Sir Milton Augustus Striery Margai

Sir Milton Augustus Striery Margai (1895-1964) was a Sierra Leonean physician and political leader who became his country's first prime minister.

Milton Margai was born on Dec. 7, 1895, at Gbangbatoke in the southern protectorate. The son of a wealthy Mende merchant, Margai was educated at the Evangelical United Brethren School in Bonthe and at the Albert Academy and Fourah Bay College in Freetown, where he received a bachelor's degree in history.

The first protectorate student to graduate from the college and to become a doctor, Margai earned several additional degrees from King's College Medical School, University of Durham. He also attended the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

After practicing a few months, Margai entered government service, rising, between 1928 and 1950, to senior medical officer. He served in 11 of 12 districts in the protectorate, working with women's groups on pre-and postnatal care and child welfare. Margai also trained midwives for the Native Administration and wrote Mende instructions on midwifery.

Margai's political activity began in 1930 with election to the Bonthe District Council, a local governmental unit of representatives from the chiefdoms. Later he represented the council in the Protectorate Assembly, a governmental advisory body on economic, social, and political matters. Both groups reportedly developed from suggestions Margai had made earlier to tribal leaders. In 1946 he joined the Sierra Leone Organization Society (SLOS), formed to promote the cooperative movement. He also organized and helped manage the first protectorate newspaper, the politically influential Sierra Leone Observer.

Five years later, with the help of his lawyer brother Albert, Margai founded the Sierra Leone People's party (SLPP), the first significant indication of a nationalistic movement in the country. An outgrowth of the SLOS, the SLPP aimed to promote colony-protectorate cooperation. Basically conservative, it stood for political unification and self-government within the British Commonwealth.

In November 1951 the SLPP became the majority party in the Legislative Council, and the British appointed Margai to the Executive Council. He became minister of health, agriculture, and forestry in 1953. When Sierra Leone gained self-government a year later, Margai became chief minister as well. In 1957 he was reappointed, assuming also the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Development.

At this time, the more active nationalist Albert Margai contested the leadership of the SLPP, opposing the mild nature of his brother's policy. Although winning 22 to 21, the rebel faction withdrew and formed a new party. In 1959 Milton Margai was named premier and knighted; in anticipation of independence, his title was changed the following year to prime minister.

A man of considerable energy, slight and wiry, Sir Milton was able, direct of speech, conservative, and pro-British in outlook and temperament—in short, one of the mildest nationalists in Africa. He enjoyed music and played piano, violin, and organ. He died on April 28, 1964, after several months' illness.

Further Reading

Material on Margai appears in several recent works on Sierra Leone: Christopher Fyfe, A Short History of Sierra Leone (1965); Martin Kilson, Political Change in a West African State: A Study of the Modernization Process in Sierra Leone (1966); Gershon Collier, Sierra Leone's Experiment in Democracy in an African Nation (1970); and John R. Cartwright, Politics in Sierra Leone, 1947-67 (1970). □

Sierra Leone Freetown in west Africa was set up by the British in 1788, as a refuge for escaped slaves (mainly from the Americas). Established as the first British Crown Colony in Africa in 1808, its hinterland was explored from 1890 and declared a British protectorate in 1896, though it was administered separately until 1951. Sierra Leone gained independence on 27 April 1961, under Prime Minister Sir Milton Margai (b. 1895, d. 1964) of the Sierra Leone People's Party. The latter's domination was brought to an end by a military coup in 1967, and a further coup established the predominance of the All People's Congress (APC) under Siaka P. Stevens. He extended his power in a one-party state in 1978, and survived several coup attempts and domestic instabilities until his retirement in 1985. He was succeeded by Joseph S. Momoh (b. 1937; d. 2003), who formed a civilian government in the same year. Momoh was deposed on 30 April 1992 in a military coup by Valentine Strasser (b. 1965). This sparked off ethnic violence, which had been more or less under the surface since independence, leading to anarchy, civil war, and the displacement of one-third of the population.

As the rebels advanced, Strasser announced his readiness for reconciliation, which led to presidential elections in February and March 1996. These were won by Ahmed Tejan Kabba of the Sierre Leone People's Party, but although they were generally considered fair, they failed to impress the guerrilla Revolutionary United Front (RUF) under Foday Sankoh, which continued its military operations. In April 1996 the civil war continued with renewed ferocity. Tejan Kabba was deposed in a coup in 1997, but returned six months later in a deal with the rebels brokered by ECOWAS. Meanwhile, fighting against the rebels continued, with the RUF gradually extending its hold over the diamond-rich interior. The civil war led to a humanitarian catastrophe, as over one million refugees were estimated to be uprooted within the country, with a further 500,000 refugees being put up in camps in neighbouring Guinea and Liberia. In 2000 a contingent of 800 elite British troops landed in Freetown to support the government, secure the capital and train government soldiers. This led to the first successes in the government's fight against the RUF, which in turn became more conciliatory. A new peace initiative supported by UN troops began in late 2000, when the rebel forces declared a ceasefire. This was followed by efforts to encourage the RUF to surrender its arms in return for transforming the movement into a legitimate part of the political process while instituting an amnesty for its members.

Sir Milton Margai , 1895–1964, prime minister of Sierra Leone (1961–64). A prominent doctor, he turned to politics in 1949 and led his country to independence (1961) while serving as chief minister (1954–61). He was knighted in 1959. Milton died in office and was followed as prime minister by his brother Sir Albert Margai, 1910–80, who had held important cabinet posts. A lawyer, Albert had frequently disagreed with his brother. As prime minister he initiated radical policies that finally led to his overthrow in a coup in 1967. He was knighted in 1965.