Destruction of the Sierra Leone railway

The destruction of the Sierra Leone railway, attributed to Siaka Stevens, was intended to isolate Mendeland. The book presents the act as part of a wider pattern in which political power can restrict economic connections and help preserve extractive institutions.

The Railway and Political Isolation

In discussing post-independence Sierra Leone, the book notes that interpretations differ over why Siaka Stevens pulled up the railway line. It follows the interpretation that the purpose was to isolate Mendeland. The railway’s removal is therefore described not merely as damage to infrastructure but as a political measure that cut a region off from a means of connection.

Institutional Consequences

The account places the railway episode within a broader analysis of how extractive political and economic institutions persist. Those who benefit from the existing order can use political power to obstruct change and protect their position; restricting connections may serve that purpose by limiting opportunities beyond the reach of the ruling elite. The railway’s removal is a specific example cited in the discussion of Stevens’s regime, though the evidence does not detail its immediate economic effects or the precise process by which isolation was enforced.

A Wider Pattern of Constrained Development

The book contrasts the restriction of economic activity with cases in which trade and new economic opportunities altered political balances. Its account of Atlantic trade, for example, explains how new commercial opportunities strengthened groups outside the English Crown’s control, while European colonial expansion elsewhere imposed or reinforced extractive arrangements and curtailed local development. Against that comparative background, the railway episode belongs to a recurring argument: control over economic connections can shape who benefits from commerce and whether institutions become more inclusive or remain extractive.

Historical Significance

The book does not treat Sierra Leone’s railway as an isolated explanation for the country’s development. Instead, it mentions the act in a wider account of institutional persistence, alongside the political uses of marketing boards and other instruments of economic control. The episode’s significance lies in its illustration of a broader mechanism: political authorities can constrain the movement and opportunities that might otherwise support economic activity, helping to sustain an unequal institutional order.