Christiana Thorpe
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Christiana Thorpe | |
|---|---|
| former Chief Electoral Commissioner of the Sierra Leone Electoral Commission | |
| Preceded by | James Jonah |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 16 August 1949 |
| Alma mater | University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland |
Dr. Christiana Ayoka Mary Thorpe (born 16 August 1949) is a former two-term Chief Electoral Commissioner and Chairperson of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) of Sierra Leone.[1] She is the first woman to serve as Chief Electoral Commissioner in the country's history.[2] She was also a Deputy Minister of Education in the 1990s. In March 2016, she was appointed a Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Technology,[3][4][5] though one source states that Parliamentary approval was still pending.[6]
Chriatiana Thorpe was born and raised in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in one of the country's poorest communities.[7] In 1952, Thorpe and her younger sister went to live with their grandmother in the poor neighbourhood of Kroo Bay. Her grandmother, who was a washerwoman and herbalist, had a significant influence on her. Thorpe and her sister were the only girls in the neighbourhood who went to school, and she enjoyed teaching other girls what she learned, discovering that she loved teaching.[8][9]
After completing secondary school, Christiana Thorpe left for Ireland to join the order of St. Joseph of Cluny, a convent in Ferbane, Ireland and became a nun.[10] She attended University College, Dublin and graduated with a joint degree in French and English in 1976,[11] followed by a master's and a Ph.D. in the British West Indies.[12]