Posted by KAMBIA (129.49.7.122) on April 19, 2005 at 18:44:37:
History of Sierra Leone – A Chronology
1400 ca.: Mande migrations into the territory (Sierra Leone) begin.
1462: Pedro da Cintra, Portuguese Navigator, (captain of Prince Henry, the Navigator), visits the coast, names the Peninsula
“Serra Lyoa” (Lion Mountains).
1540: Mane Invasion begins; further migrations to coastal areas.
1727: Fouta Djallon Jihad – expansion of Islam in the territory of present day Sierra Leone, through the Malinke und Fula (Peul).
1787: 331 Africans and 46 Europeans arrive in Sierra Leone, acquire Land from Temne regent, King Tom, and establish
“Province of Freedom” - most die of malaria within two years. The Africans were lead by Thomas Peters, a freed African, assisted
and sponsored by the abolitionist, Granville Sharp,
1789: King Tom’s successor, King Jimmy, abrogates treaty, destroys settlement. 1791, Sierra Leone Company revives settlement.
1792: 1200 ‘free Negroes’ sail from Nova Scotia (Canada) to Sierra Leone where they establish the settlement of ‘Freetown’.
1794: Sierra Leone Company sends Trade Mission to Timbo in Fouta Djallon; Fula Town, settlement of Fula traders established.
1799: A Royal Charter gives legal status to the colony.
1800: Arrival of the Maroons, free Africans from Jamaica.
1804: German churches start sending Christian missionaries to Sierra Leone – in cooperation with the Church Missionary Society
(CMS) of England. In addition to the missionary and evangelistic work, they emphasize education and vocational training as central
aspects of church activity. They educated and “converted” the Maroons, the Africans liberated from slave ships and extended their missions
outside the “Freetown Colony” to the Susu, Temne, Bullom and Sherbro ethnic nationalities. They made the first attempts to transcribe
local languages and published collections of ethnic traditions and grammar books – Collection of Temne Traditions etc. and Vocabulary,
English-Temne Dictionary, Grammar of the Temne Language (by Christian Frederick Schlenker) or A Primer and Original Traditions in the
Foulah Language, Foulah Grammar (by Charles Reichardt).
1808: British parliament declares slave trade illegal, grants Freetown “Crown Colony” status and establishes base for British Navy and
Merchant Marine. Sierra Leone thus becomes the first modern state in Subsahara Africa.
1827: Establishment of Fourah Bay College (FBC) as a CMS Training College for clergy, the first University in Subsahara Africa.
Rev. Charles Haensel from Bavaria (Germany) becomes first Principal of FBC, Samuel Adjai Crowther enrolled as first student of FBC.
1839: Sengbe Pieh (aka “Cinque”, leader of the Amistad revolt), captured near Sulima, (Pujehun District) sold into slavery in Cuba.
1845: CMS Grammar School established – first modern secondary in Subsahara Africa.
1863: The “Crown Colony” of Freetown granted new constitution, John Ezzidio, first African elected to Colonial Legislative Council.
1876: Fourah Bay College affiliated with Durham University, UK.
1879: Woermann Shipping Line from Hamburg start calling in the Freetown. By 1890, German business interests (e.g. Otto Löwenthal)
firmly established in Bonthe Island, the bulk of the palm kernel trade was being shipped to Germany. German activities in Bonthe, above all
greatly increased presence in neighbouring Liberia, started causing concern in London, Paris and Washington.
1884: Sofa Wars begin; Samori Toure invades northern areas of the present day territory of Sierra Leone.
1896: After Berlin Africa Conference (1884-5), Britain declares Protectorate over the interior of the country.
1896: Sir Samuel Lewis, Mayor of Freetown, made Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE, “Sir”), as first African.
1898: Armed revolts against taxation (“Hut Tax War”) begin - in the South on April 27 (now national day). Bai Bureh (1840-1908),
Kai Londo (1845-1898) und Bai Sherbro Kpana Lewis (1830-1912) lead the fight for independence. Some of the captured chiefs are
exiled to the Gold Coast.
1906: Bo Government School for Boys opens for “the sons and nominees of chiefs”.
1908: Railway Line reaches Pendembu in Kailahun District.
1914:World War I begins – Sierra Leone troops fight in Cameroon.
1923: German companies, Woermann & Co., Deutsche Kamerun Gesellschaft, West & Co., resume business in Bonthe,
Blama, Pendembu and Kailahun, exporting palm kernels and piassava.
1924: New Constitution for Colony and Protectorate adopted, Paramount Chiefs sit in Legislative Council.
1930: Alluvial diamond deposits first discovered in the Bo, Kenema and Kono Districts of Sierra Leone – the “diamond curse” begins.
1937: Administrative reforms in the “Protectorate”, new Chiefdoms, Districts and Provinces are created.
1939: Word War II begins, Sierra Leone troops fight in Burma, help capture the city of Myohuang in South-eastern Burma.
1939: Emmanuel Cole, a gunner at the Royal Artillery in Murray Town, leads protest for equal pay, equal treatment and the right to wear boots.
Protesters charged with “mutiny” and jailed.
1946: District Councils and Protectorate Assembly established.
1951: New constitution adopted, Colonial Legislative Council and Protectorate Assembly unified, Africans nominated members of the
Governor’s Executive Council.
1953: Sir Milton Margai, leader of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLLP), appointed Chief Minister. Sir Samuel Beoku-Betts, jurist and
former mayor of Freetown, appointed Vice-President of Legislative Council; Siaka Stevens, Minister of Mines; Albert Margai, Minister of
Local Government. Later SLPP splits; Albert Margai and Siaka Stevens form Peoples National Party (PNP).
1958: German firm, Brewo (Breck Woldt, Hamburg), opens dealership for German cars in Freetown.
1961: April 27, 1961, Sierra Leone achieves Independence, Sir Milton Margai first Prime Minister. Albert Margai rejoins cabinet; Siaka Stevens
forms All Peoples Congress (APC).
1961: The Federal Republic of Germany is one of the first European Nations to open an Embassy in Freetown. First Ambassador – Gerd Deyle (1961-1963).
1964: Sir Milton Margai dies; Albert Margai succeeds him, in a controversial procedure. Dr. John Karefa-Smart forced to go into exile. Albert Margai sets up nepotistic and corrupt regime, alienates intellectual elites and demoralizes civil service, police and army.
1967: General elections are marred by widespread violence, in part because of Albert Margai’s plan to establish a unified party system (one-party state). Siaka Steven’s opposition All Peoples Congress wins election. Young colonels depose army chief, David Lansana, and take over power as ‘National Reformation Council’.
1968: Non-commissioned officers seize power and invite Siaka Stevens, winner of the 1967 election, to take power.
1971: Sierra Leone becomes a Republic; Siaka Stevens is declared Executive President.
1970s: Stevens consolidates his power, creating a paramilitary force, the Internal Security Unit, as a counterweight to the army he distrusts.
1977 elections are marred by violence, after which Stevens declares a one-party state. Economic policy of nationalisation alienates foreign business.
Sierra Leone Selection Trust (a De Beers company) is nationalised – National Diamond Mining Company (NDMC) is created. Delco,
British Iron Ore Mining Company shuts down in protest, laying off 6000 workers.
1980s: Sierra Leone hosts OAU Conference, prestige project (OAU Village) quadruples foreign debt. Siaka Stevens now approaching his 80s;
speculations about his succession begin; S. I. Koroma and C. A. Kamara-Taylor are aspirants.
1985: Oil-schlock, increased diamond smuggling, falling coffee and cacao prices and corruption ruin economy –
government cannot pay salaries or maintain services. Stevens, hands over to former army chief, Joseph Saidu Momoh.
1990: General J. S. Momoh resumes talks with IMF; reintroduces multi-party democracy. UNDP, Human Development Report,
places Sierra Leone last out of 160 countries, more than 60% of population survive on less than $1 a day. Charles Taylor
begins his war in Liberia; 80,000 Liberian refugees flee to Sierra Leone; ECOMOG is established with Freetown as the rear base.
1991: Charles Taylor extends war to Sierra Leone as a punitive measure against the Sierra Leone Government. Former army corporal
Foday Sankoh, an accomplice of Charles Taylor, leads Revolutionary United Front (RUF) attacks on Sierra Leone border towns – with
unparalleled brutality against civilians. Parents are murdered in front of their children, traumatised children abducted and drafted into
RUF rebel force. Momoh doubles the army, recruiting “raray boys” (hooligans, drug addicts and released convicts) and children.
1991: Robert Kaplan and William Reno, writers on Balkan affairs, visit Sierra Leone and publish books and articles arguing against
Western involvement in African conflicts. Violence and small wars, they claim, were inevitable in Africa because drought and
land hunger (environmental collapse and population pressure) have driven many young people to the ghettos of the cities, depriving
them of their ethnic-cultural moorings and making them susceptible to crime and violence. This, they argue, will continue to give cause
to a series of small wars and rebel uprisings that are hardly distinguishable from banditry and crime. Corruption, nepotism and patrimonial
politics have weakened state institutions (shadow state syndrome), further undermining central authority.
These theories (The New Barbarism Theories) are based on the European historical experience (thirty years war – 1618-1648);
and are of no relevance to Africa, but they seem to have influenced Western policy thinking with regards to African regional conflicts.
1992: April: A mutiny by unpaid soldiers becomes a coup, Momoh flees, National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) assumes power under
Capt. Valentine Strasser (age 27). Brutal rebel attacks continue, causing widespread internal dislocation. 120,000 refugees flee to Guinea;
RUF intensifies campaigns of terror and intimidation – with crude amputations of feet, hands, lips, ears, noses of civilians.
A practice previously unknown in Sierra Leone, but widely used in the former Belgian Congo to coerce service in the forced labour (corvèe) plantations of King Leopold. (Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost, A Story of Creed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa, New York, 1999).
1993: Kamajor militia and other traditional hunters begin fighting against RUF along with Republic of Sierra Leone Military Forces
(RSLMF) and ECOMOG, but rebel atrocities continue.
1994: RUF overruns diamond areas, Bauxite and Rutile mining plants are destroyed; farming, coffee and cacao production are disrupted,
economy comes to a stand still. Freetown is threatened by RUF; by now an estimated 80,000 have been killed and about half the country’s
4.5 million people have been displaced.
1995: February: NPRC appeals for international assistance, due to lack of resonance, employs Gurkha Security Guards for combat duty.
Following setbacks Gurkha units withdraw and Executive Outcomes (South Africa) are contracted by NPRC, by June, the RUF is beaten back.
1996: In a palace coup, Captain Julius Maada Bio replaces Captain Valentine Strasser, elections are held, Mr. Ahmed Tejan Kabba,
leader of the SLPP and former UNDP executive elected president.
1997: Soldiers mutiny, release 600 prison inmates and seize power, forming the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC). Kabba flees,
Major Johnny Paul Koroma, a former coup plotter, becomes chairman and invites RUF to join the government. Systematic murder,
torture, looting and rape characterize AFRC/RUF rule. Now evident that RUF only wants to bring about a breakdown of law and order –
to enable them and their accomplices (drug and weapon dealers) to extract and smuggle diamonds under the cover of violence and chaos.
1998: February: ECOMOG launches offensive on Freetown, driving the AFRC/RUF out of the city. President Kabba returns,
the Sierra Leone army is disbanded. Towns and villages throughout the country experience continued attacks and extreme brutality
from AFRC/RUF forces.
1998: July: Security Council approves UN peace-keeping operation, UNAMSIL. In October, an estimated 10,000 - 12,000 ECOMOG
troops continue to battle AFRC/RUF. About 800-1200 Nigerian ECOMOG soldiers are reported killed. Later in October, trials of soldiers
and civilians result in death sentences for many, including Foday Sankoh.
1999: AFRC/RUF elements attack and enter Freetown in January, resulting in two weeks of arson, terror, murder and plundering (the “diamond curse”).
Cabinet ministers, journalists and civil servants are tortured and killed. Parts of the city are razed; over 6000 civilians are killed before ECOMOG pushes
them back to the city outskirts. More than 2000 children are kidnapped – later held in boys' camps and exploited as slave labour for diamond mining operations.
1999: February: Nigerian presidential candidates agree that Nigeria should get out of Sierra Leone soon after Nigeria’s return to civilian rule on May 29.
1999: July: Government of Sierra Leone (GOSL) concludes a negotiated peace agreement with the RUF. All RUF and AFRC leaders are granted amnesty
and several RUF and AFRC leaders are offered cabinet positions. Foday Sankoh is released from Prison and made chairman of a Commission for the
Management of Strategic Resources (Diamonds), National Reconstruction and Development (CMRRD), with the rank of a vice-president. A Canadian NGO concludes that “In the Heart of the Matter” the Sierra Leone problem is a diamond problem (A Study published by; Partnership Africa Canada, January 2000).
1999: August: Phased Nigerian Troop withdrawal begins. October: UNSecurity Council approves a 6000-member Peace-keeping Force for Sierra Leone with authority to used ‘deadly force’ if required. December: Kenyan and Indian contingents of the new UNAMSIL peacekeeping force begin to arrive in Sierra Leone –
no Nato or Western country involved.
1999: 31.12.1999 – German Embassy in Freetown closes, German Embassy in Conakry (Guinea) takes consular representation.
2000: Global Witness, a British NGO, publishes a report on “conflict diamonds”, revealing connections between illegal exports of raw diamonds,
weapon dealers, drug money laundering and the prolongation of armed conflicts in Angola, Congo and Sierra Leone. US Congress opens hearing
on the role of De Beers, the Diamond High Council of Belgium (Hoge Raad voor Diamant, HRD) and the major diamond cutting and polishing
centers (in Antwerp, Tel Aviv and Mumbai) in the sale and distribution of “conflict diamonds”. De Beer testifies, denies purchasing “conflict diamonds”.
2001: Diamond certification is introduced to help detect and control „conflict diamonds“. Britain sends 600-Man troop to train Sierra Leone soldiers –
not part of UN contingent.
2001: March - the United Nations Security Council imposes sanctions on Liberia for its involvement in the illegal arms-for-diamonds trade and
for backing Sierra Leone's RUF rebels. However Charles Taylor was not the only one backing the rebels - RUF maintained a base in Cote d'Ivoire and recieved active support (logistics, fuel and transport) from Burkina Fasso and other coutries.
2001: The Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is formed to interview the victims of Sierra Leone's brutal decade-long civil war.
Donor funds of up to $9.6 million are pledged to help the TRC do its work. Meanwhile the Sierra Leone High Court continues trial of RUF leader Foday Sankoh and 49 RUF co-defendants.
2002: January 2002 - it is estimated that there are 17 275 soldiers, 90 Police men and 850 UN civilians in Sierra Leone –
the biggest UN Force any where in the world. However UN blue helm force does not include soldiers from NATO or Western countries.
2002: February - 67 employees of 40 NGOs and some blue helm soldiers are accused of sexually molesting women and young girls in the refugee camps in Sierra Leone.
2002: Demobilisation of rebel forces continues. In May 2002 President Kabba is re-elected for a second term of six years.
2002: June - GOSL confers with over 28 Western Petroleum Companies at meetings in London and Houston on issues relating to
a new Model of Petroleum Agreement (Royalty-Tax Concession Agreement) – prior to an offshore bids round for oil exploration.
After the “diamond curse”, an “oil spill curse” next – such as in the Ogoni-Delta-Region of Nigeria?
2002: September - Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) postpones hearings due to lack of funds –
donor countries fail to fulfil pledges in time for the planned start of hearings.
Sierra Leone Groups in Germany/Sierra-Leone-Vereine
Förderverein Sierra Leone
Postfach 30 05 62
51415 Bergisch Gladbach (Email info@africa-books.de)