Sierra Leone: Looking Back, As A Way Forward.

Throughout the United States and in countries around the world Sierra Leoneans and friends of Sierra Leone were over the weekend and during the week coming together to celebrate Sierra Leone’s 49th Independence anniversary.

Hard to believe but Sierra Leone has been a sovereign state for 49 years. Every Sierra Leonean should now be preparing for the nations golden jubilee in April 2011.
I was discussing the pending golden jubilee anniversary with friends over the weekend when one of them said ‘well what does the country have to show for its 49 years of Independence’. I was amused by the question but I retorted that there may not be much to showcase in terms of infrastructure development at this time but we now have a government and people that are resilient, determined and resolute in their determination to move our once proud nation forward again towards socio-economic development and social progress.

Whilst this may be true, we cannot forget how our country got into this debacle. In 1961 our parents and grand parents delightfully celebrated ‘the dawn of a new era’ with pride and gusto. Their expectations were high! with dreams of a great nation. A nation posterity would be proud of, a nation that will be full of hope and optimism. They Heralded and saluted a new nation that stood proudly along other African countries. Sierra Leone was then known as ‘the Athens of west Africa’. A country that then placed premium on the quality of education, health services the civil service structure etc. A country that others in the sub region drew inspiration from. A country that once provided education for emerging leaders from West Africa and beyond. The expectations were indeed very high and rightly so.
The first Prime Minister Sir Milton Margai was considered an honest and principled leader and he guided Sierra Leone towards prosperity, unity and justice with a vibrant parliament, free press and multi-party political structures.
Sierra Leone has had a turbulent and chequered political history since the untimely death of Sir Milton Margai in 1964. With the assumption of office of Albert Margai as the countries second Prime Minister the political waters in Sierra Leone then became mucky. Corruption and nepotism became the order of the day. A once proud and strong nation started a slide towards decadence and debauchery. This unacceptable state of affairs and thanks to an inconclusive general elections, Sierra Leone had its first military intervention in 1967.

Occupying the seat of power in Freetown then became a game of musical chairs for different factions of the armed forces who staged numerous coups and counter coups for decades. From the late Brigadier Lansana to Juxon-Smith, then Brig. John Bangura and the successful Valentine Strasser led coup all helped to destabilize the country and in the process establishing governments that were in most cases authoritarian, corrupt and inept.

But Sierra Leone’s most horrible era was the atrocious and horrendous 11 year civil war that started in 1991.That senseless rebel war devastated the whole country. Over 50,000 men, women and children were killed, hundreds had limbs amputated and hundreds of thousand were forced from there homes to live as internal or external refugees.
Well, those turbulent and tumultuous political waters have slowly flowed under the bridge and Sierra Leone, thanks to the International community including ECOWAS and their peacekeeping mission that helped restore peace once more to an embattled nation. Well here we are again poised for another celebration- The golden jubilee of our country’s independence. This is indeed a celebration that should bring all Sierra Leoneans together so we can use the lessons learnt from our past to forge a future of peace, security, unity and socio-economic development.
Today we are proud of our multi-party democracy, we are proud that we have a vibrant free press, we are proud that there are no political prisoners in Sierra Leone, we are proud that we have an elected government that represents the people of Sierra Leone.
We have reasons to start celebrating now because we now see progress, growth and development taking place in our beloved nation spearheaded by a dynamic, hardworking and assiduous president who has spared no effort in fighting corruption and raising the standard of living of ordinary Sierra Leoneans.

This is part of what Sierra Leone's first Prime Minister Sir Milton Margai said in his address to the nation on the attainment of Independence in 1961:  "We must also face up squarely to the problems which will confront us, and I want you all to understand clearly that the Sierra Leone Government in future will depend very greatly upon the active support and assistance of each one of you. The aim will certainly be to make a our country a land worth living in, a land worth serving; but this can only be done by wholehearted service and hard work now. I have told you this before, and I call upon you to give the Government your active help and support. I ask you to deal fairly and honestly with your fellow men, to discourage lawlessness, and to strive actively for peace, friendship and unity in our country..."
These words are true today as they were 49 years ago. more anon.


Jacob B Palmer