Siaka Stevens was a Sierra Leonean political leader who founded the All People’s Congress in 1960 and became the principal opposition figure after independence. His party drew especially on support from the Northern Province and won 16 of 62 seats in the 1962 election. After a sequence of military interventions, exile, and a counter-coup, Stevens returned as prime minister in 1968. He later became constitutional and then executive president and established a one-party state.
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The Story
Stevens founded the All People’s Congress in 1960 as a radical democratic party that was tied neither to chiefs nor to the wealthy and influential. Its leaders were generally younger than those of the Sierra Leone People’s Party, and the party later adopted a somewhat vague socialist ideology. Its strongest distinctive feature was regional: many of its leaders came from the Northern Province, whereas SLPP leaders came from the south.
The APC won 16 of the 62 seats in the 1962 election, giving Stevens an effective opposition platform and some support in the south. He became mayor of Freetown after the APC won the city council elections in 1964. In 1967, despite abuses in the general election and a very close result, the governor-general appointed Stevens prime minister, judging him more likely than Sir Albert Margai to command a majority.
Stevens’s assumption of office was blocked by military intervention. Brigadier Lansana declared martial law, and Stevens and his lieutenants were confined by the army; subsequent military changes briefly detained him and sent him into exile in London and Guinea. A counter-coup organised by private soldiers in April 1968 overthrew the military regime and enabled Stevens to return as prime minister. In 1971, after an abortive coup, he became first constitutional and then executive president; he later established a one-party state.
Siaka Stevens was a Sierra Leonean political leader who founded the All People’s Congress in 1960 and became the principal opposition figure after independence. His party drew especially on support from the Northern Province and won 16 of 62 seats in the 1962 election. After a sequence of military interventions, exile, and a counter-coup, Stevens returned as prime minister in 1968. He later became constitutional and then executive president and established a one-party state.
Continue exploring
The Story
Stevens founded the All People’s Congress in 1960 as a radical democratic party that was tied neither to chiefs nor to the wealthy and influential. Its leaders were generally younger than those of the Sierra Leone People’s Party, and the party later adopted a somewhat vague socialist ideology. Its strongest distinctive feature was regional: many of its leaders came from the Northern Province, whereas SLPP leaders came from the south.
The APC won 16 of the 62 seats in the 1962 election, giving Stevens an effective opposition platform and some support in the south. He became mayor of Freetown after the APC won the city council elections in 1964. In 1967, despite abuses in the general election and a very close result, the governor-general appointed Stevens prime minister, judging him more likely than Sir Albert Margai to command a majority.
Stevens’s assumption of office was blocked by military intervention. Brigadier Lansana declared martial law, and Stevens and his lieutenants were confined by the army; subsequent military changes briefly detained him and sent him into exile in London and Guinea. A counter-coup organised by private soldiers in April 1968 overthrew the military regime and enabled Stevens to return as prime minister. In 1971, after an abortive coup, he became first constitutional and then executive president; he later established a one-party state.
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