West Africa

Death of Sierra Leone’s Sheikh Umarr Khan: Unanswered Questions

Those who worked with Khan, including infectious disease experts in universities across the United States and Europe, had since moved on to lucrative academic and professional careers, receiving more grants and awards. In Sierra Leone, both Khan and the Ebola disease that killed him are now distant memory; they form part of the collective public trauma that Sierra Leoneans have experienced in the last two decades and unwillingly learned to forget. 

Sherbro Alliance and Idris Elba’s Dream City in Sierra Leone

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah Few months ago, the British media enthusiastically reported that “Idris Elba has shared details of his dream to turn an island off the coast of Sierra Leone, the country where his father was born, into an environmentally friendly smart city.“ The Guardian took the lead in the enthusiasm that surrounded …

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Academics Condemn Attacks on Sierra Leone’s Endangered Historian and Journalist

By Matthew Anderson and Mark Feldman About 100 academics have signed a letter of support denouncing death threats and harassment orchestrated against Africanist Press editor and Northwestern University-trained historian, Dr. Chernoh Alpha M. Bah.  The academics say the attacks on Dr. Bah “constitute a clear assault on journalistic freedom [and] go to the heart of …

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New Bar Association Leadership: A Revenge of Dictatorship in Sierra Leone

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article was first published by the Africanist Press on 7 June, 2016 following the controversial 2016 Sierra Leone Bar Association’s executive elections. The article was republished by several newspapers in Freetown, including The Independent Observer, and Global Times. We republish it today to underline that the current crisis of the Sierra …

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Africanist Press Editor to join Brown University’s Watson Institute

Africanist Press editor, Dr. Chernoh Alpha Bah has accepted a two-year appointment as Postdoctoral Research Associate with Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.  The Watson Institute is an interdisciplinary research center at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Its mission is to promote a just and peaceful world through research, teaching, and …

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Sierra Leone Should Investigate Death Threats Against Africanist Press Staff

The following is a letter sent to Secretary of State, Anthony John Blinken requesting the United States government to remind the government of Sierra Leone of its obligation to investigate and address threats made Africanist Press staff and determine what steps the government has taken regarding the reported threats and cyber harassment of Africanist Press …

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History and the Future of Sierra Leone

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah Five Sierra Leoneans have received doctorate degrees from Northwestern University since the mid-1960s. They include Enid Forde (1966, Geography), Josephus Olufemi Richards (1970, Art History), Gladys Harding (1971, Education), Augustine Stevens (1975, Political Science) and Cecil Magbaily Fyle (1976, History). I am the sixth doctoral graduate and the second historian …

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Sierra Leone: Democracy Must Not Be a Rotational Façade of the Elite

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah It is now clear to all those who have been watching developments in West Africa that the June 2023 elections in Sierra Leone have turned out to be the biggest tragedy in African elections. And the embarrassment is not felt by Sierra Leone’s elite alone, but the shame is equally …

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Subverting Democracy: President Bio Rents Crowds to Join Campaign Rallies

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah President Julius Maada Bio’s propagandists are working strenuously to make the world believe that Bio and his ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) are the popular choice among voters. In Freetown, the Institute of Governance Reform (IGR), a local civil society organization led by SLPP activist Andrew Lavalie, has even …

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Sierra Leone: Kandeh Yumkella’s One Vote Will Not Give Maada Bio a Second Term

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah  Why has Kandeh Yumkella of the National Grand Coalition (NGC) denied his party supporters and sympathizers the opportunity to elect an NGC presidential candidate in the upcoming June 2023 election? Will Yumkella’s one vote be enough to give the incumbent candidate, Julius Maada Bio, a second term? And is Yumkella …

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