- Sierra Leone is among the poorest countries in the world. In the 1990s, when other African countries were privatizing key industries in order to attract foreign investment and become eligible for international loans, a civil war was raging in Sierra Leone that prevented the country from taking part in the controversial structural adjustment programs initiated by the World Bank and the Inter-national Monetary Fund.
- Sources say that the country, eager to catch up, has been rushing into deals with foreign investors without first enacting legislation to protect the interests of local landowners. In 2011, Socfin entered into a 50-year land lease agreement with the Sierra Leonean government and local authorities, which was soon followed by two more agreements. In less than 10 years, the forest and farmland around the chiefdom of Sahn Malen was transformed into thousands of hectares of monoculture oil palm fields.
- Reception to the plantation has been divided. Some area residents say they welcome the jobs and income the company provides. But others allege the deal with Socfin was exploitative and corrupt.
- A leaked government report from 2019 found several irregularities surrounding Socfin’s Sahn Malen operations, including a concession area on the ground that’s larger than what is stipulated in the lease agreements and evidence of financial mismanagement by local authorities.
SAHN, Sierra Leone — The day they came, Margaret Fascia was in her forest garden of cocoa trees, pineapple plants, palms, ferns and cassavas. Like most days of the week, she was working, looking after the crops that feed her family. But she was afraid. Word had gotten around that a foreign company was going to take their land.
And when they came, they came with a bulldozer.
“I stood in front of the machine,” Fascia said. “ ‘Peep peep peep’ made the bulldozer as it came right up to my foot. I didn’t move. So they stopped there. They don’t touch my palm trees.”
Fascia is a woman of around 50, who was recounting the story as she was standing in the middle of her garden, wearing a ripped turquoise shirt and a blanket around her waist. She is an exception in the Chiefdom of Sahn Malen in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone, because, unlike the majority of people here, she still owns a few acres of land. Most others either gave theirs up voluntarily or lost it in 2011 when the company Société Financière des Caoutchoucs (Socfin) arrived in the province to establish a large oil palm plantation.
Sierra Leone is among the poorest countries in the world. In the 1990s, when other African countries were privatizing key industries in order to attract foreign investment and become eligible for international loans, a civil war was raging in Sierra Leone that prevented the country from taking part in the controversial structural adjustment programs initiated by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Sources say that the country, eager…
Read More: ‘They took it over by force’: Corruption and palm oil in Sierra Leone
