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Structural Change in the Sierra Leone Protectorate1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2012

Kenneth Little
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Extract

In recent centuries indigenous West African society has experienced the impact of two external cultural forces, the one personified by Moslem invaders and migrants from the north, the other by European colonists from the West. With the spread of Islam, the way of life of whole peoples has been largely transformed, but the main changes which have occurred in the structure of African society are the result of Western and Westernizing influences. It is the purpose of this article to examine a particular aspect of these structural changes which is exemplified by the appearance of a new class of ‘educated’ and ‘literate’ individuals and their relationship with traditional society in the Sierra Leone Protectorate. The Protectorate, with which this article is exclusively concerned, comprises the hinterland of the Sierra Leone Colony, and is under a Native Authority system of government. In the Colony, political and legal institutions are modelled mainly on the English system. As explained later, the terms ‘educated’ and ‘literate’ are used throughout to denote relative degrees of Westernization due to education.

Résumé

LES MODIFICATIONS STRUCTURELLES DANS LE PROTECTORAT DE SIERRA-LEONE

Les changements principaux qui sont survenus dans la structure de la société de l'Afrique Occidentale sont les résultats des influences occidentales et occidentalisantes. Un aspect particulier de ces modifications structurelles dans le Protectorat de Sierra-Leone se traduit par une nouvelle classe sociale composée de personnes ayant reçu une certaine instruction et sachant lire et écrire et par leurs rapports avec la société traditionnelle. Cette nouvelle classe se distingue par son niveau plus élevé de logement, d'habillement et de biens matériels, en comparaison avec celui de la population tribale. La plupart de ses membres sont des chrétiens et ils se livrent à des occupations diverses. Ils sont instituteurs, employés de bureaux, infirmières, secrétaires des conseils régionaux, ouvriers spécialisés et techniciens.

Les différences entre ce nouveau groupe social et la population tribale analphabète se cristallise sous forme d'associations volontaires de toutes sortes, dont le ‘social club’ et le ‘dancing compin’ sont des exemples typiques. La plupart des membres de la première de ces organisations ont fréquenté, au moins, une école primaire et ses activités comprennent des conférences, des débats, des bals où l'on danse dans le style occidental et des distractions occidentales de toutes sortes, y compris le tennis. Le ‘dancing compin’ vise également des buts sociaux, mais il est, en même temps, un genre de société de secours mutuels et ses activités sont plutôt traditionalistes et comprennent l'exécution de la musique et des danses, tant indigènes qu'occidentalisées. Il comble, dans une certaine mesure, la lacune entre les gens ayant reçu de l'instruction et la société traditionnelle; il fournit de l'aide et de la protection mutuelles, et constitue une agence d'autorité sociale dans des situations où la parenté a cessé d'être efficace. Le ‘dancing compin’ constitue également la base de formes nouvelles d'organisation politique. Les deux genres d'association sont essentiellement des manifestations de la vie des villes où les nouveaux groupes de personnes instruites et lettrées se sont principalement concentrés.

La diffusion des nouvelles façons d'employer les moments de loisir, telles que la fréquentation des cinémas, augmente également les différences culturelles et autres entre la section occidentalisée et la partie tribale de la population, de sorte que les gens instruits et lettrés ont tendance à se considérer comme un groupe distinct ayant une mission civilisatrice particulière. Cependant, ces sentiments et ces attitudes n'ont pas encore fait naître une conscience de classe dans le sens que ce terme est compris dans l'Europe occidentale. Malgré la place très importante tenue par l'instruction comme facteur de différenciation sociale, une personne instruite fréquente une sociéte qui n'est réglée que partiellement par les valeurs occidentales. A son travail ou à l'école, par exemple, une telle personne se comporte comme un Européen se comporterait dans des circonstances analogues, mais, dans son foyer et dans ses rapports personnels avec les membres de sa famille, dans le sens le plus étendu du terme, ses actions sont, pour la plupart, généralement traditionnelles. Un grand nombre de ses parents les plus proches sont analphabètes et ses rapports avec eux et avec le cercle plus étendu de la parenté sont réglés par les coutumes de la tribu. Ses connaissances et son habileté occidentales sont respectées, mais il a besoin de l'appui financier de ses parents pour aider son avancement dans sa carrière professionnelle et il est largement tributaire de leur soutien politique s'il vise un rang élevé dans les affaires indigènes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , July 1955 , pp. 217 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1955

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References

page 217 note 2 Popularly spoken of as ‘Syrians’.

page 217 note 3 Census of the Colony and Protectorate of Sierra Leone, 1948. The population of the Colony comprises some 570 Europeans, some 28,000 Creoles, some 830 Lebanese and Syrians, and some 87,500 Protectorate-born persons (ibid.).

page 218 note 1 For a fuller account of the Creole's role as a cultural medium see my book, The Mende of Sierra Leone (Routledge & Kegan Paul), London, 1951, ch. xiii; also my article, ‘The Significance of the West African Creole for Africanist and Afro-American Studies’, African Affairs, xlix, 1950, pp. 308–19.

page 219 note 1 ‘Educated’ is used specifically throughout the text to denote individuals with a post-primary education. Their exact number is guess-work, but at the present moment some 530 children are enrolled at Junior Secondary and full Secondary Schools in the Protectorate.

page 220 note 1 The wearing of native dress by members of the ‘educated’ class is definitely on the increase, for reasons mentioned below (p. 225).

page 220 note 2 It is estimated by the Protectorate Literature Bureau that some 30,000–35,000 persons are literate This figure includes my ‘educated’ category and a large number of people who are literate in only a native language.

page 221 note 1 This word appears to derive from the masonic lodges which were established among Creoles in the Colony at quite an early date.

page 222 note 1 The following excerpt from the constitution of a particular compin is fairly typical in this regard:

1. To maintain a co-operation and brotherly spirit among the people of this country.

2. To seek the progress and secure our prestige among the people of this country.

3. To establish perfect unity and safeguard any discord likely any time to arise among members.

4. To give pecuniary help to any member and strictly to seek the welfare of all in any matter arising either from economic, social or domestic aspects.

page 222 note 2 See also Banton, Michael, ‘Ambas Geda’, West Africa, 24 Oct. 1953Google Scholar, and ‘The Dancing Compin’, West Africa, 7 Nov. 1953.

page 222 note 3 A detailed description of the organization of the compin is contained in Michael Banton's unpublished study, Urbanization in Sierra Leone.

page 222 note 4 Banton (ibid.) suggests that the explanation of this may be found in differences between the political systems of the Temne and Mende. There is apparently greater devolution of authority in the Temne system, allowing more freedom for the development of new forms of association.

page 223 note 1 Oshorbi is a Yoruba custom introduced by the Aku Creoles. It is the practice of a group of people, usually friends, of wearing the same form of dress and accessories—for women, head-tie, necklace, and sandals.

page 224 note 1 A ‘send-off’ is a convivial party, given by his friends and colleagues, to mark the departure of an individual going on leave, on transfer to a new post, or overseas.

page 224 note 2 For example, in proposing the health of the guest of honour at a ‘send-off’ which I attended, the M.C. laid special stress on the fact that Y was always a ‘good mixer’—he never refused an invitation to anyone's house if he could possibly go. The implication of these remarks is the stronger because, as explained above, visiting the homes of non-kinsfolk and meeting and mixing with all and sundry is entirely alien to native custom.

page 225 note 1 A number of Paramount chiefs play a leading part in the Sierra Leone People's Party.

page 227 note 1 My questionnaire took the form of nine typewritten statements, e.g. ‘He (or she) dresses well‘, ‘is well-educated”, ‘is good-looking’, ‘is kind to his (or her) relatives’, ‘has a worthwhile job’, ‘is wealthy’, ‘has good manners’, ‘goes regularly to church (or to the mosque)’, ‘is a good husband’. Informants were asked to choose four of these or to substitute alternative statements of their own. They were also asked to explain their understanding of each of the four statements they chose. I received replies from 83 persons of whom 68 were students at a teachers' training college and at Bo School; the remainder being teachers and clerks. Most of the Protectorate peoples were represented, but Mende comprised rather more than half the sample. I also conducted the same experiment with 15 Creole teachers resident in the Sierra Leone Colony and with 150 British students reading Psychology at Edinburgh University. Thirteen out of the fifteen Creole teachers included ‘well-educated’ in their selections.

page 228 note 1 See footnote I, p. 227. My Creole informants explained that ‘well-educated’ meant ‘intellectually, mentally, and morally trained as well as possessing significant formal qualifications, such as university degrees’.

page 228 note 2 Cf. Little, K. L., The Mende of Sierra Leone, pp. 262–3.Google Scholar

page 229 note 1 The term ‘stranger’ has the general meaning of ‘guest’. It can also refer to a person living in another man's house in a position of dependence.

page 230 note 1 A ‘crowning house’ is a descent group which has at any time supplied a Paramount chief for the chiefdom concerned.

page 231 note 1 Cf. Stonequist, E. V., The Marginal Man, New York, 1937.Google Scholar

page 233 note 1 Goldschmidt, Walter, ‘Social Class in America—A Critical Review’, American Anthropologist, vol. lii, no. 4, 1950, pp. 483–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar