•MSTITUTE AFRICANOFSTUDHE FOURAH BAY COLLEGE _ UNIVERSITY OF SIERRA LEONE 23 JUW «75 TRICANA JLLETIN FORMER FOURAH BAY COLLEGE CLINETOWN, FREETOWN. Vol. Ill No. 2 Session 1972-73 JANUARY 1973 Sditor: J. G. EDOWU HYDE Asst. Editor: J. A. :>. BL/.1R AFRICAI'!A RESEARCH BULLETIN CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION J. G." Edowu Hyde 1 1. ARTICLES Migration into a Small Temne Town in Central Sierra Leone ...a.oo.o.o... o.o....0.0. L. Ro MlllS 3 A Brief History of Nimikoro Chiefdom, Kono District • Sahr Matturi 28 2. RESEARCH NOTE Mende Influence on Kono ...................... Arthur Abraham 44 3. NEWS ITEMS Research Report on Customary Family Law Project ............. Barbara E. Harrell-Bond 47 Notes for the Guidance of Visiting Research Scholars 53 Current Research at Fourah Bay College 58 INTRODUCTION The Bulletin opens with an article "by Dr» L. R. Mills on migration into a small town in Bierra Leone it is the result of his association with an inter¬ disciplinary research team, the Kono Road Project, Institute of African Studies, studying the effects of a new major road. In a detailed study of immi¬ grants Dr. Mills has determined' their character¬ istics as well as the reasons for migration into the town, Matotoka. The origins of the migrants have been furnished both by a map and a table. Above all, he has used the study to test hypotheses developed by Ravenstein in the late nineteenth century and based largely on research in Europe and North America. Dr. Mills, who is a member of the United Nations Demographic Unit, Fourah Bay College is on secondment from the University of Durham. We are pleased to include in this issue an histori¬ cal contribution by Mr. Sahr Matturi, Chiefdom Speaker of Nimikoro Chiefdom, Kono District, Eastern Province. This history of the Kono spans the period of the Slave Trade to the present day. We follow the changing fortunes of the Kono from the time they are forced to leave their homeland by Mende slave raiders to their sojourn among the Koranko and their eventual return. Mr. Matturi has provided interesting accounts of the leaders who helped to shape the course of Kono history. He also mentions the influence of the missions and the mixed blessing that the diamond industry has proved. Mr. Arthur Abraham of the Department of Modern History has provided a Note on Mende Influence on Kono which complements Mr. Matturi's history. We are also grateful for the footnotes he furnished. Dr. Barbara Harrell-Bond reports on the Customary Family Law Project sponsored by the Afrika-Gtudie- centrum, Leiden. The project covered a socio- legal study of customary law and data was collected in Freetown, Bo and Makeni. One important fact revealed by the research is the complex nature of the problem and the urgent need for reform. We note that the researchers will be submitting a report of their findings to the Government of Sierra Leone. Also in this issue we publish a useful guide for prospective research scholars. Finally, the Editors wish to record their thanks to Mrs. Delia Carpenter of the Institute for typing the manuscripts. J. G. Edowu Hyde Editor ARTICLES MIGRATION INTO A SMALL TEMNE TOWN IN CENTRAL SIERRA LEONE L. R. Mills Demographic Unit University of Sierra Leone This study is focused on Matotoka, a small chiefdom townl almost in the geographical centre of Sierra Leone. Situated 14-0 miles east of the capital, Freetown, it is found at the western extremity of eighty miles of recently completed surfaced road which leads to Koidu in Kono District. As part of an inter-disciplinary study2 of the effects of this major new road a survey of the population of Matotoka was undertaken in 19721- 2 It was found that in eleven years the town had almost tripled in size and that much of the increase was the result of in-migration. In April 1961 there had been a resident population of 591 persons .4- By May 1972 this figure had risen to exactly 1,7005 and at least 40% of this total had moved into the town from out¬ side. Three-quarters of these immigrants had arrived since 1961 and half in the five years pre¬ ce eding the 1972 survey. To the casual visitor this rather sleepy town sug¬ gests little reason why growth should have been so rapid, why so many of its population should be immigrants or why so many of these people should have arrived in the last few years. The town pos¬ sesses a primary school which serves the surrounding area, but this is no new attraction having been established in 1947. The major new road, con¬ structed as part of a national road-building pro¬ gramme, reached the town five years ago although there had been a little-improved road along part of its route since the 1940's. The settlement is largely agricultural and has only a limited urban function. In and around the town there is no 3. industry or any other activity which might account for a substantial influx of people into the settle¬ ment. Such a situation, therefore, deserved further investigation and this was undertaken by interviewing all immigrants aged ten years and above who were resident in the town. An attempt has thus been made in this paper initially to determine the major characteristics of the immi¬ grants. An enquiry has also been made into the reasons for moving to Matotoka as well as the origins of,and distances travelled by, the migrants. As well as building up a general picture of the character and patterns of migration in relation to this one small town the present study has also been used to determine how the patterns perceived corres¬ pond with those of migration in general. An attempt has been made to measure how far the charac¬ teristics of this isolated case-study in a develop¬ ing country coincide with some of the general hypo¬ theses in migration theory - itself largely a product of studies in Europe and North America. Empirical work on migration in developing countries has been sparse and any ventures into theory even more limited^. For migration in general, whether one considers the ideas of Ravenstein7 in the late nineteeenth century or more recent work such as that of Bogue and Hagood8 or Lee,9 there is little variance in the main generalizations and much of the later work reflects the original work of Ravenstein. As Lee points out, Ravenstein's "papers have stood the test of time and remain the starting point for work in migration theory".10 Whilst he has "been much quoted and occasionally challenged few additional generalizations have been advanced"'.'^'' Not all Ravenstein's ideas can be applied to migra¬ tion into a single centre such as Matotoka. Those that have been considered, however, include the motives behind movement, distances covered, the stages of migration, and fourthly, technology as a factor in increasing migration. A further hypo¬ theses, developed by Lee from Ravenstein's work, 4. and which is applicable both to this topic and to the data available, propounds the selectivity of migration. This last topic will be considered first. Migration, according to Lee, is selective: migrants do not form a random sample of the area- of-origin population. By sex, for example, the general hypothesis is that females predominate where short-distance movements are involved, whilst with respect to age, there is a heightened propen¬ sity to migrate at certain stages of the life cycle. As a motive behind movement, economic factors are considered to play a dominant role. Of all types of migration none, according to Ravenstein, can compare in volume with that which arises from the wish of most people to "better themselves" materially. With regard to the length of movements Ravenstein indicates that "the great body of ... migrants only proceed a short distance".12 This hypotheses is further developed by indicating that movement takes place in stages producing a general shifting or displacement of the population and producing "currents of migration" in the direction of the great centres of commerce and industry. Such move¬ ment to the towns leaves gaps in the population of rural districts. The possibility of such a pattern of 'replacement' step-migration in Sierra Leone has already been indicated by Forde and Harvey.^5 Residents of an intermediate central place like Matotoka could perhaps move on to larger centres leaving their functional niche to be filled by immigrants from smaller localities in the surround¬ ing area. The last hypothesis to be considered involves trends in migration and stipulates technology as a factor in increasing such movement. Increasing technology plays an important role in reducing the problem of intervening obstacles. Communica¬ tions become easier and transport relative to incomes becomes cheaper, lhe new road constructed as far as Matotoka would therefore appear to be en important factor in any increase in recent migra¬ tion into the town. The Immigrants To test the hypothesis of migration selectivity the population characteristics considered included sex, age, ethnic group, religion, education, employ¬ ment, occupation and house ownership. Of the 1,283 inhabitants in Matotoka aged ten years and above, 495 (38%) had not been born in the town. Of this number, 287 were women giving a sex ratio of 73 (males per 100 females). This figure com¬ pares with a sex ratio of 97 for the 1972 resident population as a whole and 116 for the Matotoka- born inhabitants of the same age. As a whole the immigrants were young - slightly more than 60% were below thirty years old at the time of interview.