1 - Colonialism, Post-colonialism & Resource Predation

Summary

The diamond giveth to a man that beareth it strength and virtue and keepeth him from grievance, meetings and temptations and from venom…..It enricheth him that beareth it, enricheth in value and good.

(From the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, London 1513 cited in De Beers Group Annual Review 2004: 27)

Sierra Leone's colonisation by the British in the late eighteenth century and the discovery of diamonds in the 1930s had a multitude of consequences. This included urban growth, migration and the uneven development of infrastructures. Yet in terms of developing Sierra Leone's economy and society more generally, revenues from diamonds fell far short of this, only benefitting the colonial government and private companies like the Sierra Leone Selection Trust. Sierra Leone remained an area of peripheral capitalist development despite its diamond wealth. The chapter will argue that patterns of economic development laid down during the colonial era, persisted well into the post-colonial period. The way these manifest themselves will be the subject of Chapter 2.

Sierra Leone and the imperial project

Sierra Leone's recent history is closely associated with its slaving activities and its colonisation by the British in 1787 of the Sierra Leone peninsula area. Freetown became the main town in this area and was named so because it became the home of various diasporan freed African slaves.