Sierra Leone is a country located in West Africa, with its capital at Freeotwn. One of the most religiously-free countries, Sierra Leone is home to sixteen ethnic groups (35% Temne, 31% Mende, 8% Limba, 5% Kono, 2% Krio, 2% Mandingo, 2% Loko, and 15% other ethnic groups) and a population that is 60% Muslim, 30% animist, and 10% Christian, and religious violence is very rare, as the communities interact peacefully. English and Krio (creole) are the two largest languages in the country.
History[]
Colonial history[]
Map of Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone was explored in 1462 by Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra, who named the land "Sierra Leone", meaning "Lioness Mountains". In 1495, the Portuguese set up a fortified trading post in Sierra Leone, followed by Dutch, French, and English traders arriving an engaging in the Triangle Trade starting in the late 16th century. Great Britain would go on to take over Sierra Leone as one of its African colonies, and during the 1800s the capital of Freetown served as the administrative center of the Gold Coast colony of Britain. In 1928, domestic slavery was abolished by the British after years of slavery in the colony, and in 1961 Milton Margai led the nationalist movement to victory in the country, becoming its first Prime Minister.
Modern history[]
Sierra Leone was a democracy until 1967, when David Lansana ousted Siaka Stevens, and the next year John Amadu Bangura ousted Lansana from power and installed a single-party state to succeed the old democracy. Bangura was the strongman in the country, while Stevens served as the powerless Prime Minister. In 1970, Stevens had Bangura executed by hanging and took over the country, and Stevens held power for 18 years; in 1985, he resigned from power. Joseph Saidu Momoh and the All People's Congress party continued to rule the country as a dictatorship, but in 1992 Valentine Strasser led a coup.
The country became unstable, and the outbreak of the Liberian Civil War to the southeast led to the Sierra Leonean Civil War of 1992-2003 breaking out, with the Revolutionary United Front waging a guerrilla struggle against the government and selling blood diamonds to fund their forces. In 1996, another coup led by Julius Maada Bio ended Strasser's rule over the country, and Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's election to office as the first Muslim leader of Sierra Leone saw negotiations with the RUF rebels begin. In 1998, RUF commander Johnny Paul Koroma and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council seized power in a coup, leading to a coalition of West African troops being formed. The West African forces overthrew Koroma after heavy fighting, and in 2002 the RUF command ordered its fighters to surrender themselves. The civil war came to a close, and former RUF commanders were tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2009. The country recovered from the civil war, although poverty and the Ebola disease proved to be continued issues faced by the country.