About Sierra Leone

QUICK FACTS

Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. Sierra Leone is a West African country bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest.
 Its land area is 73,252 km2 (28,283 sq mi). It has a tropical climate and environments ranging from savannas to rainforests. As of the 2024 census, Sierra Leone has a population of approximately 8.6 million. Freetown is both its capital and its largest city. The country is divided into five administrative regions, which are further subdivided into 16 districts. English is the official language, but Krio (a Creole language) serves as a lingua franca spoken by over 90% of the population.

Sierra Leone is a presidential republic, with a unicameral parliament and a directly elected president. Muslims constitute three-quarters of the population, and there is a significant Christian minority. Notably, religious tolerance is very high: it is both a social norm and part of the nation’s cultural identity.
Sierra Leone is a culturally diverse country, home to approximately 18 ethnic groups, with the Temne and Mende peoples being predominant. The Creole people, descendants of freed African-American, Afro-Caribbean slaves and liberated Africans, constitute about 1.2% of the population. The country is rich with natural resources, notably diamonds, gold, bauxite and aluminium. As of the most recent survey in 2019, 59.2% of the population is affected by multidimensional poverty and an additional 21.3% vulnerable to it. Sierra Leone maintains membership in several international organizations, including the United Nations, African Union, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Commonwealth of Nations, among others.

Ethnic groups

There are about 18 ethnic groups that exhibit similar cultural features, such as secret societies, chieftaincy, patrilineal descent, and farming methods. The Mende, found in the east and south, and the Temne, found in the centre and northwest, form the two largest groups. Other major groups include the Limba, Kuranko, Susu, Yalunka, and Loko in the north; the Kono and Kisi in the east; and the Sherbro in the southwest. Minor groups include the coastal Bullom, Vai, and Krim and the Fulani and Malinke, who are immigrants from Guinea concentrated in the north and east. The Creoles—descendants of liberated blacks who colonized the coast from the late 18th to the mid-19th century—are found mainly in and around Freetown. Throughout the 19th century, blacks from the United States and West Indies also settled in Sierra Leone. Ethnic complexity is further enhanced by the presence of Lebanese and Indian traders in urban centres.

Languages

Krio, a language derived from English and a variety of African languages, is the mother tongue of the Creoles and the country’s lingua franca. Among the Niger-Congo languages, the Mande group is the largest and includes Mende, Kuranko, Kono, Yalunka, Susu, and Vai. The Mel group consists of Temne, Krim, Kisi, Bullom, Sherbro, and Limba. English, the official language, is used in administration, education, and commerce. Arabic is used among Lebanese traders and adherents of Islam. School texts, information bulletins, and collections of folktales are produced in indigenous languages such as Mende and Temne.

The Vai script used in Liberia and Sierra Leone has the distinction of being one of the few indigenous scripts in Africa. Some of the local languages are written in European script, and a few, especially in the Muslim areas in the north, have been transcribed into Arabic.

Religion

About two-thirds of the population are Muslims, while about one-fourth are Christians. Less than one-tenth of the population practice a variety of traditional religions. However, this number does not include the many Sierra Leoneans who practice traditional religions in tandem with their professed Muslim or Christian faiths. Other religions—including Bahāʾī, Hinduism, and Judaism—are practiced by small percentages of the population.

Economy

The economy of Sierra Leone is $7.41 billion by gross domestic product as of 2024. Since the end of the Sierra Leone Civil War in 2002, the economy is gradually recovering with a gross domestic product growth rate between 4 and 7%.   Sierra Leone’s economic development has always been hampered by an overdependence on mineral exploitation. Successive governments and the population as a whole have always believed that “diamonds and gold” are sufficient generators of foreign currency earnings and lure for investment.
As a result, large scale agriculture of commodity products, industrial development and sustainable investments have been neglected by governments. The economy could thus be described as one which is “exploitative” – a rentier state – and based upon the extraction of unsustainable resources or non-reusable assets.
Two-thirds of the population of Sierra Leone are directly involved in subsistence agriculture.

Cultural life

The Poro society for men and the Sande society for girls play an educational role in village culture; initiation into these societies is a rite of passage. Holidays observed in the country include the Christian celebrations of Christmas and Easter and the Muslim festivals of ʿĪd al-Fiṭr (which marks the end of Ramadan), ʿĪd al-Aḍḥā (which marks the culmination of the hajj), and the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad ( Mawlid/ Maulud Nabi).