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The dissolution of Freetown City Council in 1926: a negative example of political apprenticeship in colonial Sierra Leone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Akintola J. G. Wyse
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Extract

Freetown City Council, established in 1893, was the victim of a colonial government which concentrated authority in white hands and resented the survival of a municipality run by Africans. Successive governors regularly presented it as a scapegoat, along with the whole Krio community, for disturbances in Freetown, notably the 1919 anti-Syrian riots and the 1926 railway strike. In 1925 financial malpractices in the council were disclosed and some officials were prosecuted. The following year the Mayor, Cornelius May, editor of the leading newspaper, the Sierra Leone Weekly News, and a highly respected public figure, was charged with conspiracy to defraud, along with the Town Clerk and the City Treasurer, and was given a nine-month prison sentence. Then, on the recommendation of a Commission of Inquiry, the City Council was dissolved and replaced by a Municipal Board.

Résumé

La dissolution du Conseil Municipal de Freetown en 1926: un exemple négatif d'apprentissage politique au Sierra Leone colonial

Libreville fut la première ville en Afrique occidentale coloniale britannique à obtenir une corporation municipale, en 1893. Cette institution était destinée à être «un élément important d'éducation et de culture»—un terrain d'apprentissage pour les homines politiques africains en herbe où ils pourraient apprendre les rudiments de l'art de gouverner. Cependant, la réalité fut tout à fait différente de la théorie.

Par exemple, le Conseil Municipal souffrit d'un certain nombre de faiblesses structurales qui étaient liées à une base de financement inadéquate et aux pouvoirs restraints que lui permettait le gouvernement central. De plus, on apprécia fort peu les efforts des conseillers qui essayaient de concrétiser cet «apprentissage» en se faisant les critiques de l'administration coloniale, soit en tant que membres du conseil législatif ou en tant que citoyens ordinaires, exprimant les craintes des électeurs. Le conseil fut bientôt considéré comme «un nid de démagogues». Une forte désapprobation pour des raisons politiques vint s'ajouter au mécontentement causé par les défauts du conseil. Ces puissants courants qui se manifestèrent durant une période de trouble dans les relations anglo-krio, entraînèrent l'ouverture d'une enquête concernant le conseil et sa dissolution en 1926.

Type
History and politics
Information
Africa , Volume 57 , Issue 4: Sierra Leone, 1787-1987 , October 1987 , pp. 422 - 438
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1987

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References

REFERENCES

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