The Most Famous
WRITERS from Sierra Leone
This page contains a list of the greatest Sierra Leonean Writers. The pantheon dataset contains 7,302 Writers, 1 of which were born in Sierra Leone. This makes Sierra Leone the birth place of the 152nd most number of Writers behind Taiwan, and Yemen.
Top 2
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Sierra Leonean Writers of all time. This list of famous Sierra Leonean Writers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Fatima Massaquoi (1912 - 1978)
With an HPI of 32.82, Fatima Massaquoi is the most famous Sierra Leonean Writer. Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages on wikipedia.
Fatima Massaquoi-Fahnbulleh (; 25 December 1911 – 26 November 1978) was a Liberian writer and academic. After completing her education in the United States, she returned to Liberia in 1946, making significant contributions to the cultural and social life of the country. Born into a family of African royalty, Massaquoi grew up in the care of an aunt in Njagbacca, in the Garwula District of Grand Cape Mount County of southern Liberia. After seven years, she returned to the northwestern part of the country in Montserrado County, where she began her schooling. In 1922 she accompanied her father, a diplomat, to Hamburg, Germany, where she completed her school education and started a course in biology at the University of Hamburg. In 1937 she moved to the United States for further education, studying sociology and anthropology at Lane College, Fisk University and Boston University. While in the US, she collaborated on a dictionary of the Vai language and wrote her autobiography, though a legal battle ensued over the rights to her story. She won an injunction barring others from publishing it, and returned to Liberia in 1946, immediately beginning collaboration to establish a university there, which would become the University of Liberia. Committed to national cultural preservation and expansion, Massaquoi served as the director, later dean, of the Liberal Arts College and was the founding director of the Institute of African Studies. She co-founded the Society of Liberian Authors, helped abolish the practice of usurping African names for Westernized versions, and worked towards standardization of the Vai script. In the late 1960s, Vivian Seton, Massaquoi's daughter, had the autobiographical manuscript microfilmed for preservation. After Massaquoi's death, her writings and notes were rediscovered, edited and published in 2013 as The Autobiography of an African Princess.
2. Ishmael Beah (b. 1980)
With an HPI of 28.04, Ishmael Beah is the 2nd most famous Sierra Leonean Writer. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Ishmael Beah (born 23 November 1980) is a Sierra Leonean author and human rights activist who rose to fame with his acclaimed memoir, A Long Way Gone. His novel Radiance of Tomorrow was published in January 2014. His most recent novel Little Family was published in April 2020.
People
Pantheon has 2 people classified as Sierra Leonean writers born between 1912 and 1980. Of these 2, 1 (50.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Sierra Leonean writers include Ishmael Beah. The most famous deceased Sierra Leonean writers include Fatima Massaquoi. As of April 2024, 1 new Sierra Leonean writers have been added to Pantheon including Fatima Massaquoi.
