West African republic, independent from the United Kingdom in 1961, succeeding the Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate; became a republic in 1971. Freetown, founded as a settlement for freed and formerly enslaved Africans, remains the capital.
A well-regarded political history of Sierra Leone from colonial Freetown through independence, civil war, and recovery.
Fyfe's own concise history of Sierra Leone, condensing his classic account of the colony and its freed-slave settlement.