stevens, leader of the All People’s Congress (APC), was elected prime minister, the army staged a coup and organized a National Reformation Council. After a second army revolt in 1968, civilian government was restored, and Stevens was returned to power. Sierra Leone was declared a republic on April 19, 1971, and Stevens was sworn in as executive president on April 21. Opposition to the government was gradually eliminated; in elections held in May 1973, the APC was unopposed. In 1975 Sierra Leone signed a trade and aid agreement with the European Community (now the European Union) and helped form the Economic Community of West African States. The next year Stevens was reelected president.
| Sierra Leone | Culture | Back to Top |
The most outstanding feature of the country's cultural life is its dancing. The Sierra Leone Dance Troupe is internationally known. The different communities of the nation have their own styles of costume and dance. In addition, certain closed societies, such as the Wunde, the Sande (Bundu), and the Gola, have characteristic ceremonial dances. A wide range of agility, gracefulness, and rhythm is displayed; in addition, there are elements of symbolism in most of the dances. Drums, wooden xylophones (called balaphones), and various stringed instruments provide the musical background.
The carving of various wooden masks in human and animal figures for the dances is especially advanced in the southern region. The Sande mask worn on the head of the chief dancer during the ceremony attending the reappearance of the female initiates from their period of seclusion is perhaps the most well-known carved figure in Sierra Leonean art. It is a symmetrically stylized black head of an African woman with an elaborate plaited pyramidal coiffure adorned with various figures and with a facial expression of grave dignity and beauty.
Ivory figures are characteristic of the Sherbro, Bullom, and Temne peoples of the coastal and northern regions. Fine examples of these figures, which were bought or commissioned by Portuguese traders during the 16th century, are still extant. There are also steatite human figures, sometimes distorted, called nomoli, or, in wooden form, pomtan (singular, pombo), which certainly date earlier than the 16th century and were used probably for ancestor worship or fertility rites. At present, they are used for ceremonies to ensure abundance of crops.
| Sierra Leone | Life | Back to Top |
In 2001 the estimated life expectancy at birth was only 49 years for women and 43 years for men. The infant mortality rate was among the highest in Africa—147 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. Medical personnel and facilities were grossly inadequate.
| Sierra Leone | Land | Back to Top |
The country can be divided into four distinct physical regions. The coastal swamp region extends along the Atlantic for about 200 miles (320 kilometres). It is a flat, low-lying, and frequently flooded plain that is between 20 and 40 miles wide and is composed mainly of sands and clays. Its numerous creeks and estuaries contain mangrove swamps. Parallel ridges, often separated by silting lagoons, are common and sometimes form the actual coast. The Sierra Leone Peninsula, which is the site of Freetown, is a region of thickly wooded mountains that run parallel to the sea for about 25 miles. The Peninsula Mountains rise from the coastal swamps and reach 2,913 feet (888 metres) at Picket Hill.
| Sierra Leone | Plants and Animal | Back to Top |
A savanna vegetation, comprising grasses and bushes, dominates northern Sierra Leone. Forests are densest in the southeast and contain varieties of palm and, to a lesser extent, mahogany and teak. Among the numerous small animals are bush pigs, chimpanzees, monkeys, and porcupines. Crocodiles and hippopotamuses are often found in the rivers.
| Sierra Leone | Economy | Back to Top |
The economy of Sierra Leone is based on agriculture and mining. Some 67 percent of the population is engaged in farming, fishing, or forestry. Much of the farming is of a subsistence nature. Plantation agriculture is significant only in the coastal region. Minerals are the country’s principal export. In 1997 the national budget showed revenues of $87 million and expenditures of $146 million.
Private capital dominates mining concerns, commerce, and banking. European, Lebanese, and Indian interests are predominant, and participation by Sierra Leoneans is small. The public sector features the Sierra Leone Produce Marketing Board (SLPMB), which has a monopoly on cash crops, and other public corporations, such as that of road transport, which is entirely owned by the government. Various inefficient parastatals were privatized in the 1980s. Government revenue is derived from direct and indirect taxes. In addition to import and export taxes, the government can also rely on company, excise, income, and mining taxes for revenue. The government's revenue from trade has been undermined by the growth of smuggling of diamonds and agricultural produce.
Sierra Leone is an extremely poor African nation with tremendous inequality in income distribution. It does have substantial mineral, agricultural, and fishery resources. However, the economic and social infrastructure is not well developed, and serious social disorders continue to hamper economic development. About two-thirds of the working-age population engages in subsistence agriculture. Manufacturing consists mainly of the processing of raw materials and of light manufacturing for the domestic market. Bauxite and rutile mines have been shut down by civil strife. The major source of hard currency is found in the mining of diamonds, the large majority of which are smuggled out of the country. The resurgence of internal warfare in 1999 brought another substantial drop in GDP, with GNP recovering part of the way in 2000. The fate of the economy depends upon the maintenance of domestic peace and the continued receipt of substantial aid from abroad.
| Sierra Leone | Communications | Back to Top |
Marginal telephone and telegraph service domestic: national microwave radio relay trunk system, made unserviceable by military activities, is now operating from Freetown to Bo and Kenema (April 2001) international: satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat
| Sierra Leone | Languages | Back to Top |
Of those reporting a religion, 60 percent of the people follow traditional beliefs. Christianity, adhered to by 8 percent of the population, is strongest among the Creoles, and Islam (30 percent) is practiced by the Temne in the north. English is the official language. Of about 20 African languages spoken, Mende and Temne are most widely used. Another common language is Krio, a Creole language derived from English and various African languages. Only 36 percent of the adult population is literate.
| Sierra Leone | Politics | Back to Top |
All People's Congress or APC [Alhaji Sat KOROMA, interim chairman]; Citizens United for Peace and Progress or CUPP [Alfred Musa CONTEH, interim chairman]; Coalition for Progress Party or CPP [Jeridine WILLIAM-SARHO, interim leader]; Democratic Center Party or DCP [Adu Aiah KOROMA]; Democratic Labour Party or DLP [George E. L. PALMER]; Democratic Party or DP [Henry BALO, acting chairman]; National Alliance Democratic Party or NADP [Mohamed Yahya SILLAH, chairman]; National Democratic Alliance or NDA [Amadu M. B. JALLOH, leader]; National People's Party or NPP [Andrew TURAY]; National Republican Party or NRP [Stephen Sahr MAMBU]; National Unity Movement or NUM [Sam LEIGH, interim chairman]; National Unity Party or NUP [John BENJAMINE, interim leader]; Peace and Liberation Party or PLP [Darlington MORRISON, interim chairman]; People's Democratic Alliance or PDA [Cpl. (Rtd) Abdul Rahman KAMARA, interim chairman]; People's Democratic Party or PDP [Osman KAMARA]; People's National Convention or PNC [Edward John KARGBO]; People's Progressive Party or PPP [Abass Chernok BUNDU, chairman]; Revolutionary United Front Party or RUFP [Foday Saybana SANKOH, chairman]; Social Democratic Party or SDP [Andrew Victor LUNGAY]; Sierra Leone People's Party or SLPP [Alhaji Ahmad Tejan KABBAH, chairman]; United National People's Party or UNPP [John KAREFA-SMART in exile, Raymond KAMARA, acting leader]; Young People's Party or YPP [Cornelius DEVEAUS, interim chairman]
| Sierra Leone | Government | Back to Top |
Sierra Leone is governed under a 1991 constitution that provides for a multiparty democratic system and human rights guarantees. A president is both head of state and head of government. The president is popularly elected to a five-year term and may serve no more than two consecutive terms. Legislative authority rests with the single-chamber House of Representatives, which has 68 members elected by popular vote and 12 paramount chiefs chosen by district tribal councils. Representatives serve five-year terms. The constitution was suspended from 1992 to 1996 and from mid-1997 to early 1998 following military coups.
| Sierra Leone | organization | Back to Top |
ACP, AfDB, C, CCC, ECA, ECOWAS, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Intelsat (nonsignatory user), Interpol, IOC, ITU, NAM, OAU, OIC, OPCW (signatory), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO
| Sierra Leone | Education | Back to Top |
In 1996, 52 percent of primary school-aged children were enrolled in school, while only 17 percent of secondary school-aged children were attending. The University of Sierra Leone, which includes Fourah Bay College (1827) and Njala University College (1963), had an enrollment of some 4,700.
| Sierra Leone | Defence | Back to Top |
Military branches: Army
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 1,161,790 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 563,631 (2001 est.)
| Sierra Leone | International Disputes | Back to Top |
civil war has engendered massive refugee movements into neighboring Guinea and Liberia
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