Famous people from Sierra Leone
Here is a list of famous people from Sierra Leone. Curious if anybody from Sierra Leone made it our most famous people in the world list? Read the aformentioned article in order to find out.
Mohamed Kallon
Footballer
Mohamed Kallon is a Sierra Leonean international footballer and considered the most famous footballer from Sierra Leone. He is currently playing for Sierra Leone club Kallon F.C.. He is the younger brother of former Sierra Leonean international footballers Kemokai Kallon and Musa Kallon.
Nathaniel Chalobah
Soccer Midfielder
Nathaniel Nyakie Chalobah is a professional footballer. He can operate both as a defender or midfielder and currently plays for Nottingham Forest on loan from Chelsea.
Kei Kamara
Soccer
Kei Ansu Kamara is a Sierra Leonean footballer who plays as a forward for Middlesbrough in the English Football League Championship.
Mohamed Bangura
Soccer
Mohamed Bangura is a professional footballer from Sierra Leone who currently plays as a striker for Allsvenskan club Elfsborg, on loan from Scottish Premiership club Celtic and the Sierra Leone national football team.
Rodney Strasser
Soccer Midfielder
Rodney Strasser is a Sierra Leonean professional footballer who plays as midfielder for Italian Serie B club Reggina on loan from Genoa.
Roda Antar
Soccer Midfielder
Roda Antar is a Sierra Leone-born Lebanese professional footballer who currently plays for Shandong Luneng Taishan in the Chinese Super League and was part of the Lebanon national football team from 1998 to 2013, captaining the squad from 2005 to 2013. Antar started his career with Tadamon Sour, progressing through their youth system to the first-team squad where he made his debut at the age of 17 in the Lebanese Premier League during the 1998–99 season. He finished his career with the club having scored 13 league goals. In July 2001, he was loaned to Germany's Hamburger SV for two seasons, where he scored two goals in 23 Bundesliga appearances, as well as one goal in six Regionalliga Nord appearances in his second season for Hamburger SV II, the club's reserve-team. In August 2003, Antar was brought to SC Freiburg by the club's first-team coach Volker Finke. After a serious injury, Antar eventually debuted in the 2003–04 season on 6 December in a 4–2 win against VfL Bochum, where Antar scored a hat-trick, and was subsequently referred to as a "Football God" by Freiburg supporters. He finished the season having scored seven goals in 17 league appearances. Prior to the start of the 2004–05 season, Freiburg had signed Antar's international team-mate Youssef Mohamad. Antar scored two goals in 23 league appearances as Freiburg were relegated to the 2. Bundesliga. He remained there until July 2007, when both Antar and Mohamad were transferred to fellow 2. Bundesliga side 1. FC Köln.
Ernest Bai Koroma
Politician
Ernest Bai Koroma is the fourth and current President of Sierra Leone since 2007. An ethnic Temne and an insurance executive by profession, Koroma spent over twenty-four years working in the private insurance industry before entering politics in 2002. From 1988 to 2002, Koroma was the Managing Director of the Reliance Insurance Trust Corporation, one of the largest insurance companies in Sierra Leone. He is a 1976 graduate from Fourah Bay College, the oldest university in West Africa. Koroma was elected as leader of the All People's Congress, then Sierra Leone's main opposition party, in 2002, after defeating then incumbent APC leader Edward Turay, his main opponent. Koroma served as a member of Parliament of Sierra Leone, representing his home District of Bombali, from 2002 to 2007. In 2005, he was elected the minority leader of Parliament and remained in that position until his election to the Presidency in 2007. Koroma stood as the APC's presidential candidate in the 2002 election, but he was defeated by President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. He stood again as the APC candidate in the 2007 presidential election. In a tense run-off, he received 54.6% of the vote and defeated Vice President Solomon Berewa, the candidate of the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party. Koroma was sworn in as President on September 17, 2007 at the State House in the capital Freetown,
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah
Politician
Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was the third President of Sierra Leone from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2007. An economist and attorney by professions, Kabbah spent many years working for the United Nations Development Programme. He retired from the United Nations and returned to Sierra Leone in 1992. In early 1996, Kabbah was elected leader of the Sierra Leone People's Party and the party's presidential candidate in the 1996 Sierra Leone presidential election. He was elected president of Sierra Leone in the 1996 Sierra Leone presidential election with 59% of the vote defeating his closest rival John Karefa-Smart of the United National People's Party who had 40% in the runoff vote and conceded defeat. International observers declared the election free and fair. In his inauguration speech in Freetown, Kabbah promised to end the civil war, which he indeed achieved later in his presidency. An ethnic Mandingo, Kabbah is Sierra Leone's first muslim Head of State. Kabbah was born in Pendembu, Kailahun District in Eastern Sierra Leone, though he was largely raised in the capital Freetown. Most of Kabbah's time in office was influenced by the civil war with the Revolutionary United Front, led by Foday Sankoh, which involved him being temporarily ousted by the military Armed Forces Revolutionary Council from May 1997 to March 1998. He was soon returned to power after a military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States, lead by Nigeria. Another phase of the civil war led to United Nations and British involvement in the country in 2000.
Nabih Berri
Politician
Nabih Berri is the Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon. He heads the Shi'a Amal Movement.
Ishmael Beah
Soldier
Ishmael Beah is a former Sierra Leonean child soldier and the author of the published memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. His first novel, Radiance of Tomorrow, will be published in 2014.
Ibrahim Teteh Bangura
Soccer
Ibrahim "Teteh" Bangura is a Sierra Leonean footballer. He currently plays for Beitar Jerusalem on loan from Bursaspor.
Arthur Porter
Physician
Arthur T. Porter IV, PC, MBBChir is a Canadian physician. He served as Chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee of Canada which reviews the activities of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. He was appointed to the position by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper on September 3, 2008, and along with that appointment, was made a Privy Councillor, giving him the title, "The Honourable". He resigned in December 2011, three months before the end of his contract, after the National Post published revelations of his business dealings with international lobbyist and close ties to the president of Sierra Leone. Porter's questionable business dealings and foreign connections included his relationship with Ari Ben-Menashe, a Montreal-based businessman and an ex-Israeli international lobbyist and arms dealer, who was arrested and charged in the United States for illegally attempting to sell military transport airplanes to Iran. He was succeeded by Chuck Strahl.
Mohamed Kamara
Soccer Midfielder
Mohamed Kamara, widely known as Medo, is a Sierra Leonean footballer who plays for Bolton Wanderers and the Sierra Leonean national team. He also holds Finnish citizenship.
Eunice Barber
Olympic athlete
Eunice Barber is a Sierra Leonean athlete competing in heptathlon and long jump. Barber initially competed for Sierra Leone and then for France from 1999 onwards. She won the heptathlon at the World Championships in Athletics in 1999, the long jump in 2003 and finished second in heptathlon in 2003 and 2005.
Patricia Piccinini
Artist
Patricia Piccinini is an Australian artist who works in a variety of media, including painting, video, sound, installation, digital prints, and sculpture.
Chris Bart-Williams
Soccer Midfielder
Christopher Gerald Bart-Williams is a Sierra Leonean-born English former footballer. His position was defence or midfield. Although born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Bart-Williams grew up in North London and attended St. David's School and St Katharine in Hornsey. He represented his school, borough, county, and adopted country at youth level and went on to play for England under-21s and was called up to train with the senior squad although he never won a full England cap. He is currently an assistant coach for SoccerPlus Connecticut, a women's team in the WPSL in America. He also will be working at Quinnipiac University as an assistant coach for the soccer team.
Alhassan "Al" Bangura
Soccer Midfielder
Alhassan "Al" Bangura is a Sierra Leone footballer who plays for Forest Green Rovers as a midfielder. He has played for the Sierra Leone national team and is notable for having been the victim of human trafficking when he was a teenager and also the subject of a deportation case in the United Kingdom in 2007.
Joseph Cinqué
Deceased Person
Sengbe Pieh, later known as Joseph Cinqué, was a West African man of the Mende people and was the most prominent defendant in the case United States v. The Amistad, in which it was found that he and 51 others had been victims of the illegal Atlantic slave trade.
Siaka Stevens
Politician
Siaka Probyn Stevens was the third prime minister of Sierra Leone from 1967 to 1971 and the first president of Sierra Leone from 1971 to 1985. Stevens is generally criticised for being a dictator. On a positive note, he reduced the ethnic polarisation in the government of Sierra Leone by incorporating members of various ethnic groups into the government. Stevens and his All People's Congress party won the closely contested 1967 Sierra Leone general elections over the incumbent Prime Minister Sir Albert Margai of the Sierra Leone People's Party. In April 1971, Stevens made Sierra Leone a republic and he became the first President of Sierra Leone a day after the constitution had been ratified by the Parliament of Sierra Leone. Stevens served as Chairman of the Organization of African Unity 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.
Gibril Wilson
American Football Safety
Gibril Donald Wilson is a retired American football safety. He was drafted by the New York Giants in the fifth round of the 2004 NFL Draft. He played college football at Tennessee. Wilson earned a Super Bowl ring with the Giants in Super Bowl XLII. He has also played for the Oakland Raiders and Miami Dolphins.
Julius Wobay
Soccer Midfielder
Julius Gibrilla Wobay nickname Gibo, is a Sierra Leonean International footballer. He is a midfielder for Al Shaab on loan from Neftchi Baku PFK in the UAE Pro-League and for the Leone Stars, Sierra Leone national football team.
Valentine Strasser
Politician
Valentine Esegragbo Melvine Strasser served as head of state of Sierra Leone from 1992 to 1996. He had been a junior military officer but in 1992, he became the world's youngest Head of State when he seized power three days after his 25th birthday. He was the leading member in a group of six young Sierra Leonean soldiers who overthrew president Joseph Saidu Momoh in the April 29, 1992 military coup. On January 1996, after nearly four years in power, Strasser was ousted in a second military coup, but this time it was his own NPRC soldiers who were not satisfied with his handling of the peace process. The coup was led by his deputy, Brigadier General Julius Maada Bio. Strasser was handcuffed at gunpoint by his own military bodyguards who were supposed to protect him and was immediately flown into exile in a military helicopter to Conakry, Guinea. Strasser later went to the United Kingdom where he studied law at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. He dropped out of law school in 1998 and briefly moved to The Gambia.
Sheriff Suma
Soccer Midfielder
Sheriff Suma nickname Awilo, is a Sierra Leonean international footballer who most recently played as a winger for Ravan Baku and for the Sierra Leone national football team. He was a member of Sierra Leone U-17 team at the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Finland. Suma made his senior international debut for Sierra Leone on September 3, 2006 in a 2008 African Nations Cup qualifying match against Mali in Freetown. Suma is one of the most popular Sierra Leonean footballers and he is known for frequently changing his unusual and colourful hairstyles. Suma is widely known across Sierra Leone by his nickname Awilo.
Mustapha Dumbuya
Soccer Defender
Mustapha Sima Michael Dumbuya is a professional Sierra Leonean footballer who plays as a defender for League One side Notts County.
Ibrahim Kargbo
Soccer Defender
Ibrahim Kargbo is a Sierra Leonean international football player, who most recently played for RWDM Brussels in Belgian Second Division.
Umaru Bangura
Soccer Midfielder
Umaru Bangura is a Sierra Leonean international footballer. He is a central defender who can also operate in midfield. Bangura currently plays for Haugesund in the Tippeligaen division and for the Leone Stars, Sierra Leone national football team.
Johnny Paul Koroma
Politician
Major Johnny Paul Koroma was the Head of State of Sierra Leone from May 1997 to February 1998.
Michaela DePrince
Ballerina
Michaela DePrince is a Sierra Leonean-American ballet dancer.
Sahr Senesie
Soccer
Sahr Senesie is a German footballer of Sierra Leonean descent who plays for SG Sonnenhof Großaspach. He is the brother of VfB Stuttgart player Antonio Rüdiger.
Madieu Williams
American Football Safety
Madieu Mohammed Williams is an American football safety who is currently a free agent. He was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the second round of the 2004 NFL Draft. He played college football at the University of Maryland. Williams has also played for the Minnesota Vikings, San Francisco 49ers, and Washington Redskins.
Zainab Bangura
Politician
Haja Zainab Hawa Bangura is a Sierra Leonean politician and Social Activist. She was appointed as Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict in September 2012. In 2007, Bangura became Sierra Leone's foreign minister in the government of President Ernest Bai Koroma of the All People's Congress Party. She was the second woman to serve in that post, following Shirley Gbujama who held that position from 1996 to 1997. Mrs. Bangura also served as Sierra Leone's Minister of Health and sanitation from 2010 to 2012. As a devoted Muslim, Mrs. Bangura took time off politics in 2009 to travel to the Holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia to participate in the 2009 Hajj pilgrimage ceremony. She was appointed as the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict on 22 June 2012.
Joseph Saidu Momoh
Politician
Major General Joseph Saidu Momoh was the President of Sierra Leone from November, 1985 to April 29, 1992.
Albert Jarrett
Soccer Midfielder
Albert Ojumiri Jarrett is a Sierra Leonean footballer who plays as a winger for Bromley and has represented the Sierra Leone national football team. A youth player with Arsenal and Dulwich Hamlet, he turned professional with Wimbledon in 2003. The next year he signed with Brighton & Hove Albion. He had loan spells with Stevenage Borough and Swindon Town, before he earned a move to Premier League Watford in 2006. In 2007 he was loaned out to Boston United and Milton Keynes Dons, before he spent the 2007–08 season without a club and nursing a knee injury. He returned to the game with Gillingham in 2008, before he transferred to Barnet the following year. Playing in almost all of Barnet's games of 2009–10, he was allowed to join Lincoln City for the 2010–11 campaign. In 2011 he was loaned out to Aldershot Town, before he was released by Lincoln. He then joined non league club Bromley.
Gibril Sankoh
Soccer
Gibril Sankoh is a Sierra Leone footballer who currently plays for Chinese club Henan Jianye.
Ibrahima Camara
Soccer Midfielder
Ibrahima Sory Camara is a naturalized Guinean football midfielder, who currently plays for AS Kaloum Star.
Sorious Samura
Journalist
Sorious Samura is a Sierra Leonean journalist. He is best known for two CNN documentary films: Cry Freetown and Exodus from Africa. The self-funded Cry Freetown depicts the most brutal period of the civil war in Sierra Leone with RUF rebels capturing the capital city. The film won, among other awards, an Emmy Award and a Peabody. Exodus from Africa shows the harrowing effort by the best of young African male blood to break through to Europe via death- and danger-ridden paths from Sierra Leone and Nigeria, via Mali, the Sahara desert, Algeria, and Morocco through the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain. In his recent two projects Living with Hunger and Living with Refugees, he takes reality television to its extreme, becoming the central character in the films by living the lifestyle of an Ethiopian villager and Sudanese refugee respectively; in doing this, he tries to break the boundary between "us" and "them" by becoming one of them. "Living with corruption", his latest documentary shown on CNN, describes the shocking reality of how corruption is spread across society both in Sierra Leone and Kenya, affecting mostly the poor.
Alhassan Kamara
Soccer Midfielder
Alhassan A. Kamara, sometimes referred to by just his nickname Crespo, is a Sierra Leonean footballer who plays for AIK.
Michael Lahoud
Soccer Midfielder
Michael Lahoud is a Sierra Leonean footballer who currently plays for Philadelphia Union in Major League Soccer. He also holds American citizenship.
Edna Lewis
Chef
Edna Lewis was an African-American chef and author best known for her books on traditional Southern cuisine.
Bai Bureh
Politician
Bai Bureh was a Sierra Leonean ruler and military strategist who led the Temne and Loko uprising against British rule in 1898 in Northern Sierra Leone.
Samuel Sam-Sumana
Politician
Alhaji Sahr Samuel Tamba Sidique Sam-Sumana is a Sierra Leonean politician who has been the Vice President of Sierra Leone since 2007. Sam-Sumana stood as the vice-presidential candidate of the All People's Congress in the 2007 Sierra Leonean Presidential election, alongside presidential candidate Ernest Bai Koroma. The APC ticket defeated the Sierra Leone People's Party presidential candidate Solomon Berewa and vice presidential candidate Momodou Koroma. Sam-Sumana took office as vice president on September 17, 2007. A native of Koidu Town, Kono District, Sam-Sumana has a Bachelor of Science in management information systems from the Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis – Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Sam-Sumana had served as the managing director of the United Diamond Mining Company based in Koidu Town, Kono District, Sierra Leone. He also served as the regional manager for C-12 International, a Texas based mining company engaged in diamond production in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Sam-Sumana is a devout muslim and a member of the Kono ethnic group. Sam-Sumana is married to Khadija Sam-Sumana. The couple were residing in Minnesota in the U.S., but returned to Freetown in 2007 when Sam-Sumana was named as running mate by opposition leader Ernest Bai Koroma on the ticket of the All People's Congress.
Kabba Samura
Soccer Midfielder
Kabba Samura is a Sierra Leonean international soccer player and as well a Swedish Citizen European passport holder. He is currently playing for the Vietnam's V-League club Hoàng Anh Gia Lai.
David Lyon
Actor
David Laurie Lyon was a British stage, television, and film actor.
I. T. A. Wallace-Johnson
Politician
Isaac Theophilus Akunna Wallace-Johnson was a Sierra Leonean and British West African workers' leader, journalist, activist and politician. Born into a poor Creole family in Sierra Leone, he emerged as a natural leader in school. After attending United Methodist Collegiate School for two years, he dropped out and took a job as an officer in the customs department in 1913. He was dismissed for helping organize a labor strike, but later reinstated to his position a year later. After resigning from his job, he enlisted as a clerk with the Carrier Corps during World War I. After being demobilized in 1920, Wallace-Johnson moved from job to job, before settling as a clerk in the Freetown municipal government. He claimed to have exposed a corruption scandal, which resulted in the incarceration of top officials, including the mayor. After being fired from this job in 1926, he left Sierra Leone and became a sailor. He joined a national seamen union and it is believed that he also joined the Communist Party. In 1930, he helped form the first trade union in Nigeria and attended the International Trade Union Conference of Negro Workers in Hamburg, where he established a number of contacts. He published articles and edited the Negro Worker, a journal devoted to uniting black workers around the world. He traveled to Moscow, where he claimed to have attended classes on Marxism-Leninism theory, union organization and political agitation.
Patricia Kabbah
Teacher
Patricia Kabbah was the wife of Sierra Leone's 3rd President, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah; was First Lady of Sierra Leone from 1996 until her death in 1998. She was an ethnic Sherbro from Bonthe District, in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone.
Kandeh Yumkella
Politician
Kandeh K. Yumkella is the Chairman of UN-Energy and former Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
Abdulai Bell-Baggie
Soccer Midfielder
Abdulai Hindolo Bell-Baggie is a Sierra Leonean professional football winger who plays for League One club Tranmere Rovers. Born in Sierra Leone, Bell-Baggie represented both the England under-16 and England under-17 national teams before winning a cap for Sierra Leone in 2013. A former Reading player, he has played on loan for Rotherham United, Port Vale, and Crawley Town and was briefly contracted to Yeovil Town and Hayes & Yeading United. He joined Salisbury City in January 2012, before switching to Tranmere Rovers seven months later.
Samuel Barlay
Soccer Midfielder
Samuel Barlay is a Sierra Leonean international footballer, who most recently played for AZAL PFK.
Sam Bockarie
Politician
Samuel Sam Bockarie widely known as Mosquito was a leading member of the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone. Bockarie was infamous during the Sierra Leone Civil War for his brutal tactics, which included amputation, mutilation, and rape. He earned the nickname "Mosquito" for his ability to attack when his enemies were off-guard. During his service in the RUF, he befriended future Liberian president Charles Taylor, and RUF commander Foday Sankoh. When Sankoh was imprisoned from March 1997 until April 1999, Bockarie served as commander of the RUF in his place.
Kewullay Conteh
Soccer
Kewullay Conteh is a Sierra Leonean footballer currently unattached. He is also a first choice defender for the Leone Stars, Sierra Leone national football team. He made his international debut for Sierra Leone in 1996.
Alfred Sankoh
Soccer Midfielder
Alfred Sankoh is a Sierra Leonean footballer currently playing for Turkish TFF First League club Şanlıurfaspor.
Bai kamara
Musical Artist
Morlai Bai Kamara Jr. is a singer-songwriter and performer based in Brussels, Belgium. Bai was born in Bo Town, Sierra Leone, and spent his childhood years there. Due to both his parents’ involvement in government jobs, he was exposed to the harsh realities of African politics at a young age, and this theme is prevalent in much of his music today. At the age of 15 Bai moved to England to continue his schooling, living in Bath and Manchester, where he started to write his first songs. In 1990 he moved to Brussels and decided to pursue a career in music rather than continue with his business studies. Primarily the themes of Bai Kamara’s music revolve around humanitarian themes such as social injustice, political or economic refuge, the environment, and personal relationships. He has worked with Youssou N’Dour and the Refugee Voices, for a UNHCR project entitled Building Bridges, and released in 1998. He also currently works with Nader Hamid, an electric guitar player and singer-songwriter originally from Iraq, and they are recording their second album together. In 2007 Bai worked and toured with Vaya con Dios, where they covered one of his most well-known songs, Substitute.
Paul Kpaka
Soccer
Paul Kpaka is a Sierre Leonean footballer. He is a striker who last played for Germinal Beerschot in the Belgian first division. His contract with the club ran out on 1 July 2010.
Moustapha Bangura
Soccer Midfielder
Mustapha Bangura nickname Hadji, is a Sierra Leonean International footballer. He is a Striker or attacking midfielder for AEK Larnaca in the Cypriot First Division, the highest football league in Cyprus and for the Sierra Leone national football team. He made his senior international debut for Sierra Leone on 6 September 2006 in a 2008 African Nations Cup qualifier against Mali in Freetown.
Nzinga Blake
Actor
Nzinga Blake is an American / Sierra Leonean actress. Blake was a host on Current TV and starred on the TV series Fridays on Cartoon Network, Culture Click on Litton's Weekend Adventure, as well as in national television commercials for Sprite and Kinkos. Her father, Cecil Blake, is the former Minister of Information in Sierra Leone.
Death of Oury Jalloh
Man
Oury Jalloh was a Sierra Leonean asylum seeker who died in a fire in a police cell in Dessau, Germany. The hands and feet of Jalloh, who was alone in the cell, were tied to a mattress. A fire alarm went off, but was initially turned off without further action by an officer. The case caused national and international outrage. In 2007, two officers were charged with causing bodily harm with fatal consequences and with involuntary manslaughter, respectively, but were acquitted in December 2008 for want of evidence. According to the presiding judge, contradictory testimony had prevented clarification of the circumstances and had obstructed due process. The Federal Court of Justice annulled one of the acquittals, and since January 2011, a different Landgericht than before is concerned with the case.
Abdul Thompson Conteh
Football player
Abdul Thompson Conteh is a former Sierra Leonean football striker.
Ibrahim Koroma
Soccer Midfielder
Ibrahim "Marcel" Koroma is a Sierra Leonean footballer who currently plays for Swedish Superettan club Varbergs BoIS and the Sierra Leone national football team. He plays both as a defensive midfielder and central defender. Koroma is commonly known by his nickname Marcel which is taken from former French footballer Marcel Desailly.
Sallieu Bundu
Soccer Forward
Sallieu Bundu nicknamed Teacher, is a Sierra Leonean footballer who currently plays for VSI Tampa Bay FC in the USL Pro.
Kadi Sesay
Politician
Kadi Sesay is a Sierra Leonean politician, feminist, pro-democracy advocate and the Vice Presidential Candididate of the Sierra Leone People's Party. She served as Sierra Leone Minister of Trade and Industry from 2002 to 2007. She is the founder and Managing Director of Leone Consulting & Advisory Services – for Trade, Investment and Development. She is the mother of CNN International news anchor Isha Sesay
John Oponjo Benjamin
Politician
John Oponjo Benjamin is a Sierra Leonean economist and politician of Mende descent. He is the current leader of the main opposition Sierra Leone People's Party. 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.
Patrick Bantamoi
Soccer Goalkeeper
Patrick Bantamoi is a Sierra Leonean footballer who plays as a goalkeeper. He made his international debut for Sierra Leone on November 16, 2009 in friendly international friendly match against Dutch club Willem II in Tilburg, Netherland. Bantamoi also holds a Finnish passport.
Charles Margai
Politician
Charles Francis Kondo Margai is a Sierra Leonean lawyer and politician. He is the leader of the People's Movement for Democratic Change the third major political party in Sierra Leone, after the big two, the Sierra Leone People's Party and the All People's Congress. He was his party's candidate in the August 2007 presidential election. He came in third in the 2007 presidential election with 10% of the vote. He is the son of former Sierra Leone's Prime Minister Sir Albert Margai and the nephew of Sierra Leone's first Prime Minister Sir Milton Margai.
Obi Metzger
Footballer
Sam Obi Metzger, Jr. is a Sierra Leonean footballer who plays as a striker for Finnish second division side FC Viikingit and the Sierra Leonean national team.
Khalifa Jabbie
Soccer Midfielder
Khalifa Jabbie is a Sierra Leonean footballer who plays for Fredrikstad FK.
Mariama
Singer
Mariama is a singer-songwriter of Sierra Leonian birth who lives in Cologne, Germany. Her first name means 'Gods Gift'.
Solomon Berewa
Politician
Solomon Ekuma Dominic Berewa was Vice-President of Sierra Leone from May 2002 to September 2007. He was defeated in the second round of the 2007 presidential election by Ernest Bai Koroma of the All People's Congress. Under President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, Berewa was Attorney-General and Minister of Justice from 1996 to 1997, when the government was ousted in a coup. After Kabbah was restored to power, Berewa was Attorney-General and Minister of Justice again from 1998 to May 2002. He then became Vice-President. At the SLPP's national convention in Makeni on September 3–4, 2005, Berewa was selected by the SLPP as its leader and its 2007 presidential candidate. He received 291 votes, while Charles Margai received 34, Julius Maada Bio received 33, and J. B. Dauda received 28. In the first round of the 2007 presidential election, held on August 11, Berewa took second place with 38.3% of the vote, behind Koroma, the candidate of the opposition APC, who won 44.3%. A second round between Berewa and Koroma was held on September 8, and on September 17 Koroma was declared the winner, with 54.6% of the vote against 45.4% for Berewa. Berewa promptly conceded defeat, and Koroma was sworn in later on the same day at a ceremony at which Berewa was present.
Thomas Leighton Decker
Author
Thomas Alexander Leighton Decker or Tommy Decker OBE, was a Sierra Leonean linguist, poet, and journalist. He is best known for his work on the Krio language and for translating Shakespeare's Julius Caesar into the Krio language. Decker argued forcefully that the Krio language was not merely a patois but a legitimate language. Because Decker argued that Krio was not a patois, his contributions and revisions to the Krio language greatly influenced and added to the revival and appreciation of the language.
Abioseh Nicol
Diplomat
Davidson Sylvester Hector Willoughby Nicol or Abioseh Nicol was a Sierra Leonean academic, diplomat, physician, writer and poet. He has been considered as one of Sierra Leone’s most educated citizens of recent times, as he was able to secure degrees in the arts, science and commercial disciplines.
Alhaji Kamara
Soccer Forward
Alhaji Kamara is a Sierra Leonean soccer player who plays for Kallon FC Freetown.
Olufemi Terry
Author
Olufemi Terry is a Sierra Leone-born writer. He won the 2010 Caine Prize for African Writing for his second short story "Stickfighting Days," which was originally published in Chimurenga Vol. 12/13. The judges said he was "a talent with an enormous future". He hopes to publish his debut novel soon.
Issa Sesay
Man
Issa Hassan Sesay served as senior military officer and commander in the Revolutionary United Front and AFRC/RUF forces in their insurrection against the government of Sierra Leone. He was said to be subordinate only to Sam Bockarie, the Battlefield Commander, and Johnny Paul Koroma, leader of the AFRC. Sessay is known as the commander who ordered the disarmament of the RUF, effectively ending the Sierra Leone Civil War. On 7 March 2003 he was indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for crimes against humanity and other war crimes, including terrorizing civilians, collective punishments, unlawful killings, crimes against humanity, sexual violence, physical violence, use of child soldiers, abductions and forced labor, looting and burning, and attacks on UNAMSIL personnel. He pled not guilty at his initial court appearance. On 25 February 2009 Sesay was convicted for 16 out of the 18 charges he faced at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown. Along with former leaders Morris Kallon, who received 40 years, and Augustine Gbao, who received 25, Sesay was sentenced to concurrent terms on the charges, the longest being a 52-year sentence. An award-winning documentary by Rebecca Richman Cohen released in 2010 titled War Don Don follows the rise and fall of the rebel leader.
Ahmed Deen
Soccer Defender
Ahmed Nuru Deen is a Sierra Leonean footballer who plays as a left back for Dulwich Hamlet. He has played for the Sierra Leone national team. Deen made his senior debut for Sierra Leone on 24 March 2007 against Togo in a 2008 African Nations Cup qualifier played in Freetown.
Syl Cheney-Coker
Author
Syl Cheney-Coker is a poet, novelist, and journalist from Freetown, Sierra Leone. Educated in the United States, he has a global sense of literary history, and has introduced styles and techniques from French and Latin American literatures to Sierra Leone. He has spent much of his life in exile from his native country, and has written extensively about the condition of exile and the view of Africa from an African abroad.
Alex Tamba Brima
Politician
Alex Tamba Brima is a former Sierra Leonean military commander. He was one of a group of seventeen soldiers in the Sierra Leone Armed Forces who called themselves Armed Forces Revolutionary Council that succefully stage a coup that ousted president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in May 1997. On 19 July 2007 he was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Sierra Leone Civil War.
Lamin Conteh
Soccer Midfielder
Mohamed Lamin Conteh, widely known by his nickname Junior Tumbu, is a Sierra Leonean international footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Perlis FA. He is widely considered the most talented and most popular Sierra Leonean footballer in the 1990s; and one of the most talented Sierra Leonean footballers of all time. As a footballer, Junior Tumbu was gifted with an amazing dribbling talent.
Israel Sesay
Soccer Forward
Israel Sesay is a Sierra Leone-born American soccer player who currently plays for Los Angeles Blues in the USL Professional Division.
Alusine Kamara
Soccer Midfielder
Alusine Kamara, nicknamed 'Baggio', is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Syrianska FC in the Swedish Allsvenskan.
David Simbo
Soccer Midfielder
David Simbo is a Sierra Leonean soccer player who plays for Bodens B.K.
Sia Koroma
Politician
Sia Nyama Koroma is the first lady of Sierra Leone and the wife of Sierra Leone's president Ernest Bai Koromaa. She is also the daughter of former Sierra Leone's attorney general Abu Aiah Koroma. She holds a Master of Science in Organic Chemistry from the University of London and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of London and Fourah Bay College in Freetown. Sia Koroma is a native of Kono District in Eastern Sierra Leone and a member of the Kono ethnic group. She is the mother of two daughters, Alice and Danke Koroma.
Africanus Horton
Physician
Africanus Horton, also known as James Beale, was a Creole 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. Born as James Beale Horton, the son of an Igbo recaptive slave he was educated at the CMS Grammar School and at the Fourah Bay Institution. In 1853, he received a War Office scholarship to study medicine in Great Britain. He studied at King's College London and Edinburgh University, qualifying as a medical doctor in 1859. While a student, he took the name "Africanus" as an emblem of pride in his African homeland 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.
Clifford Nelson Fyle
Lyricist
Professor Clifford Nelson Fyle was a Sierra Leonean linguistics professor, author, writter, mathamatician, lecturer and publisher who authored the Sierra Leone National Anthem. He was the first Sierra Leonean to produce school books for the teaching of Sierra Leonean languages. He is today widely known as the author of the Sierra Leone national anthem.
Brima Koroma
Soccer Forward
Brima Koroma is a professional Sierra Leonean footballer. He played as a striker for Anagennisi Dherynia in the Cypriot First Division. Koroma has also played for Sierra Leone, scoring a goal in 2006 World Cup qualifying against Congo.
Monty Jones
Organization leader
Prof. Monty Jones is a renown plant breeder and the Executive Director of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa and co-winner of the prestigious 2004 World Food Prize. He won the award based on his discovery of the genetic process to create the New Rice for Africa which gives higher yields, shorter growth cycles and more protein content than its Asian and African parents.
Samuel Hinga Norman
Organization founder
Samuel Hinga Norman was a Sierra Leonean politician from the Mende tribe. He was the founder and leader of the Civil Defence Forces, commonly known as the Kamajors. The Kamajors supported the government of Ahmed Tejan Kabbah against the Revolutionary United Front, which was led by Foday Sankoh. On 7 March 2003 Hinga Norman was indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He died on 22 February 2007 in Dakar, Senegal while undergoing medical treatment. Norman married Josephine Norman around 1951 and had four children; Sam Hinga Norman Jr, Florence Norman, Juliet Norman and Esther Kosia who is married to Saffa Kosia. Norman had seven grandchildren; Mary Kpagoi who is the daughter of Juliet Norman, Musata Tarawally who is the daughter of Florence Norman, Sam Tutange, Bernard Kosia, Bennedict Kosia, Beatrice Kosia who are sons and daughters of Esther Kosia, and Samuel, Ben and Samantha Norman who are daughters and sons of Sam Hinga Norman Jr.
Abel Nathaniel Bankole Stronge
Politician
Abel Nathaniel Bankole Stronge is a Sierra Leonean politician who has been Speaker of the Parliament of Sierra Leone since 2007. He is a member of the ruling All People's Congress and represents the Western Area Urban District. Bankole Stronge succeeded Edmund Cowan of the Sierra Leone People's Party as speaker of Parliament after the 2007 Sierra Leone Presidential and Legislative elections. Bankole Stronge was born in Freetown. He is a Christian and a member of the Creole ethnic minority who mostly live in the Western Area of Sierra Leone.
John Karefa-Smart
Politician
Dr. John Albert Musselman Karefa-Smart was a Sierra Leonean politician, Medical doctor and University Professor. He served as the first Foreign Minister under Sierra Leone's first Prime Minister Sir Milton Margai's government. 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 Peope's Party 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 Sir Milton Margai in 1964, Kareefa Smart challenged Sir Albert Margai for the SLPP leadership position, but he was unsuccessful, as Sir Albert won the SLPP leadership and Succeeded his brother Sir Milton Margai as Sierra Leone's Prime Minister. Margai ultimately left the SLPP and politics overal and moved abroad to continue his professional career. In 1996, Kareefa-Smart returned to Sierra Leone's politics as the founder of the newly formed United National People's Party He stood as the UNPP candidate in the 1996 Sierra Leone Presidential Elections, but he was defeated in the second round election runoff by the SLPP candidate Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
Jeillo Edwards
Actor
Jeillo Edwards was a Sierra Leonean actress, who is notable in the history of black actors in Britain. She was the first woman of African descent to study drama at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She went on to be one of the first black actresses to be cast in a mainstream UK television drama series - Dixon of Dock Green, and for more than four decades performed on British television, radio, stage and films.
Sylvia Blyden
Woman
Sylvia Olayinka Walmina Oreshola Blyden is a Sierra Leonean journalist, political commentator, newspaper publisher, and the current Special Executive Assistant to Sierra Leone's president Ernest Bai Koroma. Blyden is the founder, CEO, and publisher of Sierra Leonean newspaper Awerness Times. She is the only female news publisher in Sierra Leone, and "one of the most recognisable names in the country." She has spoken of her interest to eventually run for the presidency of Sierra Leone. Blyden was born and raised in Freetown and she is a member of the Creole ethnic group. Blyden is the great-great-granddaughter of Edward Wilmot Blyden, the "father of Pan-Africanism". Her maternal grandfather is the Sierra Leonean politician Solomon A. J. Pratt, and her paternal grandfather is the late Sierra Leonean diplomat Edward Wilmot Blyden III.
Alpha Kanu
Spokesperson
Alhaji Alpha Sahid Bakar Kanu is a Sierra Leonean politician and the current Sierra Leone minister of Presidential and Public Affairs. He is also the official spokesman of the All People's Congress political party, a position he has held even before the APC came to power. In January 2012, Kanu was chosen by Sierra Leone president Ernest Bai Koroma to serve as Minister of Information and Communication in Koroma's new second term cabinet. Kanu is a close personal friend of president Ernest Bai Koroma; he is also one of the closest and most trusted political advisors to president Koroma. Kanu is often seen together with president Ernest Bai Koroma in public. Kanu had served as Sierra Leone Minister of Mines and Natural Resources from February 27, 2009, before he was moved again to Sierra Leone minister of Presidential and Public Affairs in a Cabinet reshuffled on December 3, 2010 by president Koroma. Kanu was ason an elected member of Sierra Leone House of Parliament representing Port Loko District from 2002 until 2007. Kanu is a mining engineer by profession. He graduated with a Master of Philosophy in geophysics from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.
John Keister
Football player
John Keister is a Sierra Leonean footballer. He is an offensive midfielder and plays for PK-37 in the Finnish third tier of football, Kakkonen. Keister was a member of Sierra Leone U-17 squad at the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Finland.
Christian Cole
Coach
Christian Cole is a football manager from Sierra Leone who currently coaches club side Mighty Blackpool.
Bernadette Lahai
Politician
Bernadette Lahai is a Sierra Leonean politician and the current Minority Leader of Parliament of Sierra Leone. She is the leader of the main opposition Sierra Leone People's Party in the Sierra Leone House of Parliament. She currently represent Constituency 13 from Kenema District in the Sierra Leone House of Parliament. In the 2002 general elections, Madam Lahai was elected to the Sierra Leone House of Parliament. She was re-election easily in the 2007 Parliamentary elections. She won another easy re-election in the 2012 Parliamentary elections, with 69.15%. Lahai has a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Sociology from Fourah Bay College, and a Master's Degree in Agricultural extension and Rural development from Njala University, both in Sierra Leone. Lahai also has a PhD in Agricultural extension and Rural development from the University of Reading in Berkshire, England. Lahai is a native of Kenema District in Eastern Sierra Leone, and a member of the Mende ethnic group.
Usman Boie Kamara
Politician
Alhaji Usman Boie Kamara is a Sierra Leonean politician, businessman and mining engineer. He is currently Sierra Leone Minister of Trade and Industry. He is a former director of the Sierra Leone National Diamond Mining Company. In January 2013, Usman Boie Kamara was chosen by Sierra Leone president Ernest Bai Koroma to serve as Minister of Trade and Industry in his new second term cabinet. He was approved by the Sierra Leone House of Parliament on January 15, 2013 and was sworn in as Sierra Leone Minister of Trade and Industry on January 16, 2013 at State House in the capital Freetown. Usman Boie Kamara unsuccessfully ran for the Sierra Leone People's Party presidential candidate in the 2012 Sierra Leone presidential election, he finished in second place behind former military ruler Julius Maada Bio who won the SLPP nomination at the party's convention held on July 31, 2011 at the miatta hall in Freetown. After he lost the SLPP nomination to Julius Maada, Usman Boie Kamara defected from the SLPP in June 2012, and joined the ruling APC. He was officially welcome and given APC membership card by Sierra Leone president Ernest Bai Koroma himsef. Usman Boie has a masters degree in mining engineering and Mineral Production Management from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London.
Christian Caulker
Footballer
Christian Caulker is a Sierra Leonean footballer who plays for Kallon F.C. in the Sierra Leone National Premier League. Caulker is currently the first choice goalkeeper for the Sierra Leone national football team, known as the Leone Stars.