Siaka Stevens Greets OAU Heads of State | Liberia's Mst. Sgt. Samuel Doe Not Invited | July 1980

Tuesday, July 1st 1980.
Footage of President Siaka Stevens of Sierra Leone greeting arriving Heads of State to an OAU summit in Freetown. These included Ahmadou Ahidjo of Cameroon, Hilla Limann of Ghana, Sekou Toure of Guinea, and Samora Machel of Mozambique. The UN Secretary General, Mr. Kurt Waldheim was also present.
Up for discussion were ecomic issues affecting the African continent, a peacekeeping force in Chad, the situation in Namibia and whether the Polisario Front of the Western Sahara should be given a seat wihin the organisation,
Apart from the shunning of Master Seargent Doe who had overthrown President William Tolbert earlier in the year and Morocco's threat to leave the OAU if the Polisario Front was given a seat, the summit was controversial because debt-ridden Sierra Leone was spending £65 million (Sterling) to host it.
Source: Reuters News Archive.
See:
SIERRA LEONE: From Athens to an Ill-Run Sparta: Corruption and repression in the realm of "the Pa" www.sierraherald.com/time-arti...
A Time Magazine article which put the costs of the conference at $200 million. A prescient sentence read: "Sierra Leone under Stevens is like Liberia under Tolbert: a time bomb waiting to explode." Also revealing was a Western diplomat's comment that "Stevens often confuses the national bank account with his own."

[@adedaramy1980]

Adeyinka Makinde, as a history buff, I have to give you a massive thumbs-up for the stuff you've been posting; not just about my own country, Sierra Leone, but, all the others, too. I lived through a lot of what is captured here and, watching the videos, it is comforting to know my memory did not betray me. Wonderful stuff!

[@sthenrymary]

Leaders who came to chop, not to serve. Our people come out in droves to welcome criminals.

[@rorojara001]

Criminals? Did you know the situation of these countries and what these men have do for them? The Roads, the Schools, the Hospitals, the first Programs of Public housing. All of them, Skeou Touré, Ahidjo, Stevens, Tolbert. If these men were not in that moment, Africa will be nothing.

[@youssefcamara3916]

Merci beaucoup mon ami. C’était, malheureusement le début des problèmes économiques et d’ordre sociaux pour la Sierra Leone. Sadly, the same thing happened in the neighboring Liberia that ultimately cost the late president Tolbert his life.

[@JJ_Goldman]

I have seen Ahmadou Ahidjo of Cameroon,
Dr Hilla Liman of Ghana (paix à son âme)
Ahmed Sekou Touré (le fameux Camp Boiro)
Samora Machel...

[@nfalytraore6954]

Rip in peace to all of them

[@derekbell4641]

Was that Kurt Waldheim at the end - Sec Gen of the U..N in those days?

[@youssefcamara3916]

Did I actually recognized the late president Sékou Touré in white cap next to the late president Tolbert.

[@daddycool2497]

President Sekou Toure and President Siaka Stevens

[@alphonse-josephdegbahou2906]

President Tolbert could not be in this footage. He was already dead and and Samuel K. Doe was in power.

[@alhandeen474]

No.

[@anthonykoffa8824]

See how time flies. Present leaders should follow up with them and learn from their mistakes. Oh Africa. Foolish leaderships

[@mottieinnis7137]

Those days... Dignity, protocol, It clearly appears officials knew what they were doing. Not perfect, but better. 🌍🇱🇷✅👍🏾