John Karefa-Smart
John Albert Musselman Karefa - Smart ( born 1915 in Rotifunk; † August 26, 2010 in Freetown ) was a physician, university teacher and politician from Sierra Leone. He was from 1961 to 1964 the first foreign minister of the country.
Biography
Study, high school teachers and ministers
Karefa - Smart, who came from the people of the Bullom - Sherbro, studied after school education at Fourah Bay College and graduated in 1936 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA ) from. A subsequent post-graduate studies in medicine at Otterbein College in Westerville, he finished 1940 with a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc. ) and in 1944 with a Master of Surgery ( CM). Additional post-graduate studies at McGill University in Montreal, he finished with a diploma in tropical medicine in 1945 and a Master in Public Health (MPH ) in 1948 at Harvard University.
After his return to Africa, he was in 1949 first professor of medicine at the University of Ibadan, before he accepted in 1953 a reputation as a professor of medicine at Xavier University of Louisiana.
In 1957, he began his political career with election as a member of the Parliament of Sierra Leone that its internal self-government, and finally by the United Kingdom received the sovereignty within the framework of the Commonwealth of Nations the following year, on 27 April 1961. In Parliament he represented until 1964, the interests of the District Tonkolili.
After independence he was because of his education as a possible candidate for the office of Prime Minister. This office has been taken over by Milton Margai, while he was Minister of lands, mines and labor, and between April 1961 and April 1964 was Foreign Minister in the Cabinet itself. However, he was acting a few times during visits abroad and diseases Margais Prime Minister.
After the death Margais on April 28, 1964, he would be in accordance with the Constitution of the legitimate successor as Prime Minister, but there was a manipulation of the Constitution by the then ruling Sierra Leone People's Party ( SLPP ), so that the former Minister of Finance, Minister of Education, agriculture and natural and younger brother Milton Margais, Albert Margai, succeeded him as Prime Minister was.
Exile and presidential candidate in 1996 and 2002
Frustrated with this situation left Karefa Smart Sierra Leone and went again to the United States, where he was initially from 1964 to 1965 professor at Columbia University. After a subsequent activity as of assistive General of the World Health Organization ( WHO) in Geneva in 1970, he returned to Sierra Leone back.
With the help of other political leaders such as Mohamed Sorie Forna and Brigadier General Ibrahim Bash - Taqi, who had resigned from the All People's Congress ( APC) led by Prime Minister Siaka Stevens, he founded the United Democratic Party (UDP ) is a widely supported party to the way was Siaka Stevens to defeat. The UDP was the party with the largest growth in membership that has ever been established in Sierra Leone. After Stevens realized the wave of support for the UDP and Karefa smart, he ordered the banning of the party on charges of spreading chaos in the country. Following several leaders of the UDP were arrested while Karefa Smart himself was forced to leave the country again and to go into exile.
Between 1971 and 1981 he was Professor of Medicine at Harvard University, and from 1972 to 1977 at the same time at Boston University. In addition, he was also a professor of medicine at Wellesley College in 1974 and from 1980 to 1983 at Howard University.
Although he stayed about a quarter of a century in exile, he gave his political commitment for Sierra Leone not to and returned in 1996 go back there and was for the United National People's Party ( UNPP ) candidate in the first presidential election after years of military dictatorship. In the first round he was prior to the subsequent election winner and the SLPP candidate Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, but this was not clear enough hit to avoid a second ballot. In this he was ultimately losers against one of SLPP and the People's Democratic Party (PDP SORBEH ) formed coalition. Prior to the presidential candidacy he was himself been offered for the SLPP, but he refused because of the 1964 crimes committed by this manipulation of the Constitution is intended, so that the previously politically unknown Ahmad Tejan Kabbah presidential candidate of the SLPP and after the election victory against Karefa Smart successor of General Julius Maada Bio as head of State.
In the presidential elections, he was again the candidate of the UNPP, defeated but this time with only 1.0 percent of the vote significantly, while President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was re-elected with 70.1 percent. APC candidate, Ernest Koroma scored in second place 22.4 percent before Johnny Paul Koroma of the Peace and Liberation Party (PLP ) with 3.0 percent and Pallo Bangura Alimamy, the candidate of the Revolutionary United Front, with 1.7 percent of the vote.
At the time of his death was John Karefa - smart the last surviving leaders of the fathers of independence Sierra Leon Herbert Bankole -Bright, ITA Wallace - Johnson, Ibrahim Bash - Taqi, Mohamed Forna Sorie, Luseni AM Brewah, Salia Jusu Sheriff, Siaka Stevens, Sorie Ibrahim Koroma, RES Lagawo, Mannah Kpaka and others.
Publications
- 2009: Rainbow Happenings: A Memoir. Xlibris Corp. , USA, ISBN 978-1-441501677.