Transformation in Transition

This is an interesting and useful memoir by a Sierra Leonean diplomat with 37 years of active public life spanning the period of decolonization and almost three decades of Sierra Leone’s independence. George Coleridge Taylor served under the governments of Sir Milton Margai, our first Prime Minister, Albert Margai, Juxon-Smith, Siaka Stevens and Joseph Momoh. Even when he retired in 1987, he was engaged in various capacities by the governments of the NPRC, Tejan Kabbah and the current President Ernest Koroma. There are not many Sierra Leoneans alive today with this rich public service experience covering virtually our post-colonial experience. What he has to say about his life should therefore be of immense interest to Sierra Leoneans and the world at large. The manuscript discusses not only his work experience, which covers many countries where he served as a diplomat or attended meetings, but also his early life as a child in Freetown, as well as his university education at FBC in Sierra Leone and Durham in the UK where he excelled in the art of debating.