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Example research essay topic: Sierra Leone Rebel Forces - 1,738 words

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The British established a colony at Freetown in 1787 for slaves returning to Africa from Great Britain and the United States and for slaves rescued from shipwrecks. The land of original settlement, where the city later developed, was purchased from local chiefs. The Sierra Leone Company, formed in 1791, administered the settlement until 1808, when it became a crown colony. Britain set up a protectorate over the hinterland of Freetown in 1896. The British were relatively nice towards the people of Sierra Leone. While they provided what they could for the colony, they also illegally smuggled the nations diamonds to other countries.

The first elections for the legislative council were held under the constitution of 1924. In 1950 the National Council of Sierra Leone was formed by the Creole (Kit) elite with the purpose of preserving and continuing the elevated status that the Kids enjoyed in the country. One year later Milton Margai helped form the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (Harris pg. 247). The ministerial system was introduced in 1953, and Sir Milton Margai, a former physician and leader of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), was appointed chief minister in 1954 and prime minister in 1960 Sierra Leone gained independence on April 27, 1961. Their independence did not have to be fought for, it was simply given to them by the British. Following the elections of 1962, Margai remained Prime Minister.

Margai died in 1964 and was succeeded by his half-brother, Albert Margai (Cutter pg. 60). In 1967, as a result of fake elections, in which Sick Stevens, leader of the All Peoples Congress (APC), was elected prime minister, the army staged a coup date and organized a National Reformation Council (NRC). After another army revolt in 1968, civilian government was restored, and Stevens returned to power. Sierra Leone was declared a republic on April 19, 1971, and Stevens was sworn in as executive president. Opposition to the government was gradually eliminated; in elections held in May 1973, the APC was unopposed. In 1975 Sierra Leone signed a trade and aid agreement with the European Community (now the European Union) and helped form the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

In 1978 a new constitution made the country a one-party state, and Stevens was sworn in for a new seven year term in office. The APC was, thereafter, the only legal party. In the early 1980 s Sierra Leone suffered an economic slowdown, as sagging export revenues left the government unable to pay for essential imports. In November 1985 Stevens retired, and Major General Joseph Said Momoh was sworn in as president the following January. A coup attempt was suppressed in March 1987, and in November the president declared a state of economic emergency. Early in 1991 guerrillas spilling over from the Liberian civil war captured several towns near the Liberian border; Guinea and Nigeria supplied military aid to the Sierra Leone government to contain the threat.

As government forces fought back the Liberian guerrillas, a Sierra Leonean rebel group, The Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Sprang up to take territory of its own, and a brutal civil war followed. A new constitution providing for a multiparty system was adopted in September. In April 1992, however, Momoh was ousted in a military coup and replaced by Captain Valentine Strasser. Strasser's government reduced street crime and lowered inflation from 115 percent to 15 percent. This allowed the country to receive more than $ 300 million in global aid packages. Strasser was accused of restricting free press practices, having his political enemies executed, and for continuing the civil war.

In 1994 he endorsed a two-year transition to multiparty democracy, with elections scheduled for 1996. (Conteh-Morgan, Dixon-File pp. 125 - 132) Six weeks before the scheduled elections in late February, Strasser's was removed from power in a bloodless coup by his defense minister, Brigadier Julius Made Bio. Bio pledged to hold free elections as planned, but insisted that an end to Sierra Leones devastating five-year-long civil war was necessary for a successful transfer to civilian rule. The elections were held on February 26 and 27. In a runoff vote, Ahmed Than Kabbah of the SLPP was elected president. (Conteh-Morgan, Kabbah served as president until May 1997, when he was ousted in yet another military coup.

The military junta, an alliance of disillusioned junior army officers, escaped prisoners, and members of the RUF, faced immediate international condemnation and economic sanctions. Nigerian troops taking part in a peacekeeping force in neighboring Liberia quickly responded by mounting an offensive against rebel forces. In February 1998 the Nigerian force secured the Sierra Leonean capital of Freetown. In March, Kabbah returned to office from exile in Guinea. In January 1999 the Nigerian dominated ECOWAS force repelled a large scale rebel assault on Freetown, and thousands of civilians were killed in the fighting.

As of mid- 1999 Kabbah's administration controlled little more than Freetown, with various factions of the rebel forces holding most rural areas in addition to the countrys diamond mines. In 1998 and 1999, rebel soldiers, thousands of whom were less than 18 years old, terrorized Sierra Leones countryside with calculated atrocities. Rebels butchered hundreds of civilians, often severing their hands from their arms, to send a message of intimidation to Kabbah's government. What could possibly have led this country to such atrocities?

One catalyst, as according to journalist James Traub, could perhaps be the frustration that generated from the economical setup of the country (Traub pg. 61). Sixty percent of Sierra Leones economy is based on agriculture (Spitzer pg. 172). Nowadays, their harvest of rice, coffee, cacao, cassava, and palm products (such as oil), is not a reliable source of heavy income for the farming population. This is due to the fact that there is not a significant percentage of their crops in the world market.

According to Traub, this problem has made much of Sierra Leones people, especially the youth (who need money if they have any hope of continuing their formal education), extremely frustrated. The youngsters frustration with their situation makes them easy prey for the many revolutionary groups who offer to provide them with food and shelter as well s a chance to change the government that has placed them in such a position. When Traub asked a young RUF member, why he joined the young man responded: I took my O-level exams, and I wanted to continue with my education, but nobody would help me. My friend told me that I should join the RUF. (Traub pg. 62). Once faced with such options, one can see, though not necessarily support, why some people prefer to join rebel groups rather than continue living life day to day with little money to sustain themselves. Basically, the less money citizens have, the more likely they are to join rebel forces.

Traub also points to another important economical matter that must be discussed: the role played by Sierra Leones diamond industry. The most corrupt aspect of Sierra Leones economy is its diamond industry. Sierra Leon's diamonds are very popular on the world market, and fetch quite hefty sums of money. However, instead of the diamonds being legally exported as the main source of income for the country, they are frequently smuggled out of the country with profits going to the already wealthy ruling elite and their Lebanese partners and other foreigners (Traub pg. 61). One can easily see the obvious impact this would have on the working class citizens: they are not benefited by the countrys diamond wealth, which means there is even more reason to join a group that wants to oust the current government (Traub pg. 61). Others blame Sierra Leones problems on the way in which colonial Sierra Leone functioned.

One such believer is journalist Santa B. Sesay. Mr. Sesay lays the argument that the British neglected the countrys interior as well as exploiting its diamond mines.

There was a market in Britain for shipbuilding timber, and most of the accessible forest trees in the coastal country were cut down, thus changing the environment irreparably. To raise revenue to pay for administration of the protectorate, a hut tax was imposed. This tax was not met with open arms. As authors/ historians Earl Conteh-Morgan and Mac Dixon-File put it: This, to the people of the Protectorate, was an affront, akin to being asked to pay for the use of ones home and land. (Conteh-Morgan, Dixon-File pg. 42). Famous warlord Bai Bureh, who embodied the peoples outrage, was one of the most outspoken judges of the tax.

The British attempt to silence Bureh was the cause of the violent Hut Tax War of 1898, in which the British succeeded in suppressing the native detractors (Iliffe pg. 198) (Conteh-Morgan, Dixon-File pg. 42). The ruling chiefs had not been consulted with on the subject of making the Protectorate. In the Protectorate the chiefs ruled under the supervision of British district commissioners. Innovation was discouraged, and little was done to extend education. In the colony many Creoles had held senior official posts in the 19 th century and looked forward to ultimately governing themselves.

After the protectorate was assumed, however, they were gradually removed from office, and the colony and protectorate were governed by British administrators (Conteh-Morgan, Dixon-File pp. 45 - 46). One could say that this clearly shows that the British rule really left Sierra Leonean's without much experience in self government. Sesay also believes that the British exploitation of Sierra Leonean diamonds is what laid the groundwork for the continued exploitation of the jewel by the many Sierra Leonean leaders during the county's independence. Furthermore, according to author Roy MacGregor-Hastie, Sierra Leone lacked the history of democracy that many West African countries had during colonization. (MacGregor-Hastie 1967). From this it could be drawn that the British treated the Sierra Leonean's like inept individuals who were not capable of taking care of themselves.

One could argue this had to have led to the country being unable to rule itself during its independence, hence the constant post-independence coup date. However, it is hard to believe that the British were out to ruin Sierra Leone and keep the country under its thumb. As a matter of fact, it would not be an embellishment to say that the British laid great groundwork for the country by leaving Sierra Leone with an outstanding university as well as an intellectual elite (Traub pg. 61). Another aspect of colonial Site...


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