Growing International Concerns Over Safety of Sierra Leonean Historian and Journalist

By Anne B. Wallis
International human rights groups and press freedom organizations have continued to raise concerns for the safety of Sierra Leonean historian and journalist, Dr. Chernoh Alpha M. Bah.

The American Historical Association (AHA) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) are among the list of press and academic freedom organizations to recently condemn the threats and harassment Bah has faced in the last four years. In recent years, US State Department officials have also engaged Bah to fully understand the situation and to help ensure his safety within the United States. Bah has appealed to the State Department to further pressure Sierra Leone to ensure his safety if he returns to his home country.

The organizations say they are concerned that Sierra Leonean political figures and their supporters have continuously harassed Bah and are “preventing him from returning to his country and hindering his academic research and journalistic work.”

These new developments follow an open letter of support signed by about 200 academics from universities in Europe, United States, Africa, and Asia denouncing death threats and harassment orchestrated against Bah. The academics say the attacks “constitute a clear assault on journalistic freedom [and] go to the heart of principles of academic freedom.”

The academics say Bah needs to be able to carry out his postdoctoral research in his home country without hindrance and they are demanding that Sierra Leone’s government and political leaders “extend all reasonable guarantees of safety from harm that could result from Bah’s pursuit of his research in his home country.”

The letter of support, which has received the endorsement of leading academics in humanities and social science disciplines around the world, has not been signed by any Sierra Leonean academic, either expatriate or in the country, revealing the depth of collective hostility against Bah and Africanist Press among the country’s political elites and professional groups. Some argue that it reflects the fears that fellow academics likely have of becoming similar targets of the Bio regime.

“My only crime is that I published financial and other public records showing how politicians and other professionals have used their public offices to steal public funds,” Bah wrote in August 2023, adding “my insistence on seeking transparency and accountability in the way government officials have operated in the country has earned me more enemies among the elites in Sierra Leone.”

Bah is editor-in-chief of the Africanist Press, an independent media organization founded in December 2002 to combat corruption and promote democracy and free speech in Africa. In addition to being a journalist, Bah is also a historian and specializes in West Africa’s medical, economic, and legal history. He was recently appointed postdoctoral research associate at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs after spending seven years at Northwestern University’s history department, first as a doctoral student and then as postdoctoral fellow in public service at the Chabraja Center for Historical Studies where he completed a PhD in history in 2023.

Since March 2020, Bah has been a target of death threats and cyber harassment from political figures for his investigation into financial crime and corruption involving senior government officials in Sierra Leone. The attacks, which have lasted for four years, emanated from investigative reports published by Africanist Press relating to unexplained wealth involving Sierra Leonean government officials, including current president Julius Maada Bio and his spouse, who allegedly spent 7.89 billion Leones (more than US$750,000) of public funds on personal shopping, according to one of the reports. Another report also detailed how President Bio and First Lady Fatima Bio cumulatively withdrew over Le71.4 billion (about US$8 million) as international travel per diem in FY2022 violating the country’s legal procedures. The reports also included revelations relating to misappropriation of public election funds by the country’s electoral commission, and how opposition parties and parliament compromised the June 2023 Sierra Leone elections.

The reports sparked a far-reaching conversation on issues of democratic governance and financial corruption in Sierra Leone and beyond. In retaliation, Bah was targeted by Sierra Leonean government officials and their allied groups, receiving death threats and cyber harassment from known government operatives ever since Africanist Press commenced publication of the investigative reports in March 2020. In 2021, for instance, the Central Bank of Sierra Leone wrote to the Ministry of Justice to initiate legal proceedings against Bah and his media for allegedly publishing confidential information. It is still unclear whether an arrest warrant was issued but a year later, Sierra Leone’s Office of National Security (ONS) also expressed concern “about the repercussions of Africanist Press articles on the peace and stability of the country,” in a letter to the Independent Media Commission (IMC), Sierra Leone’s media regulator.

In December 2022, Africanist Press reported that politicians hired foreign agents who helped stage several violent incidents in Sierra Leone between April and August 2022 with an intent to associate such violence with Africanist Press and falsely stated that the press organization is an outfit run by dissident elements.

“Sierra Leonean politicians and their allies went so far as to independently orchestrate violence, and to try to use such acts to convince foreign governments that Africanist Press is an agent of instability and insurrection in Sierra Leone,” Bah said.

These acts of violence include a pseudo-strike by a supposed splinter group of teachers who claimed they were inspired by Africanist Press reports to demand better wages from government, and a similar protest in August 2022 over alleged cost of living difficulties. An Africanist Press investigation discovered that both events, and subsequent incidents of violence that occurred in Sierra Leone in late 2023, were orchestrated by state actors and allied opposition groups, mostly to implicate Bah and other Africanist Press writers.

Since April 2022, Bah has spoken openly on the extent of state-orchestrated violence in Sierra Leone, and the accusations of treason and incitement that continue to prevent him from returning to Sierra Leone to continue his work there. In 2023, Bah volunteered to help reignite the almost defunct Department of History at Fourah Bay College, the main campus of the University of Sierra Leone. Bah has received no response to his offer to voluntarily teach at the department, despite his doctoral credentials from Northwestern University and the backing of other American historians.

Human rights organizations and press freedom advocates, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), have all condemned the attacks and harassment, and called for global solidarity in defense of Bah and the Africanist Press.

In its statement, RSF called “on the authorities to not just investigate these threats but provide guarantees that Bah will be able to resume his work in Sierra Leone in complete safety.”

RSF is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, founded in 1988 to defend press freedom and safeguard the right to freedom of information. “Publishing investigations into the country’s governance should never lead to backlash against this investigative journalist or journalism in general,” Director of RSF’s Sub-Saharan Africa Desk, Sadibou Marong said, adding that Sierra Leonean authorities “should recognize and respect Bah’s right to inform the public and do his job instead of seeing him as a voice to be silenced.”

Last week, the American Historical Association (AHA) also urged “Sierra Leone’s government to cease threatening Bah and protect him from harassment and violence as it would any other citizen.” In a letter to Sierra Leone’s president, Julius Maada Bio, AHA said the threats Bah has faced “represent a clear violation of his freedom to pursue historical scholarship.”

Founded in 1884, the AHA is the largest organization of professional historians in the world, with nearly 11,000 members spanning the globe. The organization works to protect academic freedom, develop professional standards for historians, and support scholarship and innovative teaching of history.

“On behalf of this international network of scholars, we respectfully urge Sierra Leone’s government to cease threatening Bah and protect him from harassment and violence as it would any other citizen,” AHA’s Executive Director, Professor James R. Grossman, wrote to President Bio.

RSF and AHA are not the only organizations that have openly denounced the ongoing attacks and harassment directed against Bah. Other organizations, including Northwestern University, the Committee of Concerned Scientists (CCS), the Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW), Scholars At Risk (SAR), the Network of Concerned Historians (NCH), the Royal Netherlands Historical Society, and Historians Without Borders (HWB), have all issued similar statements denouncing the attacks on Bah and the Africanist Press.

In late July, CCS also sent a letter to the State Department requesting the intervention of United States Secretary of State, Anthony John Blinken in Bah’s situation. The group of scientists say they want Secretary Blinken to obtain a guarantee from Sierra Leone that “Bah’s life would not be in danger if he returned to his country.”

“We hope that you will be able to use the friendly relationship, including financial support, between Sierra Leone and the U.S. towards this aim,” the Committee wrote in its letter. It is unknown if State Department officials have acted on the request.

In August 2023, Bah had also sent similar request to the State Department.

“The United States, as a leading partner of the government of Sierra Leone, has an obligation to ensure that its continuous engagement with the government of Sierra Leone involves safeguarding the fundamental rights of Sierra Leonean citizens, including the right to free speech and freedom of the press,” Bah noted in the letter.

Africanist Press editors have submitted appeals to several human rights organizations asking them to impress upon US State Department officials in charge of US-Sierra Leone relations the need to protect free speech and academic freedom in Sierra Leone.

Dr. Anne B. Wallis is Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health at the University of Louisville, and Director of Publication and Health Editor for the Africanist Press.