Sierra Leone is mainly a mining country, this caused it to be colonized and for their own native people being used as slaves in their mines. This shaped its social development by making it a far higher concentration of natives than other countries. But, because of their enslavement and American control until recently, literacy rates and per capita GDP are disturbingly low. Politically, though, it’s more stable than most countries in this case.
When Sierra Leone was colonized, it was considered a rich environment for slave trade, they referred to human beings like a natural resource that Sierra Leone was abundant in. Eventually, when slave trade was made illegal, though, in an attempt to try and mend what they had done, Britain sent former slaves to live in Sierra Leone, and eventually the US followed suit. This made it so all the native cultures that were already there got mixed in and even distorted with American and British slave culture and in some cases other forms of European culture. This severely impacted the overall culture and, therefore, made the government more vulnerable to “traditions” getting out of hand.
A huge issue in SIerra Leone is FGM(Female Genital Mutilation),
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It’s interesting to think that most of the world can be seen coping with the effects of imperialism and colonialism by Europe at any point in history. It was nice to hear more about Africa than the poverty and about how “underdeveloped” they are. Something interesting that I didn’t really expect was the amount of affect that colonialism really had on Africa, and how recently all these nations really became independent. There was a wide range of issues across Africa, from drought to persecution of women, all the way to corruption in the government. I think it was cool to see people realize this fact and realize that it’s not as different as they may think it is over
Imperialism in Africa began in the late 19th century. It began when King Leopold II began the Scramble for Africa. All of the major colonial powers went after Africa. Their goal was to gain the most wealth and to have the most territory. Having more territory and claiming valuable parts of the continent was a symbol of power. Imperialism in Africa had negative and positive consequences on both the Europeans and Africans, these can be shown through human rights issues, new industry and advancements, and wealth and influence.
The war has destroyed many villages and Sierra Leone isn’t the same anymore. People don’t trust each other anymore, and steal from one another. Ishmael and his friends are soon brainwashed by the older and experienced soldiers.
The rebels of RUF effectively used violence to instill fear and obedience into the villagers of Sierra Leone. People of the village even turn on Ishmael and his friends throughout the book. Many of the villagers don't trust them and are afraid because they stayed together in a group walking through villages. Also, the violence intentionally created distrust amongst families. Boys turned their backs on their own fathers for the RUF.
These events that led to the civil war in Sierra Leone destroyed its economic, political, and social system. The economics have been driven down since independence as seen before, from smugglers, to crooked political leaders destroying the economic system into pieces. The collapse of the economic system can trace back to many things. The political system has played a big part in it. The corrupt leaders as seen before in history like Stevens, and Mohob. In the book “Along Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah he experiences the messed up politics. He had first heard about it in the news about neighboring wars. Those wars were in Liberia. He had first hand experience, as he had fought for the government side which is no better than the rebels known as RUF. Ishmael roughly experiences this as he says
Africa was a nation that was based off of selling slaves in which the Europeans were familiar with but by 1807, slavery was abolished which made King Leopold II move onto a different resource to line his pockets. The resource he started production on was rubber because of the widespread want for rubber for tires and other manufactured goods. Around the 19th century when Leopold acquired even more land and expanded his production on rubber and sometimes ivory his managers proceeded to force labor and strip away daily cleanliness which eventually led to the widespread disease of malaria which killed as many as 10,000,000 people. With a absolute infectious disease clouding Africa and the seemingly brutal army brought up by Leopold, what really was the driving force behind European Imperialism in Africa?
The weak always gets taken over. That pretty much explains imperialism. Imperialism was was in 1875-1914 in Africa. What was the driving force behind European imperialism in Africa? That is that question that I aim to answer in this essay. The term driving force means reasoning or push. The word imperialism is the act of fully taking over a country. I have three main reasons for the driving force behind European imperialism in Africa: get materials, national competition and to gain more power. The main reason was so that Europeans can gain more power.
Before reading “A Long Way Gone,” I was not at all familiar with the civil wars occurring in Sierra Leone. I didn’t know anything about Sierra Leone’s political dynamics either, however I could infer much about what might be going on there if asked. At least that is what I thought. That is until I read part of Ishmael’s memoir. I figured, previously to reading the memoir, that civil wars began as a result of some generally good reason, and were continued for a generally good reason. The civil wars in Sierra Leone, as I read, were quite the opposite, rather blind fight for power, as narrated by Beah, “A lot of things were done with no reason or explanation.” It is also implied that each side in the war believed that they themselves were doing
The change in Sierra Leone culture is one of the first consequences of war seen in the story. Throughout the civil war the rebels (RUF) recruited or forced many children to become soldiers. In order to get these children they would raid villages and then draft the strongest ones. They would then tell the children that they would not need their families
Imperialism, when one country dominates another for its own benefit, is an expansion policy that has reigned for centuries. Over time, imperialism has drastically changed in its magnitude and severity. At the turn of the nineteenth century, a “new,” more aggressive and competitive form of imperialism emerged and completely dismantled the domestic institutions of various developing countries. Africa in the nineteenth century is a prime example of the “new” imperialism in effect. How was Africa affected by imperialism? Who imperialized Africa? What caused African imperialism? How did the international environment affect the domestic institutions of Africa?
A brief historical account of Sierra Leone may provide only a glimmer as to why the Sierra
The Sierra Leones Civil War, started in 1991 and ended in 2002.In more than a decade cities were destroyed and occupied, people displaced, women raped and children forced to become soldiers. Man were mostly used in the diamond’s mines or deployed in illegal armed forces. At the very beginning, in 1991 the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) from Liberia moved to Sierra Leone to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government. In the meanwhile, the Sierra Leone Army tried its best to protect the huge amount of diamonds’ mines. Those mines, through the illicit commerce all over the world, fuelled the RUF and the NPFL (National Patriotic Front of Liberia) or later in the years the AFRC (Armed Forces Revolutionary Council), to support theirs military expenses with the revenues.
As the saying goes, money makes the world go ‘round. Imperialism, the act of one country dominating another country’s power, is a prime example of money’s powerful impact on a country’s decision making, which often times has a global effect. European countries often imperialized African and Asian countries from the 1890’s to the 1910’s. From this, led to an outburst of countries wanting to imperialize other countries, especially industrialized countries looking to take advantage of non-industrialized countries. The potential economic profit available in non-industrialized countries motivated imperialists to take advantage of these countries’ resources.
It is the year 1870, the start of imperialism in Africa and many other regions. Imperialism is when a country acquires power through domination of others. The Europeans took control of Africa with their steam engines, advanced medicine, and superior weaponry. Imperialism harmed Africa because imperialist governments created laws that treated Africans cruelly and unfairly, Europeans changed how the tribes of Africa lived, and the Europeans used treaties to control Africans.
Freetown was one of the first West African colonies of Great Britain, and it is now the capital of Sierra Leone. Like other African nations that had been colonized, the people of Sierra Leone struggled for independence for almost 300 years. Colonies of Great Britain in West Africa gained independence between 1956 and 1968. Sierra Leone gained independence in 1961 with the help of chief minister Sir Milton Margai, and his political party, the Sierra Leone People’s Party. In the years that have followed Sierra Leone’s independence from Great Britain, the country has remained underdeveloped, and poverty has lowered the quality of life for Sierra Leoneans.
Sierra Leone is located on the West Coast of Africa, its history dates back to 1462 when a Portuguese explorer named Pedro da Cintra detailed his adventures along the coast and came up with the name “Sierra Lyoa” meaning Lion Mountains (the Sierra Leone Web, 2011). There are three provinces and sixteen