Sierra Leone Imperialism Essay

Effect of Imperialism in Sierra Leone
In 1787, British humanitarian founded the "Province of Freedom" which later became Freetown, a British crown colony in 1808 and the principal base for the suppression of the slave trade. Throughout the 19th century, the colony steadily grew through various treaties of friendship from the local chiefs. After the British abolished their slave trade the new colony was used as cornerstone from which the abolishment could be enforced (Gascoigne, Bamber). By 1855, over 50,000 freed slaves has been settled in Freetown the capital of Sierra Leone (Hopkins, Mark). However because of some mistakes by the British imperialists Sierra Leone had multiple rebellions and military coups also a horrible civil war in 1991
that lasted for ten years. That is why the British imperialism in Sierra Leone had an overall negative effect on Sierra Leone. In 1924, Sierra Leone was divided into a Colony and a Protectorate, with separate and different political systems constitutionally defined for each. Antagonism between the two entities escalated to a heated debate in 1947, when proposals were introduced to provide for a single political system for both the Colony and the Protectorate. The separation between the political sides caused the government to fail again and again. The British by allowing and setting this up, set up the people of Sierra Leone for failure. After the country gained its independence its government remained corrupt and broken (Se Young, Jang). The government of Sierra Leone, overwhelmed
Gay 2 by a crumbling economy and corruption, was unable to put up significant resistance against the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) who were invading from Liberia in the east.
Within a month of entering Sierra Leone, the RUF under the command of former Sierra Leonean army corporal Foday Saybana Sankoh controlled much of Eastern Sierra Leone, including the diamond mining area in Kono District. Sankoh, an ethnic Temne from Tonkolili District in Northern Sierra Leone, was a British trained former army corporal who had also undergone guerrilla training in Libya. This threw the entire country into mayhem and into civil war. The British aided the civil war by leaving the Sierra Leoneans with a poorly constructed government (Shah,
Anup) The British also used the diamonds of Sierra Leone with out giving a fair amount of pay to the people working the mines. The workers and people not profiting from the diamonds felt entitled to them and began smuggling them. The smugglers quickly saw the great benefits of smuggling. With the corruption of the government smugglers were allowed and even encouraged by certain leaders. These political leaders benefited from this by receiving support from the smugglers. This relationship lead to more military coups and more chaos. The RUF took advantage of this and used the diamonds to pay for the civil war they started. Had the British punished the smugglers instead of rewarding them with more power then maybe the smuggling could have been more controlled and the war could have ended sooner. Instead the British turned away and kept receiving benefits from these smugglers at the expense of the government they tried to set up. The British did save many slaves from slavery with the establishing of Freetown and Sierra Leone. They also brought many good things to Sierra Leone however that is outweighed by the
Gay 3 amount of people killed and how viciously they were killed. “Sierra Leone was meant to be the shining light of Africa; it had all that was needed to engineer economic and political prosperity. It was also the first country to have the first University in West Africa: the Fourah bay college. These Factors ought to have made Sierra Leone a living paradise; instead, it became a living hell.” (Analyzing the Cause). Sierra Leone is the 180th poorest country out of 187 countries in the Human Development Index in 2011. Decades of economic decline and 11 years of armed conflict had dramatic consequences on the economy. One would think that with all the diamonds and other natural resources that Sierra Leone would be a little higher. The reason they aren’t higher has to be the conflict driven by imperialism that we have seen after countries that are even lower on this scale like Chad, Congo, and Sierra Leone’s eastern neighbor Liberia. The ‘blood’ or ‘cursed’ diamonds of Sierra Leone often get blamed but the thing all this suffering countries have in common is the years under another countries rule (Analyzing the Cause). In conclusion, the British imperialism in Sierra Leone had an overall negative effect on both the people of Sierra Leone and their economy.
The British allowed Sierra Leone to be divided into a Colony and a Protectorate with separate and different political systems constitutionally defined for each. Which caused conflict that allowed a civil war and corruption to stain the country. The British also allowed illegal selling and smuggling of diamonds which also caused corruption and war. Without the rule of Britain and just assistance both Sierra Leone and the British would have benefited and they could have avoided much of the blood shed and saved thousands of
lives.

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Works Cited
“Analyzing the Causes”. Sierra Leone Civil War. 8 Feb 2012. Web. 19 Dec 2013.
Gascoigne, Bamber.“History of Sierra Leone”. History World. Web. 16 Dec 2013.
Hopkins, Mark. “Effects of British Imperialism in Africa”. Humanities 360. Rachelle de Bretagne,
23 July 2010. Web. 16 Dec 2013.
Se Young, Jang. “The Causes of the Sierra Leone Civil War”. International Relations. 25 October
2012. Web. 16 Dec 2013.
Shah, Anup. “Sierra Leone”. Global Issues. 23 Jul. 2001. Web. 19 Dec 2013.