ABSTRACT
The “political pragmatism” and “cosy legislative counsel” of a fading empire had inevitably to give way to the wishes of the people. Africanization, as a sociological term, is concerned with the socialized reforms of governmental interventions. In the former protectorate of Sierra Leone, political independence exposed the extractive nature of colonial rule, and the contradictions of the capitalist economy it introduced in the 1830s. The colonial administration had not seen the need to use Sierra Leone’s plentiful rain and cultivable land to develop a vibrant agricultural sector; instead, if the forest was to be of any use, it was in feeding into the political economy of European-owned timber companies. In criminal cases, jurisidction was limited to matters “where the maximum punishment which may be imposed does not exceed a fine of fifty pounds or imprisonment for a period of six months or both such fine and such imprisonment”.
