The National Council of Sierra Leone was the main opposition

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often featur ...

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 , Sierr ...

in the early 1950s. The organisation was founded by former members of the Sierra Leonean branch of the National Congress of British West Africa around

Herbert Bankole-Bright Herbert Christian Bankole-Bright (23 August 1883 – 14 December 1958) was a well-known political activist in Sierra Leone. Early life Herbert Bankole-Bright was born in Okrika, in an area the British would the next year designate the Oil Rivers ...

and Isaac Wallace-Johnson in 1950. It gained much of its support from the

Creole people Creole peoples are ethnic groups formed during the European colonial era, from the mass displacement of peoples brought into sustained contact with others from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, who converged onto a colonial terr ...

and some

Oku people The Oku people or the Aku Marabout or Aku Mohammedans are an ethnic group in Sierra Leone and the Gambia, primarily the descendants of marabout, liberated Yoruba people who were released from slave ships and resettled in Sierra Leone as Libera ...

of the

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 po ...

colony. Initially, some proposed that the group be named the "Ogboni Society", but it instead took the name National Council of the Colony of Sierra Leone, later shortened to "National Council of Sierra Leone". The National Council stood in opposition to the Stevenson Constitution of 1947, instead calling for a federal state, with the colony and the protectorate having separate assemblies. In the 1951 elections, it initially appeared that the National Council had won more seats than the

Sierra Leone People's Party The Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) is one of the two major political parties in Sierra Leone, along with its main political rival the All People's Congress (APC). It has been the ruling party in Sierra Leone since April 4, 2018. The SLPP d ...

(SLPP). However, all the independent members from the protectorate later declared for the SLPP, placing the National Council a distant second. It became the main opposition. When the SLPP failed to act on the constitution issue, the Council attempted to block all government business. The group also organised protests over the constitution. The Positive Action Group faction led by Otto During attempted to instigated legal action against the

Governor of Sierra Leone This is a list of colonial administrators in Sierra Leone from the establishment of the Cline Town, Sierra Leone, Province of Freedom Colony by the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor which lasted between 1787 and 1789 and the list of colo ...

, claiming that the imposition of the constitution was itself unconstitutional. In 1954, Wallace-Johnson split away to found the United Sierra Leone Progressive Party. The National Council lost all of its seats at the 1957 election, slumping to only 1.8% of the votes cast. The main opposition became Wallace-Johnson's group. Bankole-Bright died the following year, and the party appears to have collapsed.

References

*"Bright, Herbert Christian Bankole-", ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

''
Sierra Leone POLITICAL PARTIES
, ''Encyclopedia of the Nations'' *Akintola J. G. Wyse, ''H. C. Bankole-Bright and Politics in Colonial Sierra Leone, 1919-1958'' *Freddie Balogun Savage, ''Political and Constitutional Development in Sierra Leone, 1951-60'' {{Authority control Defunct political parties in Sierra Leone Political parties established in 1950 1950 establishments in Sierra Leone Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate