This groundbreaking volume explores the history of Muslim Fula business elites' participation in the post-independence politics of Sierra Leone. One of the country's main entrepreneurial groups, the Fula are also part of a largerIslamic presence in West Africa, extending from Senegal to Cameroon. Author Alusine Jalloh examines Fula political relationships with the successive governments of Sierra Leone following independence in 1961: first, with the Sierra Leone People's Party during the prime ministership of the brothers Dr. Milton A. S. Margai and Albert M. Margai, and later with the All People's Congress under the leadership of Siaka P. Stevens and Joseph S. Momoh. The study ends with the ouster in 1992 of President Momoh in a military coup.

Using the lens of business history, this important work expands on the themes of immigration and ethnicity, and treats such issues as the rivalry betweenSierra Leonean-born Fula and those born in Guinea, the intersection of Fula business elites and the development of Islam in Sierra Leone, and relations between Sierra Leone and Guinea. The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of the business, Islamic, and political history of Sierra Leone, as well as those interested in global business history and ethnic history.

Alusine Jalloh is Associate Professor of history and founding director of the Africa Program at the University of Texas at Arlington.