JOURNAL OF THE
AFRICAN SOCIETY
VOL. XXV. NO. XCVII
OCTOBER, 1925
NOTE.—There are many subjects in Africa, such as Racial Characteristics,
Political and Industrial Conditions, Labour, Disease, Currency, Banking,
Education, »"H so on, about which information is imperfect and opinion
divided. On none of these complicated and difficult questions has Science
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said the last word. Under these circumstances it has been considered best
to allow those competent to form an opinion to express freely in this Journal
the conclusions at which they themselves have anived. /( must be clearly
understood that tie object of the Journal is to gather information, and that each
writer must be held responsible for his own views.
A VIEW OF THE COLONY OF
SIERRA LEONE
IN 1787 a party of close on four hundred freed negro slaves
collected in England were landed where Freetown now stands.
This was the beginning of the colony of Sierra Leone.
They received subsequent additions from the American
continent, and here, when a captured slave ship was condemned,
the human cargo was landed, swelling its population and form-
ing its principal stock. The colony was from an early date
well supplied with educational and other training facilities,
and new arrivals were as far as possible given land to farm.
The educated Creole population of the present day are the
descendants of this mixed population.
This is the modern history of Sierra Leone. There are
other glimpses of it in the past. It is fairly well depicted by
Ptolemy, the Alexandrian geographer, who finishes his more
detailed description of the west coast of Africa about here.
Some of his names can even be identified. The mountains
1 Vol. 25
2 JOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN fOCIETY
of the peninsula are named in the Latin version Deorum
Currus Mons, the modern name meaning Lion Mountain having
been given by the Portuguese. The Mandingo are indicated
inland; the Fula people under the name of Leucaethiopes or
White ^Ethiopians; perhaps the Perorsi may be the Gberese
(or Kpwesi) of the western part of Liberia; Capha Mons may
be Mount Kakulima; Purrus campus may reasonably be the
Poro bush of the Mende; and finally "gorilla," the name
which was given to the large ape of the region by the Cartha-
ginians who killed a number about here, may possibly be
derived from " Ngori," their Mende name.
Then there is a gap. We next hear of Sierra Leone when
re-discovered by the Portuguese and others in about the
fifteenth century; and the rivers of the present-day colony
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became the haunt of slave ships and the home of a flourishing
slave trade, and of some piracy as well. The ruined fort on
Bunce Island a few miles up the Rokelle river is a standing
monument of this trade. Other ruins exist on Plantain
Island, but Sierra Leone has nothing to show to compare with
the great forts along the Gold Coast.
That it is too small to have a great future, unless mineral
wealth be discovered, is the verdict one may now pass on
this colony. This is owing to the British Government having
decided, now years ago, that territorial expansion in this
part of Africa was not desirable. In consequence there exists
a magnificent natural harbour with insufficient territory
behind to give full effect to its capacity, while farther along the
coast great sums of money are still being expended to make
good the shortcomings of Nature there and create new ports.
Sierra Leone is an agreeable country to travel in during the
dry season, which lasts from November to April; and at the
time of my departure after a six months' visit the colony was
enthusiastically preparing for the approaching visit of H.R.H.
the Prince of Wales.
Within easy reach of Freetown (the capital and chief port)
there is scenery finer than any to be found in the other West
African colonies, except perhaps Cameroons. About half
the colony is hilly grass-land, and the other half covered
with jungle growth which has replaced the ancient forest, the
A VIEW OF THE COLONY OF SIERRA LEONE 3
latter being now only found in small patches and in more or
less inaccessible places. In the grass-land country is the
mountainous area which culminates in a peak of 6,000 feet;
and here the scenery is grand and the climate delightful.
The coastal region and that traversed by the railway are
well developed, but the greater part of the large northern pro-
vince is practically kept as a close elephant preserve.
If one can visit the right places in the colony at the right
time, good shooting can be had. Besides the elephants in
the north, which in former times used to come right down to
Freetown, there are many kinds of antelope, and also bird
life in great variety; but it is useless being there before the
grass is burnt in the month of January.
When one leaves the grass-land and comes south into the
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country of small bush, there is practically no shooting at all
to be had. The native hunter can get good results, but it
is not the hunting the average European will enjoy. Close
down to the coast, however, where there are low-lying grass
plains, land which during the rains is under water for miles,
bush-cow can be got after the grass is burnt, which is done
here in February.
From the zoological point of view perhaps the most interest-
ing species are the above-mentioned large apes—chimpanzees
—which are numerous and widely distributed. They are noted
for their tendency to attack children and even women. I saw
in the hospital at Pujehun, the headquarters of the southern
Province, a boy who had been very badly mauled by a chim-
panzee. For long these attacks were put down to the members
of the Baboon Society alone. Baboon, I may mention, is
the Creole English name for chimpanzee. The members of
this society were so successful in imitating their prototype
that they drew on themselves the credit for all attacks
made by apes. So many instances have, however, been
reported of the doings of these apes, both male and female,
that their ferocity is fully proved. Yet it is not a real perma-
nent ferocity, but a temporary phase produced by the oppor-
tunity offering itself. The commonest method of attack is
to throw the child down, stand over him or her, and tear the
face and private parts.
4 JOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN SOCIETY
These apes are reputed to do many things, including making
little dams of mud to catch fish. When one dies his friends
bury him under a heap of grass, leaves or branches, showing the
idea of burial not to be peculiar to the human race.
The northern grass-lands I have referred to were in former
days pasture for great herds of cattle, but they were all destroyed
or driven off by that destructive raider, Samory, some forty
or fifty years ago, and the country has never since been re-
stocked. The indigenous cattle are a small yellow-coloured
breed which is very hardy. They are easily domesticated,
and are used in Freetown to draw the sanitary carts. With
strict attention to their preservation it would not be difficult
in from ten to twenty years to have large herds roaming again
over these grass-lands. To introduce foreign stock is unneces-
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sary at present. Improvement of the breed can well wait
until the beasts have begun to multiply. At the present day
well over fifty thousand head are imported yearly from French
territory, representing so much cash going out of the colony,
for the only return trade, that of kola nuts, is comparatively
insignificant.
As for the rest of the colony, the principal export is oil-palm
products. The quantity of kernels exported greatly exceeds
that of the oil, the reason for which may be that, whereas the
kernels have no local use, the oil of the pericarp of the palm
nut is an important article of food, and is eaten with rice.
Rice is the staple food, and consists chiefly of " hill " rice, as
the numerous varieties of dry ground rice are called. To this
cultivation is assignable the destruction of the great forest
that in former days covered the country, and to the continued
destruction of which may further be assigned the steadily
decreasing rainfall, of which records have been kept for many
years in Freetown. In the southern part of the colony there
are places where you can climb a hill and look for miles, and
not see a single big tree. The undulating country is covered
with jungle growth of different age up to seven or more years.
In strict rotation of age the bush is cut down and burnt, and
the ground is then ready for sowing the rice.
Nevertheless, the quantity of rice grown is insufficient
for the population. To meet the deficiency the Government
\To (act p . <
A MENDE DWARF.
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PARAMOUNT CHIEF OF BAWOMA.
MADAME BANJA GERU,
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A VIEW OF THE COLONY OF SIERRA LEONE 5
has in recent years experimented with extending the cultivation
of swamp rice, which was never of wide extent, to the mangrove
swamps. These swamps, which from their first existence had
never been put to any use by man, now grow rich crops regularly,
and no period of rest has so far been found necessary for them,
since they are flooded daily by the tide.
The mangrove rice industry is still in its infancy, and questions
as to land tenure, never before dreamt of in native jurispru-
dence, have now arisen. In practice the chiefs have annexed
most of the swamp land for themselves.
This new cultivation is one of the things the Sierra Leone
Government has reason to be proud of. It is the only colony
I know of in which the Agricultural Department is allowed to
exercise any real influence, and the colony is feeling the benefit
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of it.
To put any spark of foresight into the African is difficult.
Every year when the new crop of rice comes in he gorges on
it, and sells it readily at five shillings a bushel. Six months
later he as regularly buys it back paying up to fifteen shillings a
bushel, and does his best with other food-stuffs sparingly grown
to eke out an existence till the next rice crop. It is at this
season, late in the rice year, that the multitude of slaves, of
whom I shall speak below, first begin to feel the pinch of hunger.
The difference in the money prices of rice has to be made
up, and this, together with the six shillings per annum levied
on every roof, is obtained chiefly by the preparation and sale
of the oil-palm products I have already mentioned. The other
principal products are ginger, in increasing demand by a teetotal
U.S.A., kola nuts, piassava made from two kinds of swamp
palms, which would otherwise only be used for house building
or other local purpose, and a few other things.
Exotic plants of economic value have been introduced,
such as cocoa and the coco-nut palm, besides coffee, which
is by origin a native of the African forest, and better kinds
of cotton. The country, however, has not sufficient population,
in view of the inefficiency of slave labour, to deal fully with its
rice and oil-palm growths, and unless these new importations
mature in the months when the farming strength, consisting
of both sexes, is comparatively free from the demands put upon
6 JOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN SOCIETY
it by its main crops, the advisability of introducing new eco-
nomic plants must be weighed with great deliberation.
Some ten principal peoples inhabit the colony, the most
important being the Creoles, the Mende and the Temne.
Education is well fostered, but as regards the Govern-
ment schools suffers from a shortage of European teaching
staff. Government and Missionary bodies of a great number
of sects all compete to turn the not too primitive native into
a better man, and the youth of the country can learn to speak
English as a Creole, or with a French, Alsatian or American
accent, to say nothing of Scotch or Irish. In practice they
all tend to merge their speech into Creole English, a language
which in all its purity has every other word of a non-English
origin, and the rest mutilated out of all recognition; and its
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syntax is pure African. It is unintelligible to the English
of England until they have learnt it. All the same one finds
very correct literary English written by educated men.
The combined influence of religion and education will no
doubt in time break down the old native practices, some of
which have a bad reputation, especially certain of the secret
societies. The latter are the rallying-ground of all that is
primitive in the people, and their influence can very distinctly
be used for evil. It is at least a most satisfactory sign that
Christianised parents are often refusing to allow their children
to join these societies.
Nevertheless these societies play a great part from the
spectacular point of view in the social life of the people, which
is generally harmless. During the dry season the dressed-up
personages, of which each society has its own, parade the towns
and dance to the beating of drums, and the youthful initiates,
fresh from the performance of puberty rites, give their perform-
ances. By the full moon the song and dance continues till
the sun rises.
The Poro, the great secret society of the Mende, performs
the rites pertaining to the initiation of the boys into manhood.
They include circumcision, though in other tribes this may be
done at an earlier age. The boys live in seclusion for about
six months, when they are given a general course of instruction
which includes singing, dancing, story-telling, acrobatic feats,
A VIEW OF THE COLONY OF SIERRA LEONE J
etc. For those who desire it the course may be continued for
six years, when the youth will have acquired all the lore that
the nation can impart.
There is another side to Poro. It constitutes the connecting
link, and a by no means feeble one, between all the independent
chiefdoms of the Mende people, and all the paramount chiefs
must obey when the secret heads of the society give their
decision. No Mende chief would long survive disobedience
to Poro. It has powers of war and powers of peace, and of life
and of death, and all its decisions are secret. To say that all
these powers are always exercised wisely would not be reason-
able. In recent years, since a protectorate has been declared
over the country, the Government has more than once had to
check Poro by ordinance. The 1898 rising, if not conceived
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by Poro, was at least put into execution by it.
The society that deals with the initiation of the girls is the
Bundu. The period of seclusion is six months. The girls
have an operation performed on them, and are trained in all
the duties of a good wife, as well as singing and dancing. There
is also a higher education to which any of them can go on.
They are often betrothed before going into Bundu and married
when they come out.
Whilst Poro is not in all the tribes of Sierra Leone, Bundu
is, and where Poro is wanting the rites of puberty are performed
on the boys in a male branch of Bundu.
Besides these administrative and educational societies
there are other secret societies, in which witchcraft enters.
These are principally societies taking their names from wild
animals, as the Leopard, the Ape, the Python and the Crocodile
(Leopard, Baboon, Boa, and Alligator are their names in Creole
English). Murder enters into all of them, and cannibalism
as well. These societies are not organised entities which when
once stamped out disappear. Their only qualification or rule
being imitation of their prototype, they can spring up anywhere
independently. The sporadic growths can join together, or
remain distinct as they please. As long as the tradition of
them remains, they can come to life to meet any new local
animosity.
So successful have some of these societies been that cases
8 JOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN SOCIETY
of death really due to the animals themselves have been put
down to human beings, and fitting penalties have ensued.
Witnesses have so hypnotised themselves with the idea that
a human being can change at will into an animalt that they
have not known what evidence they were giving, and whether
it was a man or an animal they saw.
The Poro Society makes special provision for the admission
of Muhammadans, and there is a separate lodge for persons
of that religion; but similar provision has not yet been evolved
for Christians. In all these societies, while the Muhammadan
may have a place, the Christian has none, though many of the
latter whose position is doubtful may no doubt exist in the
societies.
Administration in the small area of the colony proper is
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by the direct method. In the so-called Protectorate it is by
the indirect method, with the exception that natives of the
colony proper and strangers do not come under the authority
of the native chiefs. Sierra Leone is fortunate in not having
any big chiefs with large territories. This colony is already
at the stage that other colonies with big chiefs will eventually
have to arrive at. The two to three hundred paramount chiefs
in Sierra Leone have only a small territory belonging to each,
and were freedom of movement permitted, any chief who ruled
corruptly would soon be abandoned by his people unless he
mended his ways.
A feature found commonly in Mende country, and not
unknown in neighbouring tribes, though rare generally in
Africa, is that there are female chiefs, most of whom are quite
efficient.
Before I visited the colony I had been well aware that
slavery existed, but I thought it insignificant. After careful
study I felt I must put the slave population at a third of
the total of the Protectorate. With slavery sanctioned by
the Government as an institution, it is only to be expected
that vh"; transfer of slaves takes place. In fact in parts of
the colony the slave trade is quite active, in spite of being
illegal, though the holding of slaves is not. No previous
Governor, so far as I can ascertain, has tackled this problem
beyond allowing slaves to buy their freedom at four pounds
fro face t>. 8
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PARAMOUNT CHIEF KAIKAZOKO
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A VIEW OF THE COLONY OF SIERRA LEONE O,
each. In the flourishing central province the annual number
that do so averages about two hundred and forty, an indication
that at least some of the slaves prefer freedom.
Had such a proclamation been made as Sir Frederick Lugard
made in Northern Nigeria early in the century, at least there
would no longer be persons at the present day being born into
slavery. The inheritance of slaves by an heir with the other
personal effects of his father might also long since have been
made illegal.
Still, because the administration is " indirect," slavery
continues to flourish. It is far from creditable to the name of
Sierra Leone, which over a hundred years ago first stood for
freedom in West Africa, but which now is the chief protector
of an institution that formerly was banned. Many years have
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slipped by since then. The English nation during the great
struggle in America in the 'sixties was largely in sympathy
with the southern slave-holders. Has it advanced yet further
along the same road of toleration ?
F. W. H. MIGEOD.
