Just finished watching a documentary called The Empire in Africa on Sierra Leone (Africa’s west coast) that every Black Man and Woman needs to own and watch. This documentary is no joke. Not intended for kids, but it is intended for those who have some kind of fantastical mental image of the motherland and would hope to go back one day.
United Black America believes in Pan Africanism, but we do not support Blacks in America abandoning our investment in this land. We have everything we need right here in the hells of North America to build a brand new society and even civilization. This DVD should give all you “back to Africa” cats some pause for thought.
I digress.
Anyway, here is a trailer
Quick History of Sierra Leone
The area, now known as Sierra Leone was populated by the Temne people when the first Portuguese navigator arrived in 1460. The name Sierra Leone refers to the shape of the mountain, which can be seen when arriving at the coast, which looks like a lion.
Slave trade started around 1500.
Around 1550, a large number of Mande people came from Liberia and found refuge in the southern part of what is now Sierra Leone.
In the 19th century, formers slaves, freed from their North American masters, were repatriated to Africa and brought to Sierra Leone where they founded the free colony of ‘Freetown’. By 1865 more than 50,000 former slaves had been brought to Freetown.
In 1896, the British government declared Sierra Leone a British protectorate to counter the progression of the French in West Africa. In 1898, the British government imposed a ‘hut tax’ to generate revenues for the expenses incurred in the management of the colony.
In 1908 the British government established a naval base in Freetown, securing their claims.
In 1961 Sierra Leone was recognized as an independent country and a prime minister was “appointed” by the British Consul. Over the next three decades, several coups and counter-coups followed between the pro-western interests who controlled the majority of the Sierra Leonean economy and the Pan-Africanist forces who wanted Africa to be returned to the Africans.
The pro-western interests won, establishing a one party rule under the dictator Siaka Stevens and the other dictator Joseph Saidu Momoh who succeeded the former in 1986. These men secured the control of the economy for the pro-western interests.
Although Sierra Leone is a very rich country, the foreign corporations continue to export all the profits from the exploitation of the country’s natural resources (diamonds, minerals, agriculture, tourism, etc.) abroad, leaving the country on the brink of starvation.
In response to this situation, a group of men take up arms to fight the foreigners and their puppets who run the country, in order to take back the wealth for the people of Sierra Leone. The rebel group is the RUF or Revolutionary United Front.
In July 1991 the rebels of the RUF control 1/5th of the country. They terrorize civilians, accusing them of supporting a system that exploits them. Their motto is; “No More Slaves, No More Masters. Weapons to the People. Power and Wealth to the People.” They meet a weak resistance of the Sierra Leone army.
It is at the beginning of this Civil War that the DVD begins.
Again, this documentary is no joke. Not intended for kids – but it should be part of our ongoing education into the real workings of the world.
P.S. You wont believe what the United Nation’s role was in the death of thousands of Sierra Leone men, women, and children.
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