Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008
The fact that Sierra Leone is one of Africa's little-known states is an acknowledgement of its marginalisation and reversal of fortunes since independence from Britain in 1961. But this observation is also a reminder that under colonial rule, Sierra Leone had received considerable notoriety for several reasons: an important naval base, commercial centre, and seaport; a hot-bed of political agitation and perennial challenge to British authority; and a centre of education – the so-called ‘Athens of West Africa’.1 In more recent times, however, Sierra Leone jas not caught the attention of international commentators and the world press. It has not achieved the strategic or international political significance of such major African states as Algeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Nigeria, Zambia, or Zimbabwe. And looking back to the 1950s and 1960s, it was not led to independence by the charismatic persona of a Kwame Nkrumah, who hoped to achieve the rapid transformation of Ghana to a modern industrial economy and society, ot by a romantic like Julius Nyerere, who hoped to turn Tanzanian peasants into citizens of modern communes.
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Page 134 note 2 This notion is discussed in Sandbrook, Richard with Barker, Judith, The Politics of Africa's Economic Stagnation (Cambridge, 1985), ch. 5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Page 137 note 1 Stevens, Siaka, What Life has Taught Me: the autobiography of His Excellency Dr. Siaka Stevens, President of Sierra Leone (London, 1984), p. 414.Google Scholar
Page 137 note 2 World Bank, World Development Report, 1988 (Washington, D.C., 1988), pp. 222–87.Google Scholar
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Page 139 note 2 ibid.
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Page 141 note 1 The ‘Green Revolution’ agricultural programme started in 1986 is faltering, and was perhaps fundamentally misconceived. Cf. Richards, Paul, African Agricultural Revolution: ecology and food production in West Africa (London, 1985).Google Scholar
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