Transcription
Let's talk about Sierra Leone, which is a little-known country in Western Africa. I want to tell you everything that you should know about this country, a bit about its history, its religion, colonization, coming out of colonization, its resource wealth, and maybe where it might go. Sierra Leone, everything you need to know.
If you look at a map of West Africa, you'll find a small country nestled right in the Atlantic coast. Officially, an English-speaking country with Krio as the lingua franca. It's roughly the size of South Carolina, bordered by Guinea to the north and east, and Liberia to the south. Its capital, Freetown, sits on one of the world's largest natural deep water harbors, a major geopolitical asset. 9 million people with a median age hovering around 19 years old, very youthful. Ethnically, it's predominantly split between two major groups, the Temne in the north and the Mende in the south.
Historically, it's been a classic primary commodity exporter. The country runs heavily on agriculture, rice, coffee, cocoa. The 2006 film you may have seen called Blood Diamond references Sierra Leone's mining industry. Diamonds, gold, bauxite, iron ore, rutile. And you might be thinking, "Well, Marquette, what is rutile?" It's the most abundant form of titanium dioxide. Its primary uses include manufacturing bright white pigments for paints, plastics, and paper, smelting lightweight and durable titanium metal for the aerospace industry, and coating welding electrodes. It's also used in sunscreens, ceramics, and gemstones.
Well, one thing that you all may have known about Sierra Leone, but if you didn't, surely we should review it now, Is there civil war? That was from 1991 to 2002. Significant amount of time. It was a brutal decade defined by the illicit blood diamond, which I trust you've heard about. That blood diamond trade and political collapse characterized that period. But here is the critical piece of context. The war ended nearly a quarter century ago, so they've moved on. Sierra Leone rebuilt, established a multi-party democracy, and saw peaceful transfer of power. We all know democracy can be a shaky thing, generally because the West is shaking it.
Let's talk pre-colonization. Indigenous beliefs. You know, what did the blacks believe before the Arabs came with the sword and forced Islam? Before the Europeans came with the sword and forced Christianity. What did the black men and women believe? And also, how did they end up believing in blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jesus or the Arab Muhammad, peace be upon him.
Before European colonization, the sweeping introduction of foreign religions, the indigenous peoples of Sierra Leone practiced African religions. Most groups believed in a distant creator, a god whom they communicated with through their ancestors. And this is something I actually quite like. I think it's really important to pay reverence to those who have come before you, your ancestors, which puts a value on family and blood and lineage. Makes perfect sense to me. It seems very natural, not so contrived. So people communed with the spirits of their ancestors who acted as intermediaries between them and their creator. And for the most part, it seems like they pretty much had a uh single god as their creator.
Today, Islam dominates. Approximately 78% of the population is Sunni Muslim. In the 9th and 11th uh excuse me, in the 9th to 11th centuries, Islam first touched the wider region via trans-Saharan trade routes. In 1725, began the Futa Jallon Jihad, the most violent catalyst for the spread of Islam into Sierra Leone. The Futa Jallon Jihad, centered in modern-day Guinea, was led by Fulani Muslim clerics. This holy war aimed to overthrow local rulers and establish an Islamic theocracy. It's important to note that so often these uh Muslim empires or Christian empires are always imperialist in nature. The shock waves of this military campaign spilled directly into northern Sierra Leone, forcing local populations to either convert, flee, or face sub- subjugation violence.
Let's talk force coercion, excuse me, forced conversion and tribal displacements. As Islamic rule expanded southward southward from the Futa Jallon, military campaigns disrupted indigenous societies. Tribes who resisted Islam were targeted. This triggered massive internal migrations. Groups unwilling to abandon their traditional religious practices were violently displaced from their ancestral lands. So, not only were they stealing your god, they were also stealing your land and in other cases stealing your life. So many lies we hear that Islam hasn't been spread through the sword. We hear that Christianity hasn't been spread through the sword. It's just not true. I say this not to attack any particular religion, but rather to recount the history accurately, honestly.
Let us consider the holy wars of the 1800s. Local Muslim leaders and warlords launched localized jihads within Sierra Leone to enforce Islamic law and expand territory. And this has been very characteristic of Islam. Uh whether you are looking at it in Nigeria with Boko Haram or you're looking at ISIS or Al-Qaeda, we find that so often it's uncompromising within a given territory. Uh it seems as though the Muslims have to dominate and establish their religious law, Sharia, as the only way. And that's what we see here. The Mandingo Wars. Muslim Mandingo traders and warriors used military force to secure trade routes and convert local chiefs.
Now, it's also worth noting that the Islamic expansion operated largely in the same way as the Christian expansion. Uh initially it was commercial, so cash rules. Money is really the god. And then, almost as an afterthought, they're like, "Oh, yeah, well, we need to convert these people, too. They have to think like us. They need to worship us." In Islam, they need to worship us Arabs. You know, we are the progenitors of uh Islam. Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, the great messenger was an Arab. Spread our way. And with the white Christians, they you have to bow down to the Trinity and Jesus is blond with blue eyes, despite him being from the Middle East, because we really want you to worship a white god.
The Sofa Wars. Later in the 19th century, Samori Touré's Sofa Army, an Islamic expansionist empire, conducted brutal raids in northern and eastern Sierra Leone destroying villages and forcing Africans into Islam.
Muslims and transatlantic enslavement and this is particularly interesting because we tend to think of the transatlantic slave trade is a fairly straightforward simple story. It's a bit more complex than that. In fact, we think of it as a European Christian story and frankly, it's also a Muslim story. And so it's quite funny that the two religions and religion is supposedly a force for good are collaborating in evil. Prisoners of war captured during these regional holy wars by Muslim states were often sold to European traders and these were European Christians on the coast in exchange for firearms and goods which further fueled the cycle of military conquest and forced Islamization. All the Muslims, the God-fearing people were buying guns from the European Christians. Extraordinary how much these God-fearing people invest in the weapons of war. Put more trust in the bullet than in their Lord.
Now, so we talked about Islam which is overwhelmingly dominant today in Sierra Leone. We have it pegged at about 78% as Sunni Muslim and the remainder is essentially Christian. Roughly 22% of the population is Christian spread across a number of different sects.
Christianity arrived in Sierra Leone in two distinct historical waves. The first introduction occurred in 1462 with the arrival of Portuguese explorers and Catholic missionaries. Thought is and it's interesting that they they're like, "Oh yeah, I'm going to explore bring the priest with me." Clearly, they understand the importance of capturing not only the land but the mind. They want to capture your mind. Anyways, the first introduction occurred in 1462 with the arrival of Portuguese explorers and Catholic missionaries, followed by a more sustained Jesuit mission in 1605. However, the permanent widespread establishment of Christianity took root much later in 1792 with the arrival of the Nova Scotian settlers. Free black loyalists from the Americas who founded Freetown. Freetown is the capital.
Coercive conversion. Missionaries use their monopoly on Western education and medicine to pressure locals into converting. To receive an education or advance socially in the colonial structure, indigenous Sierra Leonean or Sierra Leone. You know what I'm talking about. The indigenous folks in Sierra Leone were forced to abandon their traditional names, clothes, polygamous family structure, and spiritual as they wanted to rob all of that from us. Polygyny is the way of the black man and woman. The whites are trying to make us live like them. Their religion took all of our ideas and cultures, tried to turn us into a white man. Yes. And now our own woman tries to enforce the white man thinking, religion, and behavior onto us. It does not fit. It's historical. Excuse me, um Christianity was historically violent. The slave trade, obviously, and the military and cultural dominance of British colonialism. Ironically, today there's virtually zero religious conflict in Sierra Leone between the Muslims and the Christians.
And with regards to economy, which we've yet to talk about the modern economy, they have two noteworthy projects. Uh actually, in fact, four. You have the Tonkolili iron ore project and the Bomahun gold mine. Huge industrial powerhouses designed to consolidate mining into massive national revenue drivers, and this is a common story in Africa, and so often it never goes well. I don't have high hopes, admittedly. The Pepel Port and railway expansion, nearly half a billion-dollar uh logistics corridor designed to move 20 million tons of minerals a year straight to international markets. My hope is that the government there would be wise enough to uh hopefully be able to utilize uh some of that rail for consumer traffic, and as well, utilize these companies to develop the uh infrastructure in the country, which shouldn't be terribly hard. It's only the size of South Carolina.
But, there's no doubt that Sierra Leone will become a chessboard with the West on one side and China on the other side, both competing for critical mineral resources. And it is because of that that I truly believe the small states of West Africa should combine, especially those that share language. Uh as I noted earlier, Sierra Leone's uh legal language is English, though many uh come together on Krio. Uh but, the fact of the matter is that these countries are far too small to defend against the greater forces that are operating to steal resources. The Westerners, number one, and then secondarily, the Chinese.
Like most African countries, food security is a top concern. The government has launched a flagship initiative called Feed Salone, aiming to turn the country's fertile irrigated lands into a regional breadbasket to achieve food self-reliance. We'll see what happens. I don't again have high hopes there. But I think it's worth knowing about what's going on in Sierra Leone and again I remind you all that when people say Africa's rich, they're talking about the earth, not the people. Uh for Africa to be rich in reference to the people, we need identity, we need education, and that is why I created the black code. It is for all of the black peoples of the earth because character education, self-identity, these are all critical things in the development of the individual and the collective.
Please do let me know what you think. If you're new to Sierra Leone, never heard of it. If you uh have any recommendations, uh drop it in the comments below. Hit the like button of course. If you haven't subscribed, absolutely subscribe and hit the bell so you know when this content comes out. And if you're like, "Hey, I want to see more of these." And you'd like to make that happen, use the super thanks feature below. I appreciate you tuning in with me. Until next time.