papers from 1904 recorded that:
In the case of the Sierra Leone Railways the
Native Insurrection that broke out in February
1898 had the effect of completely stopping
the works and disorganizing the staff for
some time. The rebels descended upon the
railway, with the result that the entire staff had
to be withdrawn to Freetown … Rotifunk, now
situated upon the railways at 55 miles from
Freetown, was at that time completely in the
hands of the rebels.
In fact, Rotifunk was not on the planned railway line in
1894. The route was changed after the start of the rebellion,
so that instead of going to the northeast, it went south, via
Rotifunk and on to Bo, into Mendeland. The British wanted
quick access to Mendeland, the heart of the rebellion, and
to other potentially disruptive parts of the hinterland if other
rebellions were to flare up.
When Sierra Leone became independent in 1961, the
British handed power to Sir Milton Margai and his Sierra
Leone People’s Party (SLPP), which attracted support
primarily in the south, particularly Mendeland, and the east.
Sir Milton was followed as prime minister by his brother, Sir
Albert Margai, in 1964. In 1967 the SLPP narrowly lost a
hotly contested election to the opposition, the All People’s
Congress Party (APC), led by Siaka Stevens. Stevens was
a Limba, from the north, and the APC got most of their
support from northern ethnic groups, the Limba, the Temne,
and the Loko.
Though the railway to the south was initially designed by
the British to rule Sierra Leone, by 1967 its role was
economic, transporting most of the country’s exports:
coffee, cocoa, and diamonds. The farmers who grew
coffee and cocoa were Mende, and the railway was
Mendeland’s window to the world. Mendeland had voted
hugely for Albert Margai in the 1967 election. Stevens was
much more interested in holding on to power than
promoting Mendeland’s exports. His reasoning was simple:
whatever was good for the Mende was good for the SLPP,
and bad for Stevens. So he pulled up the railway line to