Sierra Leone

The struggle

Freetown was founded in 1787 as a settlement for freed captives and became the base of Britain's anti-slavery squadron, then the seat of a colony ruling a much larger protectorate. The 1898 Hut Tax war led by Bai Bureh was the first mass revolt; trade unions and Wallace-Johnson's youth league carried the later movement. Independence came on 27 April 1961.

Key people

• Bai Bureh

  1840–1908

  Led the 1898 Hut Tax war

• I. T. A. Wallace-Johnson

  1894–1965

  Radical organiser of the West African Youth League

• Milton Margai

  1895–1964

  First prime minister

• Constance Cummings-John

  1918–2000

  Educator, mayor of Freetown and women's leader