War-Towns in Sierra Leone: a Study in Social Change

Africa ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Siddle
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Wide Distribution ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Internal Structures ◽  
Four Square ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Rural Settlement Pattern

Opening ParagraphOne of the most interesting features of the cultural landscape of Sierra Leone is the very large number of settlements which still bear the marks of the long period of anarchy which preceded the colonial era. This is reflected both in the choice of sites and in the internal structures of settlements. Such influences are still to be found despite the impermanence of mud and wattle buildings and the sixty years which have elapsed since pacification. These settlements are interesting not only by the fact of their survival, but also for their wide distribution and their small size. There are probably more than a thousand defensive villages in the country, an average of one for every twenty-eight square miles, and reaching a maximum density of one for every four square miles in parts of Mendeland in the south. Most of them have populations of between two hundred and a thousand inhabitants. It is the aim of this paper to reconstruct the original character of these ‘war-towns’ as they were described by nineteenth- century explorers; to attempt an explanation of their wide distribution; and finally to show how social and economic changes are gradually causing a breakdown of this nucleic and defensive rural settlement pattern.

1787–1887–1987: reflections on a Sierra Leone bicentenary

Africa ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Fyfe
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Forest Belt ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Language Pattern ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphSeen in the widest perspective, 1787 is only one date among the uncounted tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of years during which the present Sierra Leone has been inhabited. Archaeologists have done disappointingly little work there. But it is clear from their findings (and by implication from findings in the rest of forest-belt West Africa) that people have lived there a very long time. Though traditional historiography always tends to present the peoples of Sierra Leone as immigrants from somewhere else, the language pattern suggests continuous occupation over a very long period. As Paul Hair (1967) has shown, there has been a striking linguistic continuity in coastal West Africa since the fifteenth century. Nor is there evidence to suggest that before that period stability and continuity were not the norm.

Locating the politics of a Sierra Leonean chiefdom

Africa ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 558-584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Fanthorpe
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Sierra Leonean ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
Breeding Grounds ◽  
Primary Means

The chiefdoms of Sierra Leone are institutions of colonial origin but nevertheless continue to serve as local government units in the post-colonial state. The prevailing view among scholars is that these institutions have little basis in indigenous political culture, and have furthermore become breeding grounds of political corruption. This view has tended to elide anthropological analysis of internal chiefdom politics. However, it is argued in this article that such conclusions are premature. With reference to the Biriwa Limba chiefdom of northern Sierra Leone, it is shown that historical precedent, in many cases relating to prominent political figures of the late nineteenth century, continues to serve as a primary means of ordering local rights in land, settlement and political representation. This phenomenon is not a product of innate conservatism but emerges rather as a pragmatic response to the persistent failure of successive Sierra Leone administrations to extend modern measures of citizenship to the bulk of the rural populace. Rights and properties have become progressively localised in villages originally registered for tax collection in the early colonial era. Here one finds one of the most telling legacies of the British policy of indirect rule in post-colonial Sierra Leone.

scholarly journals Migrant workers and socio-economic changes

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joko Sayono ◽  
Indah Wahyu ◽  
Lutfiah Ayundasari
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Migrant Worker ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Oil Boom ◽  
Job Opportunity ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Economic Landscape ◽  
Social Economic Development

This study was conducted based on the socio-economic changes among South Malang’s residents due to the recognition of a new job opportunity, namely the role of migrant worker. The objective of this study is to describe the socio-economic changes in South Malang from a historical standpoint from the 1980s to 2015. In the 1980s, being a migrant worker as a job opportunity was popular, but in 2015, the number of migrant workers started to decrease drastically due to the changing of the economic direction. This study was conducted in eleven sub-districts in South Malang, which is known as the origin place of migrants, and where many of the residents have worked as migrant workers. The data used in this study was collected by interviewing and tracking the archives of the social economic development of the Malang District by way of various institutions. The results of this study indicate that the South Malang residents chose to work as migrant workers based on three main factors. First, are the internal factors that consist of the economic and infrastructure limitations. The external factor consist of the Oil Boom and Asian Miracle’s impact. Second, are the unproductive and costly environmental conditions which forced the residents to move out and find better life prospects. Third, is the socio-cultural context, where the society has only known about monetisation since the colonial era. Thecombination of these factors motivates the rural community of South Malang to work as migrant workers and this changed the socio-economic landscape of the region from plantations and subsistence agriculture to having a capitalist focus in the period 1980 to 2015. The positive impacts brought about by the presence of migrant workers in South Malang include economic progress, socio-economic welfare, and area improvement. On the other hand, the negative impacts include the increasing number of divorce cases, the cases of child abandonment, and the increase in the number of juvenile delinquency cases.

Mosque-Building and Tribal Separatism in Freetown East

Africa ◽  
1959 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Proudfoot
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Near East ◽  
Architectural Style ◽  
Ecclesiastical Architecture ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
New Buildings ◽  
Foundation Stone

Opening ParagraphOf recent years many mosques have been built in Sierra Leone, while in Freetown itself the number and character of these new buildings is transforming the Eastern Ward into a visibly Islamic city. Several of the new Freetown mosques are alike in their ambitious scale, their architectural style, and in being associated with a particular sponsoring tribe. The older mosques, even the two or three which were built of permanent materials, were small in scale, had but few architectural pretensions, and were communal rather than tribal in character. The new mosques—the Temne, the Mandinka, the Fula, and the Hausa—are all very large and advertise the ecclesiastical architecture of the Near East; a particular tribe was responsible for the building of each, and the tribal vernaculars are—except in the case of the Mandinka—either being used already within them, or about to be introduced. Moreover, the process is obviously continuing. The foundation-stone has been laid of a Limba mosque; land has been acquired and collections are being taken for a Mende mosque, and both are intended to be large buildings in the new style. Finally, a small Susumosque, scarcely finished as yet, is reported to be destined for demolition in order that it may be replaced by a more handsome structure.

Kinship, Emigration, and Trade Partnership among the Lebanese of West Africa

Africa ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fuad I. Khuri
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Greek Orthodox ◽  
Kinship Structure ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Kinship Ties ◽  
Upper Volta

Opening ParagraphThis article describes the kinship structure of some Lebanese communities in West Africa, and the resemblances they bear to the communities from which they originated in Lebanon. It also shows the extent to which kinship ties promote emigration, and the kind of trade partnership normally practised by kinsmen. Two communities are considered: the Greek Orthodox community in Ouagadougou (Upper Volta), and the Shi'ite Muslim community in Magburaka (Sierra Leone).

Behaviour of Pathogenic Bacteria, Phages and Viruses in Ground Water during Transport and Adsorption

1991 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Herbold-Paschke ◽  
U. Straub ◽  
T. Hahn ◽  
G. Teutsch ◽  
K. Botzenhart
Keyword(s):  
Quartz Sand ◽  
Filtration Rate ◽  
Pathogenic Bacteria ◽  
Wide Distribution ◽  
Breakthrough Curves ◽  
Main Peak ◽  
Pathogenic Microorganisms ◽  
Adsorption Behaviour ◽  
E Coli ◽  
Long Period

In our study we investigated the transport and adsorption behaviour of different pathogenic microorganisms with two sorts of columns filled with quartz sand and aquifer material. These were the simian rotavirus SA 11, E. coli and the coliphages T4, MS2 and ϕX174. At a low filtration rate the breakthrough curves of the microorganisms show a wide distribution over a long period of time. When the filtration rate is increased the curves, sbow a, steep main peak. Only a small percentage of the microorganisms adsorbed to the quartz sand; in contrast, 53% of the SA 11 viruses adsorbed.

Studies in the genus Riccia (Marchantiales) from southern Africa. 7. R. congoana and its synonyms

Bothalia ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. Perold
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Wide Distribution ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
The North

R. congoana Steph. is described and illustrated.  R. rhodesiae S. Arnell.  R. nigrosquarnata E. W. Jones and  R. aegyptiaca S. Arnell are treated as synonyms under R. congoana.  R. congoana has a wide distribution in Africa,  ranging from Egypt in the north to SWA/Namibia and Transvaal in the south, and from Sierra Leone in the west to Tanzania in the east.

The Mountain People: some notes on the Ik of north-eastern Uganda

Africa ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Heine
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Wide Distribution ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Eastern Uganda

Opening ParagraphColin M. Turnbull's publications form virtually the only source available on Ik clture and society. His bookThe Mountain Peoplehas found wide distribution, far beyond anthropological circles. The problems it raises have been discussed in a number of reviews (see especially Beidelman, 1973; Spencer, 1973; Barth, 1974; Winteret al., 1975). Through the present article, I wish to show that there is an urgent need for a more comprehensive and less biased study of Ik culture md society.

The Gambia Section of the National Congress of British West Africa

Africa ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 382-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Ayodele Langley
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Executive Committee ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Vice President ◽  
The Gambia ◽  
Local Committee ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThe Gambia was the last of the four English-speaking West African colonies to organize a local branch of the National Congress movement. As in Sierra Leone the local committee was dominated by ‘middle class’ Creoles, although active Muslim members included Sheikh Omar Fye, who played a leading role in local politics up to the early 1950s and was a leading spokesman of the Muslim community in Bathurst. Other Muslim members were Njagga Saar, a local carpenter; Omar Jallow, described as a ‘prominent agriculturist’; Amar Gaye Cham, vice-president of the 1923-4 local executive committee and a dealer. Creoles active in the local committee came largely from the mercantile and legal professions. Isaac J. Roberts, who was president of the 1925-6 committee, was a prominent solicitor of Sierra Leone descent. He was a merchant before going to England to read law; he practised in Bathurst and Lagos despite the loss of his eyesight which occurred during his student days in England. He represented the Gambia at the Lagos Session of the NCBWA in 1930. He died in Freetown in April 1933 at the age of eighty-two. M. S. J. Richards, one of the vice-presidents of the 1923-4 local executive committee, was a local trader; J. A. Mahoney (later Sir John Mahoney and Speaker of the Gambia House of Representatives) was formerly a government employee who later worked for the French firm C.F.A.O. as a mercantile clerk; the Hon. S. J. Forster, first president of the local committee, came from a distinguished Creole family and served for several years on the Legislative Council; J. E. Mahoney was the nephew of S. J. Forster and was also a trader. B. J. George, local secretary of the committee from 1921 to 1923, and delegate to the Freetown Session in 1923, was a commission agent; Henry M. Jones was a wealthy trader and was one of the Gambian delegates to the NCBWA London committee in 1920-1; until the 1921 slump and the depression of the 1930s, ‘Pa ’ Jones was influential in both business circles and in local politics. Other prominent Creole traders associated with the local committee were E. F. Small, delegate to the Accra Conference and the London committee; E. A. T. Nicol, E. J. C. Rendall, and E. N. Jones.

The Nature and Effects of Differential Access to Education in Ga Society

Africa ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire C. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Detrimental Effect ◽  
Home Economics ◽  
Home Production ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Preliminary Examination ◽  
Economics Courses ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphWhat happens when women are denied access, over a long period of time, to formal education of the type men are given? This paper is a preliminary examination of the effects on Central Accra Ga society of this process, which began in a significant form in the nineteenth century. It posits a detrimental effect, not only on the women but also on the whole society, and on the relation between the sexes, of the systematic channelling of men into Western style education, while women were encouraged to stay in trading and home production, or given the equivalent of ‘home economics’ courses if they were sent to school.

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