| Sierra Leone Siera Liòn Timeline: Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum
OTL equivalent: Sierra Leone | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||
| Motto: Unity, Freedom, Justice |
||||||
| Anthem: High We Exalt Thee, Realm of the Free |
||||||
 Location of Sierra Leone
|
||||||
| Capital | Freetown | |||||
| Official languages | English | |||||
| National languages | Krio | |||||
| Ethnic groups | Temne; Mende; Limba; Kono; Fula; Susu; Loko; Koranko; Sherbro; Mandingo; Krio | |||||
| Religion | Islam; Christianity; Traditional religions | |||||
| Demonym | Sierra Leonean | |||||
| Government | Unitary state; Constitutional parliamentary monarchy | |||||
| - | King | Charles III | ||||
| - | Governor General | Ernest Bai Koroma | ||||
| - | Prime Minister | Abdulai Conteh | ||||
| Legislature | Parliament of Sierra Leone | |||||
| Establishment | ||||||
| - | Independence from the United Kingdom | April 27, 1961 | ||||
| - | Monarchy reestablished | September 1, 2005 | ||||
| Currency | Leone (SLL) |
|||||
| Time zone | GMT (UTC) | |||||
| Internet TLD | .sl | |||||
| Calling code | +232 | |||||
Sierra Leone (Krio: Siera Liòn) is a sovereign state on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bounded to the southeast by Liberia and to the north by Guinea. Sierra Leone has a tropical climate with different habitats ranging from savanna to rainforests, covering a total area of 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi). According to the 2015 census, the country's population is 7,092,113 people. Freetown is the capital and largest city. Muslims make up about three-quarters of the population, though with an influential Christian minority. Religious tolerance in Sierra Leone is very high and is generally considered a norm and part of its cultural identity.
During the British colonial period, Sierra Leone became the colony for the freed African slaves from Great Britain and the Americas after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1807. During the 19th century, freed African Americans, some Americo Liberian "refugees", and particularly Afro-Caribbeans, mainly Jamaican Maroons, also immigrated and settled in Freetown. Together these peoples formed the Krio ethnicity and an English-based creole language, Krio, which is the lingua franca and one of the two official languages of the country.
Another wave of immigration came from the descendants of former slaves from Confederate States who had migrated to the United States after the conclusion of War of Southern Secession during the late 19th century. These descendants, known as the Garveyans, were motivated by the Back to Africa movement led by Marcus Garvey to settle in Sierra Leone starting from the 1920s and became a driving force of economic growth of the colony during the early 20th century. Sierra Leone gained independence from the United Kingdom on April 27, 1961; Milton Margai became its first prime minister.
In 1971, Sierra Leone became a republic with Siaka Stevens, leader of the All People's Congress (APC), becoming its first executive president. Stevens held on to this position for 14 years under a one-party system of government facilitated by the controversial 1978 Constitution and was replaced by Joseph Saidu Momoh in 1985. Momoh had inherited a disintegrating economy and politically unstable system from his predecessor and he was unable to stop the trend, resulting to the Sierra Leonean Civil War in 1991. Momoh survived a coup attempt in 1992, but the civil war was dragged on for a decade. After Momoh's death in 2003, his successor Abdulai Conteh started to negotiate for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, leading to the signing of Accra Accord in 2004 between the government and the rebels.
Conteh's administration marked the dawn of a new Sierra Leone with a focus on fostering national unity and reconciliation, trust in government, peace and stability, the improvement in relations with many countries, and the reorganization of the Sierra Leone Armed Forces with special assistance and training provided by the British government. Conteh held a notable referendum in 2004 whether the population wanted to reinstate monarchy in the country, making it back as a Commonwealth rike, which passed with 73% of yes votes, the only nation within the Commonwealth Confederation to do such so far. Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom was re-declared as the Queen of Sierra Leone on September 1, 2005, while Conteh became prime minister.
Sierra Leone is home to around 18 ethnic groups, the two largest and most powerful of which are the Temne and Mende peoples. Creole people, descendants of freed African-American and Afro-Caribbean slaves, make up about 2% of the country's population. In schools and government administration, English is the official language. However, Krio is the most widely spoken language in Sierra Leone, with 97% of the population speaking it. Sierra Leone is endowed with natural resources, including diamonds, gold, bauxite, and aluminum. The country is a member of the United Nations, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Mano River Union, the Commonwealth Confederation, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the African Development Bank, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
| |||||||||||
