Famous People From Sierra Leone
Dec. at 95 (1915-2010)Dr. John Albert Musselman Karefa-Smart (17 June 1915 – 26 August 2010) was a Sierra Leonean politician, medical doctor and university professor. He served as the first Foreign Minister under Sierra Leone's first Prime Minister, Milton Margai. He was an ordained Elder of the United Methodist Church. A medical doctor by profession, Karefa-Smart was one of the founding fathers of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) in 1951. He was one of Sir Milton Margai's closest political advisors and a close personal friend. From 1957 to 1964, Karefa-Smart was a Member of Parliament of Sierra Leone from Tonkolili District. After the death of Prime Minister Milton Margai in 1964, Karefa-Smart challenged Albert Margai for the SLPP leadership position, but he was unsuccessful, as Albert won the SLPP leadership and succeeded his brother as Sierra Leone's Prime Minister. Karefa-Smart ultimately left the SLPP and politics overall and moved abroad to continue his professional career. From 1965 to 1970, Karefa-Smart served as Assistant Director-General to the World Health Organization (WHO). In 1970, he made an unsuccessful bid for the Presidency in Sierra Leone. From there, he returned to Geneva, then migrated to the USA to pursue his career in university teaching, research and public speaking. In 1996, Karefa-Smart returned to Sierra Leone's politics as the founder of the newly formed United National People's Party (UNPP). He stood as the UNPP candidate in the 1996 presidential election, but he was defeated in the second round election runoff by the SLPP candidate Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.- Dec. at 70 (1924-1994)Davidson Sylvester Hector Willoughby Nicol or Abioseh Nicol (14 September 1924 – 20 September 1994) was a Sierra Leonean academic, diplomat, physician, writer and poet. He has been considered as one of Sierra Leone’s most educated and greatest citizens of the twentieth century, as he was able to secure degrees in the arts, science and commercial disciplines and he contributed to science, history, and literature.. Nicol was the first African to graduate with First Class Honours from the University of Cambridge and he was also the first African elected as a Fellow of a college of Cambridge University. Described by one scholar as a polymath, Davidson Nicol significantly contributed to medical science when he was the first to analyse the breakdown of insulin in the human body, a discovery which was a breakthrough for the treatment of diabetes.
- Dec. at 82 (1905-1988)Siaka Probyn Stevens (24 August 1905 – 29 May 1988) was the leader of Sierra Leone from 1967 to 1985, serving as Prime Minister from 1967 to 1971 and as President from 1971 to 1985. Stevens' leadership was often characterised by patrimonial rule and self worship, consolidating power by means of corruption and exploitation.Stevens and his All People's Congress (APC) party won the closely contested 1967 Sierra Leone general elections over incumbent Prime Minister Sir Albert Margai of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP). In April 1971, Stevens made Sierra Leone a republic and became president a day after the constitution had been ratified by the Parliament of Sierra Leone. He was the second President of the Republic after Christopher Okoro Cole, a judge, who was sworn in for a day after which he resigned, paving the way for Stevens. Stevens served as Chairman of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) from 1 July 1980 to 24 June 1981 and engineered the creation of the Mano River Union, a three-country economic federation of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Stevens retired from office at the end of his term on 28 November 1985. After pressuring all other potential successors to step aside, he chose Major-General Joseph Saidu Momoh, the commander of the Sierra Leone Armed Forces, as his successor.
- Dec. at 83 (1917-2000)Sir Banja Tejan-Sie, GCMG (7 August 1917 – 8 August 2000) was a politician and lawyer in Sierra Leone and one of the "founding fathers" of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP). Tejan-Sie was born in Moyamba District (in the current Southern Province) to a famous Muslim cleric and scholar from the Fulah tribe. Tejan-Sie was educated at the Bo School and the Prince of Wales School before continuing his education at the London School of Economics and Lincoln's Inn, where he was called to the bar in 1951.
- Age: 43Ishmael Beah (born 23 November 1980) is a Sierra Leonean author and human rights activist who rose to fame with his acclaimed memoir, A Long Way Gone. His most recent novel, Radiance of Tomorrow, was published in January 2014.
- Dec. at 79 (1884-1964)Lamina Sankoh (28 June 1884 – 1964), born as Etheldred Nathaniel Jones, was a Sierra Leonean pre-independence politician, educator, banker and cleric. Sankoh is known most prominently for helping to found the Peoples Party in 1948, one of the first political parties in Sierra Leone. It eventually became the Sierra Leone People's Party.
- Dec. at 65 (1933-1998)Patricia Kabbah (née Tucker; March 17, 1933 – May 8, 1998) was a Sierra Leonean lawyer who served as First Lady of Sierra Leone from 1996-1998. She was the first wife of Sierra Leone's third President, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
- Dec. at 76 (1928-2005)Abu Aiah Koroma (26 November 1928 – 6 March 2005) was a lawyer and politician in Sierra Leone. Koroma began his political career as Attorney General in 1967 and 1968. He returned to government in 1976 when he became Managing Director of the National Diamond Mining Company until 1987. In 1991 and 1992, Koroma was the Minister of Mineral Resources. In 1996, he ran as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Centre Party and gained just 4.9% of the national vote in the initial round of voting. After Ahmed Tejan Kabbah won the presidency, Koroma was named Minister of Political and Parliamentary Affairs, which lasted until Kabbah's re-election in 2002. Koroma died in 2005 at the age of 76.
- Age: 80Abdul Gadire Koroma (born 29 September 1943 in Freetown, Sierra Leone) is a Sierra Leonean jurist who served two terms as judge at the International Court of Justice (from 1994 to 2012). He was educated at Kiev State University where he took LLM (Hons), and at King's College London, where he took an M.Phil. in International Law with a thesis entitled The settlement of territorial and boundary disputes in central Africa. He also holds an honorary LLD from the University of Sierra Leone, and is an Honorary Bencher of Lincoln's Inn. Koroma was re-elected to the ICJ at the end of his first term, and was again a candidate for re-election in the ICJ judges election, 2011. On the first day of voting, four candidates were elected (including the other three incumbents who were candidates) but the fifth position was not filled. To be elected, successful candidates need an absolute majority in both the Security Council and the General Assembly. When voting adjourned, Koroma had received a majority of votes in the Security Council (9 out of 15), but was just one vote short in the General Assembly (96 out of 193 votes, compared to 97 votes for the other remaining candidate, Julia Sebutinde).On 13 December 2011, in the final round of voting, Sebutinde obtained an absolute majority of votes in both the Security Council and the General Assembly. Therefore, Koroma's tenure on the court expired on 5 February 2012.In recognition of his contributions to international law, a group of international law scholars and practitioners contributed to an essay collection in honor of Judge Koroma. The work, edited by Charles Jalloh and Olufemi Elias and published by Martinus Nijhoff Brill in July 2015, included contributions from four ICJ judges and noted African and non-African scholars of international law.
Sorie Ibrahim Koroma
Dec. at 64 (1930-1994)Sorie Ibrahim Koroma (March 18, 1930 – April 30, 1994) commonly known as S.I. Koroma is a former Sierra Leonean politician, labor activist, and one of the founding members of the All People's Congress political party. He served as first Vice President of Sierra Leone from April 19, 1971 to retirement on November 28, 1985 under president Siaka Stevens. Sorie Ibrahim Koroma was a close personal friend of president Siaka Stevens; and was one of the closest and must trusted political advisors to president Stevens. To date, S.I. Koroma is widely considered the most influential vice president in Sierra Leone's history.Charles Margai
Age: 78Charles Francis Kondo Margai (born 19 August 1945) is a Sierra Leonean politician and constitutional lawyer who served as Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Sierra Leone in 2018.Margai is a former candidate for the office of President of Sierra Leone and the leader of the People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC). He was his party's candidate in the August 2007 presidential election, placing third with 10% of the vote. Though he received less than 3% of the votes in the 2012 and 2018 Sierra Leone presidential elections. Margai is the son of Albert Margai, former Prime Minister of Sierra Leone, and the nephew of Sierra Leone's first Prime Minister Milton Margai.Kpana Lewis
Dec. at 82 (1830-1912)Kpana Lewis (April 19, 1830 – May 10, 1912) was a Sherbro chief from Sierra Leone and an opponent of colonial rule of the British. He exercised strong influence over all Sherbro chiefs. Part of his fame rested in his pervasive use of the Poro Secret Society to oppose the British colonialists. He was considered so powerful that, while Bai Bureh was allowed to return from exile after the 1898 Rebellion, Kpana Lewis continued to be held in exile in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), where he died in 1912.George Kpundeh
Age: 45George Kpundeh is a Sierra Leonean cricket player.- Age: 29Aminata Kabba, better known as A*M*E, is a Sierra Leonean-born British singer-songwriter. A*M*E was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone on 13 December 1994. In 2011, Kabba was scouted and signed by Take That frontman Gary Barlow to his label, Future Records. On 9 December 2012 the BBC announced that A*M*E had been nominated for the Sound of 2013 poll. In January 2013 A*M*E signed to Sony Music's Epic Records after Barlow closed Future Records to focus on his own career commitments. Her single Need U, a collaboration with Duke Dumont and MNEK, topped the UK singles chart on 7 April 2013.
Aniru Conteh
Dec. at 61 (1942-2004)Aniru Sahib Sahib Conteh (6 August 1942 – 4 April 2004) was a Sierra Leonean physician and expert on the clinical treatment of Lassa fever, a viral hemorrhagic fever endemic to West Africa caused by the Lassa virus. Conteh studied medicine at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and taught at Ibadan Teaching Hospital. He later returned to Sierra Leone where he joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Lassa fever program at Nixon Methodist Hospital in Segbwema, first as superintendent and then as clinical director. After the Sierra Leone Civil War began in 1991, the CDC closed their program in Segbwema. Conteh and his medical team moved from Segbwema to the Kenema Government Hospital (KGH), where he spent the next two decades running the only dedicated Lassa fever ward in the world. Conteh collaborated with the British charity Merlin to promote public health in Sierra Leone through education and awareness campaigns intended to prevent Lassa fever. With little funding and few supplies, Conteh successfully reduced mortality rates and saved many lives until an accidental needlestick injury led to his own death from the disease in 2004. Conteh received renewed public attention in 2009 as the hero of Ross I. Donaldson's memoir, The Lassa Ward.Ibrahim Ben Kargbo
Age: 79Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo (born October 18, 1944), commonly known as I.B. Kargbo, is a Sierra Leonean journalist and politician. He currently the MP of constituency 030(Bombali District) Ernest Bai Koroma. I.B Kargbo is a close personal friend of president Ernest Bai Koroma and former president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. I.B. Kargbo is one of the most trusted aides to president Koroma. He has a Bachelor's degree in journalism from Fourah Bay College and a Diploma in Journalism from John New Homes School of Journalism, 1979. I.B. Kargbo is the owner of one of Sierra Leone's most read newspapers, The New Citizen. Until his appointment as Minister, he was a regular columnist in his own newspaper. As a journalist, he publicly opposed the Public Order Act of 1965.Rodney Strasser
Age: 34Rodney Strasser (born 30 March 1990) is a Sierra Leonean professional footballer who plays as a midfielder.- Age: 42Madieu Mohammed Williams (born October 18, 1981) is a former American football safety who played in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Maryland and was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the second round of the 2004 NFL Draft. Williams has also played for the Minnesota Vikings, San Francisco 49ers and Washington Redskins.
Abdul Rahman Kamara
Age: 34Abdul Rahman Kamara is a Sierra Leonean footballer.Kai Londo
Dec. at 51 (1845-1896)Kai Londo (1845–1896) was a Kissi warrior from Sierra Leone who conquered a large territory (now Kailahun District). He built new roads and fortified towns and established a new capital at Kailahun.Nabih Berri
Age: 86Nabih Berri (Arabic: نبيه بري; born 28 January 1938) is a Lebanese politician who has been the Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon since 1992. He heads the Amal Movement.Adelaide Casely-Hayford
Dec. at 91 (1868-1960)Adelaide Casely-Hayford, MBE (née Smith; 2 June 1868 – 24 January 1960), was a Sierra Leone Creole advocate, an activist for cultural nationalism, educator, short story writer, and feminist. Casely-Hayford was committed to public service and worked to improve the conditions of black men and women. As a pioneer of women's education in Sierra Leone, she played a key role in popularizing Pan-Africanist and feminist politics during the early nineteen hundreds. She established a school for girls in 1923 called Girl's Vocational and Training School in Freetown, to instill cultural and racial pride during the colonial years under British rule. Promoting the preservation of Sierra Leone national identity and cultural heritage, in 1925 she wore a traditional African costume to attend a reception in honor of the Prince of Wales, where she created a sensation.Oguntola Sapara
Dec. at 73 (1861-1935)Oguntola Odunbaku Sapara was a doctor, originally from Sierra Leone, who spent most of his career and life in Nigeria. He was best known for his campaign against secret societies that were spreading smallpox.Bobby Newcombe
Age: 44Robert Wundu Sowa "Bobby" Newcombe (born August 8, 1979 in Sierra Leone) is a former American football quarterback that started for the Nebraska Cornhuskers.Joseph Saidu Momoh
Dec. at 66 (1937-2003)Major General Joseph Saidu Momoh, OOR, OBE (January 26, 1937 – August 3, 2003) served as President of Sierra Leone from November 1985 to April 29, 1992.John Oponjo Benjamin
Age: 71John Oponjo Benjamin (born 29 November 1952 in Segbwema, Kailahun District, British Sierra Leone) is a Sierra Leonean economist and politician of Mende descent. He was the leader of the main opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) to 2013. He served as Sierra Leone's Minister of Finance from 2002 to 2007. During that period, Benjamin helped lead Sierra Leone through the Paris Club's 100% debt cancellation program. Benjamin was the chairman of the Council of State Secretaries in 1992.Obi Metzger
Age: 36Sam Obi Metzger, Jr. (born 19 September 1987 in Freetown) is a Sierra Leonean footballer who plays as an Attacking Midfielder for Finnish second division side FC Haka.Africanus Horton
Dec. at 48 (1835-1883)Africanus Horton (1835–1883), also known as James Beale, was a Krio African nationalist writer and an esteemed medical surgeon in the British Army from Freetown, Sierra Leone. Africanus Horton was a surgeon, scientist, soldier, and a political thinker who worked toward African independence a century before it occurred. In his varied career, he served as a physician, an officer in the British Army, a banker, and a mining entrepreneur. In addition, he wrote a number of books and essays, the most widely remembered of which is his 1868 Vindication of the African Race, an answer to the white racist authors emerging in Europe. His writings look ahead to African self-government, anticipating many events of the 1950s and 1960s, and Horton is often seen as one of the founders of African nationalism and has been called "the father of modern African political thought".He wrote a book entitled West African Countries and Peoples (1868). A crater on Mercury is named after him.Moustapha Bangura
Age: 34Mustapha Bangura (born 24 October 1989 in Freetown, Sierra Leone) is a Sierra Leonean footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for AEZ Zakakiou.John Amadu Bangura
Dec. at 40 (1930-1970)Brigadier John Amadu Bangura, CBE (8 March 1930 – 29 March 1970) served as Chief of the Defence Staff of the Sierra Leone Armed Forces from 1968 to 1970. Prior to this in 1967, he served as the Sierra Leonean Ambassador of to the United States. He was the acting Governor-General of Sierra Leone from 18 April 1968 until 22 April 1968. He led the Sergeants' Coup in 1968 that successfully re-instated civilian rule in Sierra Leone.
