I am not a
historian. Indeed I had barely done any reading in the subject until
just a few years ago. And quite a few people have asserted to me
(despite my protestations) that I am not a Krio
either! So why am I writing this story called Krios
and their History? Well, because my new-found interest in history has
prompted the belated realization that Krios
have a superb story to tell and recently they haven’t been telling it
as well or as often as they should.
My 13-year-old
daughter blurted out to me quite recently that she didn’t like Krios. I listened in astonishment as she listed
several trivial complaints against Krios,
apparently the final conclusions of her immediate circle of friends. I
had before this rarely, if ever, discussed the issue of tribe with her.
This anecdote highlights a certain reticence on the part of Krios to highlight the positive aspects of their
culture, history and contributions in the face of what seems an
unstoppable tide of non-Krios into Freetown.
Confronted by an avalanche Krios have
withdrawn, have been afraid to speak up for their positions and their
viewpoints even on those occasions when those positions and viewpoints
have considerable evidence to back them up. Ultimately, this does
everyone a disservice, Krio and non-Krio alike.
The story of
the founding of Freetown
is a remarkable one and it is a story of which all Krios
should be proud. It is a story Krios,
indeed all Sierra Leoneans, should never
tire to tell, within Sierra
Leone and without. That in the face of
rapacious slavery and slave trading, virulent disease, hunger, a
hostile environment characterized by impenetrable forest, torrential
rainfall and wild animals, attacks and destruction by neighbours, attacks and destruction by the
French, in the face of all this and more, that a small band of
ex-slaves could build a city that just one hundred years later was a
beacon for all West Africa was a truly remarkable accomplishment. It’s
an accomplishment that all Sierra Leoneansshould celebrate, for as Fyfe, Fyle and Alieet al have pointed out these Freetonians
came from all over the area of present day Sierra Leone and well
beyond. We celebrate Granville Sharp, Lord Mansfield and William
Wilberforce et al for their role in ending the slave
trade, but in the same breath we should also celebrate Freetown and its people for their role in
accommodating the tide of recaptives that
flooded in from all over West Africa.
In the entire region, no one else was doing this. Freetown provided refuge for these
people, gave them areas in which to settle and found livelihoods for
them or at least left them in peace to settle their own lives. Our
brothers and sisters from the provinces, instead of looking upon the
establishment of Freetown with
resentment (as some have done for 200 years) should glorify it as the
vehicle through which the scourge of slavery was abolished from all of West Africa. This kind of enlightenment and
understanding can only come through patient education – it should
be taught to every child in every school in Sierra Leone, but of course
it is not, as my daughter’s outburst brought home most vividly to me.
Yet, the
resettling of the recaptives, notable as
it was, was not the real triumph of Freetown. The city’s crowning
accomplishment was that it could take these people of disparate origins
and blend them together peacefully within a relatively short period of
time. Freetown, originally made up only
of Nova Scotians (after the Province of Freedom
had been destroyed) soon became home to more tribes than exist in Sierra Leone
today. Fyfe, that most illustrious of “Sierra Leoneans”,
tells us that Krus were settled in Kru Town, Foulahs
in Foulah Town, people from Congo in Congo
Town, Portuguese speakers in Ports Town and so on. Of
course there was discrimination, as there will always be
discrimination in human societies. The Nova Scotians
hated the Maroons, who came after them, and they both despised the recaptives, especially when this group started
to compete with them. But in a relatively short period of time all
these groups were blended into a cohesive whole. Space was given for
each group to grow and prosper. Education and learning was cherished,
as was individual accomplishment. Gradually, within what now seems a
short time, Freetown
was detribalized. Peacefully. Under the relatively benevolent
dictatorship and protection of the British inter-tribal tensions were
minimized and Freetonians could
concentrate on eaning a living anywhere
within the borders of the Western Area. Individual stories abound of
Settlers and recaptives alike emerging
from poverty to prosperity by dint of hard work, learning and
perseverance (Ezzidio, Cline, Crowther, Lawson etc, etc) By the turn of the 19th
century Fyfe illustrates “the mansions owned by wealthy citizens in
Freetown” and reports that, “Governor Macarthy’s
dream had come true…..All along the West African coast they (Freetonians) were to be found. They were the
intellectual leaders, the vanguard of political and social advance in West Africa.” High praise indeed from a neutral!
One
might argue this was all due to the presence of the British. Maybe,
maybe not, but even if this were so, the Freetonians
of that time certainly made good use of the opportunities afforded to
them, to the extent that almost from the day of their arrival they were
actively looking forward to the time they would achieve
self-government. When they were landed on the bush that was then Freetown, they
could have sought greener pastures elsewhere, on the Bullom shores perhaps or in Koya,
which were then well populated centres,
but they didn’t. They set down and set out to build a city. They had
been promised 30 acres; in the end they were given much less than this,
but they owned it, freehold. And so they developed it. Fyfe tells us
that, “it became usual for any Settler who had made a bit of money by
trading to build a house to let”. As to the effect of the British
presence, Fyfe tells us that in 1808 there were only about twenty or
thirty European residents out of a population of almost two thousand.
And there was a British presence elsewhere on the coast of West Africa.
When one looks
at the history of the rest of Sierra Leone in the same
time period there is, to be brutally frank about it, little to compare
with this wonderful story, little to emulate or hold up with pride. Of
course there were talented, hardworking, intelligent individuals who
populated these areas – after all it was some of these same individuals
who were freed in Freetown and later went on to excel - but the social
systems in place did not allow them to grow as they should have.
Territory was demarcated along tribal or clan lines. There was constant
inter-tribal or inter-clan fighting, a never-ending struggle for
territorial acquisition through conquest (not by treaty and purchase as
the British did with Freetown).
Conquest through mass resettlement was another favoured
tactic. Leadership generally was acquired and maintained through
heredity or by the best fighter, but certainly not by the best scholar.
The classic pattern of trade involved the chief, as landlord, giving
his blessing and protection to strangers in return for rent or
commission on the strangers’ trading activities, usually in slaves,
produce or timber. Slavery and slave trading was rampant (astonishingly
slavery was not finally abolished by law in the provinces until 1928,
some 140 years after the Province of Freedom was founded; Sierra Leone
was the last of the West African colonies to do so – “The existence of
slavery in Sierra Leone became an embarrassment…” – Alie, p151)
along with other practices best left unmentioned. Little of permanence
was built or remains – the largest provincial towns today, Bo, Kenema and Makeni, barely existed during this
period. If these things are the truth as we see them, we should not be
afraid to say them, especially because these truths should provide
pointers to a brighter Sierra Leone for all.
Now why am I
obsessing over 200-year-old truths when we should be looking forward?
Why am I opening up old
wounds? In truth,
the wounds have never healed,
and the 200-year-old struggle for Sierra Leone’s soul is
ongoing. Much of the socio-economic baggage from a pre-modern
environment still remains as a millstone round the neck of mama Sa
Lone. In 1896, at the height of Freetown’s achievements, the
Protectorate was declared. In 1961 Independence was achieved. Efforts
have been made to unify the country. To this point, unfortunately, we
have been unable to escape our history. The country and the countryside
is still carved up along tribal lines.
The story since 1896 has once again been one of inter-tribal rivalry
and a struggle for supremacy, albeit in somewhat modified forms, and in
the 110 odd years since the Protectorate was declared there has been
little of the unification process that Freetown experienced in the early to
mid 1800s. I have focused here on the provincial vsKrio divide, but there is also the
equally serious Mende/Temne rivalry and,
less prominently a Temne/Limba contest. In
this kind of environment election periods are particularly testing
times and one sometimes wonders whether full blown democracy is the
ideal solution. Sierra
Leone leadership, particularly the
intellectual leadership, needs to come together to seriously address
these issues. Krios should do more to
promote their own vision of Sierra Leone, for in my view, there is much in the history to back it up.
It is basically the correct vision for a modern society as it was two
hundred odd years ago when it was introduced on to the shores of Freetown. Given
the numbers who have moved to Freetown
and who will likely move here over the next few years, this vision is
possibly shared by the majority of Sierra Leoneans.
(I
would like to thank the undermentioned for
my ongoing education in the history of Sierra Leone and recommend
them to the interested reader.
Fyfe,
Christopher, A short history of Sierra Leone, Longman, 0 582 60358 7
Fyle, Magbaily,
A Nationalist history of Sierra Leone
Alie, Joe. A new
history of Sierra
Leone, Macmillan, 0 333 51984 1
Caulker-Burnett,
Imodale, The Caulkers of Sierra Leone,
Xlibris, 978 1 4568 0240 0