West Africa

A Reflection on Corruption, Dictatorship, and Disease in Sierra Leone

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah About ten years ago in mid-April 2015, reports emerged in Freetown that ten people – all of them opposition party activists – were arrested from their various homes across the city. The arrests followed a massive police raid in response to a youth protest that occurred three days earlier at […]

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Africanist Press to launch new book on Corruption and Dictatorship in Sierra Leone

By Matthew Anderson and Mark Feldman Democracy Betrayed: Corruption, Dictatorship, and Authoritarianism in Sierra Leone is a new book scheduled to be launched by the Africanist Press in June 2025; two years after the disputed June 2023 elections in Sierra Leone. The book, written by Africanist Press editor Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, examines the root

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Sierra Leone: Who Wants to Interview Sama Banya?

This article was first published on 18 April 2005 during the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) administration of Tejan Kabbah. By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah I read with amusement last Thursday Dr. Sama Banya’s statement that he has placed me and Concord Times  in his “will not grant interview list.” Dr. Banya says he has

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From Meliandou to Koindu to Evanston: How My Investigation of a Disease Narrative Changed My Life and Career

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah Eight years ago, on 28 October 2016, I was invited to Evanston, Illinois, as a guest speaker by Northwestern University’s Program of African Studies (PAS). A few months earlier, my book on the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak had just been published and I was on a self-funded book tour

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APC and Samura Kamara are Heading for Defeat in 2018

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah This essay was first published on March 28, 2018 Events unfolding in Freetown this week have illustrated the political mood in Sierra Leone. The incumbent regime of Ernest Bai Koroma and his All Peoples Congress (APC) have been all-but-defeated and are now in a permanently collapsing defensive position. There is

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American Scientists Ask US Diplomats to Pressure Sierra Leone to Respect Academic Freedom

By Anne B. Wallis, PhD The Committee of Concerned Scientists (CCS) in the United States has asked US Secretary of State, Antony John Blinken to use the power of the State Department to urge the government of Sierra Leone to improve its human rights record and stop the targeted harassment of historian and journalist, Dr.

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American Scientists Demand Protection for Sierra Leone’s Endangered Historian

By Matthew Anderson and Mark Feldman A Committee of Concerned Scientists (CCS) in the United States has requested US Secretary of State, Antony John Blinken to use the power of the State Department to urge the government of Sierra Leone to improve its human rights record and stop the targeted harassment of historian and journalist,

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Ernest Koroma’s Path Towards Authoritarian Democracy in Sierra Leone

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah This essay was first published in May 2013. The 2013 Convention of the All Peoples Congress (APC) and its endorsement of President Ernest Koroma as the party’s chairman and leader created a huge debate across Sierra Leone. It is a debate that was anchored on key questions: the future of

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Ernest Koroma’s Hand of Dictatorship in Sierra Leone

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah The following essay was first published in May 2013. The police arrest and detention of opposition politician and leader of the Peoples Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), Charles Francis Margai has raised a huge red flag against presidential use of police power in Sierra Leone. The events that preceded Charles

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Milele Energy: A Tragic Albatross to American Diplomacy in Sierra Leone

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, PhD Staggering revelations have emerged in London showing efforts by Milele Energy and its corporate financiers to cover-up an ongoing investigation into the company’s corrupt acquisition of an energy contract in Sierra Leone. New corporate records from the United Kingdom’s Registrar of Companies obtained by the Africanist Press reveal that

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