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Sierra Leone
Constitutional transition within British Commonwealth.
- Independence
- April 27, 1961
- Before
- Colony and Protectorate of Sierra Leone
- Metropole
- United Kingdom
- Leader
- Milton Margai
- Transition
- Negotiated
- Movement
- Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP)
“Sierra Leone today becomes a unified and independent nation to take her place as an equal partner in the Commonwealth of nations and as equal entity in the world at large.”
— Sir Milton Margai, April 27, 1961
A Province of Freedom
In 1787 British abolitionists settled the 'Black Poor' of London on the Sierra Leone peninsula. After that first settlement failed, Black Loyalists from Nova Scotia founded Freetown in 1792, and Jamaican Maroons followed in 1800. The settlement became a British Crown Colony on 1 January 1808 and a base for resettling Africans freed from slave ships. Fourah Bay College, founded in 1827, and the city's many schools made Freetown a centre of Western education, later called the 'Athens of Africa'.
Colony and Protectorate
In 1896 Britain declared a protectorate over the interior. A new hut tax provoked the Hut Tax War of 1898, in which the Temne leader Bai Bureh resisted British forces. Politics long divided the Krio elite of the colony from the peoples of the protectorate. Sir Milton Margai, a physician from the protectorate, co-founded the Sierra Leone People's Party in 1951 and became Chief Minister in 1954.
Talks in London
An all-party delegation led by Margai attended a constitutional conference in London in April–May 1960, which fixed independence for 27 April 1961. Siaka Stevens refused to sign the final agreement. He objected to a defence arrangement with Britain and to the decision not to hold elections before independence. He then founded the 'Elections Before Independence Movement', which became the All People's Congress. Sierra Leone became independent on 27 April 1961 with Margai as prime minister.
Chronology
- 1787 — 'Province of Freedom' settlement founded
- Early 1792 — Freetown founded by settlers from Nova Scotia
- 1808 — Sierra Leone becomes a British Crown Colony
- 1896 — British protectorate declared over the interior
- 1951 — SLPP founded
- April–May 1960 — Constitutional conference in London
- April 27, 1961 — Independence under Milton Margai
Aftermath
Milton Margai died on 28 April 1964 and was succeeded by his brother Albert. Siaka Stevens's APC won the disputed 1967 election, which was followed by military coups; Stevens took office in 1968 and made the country a one-party state in 1978. A civil war fuelled by diamonds devastated Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2002.
Legacy
Independence began with a working parliamentary system, but it was worn away by growing authoritarianism and heavy dependence on diamond revenues. That fragile foundation eventually gave way to one of the most brutal civil wars of the late twentieth century.