In the lush garden of the British High Commission in Sierra Leone, the UK foreign secretary James Cleverly addressed a gathering of mostly female politicians, campaigners and entrepreneurs: “You cannot have a successful country without successful women. The future of this country rests on the shoulders of strong, powerful women. You are the future of this country.”
It was International Women’s Day and Cleverly’s speech last week was the culmination of a whistlestop tour of his late mother’s birthplace. Earlier that day he had been welcomed to the southern city of Bo, the second largest in the country, by hundreds of people riding motorbikes and wearing T-shirts bearing the message: “The people of Bo Town warmly welcome Rt Hon James Cleverly.” Car horns were honked, schoolchildren and brass bands lined the road, and anxious radio exchanges were going on between the official cars as Foreign Office staff worried about the delay to the tight schedule.
