Milton Margai

Half Cent coin with portrait of Milton Margai (1964)

Sir Milton Augustus Strieby Margai (born December 7, 1895 in Gbangbatoke , † April 28, 1964 in Freetown ) was Chief Minister of the British Protectorate of Sierra Leone , Prime Minister of the British Protectorate and first Prime Minister of Sierra Leone . His term of office is considered a period of prosperity.

Life

Milton Margai was born in the Moyamba district and graduated from Newcastle Medical School in Great Britain before returning to Sierra Leone in 1928 . Immediately after his return he took up a job in the administration of the Protectorate . In 1949 he founded the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) together with Siaka Stevens , who won the elections in 1951. After he was chairman of the Ministry of Health, Agriculture and Forestry, he was appointed chief minister in 1954. In 1958 his brother Albert Margai surrenderedagainst him in internal party elections. Albert Margai renounced the party chairmanship and founded his own party, which in 1960 formed a coalition with the SLPP.

For the next two years, Margai was in charge of drafting a constitution. In 1958 he became Prime Minister. In 1959 Elizabeth II raised him to the nobility as a Knight Bachelor ("Sir"). With independence on April 27, 1961, Margai automatically became the first Prime Minister of the independent Sierra Leone. He was able to win the subsequent elections in 1962. Margai died in Freetown in 1964. He was succeeded by his brother Albert Margai .

After Margai was Milton Margai College in Sierra Leone named.

Web links

• Sierra Leone People's Party Official Biography ( Memento from January 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
• Magbaily C. Fyle: Historical Dictionary of Sierra Leone . Scarecrow Press, March 27, 2006, ISBN 978-0-8108-6504-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Knights and Dames: MA – MIF at Leigh Rayment's Peerage