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Conflict and Violence in Contemporary Sierra Leone Chiefdoms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Roger Tangri
Affiliation:
Senior Lecturer in Political Science, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, Freetown

Extract

Violence has been a recurring feature of political life in provincial Sierra Leone for a long time. In 1898, two years after the establishment of colonial rule, a mass rebellion, commonly known as the Hut Tax War, and directed against British political authority, took place over a large part of the Protectorate. Thereafter, the violence which periodically disrupted the chiefdoms of the hinterland, during both the colonial and post-colonial periods, resulted predominantly from conflicts amongst the indigenous peoples themselves. This article is concerned with the various disturbances that flared up in the Sierra Leone chiefdoms since the late 1940s.

Type
Africana
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

page 311 note 1 Kilson, Martin, Political Change in a West African State: a study of the modernization process in Sierra Leone (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), pp. 60 and 189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 311 note 2 Barrows, Walter L., ‘Local-Level Politics in Sierra Leone: alliances in Kenema District’ Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1971.Google Scholar

page 311 note 3 A paramount chief is elected for life by the chiefdom council; candidates must belong to a ‘ruling’ house. This is a kinship group based on descent (usually in the male line) from a known ancestor who was a paramount chief.

page 312 note 1 SirCox, Herbert, Report of Commission of Inquiry into the Disturbances in the Provinces, November 1955–March 1956 (Freetown, 1956), ch. 16.Google Scholar See also Viswasam, C., Sierra Leone Local Government in the Chiefdoms (Freetown, 1973).Google Scholar

page 312 note 2 Cox Report, pp. 219–22 and 226.

page 312 note 3 Ibid. pp. 149 and 171–2.

page 312 note 4 Ibid. pp. 211–12.

page 313 note 1 This information is based on the unpublished report of the Commissioner who inquired into the Baoma disturbances, N. A. Weir, dated 31 October 1949, Provincial Secretary, Southern Province Archives, Bo. See also File CSO 304/1.

page 313 note 2 Cox Report, p. 173.

page 313 note 3 Barrows, op cit. ch. 7.

page 314 note 1 Cox Report, pp. 146–7.

page 314 note 2 Ibid. pp. 91 and 218.

page 315 note 1 Ibid. p. 26.

page 315 note 2 See report dated II December 1955 in ‘C.I.D. Report on Anti-Taxation Demonstrations and Disturbances’, kindly shown to me by Dr Arthur Abraham, Department of History, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone.

page 315 note 3 See Reports of the Commissioners of Enquiry into the Conduct of Certain Chiefs (Freetown, 1957), p. 57.

page 315 note 4 Cox Report, p. 211. See also p. 30.

page 316 note 1 District Commissioner, Tonkoliui, to Commissioner, Northern Province, CNP 435/5, 3 April 1956, District Office, Magburaka.

page 316 note 2 Dorjahn, V. R., ‘A Brief History of the Temne of Yoni’, in Sierra Leone Studies (Freetown), 14, 1960, p. 87.Google Scholar

page 316 note 3 District Commissioner, Tonkolii, to Commissioner, Northern Province, CNP 435/12/1, 28 September 1955, District Office, Magburaka.

page 316 note 4 Cox Report, p. 43.

page 317 note 1 See File 1/030/5, Ministry of the Interior, Freetown.

page 317 note 2 File 1/039/5; ibid.

page 317 note 3 Kilson, op. cit. pp. 53–9 and 180–3.

page 318 note 1 Handing-Over Notes, 29 November 1968, Provincial Secretary, Northern Province Office, Makeni.

page 318 note 2 See File 1/228/1, Ministry of the Interior, Freetown.

page 319 note 1 District Officer, Port Loko, to Provincial Secretary, Northern Province Office, NP/504/12/03, 4 December 1963, Makeni. Also various interviews.

page 319 note 2 This paragraph is based on various interviews.

page 319 note 3 Barrows, op. cit. ch. 7.

page 320 note 1 Koroma, S. I. quoted in the Daily Mail (Freetown), 26 07 1973, p. 1.Google Scholar

page 320 note 2 C. A. Kamara-Taylor quoted in ibid. 17 November 1973, p. 1.

page 320 note 3 See The Nation (Freetown), 6 October 1973, pp. 1 and 8.