Sierra Leone Revolutionary United Front

The legacy of slavery has shaped American society until today.The desire of African American historians to reconstruct ties to specific parts of Africa is a daunting one. Documentary evidence that would provide conclusive answers is often fragmentary at best. One of the most stirring chapters in the history of the struggle against slavery is that of the Maroons. The Maroons today are descendants of passengers on slave ships that docked in Jamaica. Some of their ancestors took to the hills as soon as they could in the 1600's when they were brought to Jamaica by the Spanish. Others fled when the Spanish left the ... Read Full Story

The war crimes court for Sierra Leone on Wednesday handed down sentences of up to 52 years in prison for three rebel leaders convicted of overseeing a trail of rapes and killings. "The crimes were committed on a massive scale... Sierra Leoneans were raped, enslaved, hacked to death and brutalised," presiding judge Pierre Boulet said in his judgment. "The impact of the crimes on the Sierra Leonean society has been enormous," he added. Revolutionary United Front interim leader Issa Sesay was actually sentenced to a total of 693 years. However, as the judges ordered separate sentences for 16 counts of war crimes and crimes ... Read Full Story

It's a critical moment for the United Nations, and for West Africa, as yet another high-profile UN-backed trial gets underway in the Hague. This time, former Liberian president Charles Taylor is in the witness stand, accused in relation to atrocities committed by the RUF (a rebel force that, prosecutors argue, had links to Taylor) in Sierra Leone. As with the UN-backed trial in Cambodia (on which I have posted previously) the 'Special Court for Sierra Leone' has been slow to begin its deliberations. The court was originally established in Sierra Leone, but was moved to the Hague due to security concerns, and further delays ... Read Full Story

We in the west live in what is called as a trust society. In other words, we usually dont see our neighbours, friends, family, government, bureaucrats, nurses, doctors, fellow road riders, shop girls, check out clerks as people who will defraud us. We stop for traffic, allow people to cut in front of us, form orderly queues, speak politely, smile at people and so on and so forth. I know you will point to Parisian waiters and German queue jumpers but come on, you know what I mean? The current debate about the British MP’s stealing from the expenses system was so shocking was ... Read Full Story

New York, NY ( PRWEB ) August 13, 2008 — After publicly voicing his concerns about not receiving credit for his contribution to Kanye West’s hugely popular “Diamonds from Sierra Leone”, Sierra Leone-born, US-based hip-hop artist Chosan has finally resolved his dispute with producer/artist Kanye West and his management team. The parties have resolved the issue for an undisclosed amount and full credit, making Chosan one of the very few African hip-hop artists to be platinum certified for his work. In September of 2007, after much soul searching, Chosan made his concerns known about not being credited for his vocal contributions to one of ... Read Full Story