In the late 18th century, British philanthropists decided that freed slaves should have a homeland in Africa and after much discussion amongst themselves (but not with the indigenous people of West Africa), they chose a recently acquired territory which became known as Sierra Leone. In 1821, Sierra Leone was merged with The Gambia and the Gold Coast (now Ghana) to create the British West African Territories. Over the next 50 years, the British navy landed 70,000 slaves in Sierra Leone; the population of Freetown, the capital, was further boosted by the migration of indigenous tribes from the interior.

A century later, Sierra Leone made a quiet transition to independence in 1961, under the Sierra Leone People’s Party led by the Margais (Sir Milton Margai and his half-brother Sir Albert). A disputed election in 1967, won by the rival All Peoples’ Congress (APC) under the leadership of Dr Siaka Stevens. The APC established an effective stranglehold over the political system: a new constitution introduced in 1978 made it the sole legal party. In 1985, General Joseph Momoh took over after an election at which he was the sole candidate. After some initial success in stabilising the country, the Momoh government was increasingly dogged by corruption and mismanagement. In April 1992, the Momoh government was overthrown by a group of junior army officers led by Captain Valentine Strasser.

Unfortunately, the new government’s priorities were almost immediately overtaken by the escalating civil war in neighbouring Liberia, which was now starting to consume Sierra Leone itself. The key factor was the alliance formed between one of the main Liberian rebel factions, the NPFL (see Liberia section) and the Revolutionary United Front, a home-grown Sierra Leonean movement, opposed to both Momoh and Strasser. The RUF, led by Foday Sankoh, made considerable headway in the east of the country in the mid-1990s, overrunning a number of key mineral installations vital to the Sierra Leone economy. Sierra Leone called upon troops from its African neighbours as well as military assistance from South Africa and the UK, but the country had begun an inexorable slide into chaos.

At the beginning of 1996, Strasser was deposed by army chief Brigadier-General Julius Maada Bio. Surprisingly, Maada Bio almost immediately set into motion a return to civilian rule. The leader of the reconstituted Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, assumed the presidency while the SLPP became the largest bloc in the new national assembly. Meanwhile, the rebels of RUF joined up with elements in the army opposed to the new Government: in May 1997, dissident troops led by Major Johnny Koroma (and backed by the RUF) toppled Kabbah and seized power under the banner of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council.

The Nigerians, with important but discreet diplomatic and logistical backing from the British (leading to what has become known in the UK as the ‘Sandline Affair’), intervened to restore Kabbah, a task eventually completed in March 1998. But the RUF retained sufficient personnel and resources to sustain a vicious guerrilla campaign in parts of the countryside. The Front became notorious for its practice of systematically mutilating any supposed opponents which its troops encountered; women were subjected to gang rapes. The British government decided to intervene directly and British forces proved decisive in tipping the balance against the RUF. A political settlement, brokered by the United Nations, was concluded in July 1999 between the Sierra Leone government and the RUF. The RUF was given a minority role of a new national government while Foday Sankoh was granted a ministerial post. The rebel leader was to die in July 2003 of natural causes, whilst waiting to be tried for his war crimes; for his role in the widespread mutilation and rape inflicted by the RUF. War crime trials have continued throughout 2004.

However, back in 1999, the RUF refused to disarm and cede the areas which they occupied and which contained most of the country’s lucrative diamond fields. Not surprisingly, fighting between the two sides broke out once again in May 2000. The UN peacekeeping forces in place were unable to control the situation. Once again, the British intervened with their own troops, principally to train and re-equip the Sierra Leonean army. Duly revitalised, the army pushed back the RUF and in January 2002 finally brought the conflict to an end. A more substantial UN force – at over 17,000 one of the UN’s largest single peacekeeping commitments to date – had managed to prevent any further serious outbreaks of violence.

The UN force’s mettle was most severely tested in May 2002 when national elections were held. Ex-president Kabbah was decisively re-elected while the SLPP once again took control of the national assembly. The Government, led by President Kabbah and Prime Minister Solomon Berewa, can now begin addressing Sierra Leone’s desperate economic and social problems. The country’s catastrophic decline had been such that, in every international measurement of development and prosperity, Sierra Leone is at the bottom of the scale.

Executive power rests with the President who is directly elected every five years. The legislature is single-chamber House of Representatives which has 124 members and serves for four years: 112 are elected by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies; the remaining dozen are chosen from the ranks of the traditional rulers, the Paramount Chiefs.