Sierra Leone

With a population of nearly 5.3 million residents, most of them Muslim, Sierra Leone is a West African country on the Atlantic coast, the approximate size of South Carolina. With Guinea to the northwest and war-torn Liberia to the southeast, Sierra Leone has had a tumultuous recent history. Peacekeeping and stability have become the number one priority for the country as it recovers from causing 2 million displaced refugees to relocate after 11 years of civil war (1991–2002) between the Revolutionary United Front and the then-in-office government.

The national declarations of genocide and mass rapes, debates over the trade of blood diamonds, and snapshots of the dictatorial leader, Charles Taylor, who was recently tried by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for war crimes and crimes against humanity initiated during the civil war are still fresh in the memories of residents. From 1989 to 1997, Taylor was leader of the rebel group, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, and became president of Sierra Leone from 1997 until 2003, when he stepped down from office under international pressure. Taylor fled to Nigeria for political asylum but was extradited in 2006 by Liberia's current president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

English is the official Sierra Leonean language, though Temne, Mende, and Krio are spoken by most residents. Arabic is read by literate Muslims. Historically, Sierra Leone was colonized or under protectorate by the British from 1808 to 1961 and before this was viewed by Europeans as fertile ground for capturing slave labor headed off to the Americas. In the late 1700s, thousands of formerly enslaved African Americans, Jamaican maroons, and African Nova Scotians emigrated, repatriated, and missionized the British colony. Settling in [Page 1174]Freetown with their progeny, these people saw the region as a haven for religious proselytism, enabling Protestant forms of Christianity to rise and later spread across coastal West Africa. Islam, however, has predominated in the northern regions of Sierra Leone since the 18th century and continues as the religion of choice for 60% of Sierra Leoneans. Christians constitute about 10% of the population, predominantly in the coastal south. Indigenous practices are adhered to throughout Sierra Leone and account for 30% of the population's beliefs.

Today, the Krio or Creole, the descendants of freed slaves who returned to Sierra Leone, account for approximately 2% of the national population. The majority of the population comprises Temne in the north and Mende in the southeast, with Limba, Kono, Mandingo, and foreigners also inhabiting the region. Historically, ethnolinguistic groups hold less sway in marriage selection and social contracts than is prevalent in other African nations. Ernest Bai Koroma, who was elected in a 2007 runoff and is now the nation's fourth president, is a Christian convert who has Muslim parents of both Limba and Temne origins.

Fiscally, the nation has suffered great setbacks due to more than a decade of guerrilla warfare, refugee displacement, and ill-managed allocations of large international loans. With recollections of child soldiers, suppression of the press, government corruption, and mass brutalization stifling national calls toward increased education and development, Sierra Leone's landscape holds hope but may take more than a generation to fully recover.

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