Sierra Leone

When beginning the research on Sierra Leone I went in not knowing what to expect. Other than having heard of the name I was unsure of anything else involved with the country. What I discovered was that Sierra Leone is a very diverse country and has a lot of history intertwined throughout.  Just the fact that there is anything from Savannah's to Rain forests located in the same country helped me to understand how so much has happened within one country.

I discovered that Sierra Leone is split into four administrative regions each of which has their own government known as the district council. This was interesting because I have never seen a country divided like this and having separate sections located within. The diversity continues within this country as there are sixteen different ethnic groups all located in the same country. The two major ethnic groups located within Sierra Leone are the Temne and the Mende. The Temne are mainly located in the Northern region of Sierra Leone, while the Mende are located mainly in the south-east. This brought me to another interesting point involving the language.

While the language spoken in schools is English, the official language of Sierra Leon is the Krio language. I had never heard of this language before and it was interesting how there is a different official language and language spoken within schools. Usually what we see is the official language is spoken within schools as well. The official language is almost forced upon new residents and not unfair when you stop and think about it. After looking at some of the basic information on Sierra Leone, I dove into the civil war and everything that goes along with it.

The first thing I learned is that the war lasted eleven grueling years and left over 50,000 people dead. The main asset within the war was soil rich with diamonds and the money that would follow. Once hearing about the diamond conflict, it sparked some prior knowledge to the whole blood diamond phase I had heard about. I was a little unsure if it was Sierra Leone specifically, but still the fact that this sparked some remembering of a time that hurt Africa and specifically Sierra Leone. By learning about the events that took place involving the civil war, it sparked a lot of questions as well. I specifically remember watching the movie Blood Diamond, and I wondered how close to being factual it actually is. We are able to see child soldiers being used and shown how they are recruited or rather stolen and brainwashed to fight. I am really curious about how much money was made off of these so called “blood diamonds,” and are there still some in circulation to this day? While it said that the war lasted eleven years and has come to a stop, I was still curious on the lasting effects of the war on Sierra Leone. I know there are still at the very least visual reminders such as monuments and such located in America from our past wars, and it made me curious on if there are similarities in Sierra Leone as well?

Having known so little going into this research, I felt rather naive when it comes to world events. It is amazing how something like this eleven year war can take place and I grew up not learning much about it. I definitely need to expand my horizons and research some events that have taken place around the world.