Sierra+Leone+after+independence

=What short term effects did the imperialists have to deal with after independence? = After gaining independence in 1961 there was two decades of goverment neglect followed by the spilling over of the Liberian conflict into their borders. This eventually led to the Sierra Leone Civil war. They held their first election on May 27,1962. Margai was elected as Sierra Leone's first Prime Minister. Margai died April 28,1964 and, his brother Sir Albert Margai, Sierra Leone's Minister of Finance was chosen to be the next Prime Minister. He was accused of corruption and of favouritism toward his own Mende ethnic group. He also tried to establish a one-party state but met fierce resistance from the opposition All People's Congress (APC) and ultimately abandoned the idea. During Albert Margai's administration, The Mende increased their influence in the civil service and the army. In March 1967 Sierra Leone's Governor, General Henry Josiah Lightfoot Boston, declared the new prime minister to be Siaka Stevens. Stevens was ousted in a bloodless coup led by the commander of the The Sierra Leone Armed Forces, Brigadier David Lansana who was a supporter of Albert Margai. Stevens was placed under house arrest and a martial law was declared. But a group of senior military officers overrode this action. They seized control of the government on March 23, 1968, arrested Lansana and suspended the constitution. The group constituted itself as the National Reformation Council (NRC) with Brigadier Andrew Juxon-Smith as its chairman. In April 1968, The NRC was overthrown by a group of military officers who called themselves the Anti-Corruption Revolutionary Movement (ACRM) led by Brigadier General John Amadu Bangura. The ACRM imprisoned senior NRC members, reinstated Stevens as Prime Minister and restored the constitution. In November 1968, Stevens declared a state of emergency after disturbance in the provinces. When Stevens became Prime Minister he abandoned his pre-election promises and employed an authoritarian model of governance. Many senior officers in the Sierra Leone military were disappointed, but couldn't confront Stevens. Brigadier General Bangura was considered the only person who could stop Stevens. Bangura was a popular figure in Sierra Leone. The army was devoted to him and this made him potentially dangerous to Steven's new agenda of shifting political climate of Sierra Leone. In January 1970, Bangura was arrested, charged with conspiracy and plotting to commit a coup against the Stevens government. He was convicted and sentenced to death by execution.

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah   ** In the second round of presidential elections in early 1996, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, the candidate of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) won.In 1996, Major General Johnny Paul Koroma from the Limba ethnic group was allegedly involved in an attempt to overthrow the government of president Kabbah. He was arrested, tried, convicted, and imprisoned at Freetown's Pademba Road Prison. But some top-rank Army officers were unhappy with this decision, and on May 25, 1997, a group of soldiers who called themselves the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) overthrew Kabbah. The AFRC released Koroma from prison and installed him as their chairman of the NPRC and Head of State of the country. Koroma suspended the constitution, banned demonstrations, shut down all private radio stations in the country and invited the RUF to join his government.The Kamajors defended the Bo, the country's second largest city from the Junter and continue their attack against the AFRC and RUF in south-eastern Sierra Leone. ** 
 * What short term effects did indigenous people have to deal with after independence? ** 

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**In October, the United Nations agreed to send peacekeepers to help restore order and disarm the rebels.But in May, when nearly all Nigerian forces had left and UN forces were trying to disarm the RUF in eastern Sierra Leone, Sankoh's forces clashed with the UN troops, and some 500 peacekeepers were taken hostage. Between 1991 and 2001, about 50,000 people were killed in Sierra Leone's civil war. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced from their homes, and many became refugees in Guinea and Liberia.** 
 * After 10 months in office, the junta was ousted by the Nigeria-led ECOMOG forces, and the democratically elected government of president Kabbah was reinstated in March 1998. Hundreds of civilians who had been accused of helping the AFRC government were illegally detained. Courts-martial were held for soldiers accused of assisting the AFRC government. Twenty-four of these were found guilty and were executed without appeal in October 1998. On January 6, 1999, AFRC made another unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the government, causing many deaths and much destruction of property in and around Freetown.  **=====