Immigration, politics, and business often intersected in colonial and postcolonial Sierra Leone. In fact, since the immediate postindependence period, immigration proved to be a quagmire that bedeviled the administrations of the two dominant political parties in Sierra Leone: the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) and All Peoples Congress (APC). Given this, Alusine Jalloh's book Muslim Fula Business Elites and Politics in Sierra Leone is a significant addition to the scholarship on African business history. Using a variety of data sources, Jalloh analyzes the socioeconomic activities of those he describes as “Fula” and their role in shaping Sierra Leone's immigration and economic policies. The book reveals that the administrations of both the SLPP under the leadership of Sir Milton Margai and his successor and brother Sir Albert Margai and the APC led by Siaka Stevens and Joseph Momoh did not have a consistent immigration policy in spite of their rhetorical proclamations. The author highlights the pertinacious efforts of Fula immigrants and their allies in undermining strict enforcement of the ad hoc immigration policies adopted by the SLPP and APC administrations.

The book is divided into two parts and four chapters. The first part examines the relationship between the administration of Sirs Milton and Albert Margai and the Fula community, while the second part highlights the alliance between Fula business elites and the governments of Stevens and Momoh. During the colonial and postcolonial periods, large numbers of immigrants from the Gambia, Senegal, Mali, and particularly Guinea flocked to Sierra Leone in search of economic opportunities. Many of these immigrants settled in Kono District, home of Sierra Leone's largest diamond deposits. A significant number of these immigrants, described as “foreign-born Fula,” together with those referred to as “Sierra Leonean–born Fula” tenaciously engaged in licit and illicit diamond mining. Ergo, the substantial proceeds accrued from mining diamonds and other commercial activities, such as trading in livestock and operating commercial motor vehicles, catapulted some of them to elite status. Using their economic clout, they became an effective interest group that lobbied government functionaries and other power brokers to adopt policies that tilted in their favor. Consequently, Fula elites became active in politics, and many attained top-level positions in both the SLPP and APC governments. As government functionaries, they helped shape policies that protected their business interests, although some of the less influential among them, especially those deemed illegal immigrants, suffered harassment and deportations.

Outside the realm of politics, the Fula community contributed to the spread of Islam in Sierra Leone by establishing Islamic educational and social institutions to enhance this objective. It is beyond doubt that the exertions of the Fula community in promulgating Islam contributed to the entrenchment of the religion's principles in Sierra Leone.

In short, the author microanalytically shows that the Fula used their success in business to overtly and furtively influence Sierra Leone's economic and political trajectory in the postindependence period. The book also exposes the venality inherent in both the SLPP and APC administrations and speaks to the source of Sierra Leone's current socioeconomic and political frailty. Finally, the author meticulously spotlights the efforts of Sirs Milton and Albert Margai and Siaka Stevens in nurturing the inchoate relationship between Sierra Leone and her strong northern neighbor, Guinea, especially in the security and immigration sectors in the immediate postcolonial period.

Notwithstanding the above, the value of the book would have been enhanced if the author had fully engaged the historical literature by clearly demarcating his work from the works of other scholars he mentions in his introduction. Furthermore, the author fails to problematize the identity of those he refers to as “Fula,” “Krio,” and others. What did it mean to be Fula in Sierra Leone? Was the process of “being Fula” in postcolonial Sierra Leone the same as “being Fula” in Gambia, Senegal, and Guinea, as insinuated in the book? In other words, was Fula identity primordial or constructed? The author gives the impression that Fula identity was a given, though he denotes that tension existed between those portrayed as “native-born Fula” and “non-native-born Fula.” In short, it would have been helpful to know how Fula identity was determined. In addition, the author uses the term “Krio,” an apparent reference to descendants of former slaves and their associates who lived in colonial Freetown. The author does not engage recent scholarship that challenges the use of this compellation as an identity category. A careful examination of the historical sources indicates that the use of the term “Krio” as a horizontal identity in colonial and, by extension, postcolonial Sierra Leone is a misnomer. Recent scholarship has shown that no fixed Krio community existed in colonial Sierra Leone. Current scholarship substitutes the Krio appellative with “Freetonian” to describe progenies of former slaves. Freetonian is a geographic, not a cultural compellation and is more open-ended than any definition of Krio so far related.

Lastly, though the book makes occasional reference to the role of Fula women in the business community, a chapter on the activities of the Fula Women's Association—including the significant role women played in the Fula Progressive Union—would have augmented the value of the book. The work of Lynda Day, Gender and Power in Sierra Leone (2012), is particularly useful in delineating the contributions of women in the social and economic life of postcolonial Sierra Leone.

Methodologically, the book is rich in primary and secondary data sources—a highlight of its originality and notability in the production of historical knowledge on this vast and alluring topic.

All in all, the book is magnificently invaluable and efficacious in priming our understanding of the intersection of business, politics, and religion in postcolonial Sierra Leone. Clearly, Fula Muslim business elites proved to be a political and economic force to reckon with in Sierra Leone's postcolonial trajectory.