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The
millennium celebrations for the residents of Freetown, capital
of war-torn Sierra Leone, were muted. Not for them the wild parties
that were taking place in many parts of the world. A curfew, which
began at 9.00pm and ended at 7.00am, made sure of a sombre awakening
to the new millennium.
But
the more determined ones – those of a Christian persuasion
– did not let the curfew deter them. They crammed into the
colonial churches in Freetown before the nine o’clock deadline
and worshipped until dawn. The strong Christian ethos, which formed
the basis of the settlement of Freetown by freed blacks from Britain
in 1787, was clearly in evidence in such trying times.
For
the settlers, whose descendants are known today as the Creoles,
the early days were full of conflicts with the indigenous peoples
who objected to their presence. But the settlers had an advantage
in that they were educated and were wise to the ways of Europeans.
Naturally, they held the top jobs in the British colonial civil
service and were also prominent in the professions. They were
also well represented in the Legislative Council, through which
the British governed the Colony of Freetown.
By
the time of independence in April 1961, things had changed drastically.
The indigenous peoples of the Protectorate were ready to take
over political control when the British relinquished their hold
on the country.
Although
there is a great divide between the settlers and the local ethnic
groups, the civil war which erupted in 1991 had nothing to do
with this. In 1982, during a turbulent period of political campaigning,
two factions clashed in Pujehun in the Eastern Province. When
the dust settled hundreds had been killed and thousands had crossed
over into Liberia. Members of the vanquished faction eventually
found their way to Libya, where they received military training.
They
returned to the region to fight alongside Charles Taylor, who
had launched an attack in Liberia in December 1989. But it was
a further two years before the war erupted in Sierra Leone, spearheaded
by a former army corporal, Foday Sankoh, and his Revolutionary
United Front (RUF).
What
followed between 1991 and 1999 was an unparalleled orgy of violence.
Rebels chopped off the limbs of thousands of people – mainly
those of able-bodied men who might fight against them or of schoolchildren
whose studies showed they ‘thought they were better’.
The diamond industry – the mainstay of the economy –
was meanwhile taken over by the RUF.
After
two attempts – and a military coup in support of the rebels
in 1997 – the rebels and the Government of President Tejan
Kabbah reached a peace deal in Lomé, Togo, in July 1999. Despite
the appalling atrocities they had committed, the rebels were given
a blanket amnesty and asked to form a political party to contest
presidential and parliamentary elections early in 2001; Foday
Sankoh joined the Government for the interim pre-election period.
Although
the UN-funded disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR)
programme is under way, it is way behind schedule. The RUF has
been slow to hand in its weapons because it wants to use the threat
of going back to war to get the electorate to vote it into power.
So despite the end to hostilities, Sierra Leone is far from stable.
The
rebels still occupy half of the country and control the mining
areas. They have used proceeds from the sale of diamonds to buy
arms and ammunition. The Government, on the other hand, has not
been able to benefit from this natural resource.
Meanwhile
the economy has ground to a halt. The Government depends on handouts
from the UN and donors who will have to fund the country for some
time. It is no wonder that Sierra Leone is at the very bottom
of the UN Human Development Index.
Desmond
Davies
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INCOME
DISTRIBUTION 
SELF-RELIANCE
POSITION
LITERACY
FREEDOM
LIFE
EXPECTANCY 
