For Your Information - Sierra Leone

Bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Guinea and on the south east by Liberia, Sierra Leone is one of the richest countries in Africa in terms of its natural resources. The country's many rivers feed fertile farming land and dense forests, while the rivers and the Atlantic Ocean provide abundant fishing. As well, the mountains and valleys which run along the country's boarders are rich with minerals, including diamonds, chrome, bauxite, iron ore and rutile.

Despite this abundance, the reality is that Sierra Leone is one of the world's poorest nations: in 1997, the life expectancy rate for women was 51 and for men 45, while the infant mortality rate was one of the highest in the world - 133 for every 1000 live births. Subsistence farming is the norm, with large scale agricultural production given over to cash crops such as palm oil, palm kernel, cacao, coffee, and ginger. The majority of Sierra Leone's agricultural and mineral exports go to the United States, Britain, Germany and the Netherlands.

Prior to European contact, the country now known as Sierra Leone was home to hundreds of different tribal groups living for the most part harmoniously, with the two largest ethnic groups - the Mende and the Temne - dominating in the south and the north respectively. In 1460, the Portuguese explorer Pedro de Cintra arrived on the western shore and named the land Sierra Leone (lion mountains). There were some early attempts at colonization by the Portuguese but it was the British who established the first colony in 1787. This colony was comprised of slaves repatriated from Britain and the United States as well as slaves rescued from shipwreck.

The economic need for slavery in Britain was on the decline as the rise of large-scale, industrial production became the source of British wealth. Abolitionist sentiment began to flourish amongst the British bourgeoisie who saw that establishing colonies and extracting the resources of the African countries would be far more profitable than trafficking in slaves. The Sierra Leone Company was formed in 1791 and a growing mercantile class oversaw affairs on behalf of different British merchants until 1808, when Sierra Leone became a crown colony.

Following the American Civil War, a group of freed slaves, encouraged by the British, departed from Halifax and settled in what they named Freetown, now the country's capital.

The devolution of self-government to the people of Sierra Leone followed a pattern that is familiar to Canadians: the first elections for a locally-controlled legislative council were held in 1924. The ministerial system was introduced to Sierra Leone in the 1950s and the country became an independent nation through Royal Proclamation on April 27, 1961.

Sierra Leone's official language is English, while some 23 languages flourish in the country. Krio, a mixture of English and a number of different regional dialects, is the most widely spoken.

In 1975, then Prime Minister Stevenson signed a trade and aid agreement with the European Community. Within three years, Stevenson had enacted a new constitution which outlawed other political parties and enshrined him as Prime Minister for seven years. In the 1980s, Sierra Leone suffered from dropping commodity prices and the crushing burden of its payments to international financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF. As well, armed militia groups representing different financial interests began to dominate the country's highly lucrative diamond trade with chaotic results.

The country's diamond production began to fall steadily from its peak in the 1970s and has never recovered.