Postcolonial Political Fiasco

Abstract

This chapter examines the early years of Sierra Leone after the death of its first Prime Minister, Sir Milton Margai. The sociopolitical course of the country was derailed when Sir Milton died in 1964 and his brother, Sir Albert Margai, was whisked into power. A complicated general election in 1967 produced a series of coups that eventually brought the opposition politician, Siaka Stevens, to power. Stevens instituted a dictatorship of kleptomaniacs who gradually eliminated all oppositions and solidified a single-party state. Stevens retired in 1985 and placed the country in the hands of a military officer by the name of Joseph Momoh. This chapter includes an analysis of Momoh’s regime as a brutal continuation of the Stevens political system.