Emmanuel Cole (1908–1972) was a Sierra Leonean soldier who organised a strike against poor treatment in 1939.
Emmanuel Cole was born in 1908 in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone to poor Creole parents.
After he graduated from secondary school in 1926, he immediately joined the Royal West African Frontier Force at the age of eighteen.
[citation needed] In January 1939, Cole convinced a group of his fellow Sierra Leonean soldiers to join him in sending a letter of protest to their commanding officer, complaining that their pay was not enough to meet expenses.
[citation needed] Cole and his fellow soldiers were charged with mutiny, a crime carrying severe punishment under the military code.