List of Sierra Leone Women Chiefs
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APPENDIX List of Sierra Leone Women Chiefs Name Chiefdom Approximate dates Babome, Boi Sei Krijia III Imperri 1980’s Bailor- Caulker, Honoria Kagboro 1961– 1996 Benya, Maajo Small Bo (Niawa- Sowa) Early 1900’s Benya, Mamawa Small Bo 1962– 1996 Dupojo Sherbro 1904– ? Fahwundu, Edna Mano- Sakrim 1982– present Fangawa Wandoh Early 1900’s– 1931 Fon i Mano Bagru 1860’s Gamanga, Mamie Simbaru 1983– present Gaye, Betsy Jong Late 1800’s– Early 1900”s Gbanie, Veronica Baio Valunia 1974– ? Gbatekaka, Tienge Gaura 1950’s Gberie, Marie Foster Kpanda Kemo 2005– present Gbujahun Pejeh Early 1900’s Gendemeh, Sallay Satta Malegohun 1973– present Gessema Gorama- Mende 2002– present Gulama, Ella Koblo Kaiyamba 1992– 2006 Humonya Nongowa 1908– 1919 Jajua, Kona Upper Bambara unknown Jassa Kombrema Early 1900’s Junga Nomo Early 1900’s Kajue, Haja Fatmatta Dasse 2002– present Kenja, Boi Sei Imperri 1860’s– 1880’s Koroma, Haja Miatta Pejeh 2003– present Kpanabom, Hawa unknown 1990’s Maagao Lubu 1860’s– 1880’s 184 ● Gender and Power in Sierra Leone Mabaja Bergbeh Early 1900’s Massaquoi, Woki Gallinas- Perri 1926– 1950’s Matolo Nongowa Early 1900’s Matree Largo Early 1900’s Messi Krim Late 1800’s – Early 1900’s Miatta Gbemma Early 1900’s Minah, Matilda Y.L. Yakemo Kpukumu Krim 1986– present Nalli, Soffi II Niawa Lenga 1972– ? Neale- Caulker, Sophia Kagboro 1899– 1905 Nemahun Malegohun Early 1900’s Nenge Kandu Leppiama Late 1800’s Nenge, Boisu Kandu Leppiama 1920’s Nenge, Maganya Kema Kandu Leppiana Early 1900’s Nenge, Ngialo Kandu Leppiama Early 1900’s Nessi, Boi Yengema- Bumpeh 1908– ? Ngokowa, Hawa Yamba Salenga 1978– ? Nyarro Bandasuma 1880’s– 1914 Nyarro II Bandasuma 1914– ? Purroh, Faingaray Tasso Island 1870’s Regbafri Mano 1870’s Sama, Mamawa Tunkia 1954– 1980’s Sandemani Jagbaka unknown Sefawa, Yatta Koroma Niawa 1979– early 1990’s Segbureh, Margaret T. Bum 1988– 2006 Seikama, Amy Miatta Jong 1980’s Sonkanu, Hawa R. IV Imperri 1983– ? Sovula, Borteh Kamajei 1966– 1980’s? Sowa, Haja B. Sowa 1984– ? Tiffa, Janet Elizabeth Bio Kwamabu Krim 2003– 2004 Tucker, Nancy Bagru Late 1800’s Vibbi, Theresa Kandu- Leppiama 1969– present Yaewa Niawa 1910– 1948 Yatta Massaquoi Late 1800’s Yimbo, Miatta Kai Kai Bomotoke 1981– ? Yoko Kaiyamba 1882– 1906 Notes Introduction 1. See, for example, Lorelle Semley, Mother is Gold, Father is Glass: Power and Vulner- ability in Atlantic Africa (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010); Nwando Achebe, The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011); Nwando Achebe, Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings: Female Power and Authority in Northern Igboland, 1900–1960 (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2005); Sylvia Tamale, When Hens Begin to Crow: Gender and Par- liamentary Politics in Uganda (Kampala, Uganda: Fountain Publications, 1999); Wairimu Ngaruiya Njambi, “Re-Visiting Woman to Woman Marriage: Notes on Gikuyu Women,” National Women’s Studies Association Journal 12, no. 1 (2000): 1– 23. 2. Oyèrónké Oyĕwùmi, The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997). 3. André Dornelas, Relaçăo sobre a Serra Leoa, 1625, ms. 51-VIII- 25, Biblioteca de Ajuda, Lisboa, cited in Walter Rodney, “A Reconsideration of the Mane Invasions of Sierra Leone,” Journal of African History 8 (1967): 224–25. 4. Christopher Fyfe, A History of Sierra Leone (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962); A. P. Kup, A History of Sierra Leone: 1400– 1787 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961). 5. Kenneth Little, The Mende of Sierra Leone (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1951), 45, 48, 59, 163–98; Carol (P. Hoffer) MacCormack, “Madam Yoko: Ruler of the Kpa Mende Confederacy,” in Woman, Culture and Society, ed. Michelle Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1977), 173– 87. 6. Catherine Coquery- Vidrovitch, African Women: A Modern History, trans. Beth G. Rap (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997), 35; Iris Berger and E. Frances White, Women in Sub- Saharan Africa: Restoring Women to History (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), 85– 86, 88– 89, 94. 7. Emmanuel K. Akyeampong and Pashington Obeng, “Spirituality, Gender and Power in Asante History,” International Journal of African Historical Studies 28, no. 3 (1995), 481– 508.; Edna G. Bay, Wives of the Leopard, Gender, Politics and Culture in the Kingdom of Dahomey (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1998). 8. Judith Van Allen, “‘Sitting on a Man:’ Colonialism and the Lost Political Institu- tions of the Igbo Women,” Canadian Journal of African Studies 6, no. 2 (1972): 163– 81; Kamene Okonjo, “Political Systems with Bisexual Functional Roles-The Case of Women’s Participation in Politics in Nigeria” in Women in Africa: Studies 186 ● Notes in Social and Economic Change, ed. Nancy J. Hafkin and Edna G. Bay (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1976), 45– 58. 9. Iris Berger, “Rebels or Status- Seekers? Women as Spirit Mediums in East Africa,” in Women in Africa: Studies in Social and Economic Change, ed. Nancy J. Hafkin and Edna G. Bay (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1976), 157– 81; Agnes Ako- sua Aidoo, “Asante Queen Mothers in Government and Politics in the Nineteenth Century,” in The Black Woman Cross- Culturally: An Overview, ed. Filomena C. Steady (Cambridge, MA: Schenkman, 1981), 65– 77; Bolanle Awe, “The Iyalode in the Traditional Yoruba Political System,” in Sexual Stratification, ed. Alice Schle- gel (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977), 144–60; Caroline Ifeka-Moller “Female Militancy and Colonial Revolt: The Women’s War of 1929, Eastern Nige- ria,” in Perceiving Women, ed. Shirley Ardener (London: Malaby Press, 1975), 127– 57. 10. Edna G. Bay, “The Kpojito or ‘Queen Mother’ of Precolonial Dahomey,” in Queens, Queen Mothers, Priestesses, and Power: Case Studies in African Gender, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 810, ed. Flora E. S. Kaplan (New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1997) (hereafter QQMPP), 19– 40; Flora E. S. Kaplan, “Iyoba, The Queen Mother of Benin: Images and Ambiguity in Gender and Sex Roles in Court Art,” QQMPP, 73– 102; Helen K. Henderson, “Onitsha Woman: The Traditional Context for Political Power,” QQMPP, 215– 44; Sandra T. Barnes, “Gender and the Politics of Support and Protection in Pre- colonial West Africa,” QQMPP, 1– 18; see also Hilda Kuper, An African Aristocracy: Rank Among the Swazi (London: Oxford University Press, 1947), and Holly Hanson, “Queen Mothers and Good Government in Buganda” in Women in African Colonial Histories, ed. Jean Allman, Susan Geiger, and Nyakanyike Musisi (Bloomington: Indiana Uni- versity Press, 2002), 219– 36 11. Coquery- Vidrovitch, African Women: A Modern History, 35; Berger and White, Women in Sub- Saharan Africa, 85– 86, 88– 89, 94. 12. MacCormack, “Madam Yoko.” Professor MacCormack is best known for numer- ous articles discussing the Sande women’s initiation society as the central institu- tion supporting female power in Mende and Sherbro life. But see Carol [P. Hoffer] MacCormack, “Mende and Sherbro Women in High Office,” Canadian Journal of African Studies 6, no. 2 (1972): 151– 64, for her wide- ranging discussion of women chiefs in Sierra Leone. 13. Sierra Leone Archives (hereafter SLA), Records of Paramount Chiefs (1899). 14. Ifi Amadiume, Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion and Culture (New York: Zed Books, 1997), 71– 81, 109– 20; Oyèrónké Oyĕwùmi, “The White Woman’s Bur- den: African Women in Western Feminist Discourse,” in African Women and Femi- nism: Reflecting on the Politics of Sisterhood, ed. Oyèrónké Oyĕwùmi (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2003), 25– 43; Mojúbàolú O. Okome, “What Women Whose Development? A Critical Anaysis of Reformist Evangelism,” in African Women and Feminism: Reflecting on the Politics of Sisterhood, ed. Oyèrónké Oyĕwùmi (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2003), 67– 98. 15. See Caroline Bledsoe, “The Political Use of Sande Ideology and Symbolism,” Amer- ican Ethnologist 11, no. 3 (August 1984): 465. Notes ● 187 16. See Mariane Ferme, The Underneath of Things: Violence, History, and the Everyday in Sierra Leone (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), 79. 17. J. Bockari, “Mende Warfare,” Farm and Forest 6, no. 2 (April– June 1945): 104. 18. MacCormack, “Mende and Sherbro Women in High Office,” 163; italics in the original. 19. This bilateral tendency may be an adaptation that reconciles the patrilineal and matrilineal systems of different peoples who settled in the forest zone. See Little, The Mende, 84– 86 and 88– 89, for a summary of inheriting land rights through the female line, and page 181 for a Mende informant’s discussion of succession to chieftaincy through the female line. See also M. C. Jedrej, “Ecology and Kinship: A Study of the Varying Patterns of Domestic Groups among the Sewa Mende of Sierra Leone” (PhD diss., University of Edinburgh, 1969), 92,125, 138– 39. Chapter 1 1. Warren L. d’Azevedo, “Some Historical Problems in the Delineation of a Central West Atlantic Region,” New York Academy of Sciences 96 (1962), 512– 38; Kenneth Little, The Mende of Sierra Leone (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1951), 27; Robin Horton, “Stateless Societies in the History of West Africa,” in History of West Africa, ed. J. F. Ajayi and Michael Crowder (New York: Columbia University Press, 1972), 97– 104; J. Hornell, “The Tuntu Society of the Dema Chiefdom, Sierra Leone Studies 13 (September 1928): 17– 20. 2. Mariane Ferme, The Underneath of Things: Violence, History, and the Everyday in Sierra Leone (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001); Ruth Phillips, “The Sande Society Masks of the Mende of Sierra Leone” (PhD diss., London Univer- sity, 1979) 186; M. C. Jedrej, “Structural Aspects of a West African Secret Society, Journal of Anthropological Research 32 (1976): 234– 45. 3. English translation of “et il y a certaines maisons ou églises des idoles ou les femmes n’entrent pas: quelques une s’appelle baa, d’autres picaa, et d’autres cotuberia.