Area Handbook for Sierra Leone,

During its fifteen years of independence since 1961, Sierra Leone has had some difficulty in maintaining political stability and in generating economic development. Political turnover has often involved the intervention of elements of the military, usually in alliance with or support of civilian political forces. It has not involved attempts at revolutionary change. Despite agricultural potential and mineral resources, the countrys economic performance has been comparatively weak. By the mid-1970s, however, there were indications that it might improve. The Area Handbook for Sierra Leone seeks to provide a compact and objective exposition of the dominant social, political, economic, and national security aspects of Sierra Leonean society and to give the reader some idea of the forces at work there in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The authors have relied chiefly on published and unpublished documents and secondary sources, but knowledgeable individuals have been consulted on some points.