ABSTRACT
There are a total of 18 ethnic groups in Sierra Leone, each with a distinct version of the country's history. The largest group is the Mende, based in the southern and eastern provinces and embodying approximately one-third of the population. Throughout Sierra Leone's history, these ethnic chiefdoms and strong communities have been of paramount importance. The strong ethnic communities resulting from this approach reinforce the importance of kinship bonds and support weaker individuals. The history of Sierra Leone has long been a turbulent one, with numerous chronicles of invasion, slavery and civil war. Like many African populations, the people of Sierra Leone have an extended history, with archaeological and linguistic evidence indicating that humans have populated the region for thousands of years. After many years of intra-African migration, it was not until the fifteenth century that the term Sierra Leone first became associated with the region.
