About Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone is one of the world’s poorest countries. The country has in recent years slowly climbed out of a deep depression after it had been totally disrupted and destroyed by a vicious civil war that raged between 1991 and 2001.
History
After the discovery by the Portuguese in 1461 (Serra Leoa is Portuguese for Lion Mountain), the country was especially interesting for Europeans as a source of slaves. In 1787, a settlement built by freed slaves from London on the peninsula they called The Province of Freedom. This peninsula is the present Western Area. The current capital Freetown was founded in 1792 by freed African American slaves. A group of people created the Creole / Krio with its own language, the Krio. In 1808 the peninsula and were Bonthe (Sherbro) Island along a British crown colony, where the Creole elite would play a prominent role in trade, education and missionary work.
Independence
Geography
@Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Demography
Life expectancy (at birth): 41.2 years (estimate 2009) – Population growth: 2.3% (estimate 2009) – Birth rate: 44.7 / 1000 (estimate 2009) – Death rate: 22.3 / 1000 (estimate 2009) – Infant mortality rate: 154.4 / 1000 (estimate 2009) – Literacy: total 64.9%, men 53.1%, women 75.6% (2004 estimate).
Population
Mende (30%) – Temne (30%) – Krio, Creole descended from freed slaves, 10% minority groups such as Lebanese, Indians, Europeans, Chinese, Pakistanis and refugees from neighboring countries.
Religion
Sunni Islam (60%) – Animism (10%) – Christianity (30%), the original inhabitants are predominantly Muslim, especially the northern tribes tend to Islam, the South hand, tend more to Christianity. The Krio are almost all Christian. All indigenous peoples have also animism.
Language
English is the official language, nonetheless speaks only a small percentage of the population is English. Besides Krio, Mende and Temne Sierra Leone still has 15 people with their own languages, the Limba, Bomb, Gula, Bullom, Kishi, Kono, Crimea, Koranko, Mandingo, Fula, Sherbro, Soso, Loko, Vai and Yalunka.
Politics
Presidential Republic.
Parliament: House of Representatives. 68 Members. Elections every five years. Suffrage from 18 years. Since May 28, 1997, the parliament dissolved. The unicameral with 112 seats elected every five years. The president is both head of government as head of state, and Sierra Leone is part of the Commonwealth. The government leader is Brigadier General (Rtd) Julius Made Bio van de SLPP, SL Peoples Party (since 2018).
@Photo by Random Institute on Unsplash
Civil war
1991 and 2002 a civil war raged in Sierra Leone. From 1991, the Revolutionary United Front (Revolutionary United Front, RUF) against the government. The RUF was supported by the late Liberian President Charles Taylor who in turn was supported by Guinea and Nigeria. In 1992, Valentine Strasser in Sierra Leone’s new leader, who established a military regime. Strasbourg in 1996 staged Sers right, General Julius Maada Bio, a coup and assumed power. He began a process of democratization and started negotiations with the insurgents. Under pressure from the international community were held elections which were won by Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). In 1997, Major Koroma and his soldiers took over power and established a military regime called Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). AFRC and the RUF carried out a reign of terror on Sierra Leone. They were expelled in 1998 by the Civil Defense Forces Kabbah with international forces. The Kabbah government was reinstalled, and there were attempts to negotiate peace. In January 1999 the People’s Army attacked the AFRC-RUF in the capital Freetown and took action “No Living Thing ‘out. In the same year a peace treaty was signed and UN troops stationed in the country, three years later – in January 2002 – the RUF finally put down their arms. Reconstruction – Sierra Leone since 2002 working to rebuild the country. There is a country in the Sierra Leone tribunal because of the ongoing war crimes committed during the civil war. Also, the war crimes documented.
Music
Sierra Leone has many musical genres such as Palm-wine, Gumbs, afro / African Highlife and traditional music-music as Bubu. Currently, a fusion of African and West Indian styles and hip hop and R & B are very popular among the younger generation.
Economy
Currency: Leone (SLL). Course: 1 Leone (SLL) = 0,0001087 Euro (September 2018) – GDP: $ 1.133 billion ($ 223 per capita) (2005) – Export Products: diamond, rutile, cocoa – Trading Partners: U.S., UK, UK
Tourism
Sierra Leone has the finest beaches in Africa. The Atlantic coast of Sierra Leone has long white pristine sandy beaches. Along the coast of Freetown are numerous hotels, dining and entertainment venues. There are also many interesting historical sights like the old Creole villages on the peninsula (The Western Area), a slave fort on Bunce Island, Turtle Islands and the Banana, the Bint Imani mountains, mangrove forests and waterfalls Charlotte Falls. Game Reserves: Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary for chimpanzees – Island Wildlife Sanctuary, with over 135 different bird species – Outamba-Kilimi National Park – Wildlife Sanctuary Mamunta Mayosso.
@Photo by Random Institute on Unsplash
Development and poverty
When the index of human development was Sierra Leone as least developed countries classified. Besides living in the United Nations Development Programme 70.2% of the population below the poverty line…