Sir Albert Michael Margai (10 October 1910 – 18 December 1980) was the second prime minister of
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...
and the half-brother of
Milton Margai, Sir Milton Margai, the country's first
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
. He was also the father of Sierra Leonean politician
Charles Margai
Charles Francis Kondo Margai (born 19 August 1945) is a Sierra Leonean politician and lawyer, constitutional lawyer who served as Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Sierra Leone in 2018.
Margai is a former candidate for the office of Pr ...
.
[Sir Albert Margai and the Shadow of Thurgood Marshall]
Worldpress.org
Early life
Albert Margai was born in
Gbangbatoke Gbangbatoke is a small town in Moyamba District in the Southern Province, Sierra Leone, Southern province of Sierra Leone. The town is best known for being the birthplace of two of Sierra Leone's most prominent politicians, Sir Milton Margai and Sir ...
, Banta Chiefdom, in what is now the
Moyamba District,
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...
.
His stepfather, M. E. S. Margai, who gave him the family name Margai, was a wealthy trader from Bonthe.
Margai received a
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
education at
St. Edward's Primary School and went on to be one of the first group of students to attend
St. Edward's Secondary School
St Edward's Secondary School is a public Catholic secondary school in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Since its inception it has remained one of the country's most prestigious schools. While St. Edwards is designed to be an all-male school, female studen ...
.
Margai became a registered nurse and this was his occupation from 1931 to 1944.
He later travelled to England and read law at the
Inner Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...
Inns of Court, where he qualified in 1948.
Prior to his political career, he owned a private law practice in Freetown.
Political career
Colonial era
Margai was elected first Protectorate Member to the Legislative Council in 1951.
In 1952 he became a Cabinet Minister and Sierra Leone's first Minister of Education.
In 1957 he was elected Member of Parliament for the
Moyamba Constituency).
He served as
Minister of Finance of Sierra Leone in Milton's government after 1962, where he also held positions alternatively in Education, Agriculture, and Natural Resources. After the death of his brother, Sir Albert served from 1964 until 1967.
Sierra Leone National Party
Margai was a founding member of the
Sierra Leone National Party
Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" and "saw", from Latin '' serra'') may refer to the following:
Places Mountains and mountain ranges
* Sierra de Juárez, a mountain range in Baja California, Mexico
* Sierra de las Nieves, a mountain range i ...
, which was formed in 1949 to advocate and aid in the transition to independence for the country.
Sierra Leone People's Party
However, in the years leading up to independence, Margai was allied more closely with Siaka Stevens than his brother. He took leadership of the
Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) in 1957, but stepped down to form the
People's National Party with Stevens. A major point of contention between the two groups involved the degree of involvement of traditional chiefs and traditional rules in the modern state. In fact, Margai openly asked traditional rulers to stay out of politics. He was one of a number of leaders (
Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah (born 21 September 190927 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, having led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957. An in ...
in Ghana and
Milton Obote in Uganda are other examples) who attempted to remove the system of democratic governance enshrined in multi-party democracy as he believed that this would encourage politicians to accentuate the ethnic differences within the state and therefore threaten the viability of Sierra Leone as a country.
Independence
The
Crown Colony and Protectorate of Sierra Leone
A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...
was granted political independence on 27 April 1961.
Albert's brother,
Milton Margai, Sir Milton Margai was appointed first Prime Minister of Sierra Leone. At the time, Albert was serving as a member of parliament for
Moyamba.
Minister of Finance
Margai was appointed
Minister of Finance of Sierra Leone in 1962.
In 1964, Margai changed Sierra Leone's currency from the
British West African pound
The pound was the currency of British West Africa, a group of British colonies, protectorates and mandate territories. It was equal to one pound sterling and was similarly subdivided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence.
History
In the 19th ...
to the
leone, a decimal legal tender roughly equivalent to half a
pound sterling
Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...
at the time.
He also founded the
Bank of Sierra Leone
The Bank of Sierra Leone is the central bank of Sierra Leone. It issues the country's currency, known as the Sierra Leonean leone, Leone. The bank formulates and implements monetary policy, including foreign exchange.
Organisation and activit ...
and made it the national
central bank
A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union,
and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central ba ...
.
Premiership and public image
Sir Albert Margai was made Prime Minister on 29 April 1964.
He was highly criticized during his tenure. He had a penchant for extravagant pageantry and was accused of corruption and of a policy of affirmative action in favor of the
Mende tribe. The tantrum-prone Prime Minister was nicknamed "Akpata", a Mende word meaning "our wild, fat man".
[End of The Exception]
''Time'', 31 March 1967 Margai was also nicknamed "Big Albert" and "African Albert".
Sir Albert Margai took power and sought to make the army homogeneously Mende.
He also endeavoured to change Sierra Leone from a democracy to a
one-party state
A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...
.
1967 elections
Up until the
1967 elections
Events
January
* January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair.
* January 5
** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establ ...
, Sierra Leone had been an exemplary democratic, post-colonial state.
However, the campaign strategies of Margai would forever alter this trend.
He was against any candidates from the opposition running against candidates from his own party.
Margai refused to dignify accusation of corruption with a response.
Riots broke out across Sierra Leone and the government had to declare a
state of emergency
A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...
.
Coup d'état
Margai's opponent
Siaka Stevens
Siaka Probyn Stevens (24 August 1905 – 29 May 1988) was the leader of Sierra Leone from 1967 to 1985, serving as Prime Minister of Sierra Leone, Prime Minister from 1967 to 1971 and as President from 1971 to 1985. Stevens' leadership was ofte ...
achieved a small parliamentary majority and he was sworn in as the third Prime Minister of Sierra Leone by Governor-General
Sir Henry Lightfoot Boston.
Margai's friend and ally
Brigadier David Lansana, who was the Commander of Sierra Leone's Armed Forces at the time, arrested both Stevens and Lightfoot Boston.
He declared
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
, dismissed the election results and proclaimed himself the interim Governor-General.
Counter coup
In April 1968, a group of noncommissioned officers staged a counter coup in an attempt to restore the democratic process to Sierra Leone.
The so-called
Sergeants' Coup was led by
Lieutenant Colonel Ambrose Patrick Genda who Margai had fired in 1967.
Eight member of the officers formed the
National Reformation Council The National Reformation Council, or NRC, was a group of senior military officers with Brigadier Andrew Juxon-Smith as its chairman, who seized control of the Sierra Leone Government of Sierra Leone, government on March 23, 1967. They suspended the ...
and elected
Brigadier John Bangura to the post of acting
Governor-General of Sierra Leone
This is a list of the heads of state of Sierra Leone, from the independence of the Sierra Leone in 1961 to the present day.
From 1961 to 1971 the head of state under the Constitution of Sierra Leone, Constitution of 1961 was the queen of Sier ...
. A staunch democrat, Bangura re-instated Siaka Stevens because he had won the election.
Civilian life
Margai warned: "If the
Stevens government does not do something to elevate the lives of the have-nots, the poor, they would one day rise to demand from the haves, the rich, their own share of the economy."
Death
On 18 December 1980, Margai died in his sleep.
He is survived by his son, politician
Charles Margai
Charles Francis Kondo Margai (born 19 August 1945) is a Sierra Leonean politician and lawyer, constitutional lawyer who served as Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Sierra Leone in 2018.
Margai is a former candidate for the office of Pr ...
.
References
External links
Sierra Leone People's Party– official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Margai, Albert
1910 births
1980 deaths
Alumni of St. Edward's Secondary School, Freetown
Knights Bachelor
Sierra Leonean knights
20th-century Sierra Leonean lawyers
Prime Ministers of Sierra Leone
Finance ministers of Sierra Leone
Alumni of the Inns of Court School of Law
Sherbro people
Sierra Leone People's Party politicians
Members of the Legislative Council of Sierra Leone
Government ministers of Sierra Leone
20th-century Sierra Leonean politicians
People from Moyamba District
Margai family (Sierra Leone)