A relatively small country just on the Western coast of Africa, Sierra Leone, is home to a gorgeous coastline along with a vast mountain range from which the country derives its name; “Sierra Lyou” which means Lion Mountains. Its neighboring countries include Guinea to the north and Liberia to the south and the country lies on the Western Coast of Africa. However, the country has never been viewed as a tourist destination. The reason for this is most likely due to the civil war that came about from the nation’s economic issues during the nineties. The issue was crystal clear; poverty. In the year 2000, the UN Human Development Index listed Sierra Leone as the most impoverished country on the globe. Sierra Leone has always been a poor country, and most of its attempts at modernization were lost in the war conflict along with the homes and lives of more than three million people. The cost of rebuilding has unimaginable left the country with a large amount of public debt to the IMF, World Bank, and other world funding organizations. To understand this country’s social problems we must take a look at its brief history and peoples to fully grasp this culture.
As far as groups of peoples go, there are about eighteen ethnic groups that show similar cultural features, such as class system, family name, and agricultural methods. The two largest ethnic groups found are the Mende in the east and south, and the Temne in the center and northwest. Some other major groups include the Limba, Kuranko, Susu, Yalunka, and Loko in the north, the Kono and Kisi in the east, and the Sherbro in the southwest along with other minor immigrant groups. There is also the Creole who capacitate much of the country’s port capital Freetown, originally liberated African-Americans who made it back to the motherland. Their language Krio is spoken by eighty-seven percent of Sierra Leone and is what connects these ethnic groups together. Krio is a combination o...