APPENDIX List of Women Chiefs

Name 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 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010); Nwando Achebe, The Female of Colonial : Ahebi Ugbabe (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011); Nwando Achebe, Farmers, Traders, , and : Female Power and Authority in Northern Igboland, 1900–1960 (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2005); Sylvia Tamale, When Hens Begin to Crow: Gender and Par- liamentary 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 (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:’ 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 (: 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 : 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 ,” 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: , 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 ,” 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 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. Ces maisons sont seulement pour les hommes . . . L’idole des femmes s’appelle pere: elle a ses églises couvertes et les hommes n’y entrent pas” from Valentim Fernandes, Déscription de la Côte Occidentale d’Afrique: 1506– 1510, trans. T. Monod, A. Teix- eira da Mota, and R. Mauny (Bissau: Centro de Estudos de Guiné Portuguesa, 1951), 89. 4. André Álvares de Almada, Tratado Breve dos Rios de Guiné do Cabo Verde (1594) translated from Portuguese and extracted from Christopher Fyfe, Sierra Leone Inheritance (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), 32. 5. John Ogilby, Africa (London: Tho. Johnson, 1670), 374. 6. The soghwilly was described as a priestess who was invited in from the Gola interior to perform the circumcision operations and oversee the ceremonies Olfert Dapper, Umbstaendliche und Eigentliche Beschreibung von Africa (Amsterdam: J. von Meurs, 1670), translated from German and extracted from Fyfe, Sierra Leone Inheritance, 3540. 7. P. E. H. Hair, “Ethnolinguistic Continuity on the Coast,” Journal of African History 8, no. 2 (1967): 256; Yves Person, “Ethnic Movement and Acculturation in 188 ● Notes

Upper Guinea,” International Journal of African Historical Studies 4, no. 3 (1971): 684– 85. 8. For descriptions of sex- parallel political institutions in Igboland, Nigeria, see Judith Van Allen, “Sitting on a Man: Colonialism and the Lost Political Institutions of Igbo Women,” Canadian Journal of African Studies 6, no. 2 (1972): 165– 81 and Kamene Okonjo, “The Dual Sex System in Operation: Igbo Women and Commu- nity Politics in Midwestern Nigeria,” in Women in Africa: Studies in Social and Eco- nomic Change, ed. Nancy J. Hafkin and Edna G. Bay (Stanford: Sanford University Press, 1976), 45– 58. In reference to the veto power of elders, Fernandes wrote, “Si le roi veut faire la guerre, il réunite des anciens et forme un conseil. Si ceux- ci trouvent que la guerre n’est pas juste ou que l’ennemi est plus fort, ils dissent au roi qu’ils ne puevent l’aider, se ils ordennenent la paiz, malgré le roi [If the king wishes to make war, he convenes the elders and forms a council. If they find that the war is not just or that the enemy is too strong, they tell the king that they will not help him and they mandate peace, in spite of the king].” Fernandes, Déscription, 83. See also pages 85, 89, and 93 for comments on independent towns and villages along the coast. 9. Adam Afzelius, Sierra Leone Journal: 1795–1796 , ed. A. P. Kup (Uppsala, Swe- den: Alquist and Wiksells, 1967), 85; Vernon R. Dorjahn, “The Organization and Functions of the Ragbenle Society of the Temne,” Africa 29 (1959): 156–70. See Lawson’s description of the structure in SLA, Government Inter- preter’s Letter Book 1876– 78, “Memo for the information of His Excellency the Governor . . . Relative to the Quiah Country,” 273– 305. In 1995, I interviewed the Ya Bom Warra Kamara of Koya Chiefdom, the titleholder who was responsible for helping the chief through kanta, a period of ritual seclusion that is a part of his coronation. She described her position as one she had inherited from her mother. 10. Ann Thrift Nelson, Peggy Reeves Sanday, and Nancy B. Leis have argued that when women’s active role in production is combined with female inheritance and lineage kinship organization, an ideology of corporate female responsibility for the group will arise. Their research demonstrates that when women are responsible for their own fertility, the fertility of the land, and the production of valued goods, they will develop strong loyalties to each other in addition to their loyalties to children, husbands, and kin. Their sense of responsibility for the fertility of the land and for bearing children is likely to be reflected in a women’s association. See Ann T. Nel- son, “Women in Groups: Women’s Ritual Sodalities in ,” Western Canadian Journal of 6, no. 3 (1976); Peggy R. Sanday, “Female Status in the Public Domain,” in Woman, Culture, and Society, ed. Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974); and Nancy B. Leis, “Women in Groups: Ijaw Women’s Associations,” in Woman, Cul- ture, and Society, ed. Michelle Z. Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974); Kelfala Feika and elders interview with author, Sendume, November 23, 1981. 11. W. Addison, “The Wunde Society,” Man 273 (December 1936): 208– 9. 12. According to one researcher, the Wunde oath involves drinking a fluid composed of, among other things, the menstrual blood of the female member. M. A. Koroma, Notes ● 189

“The Effect of Western Education of Secret Societies in the Southern Area,” (unpublished BA thesis, , 1964– 65), 10. 13. Interview with Osman Gamanga, Niawa Chiefdom, September 28, 1981. 14. Carol (P. Hoffer) MacCormack, “Madam Yoko: Ruler of the Kpa Mende Confed- eracy,” in Woman, Culture, and Society, ed. Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974), 185– 86. 15. Kenneth Little, “The Secret Society in Cultural Specialization,” American Anthro- pologist 51 (1949): 2024; Little, The Mende of Sierra Leone (London: Routlege & Kegan Paul, 1951), 25051; B. A. Foday Kai, “Cultural Heritage of Sierra Leone with Special Reference to the Mende ” (typescript, n.d.), 2–3; William Vivian, “The Mendi Country, and Some of the Customs and Characteristics of its People,” Journal of the Manchester Geographical Society 2 (1896): 31. 16. William H. Fitzjohn, “A Village in Sierra Leone,” Sierra Leone Studies 7 (December 1956): 152; Little, The Mende, 250– 51; Kenneth Little, “The Political Function of the : I,” Africa 35, no. 4 (October 1965): 357; MacCormack, “Sande Women and Political Power,” 48; Thomas J. Alldridge, The Sherbro and Its Hinterland (Lon- don: Macmillan, 1901), 144– 49; Foday Kai, “Cultural Heritage of Sierra Leone,” 3. 17. Carol MacCormack, “Sande Women and Political Power,” West African Journal of Sociology and Political Science 1, no. 1 (October 1975): 49; Foday Kai, “Cultural Heritage of Sierra Leone,” 3. 18. Carol (P. Hoffer) MacCormack. “Proto- social to : A Sherbro Transformation,” in Nature, Culture and Gender, ed. Carol MacCormack and Marilyn Strathern (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981): 95– 118. 19. A. K. Turay, “Language Contact: Mende and Temne- A Case Study,” Africana Mar- burgensia 11, no.1 (1978): 55– 73. 20. Vernon R. Dorjahn, “The Organization and Function of the Ragbenle Society of the Temne,” Africa 29 (1959):162– 63. 21. Ferme, The Underneath of Things, 222. 22. Ibid., 223. 23. 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; J. V. O. Richards, “The Sande and Some of the Forces That Inspired Its Creation or Adop- tion with Some References to the Poro,” Journal of Asian and African Studies 8, no. 1/2 (January/April 1973): 69– 77; Kenneth Little, “The Secret Society in Cul- tural Specialization,” American Anthropologist 51 (1949); J. V. O. Richards, “Some Aspects of the Multi- Variant Socio-Cultural Roles of the Sande of the Mende,” Canadian Journal of African Studies 9, no. 1 (1975): 103–108. 24. Caroline Bledsoe, “Stratification and Sande Politics,” Ethnologische Zeitschrift Zue- rich I, 1980 (Bern, Germany: Verlag Peter Lang), 143– 49. 25. A mass demonstration by hundreds of women in support of continuing female genital cutting in 2008 indicates that the Sande society still functions as a strong interethnic women’s association. Awareness Times, “Women Demonstrate for Tra- ditional ‘Mutilation’ in Sierra Leone,” March 8, 2008. 26. Carol MacCormack, “Biological Events and Social Control,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 3 (1977): 93–100; MacComack, “Sande Women and Political Power,” 42– 50; UNICEF, “The Nationwide Needs Assessment for 190 ● Notes

Emergency Obstetrics and Newborn Care Services in Sierra Leone Report,” (2008), contains dozens of references to Sande women who went to Sande soweisia (known in the literature as traditional birth attendants (TBA), but known to the Sande women as grannies) to deliver their babies. Some respondents in the study reported that they would prefer to go to a clinic, but cannot afford to, and others said they preferred to go to the grannies because they trust them more than the nurses and doctors at the clinics. In what seems like a perfect marriage of old ways and new, government clinics allow TBAs to attend pregnant women at their facilities, thus offering the patient access to a woman of the community that she trusts and access to surgery in case complications arise that the TBA cannot handle. 27. MacCormack, “Sande Women and Political Power,” 45. 28. J. V. O. Richards, “The Sande Mask,” African Arts 7, no. 2 (1974): 48– 51; Phillips, “The Sande Society Masks.” 29. MacCormack, “Sande Women and Political Power,” 49. The successful election of Tejan Kabbah to the presidency in 1997 was linked by many to the fact that his wife was a member of the Sande society, while the wife of his challenger was an American noninitiate. 30. Many sources have detailed the stages of the Sande initiation. See Sylvia Ardyn Boone, Radiance from the Waters: Ideals of Feminine Beauty in Mende Art (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968) and MacCormack, “Biological Events and Social Control,” for sensitive descriptions of the Sande initiation cycle. 31. Carol MacCormack, “Health, Fertility, and Birth in District, Sierra Leone,” unpublished paper prepared for publication in Ethnography of Fertility and Birth, ed. Carol MacCormack (London: Academic Press, 1981), 19; Little, The Mende, 133n2. 32. “That [Sande] law is sanctioned by the ancestresses of the society, and whoever trespasses against it is liable to suffer the divine retribution of physical illness . . . In the case of illness caused by disrespect for Sande laws, the offender must go to the officials of the local chapter, publicly confess, pay a fine to the Sande women, and submit to a cleansing ceremony. Or Sande women may not wait for divine retribution but may physically carry the offender off to the Sande bush and chastise him. Even ordinary husbands are constrained to treat their wives with respect lest the wife or her mother cause illness or impotence with ‘medicine’ known to Sande women,” MacCormack, “Sande Women and Political Power,” 45. 33. Ruth Phillips, “Masking in Sande Society Initiation Rituals,” Africa 48, no. 3 (1978): 272; William L. Hommel, Art of the Mende (University of Maryland Art Gallery, 1974), 10. See Alldridge, The Sherbro and Its Hinterland, 142, for an exam- ple of an arrest by a sowei. 34. Author’s personal observation. Several Bundu dancers from different performed at an annual fair in Bo in April 1981. Later that year I observed the parade of Bundu maskers for the funeral of a sowei at a village in Jaiama-Bangor chiefdom. See also Hommel, Art of the Mende, 8, for a description of the Sande masker’s different styles of dancing. 35. Phillips, “The Sande Society Masks,” 167, 17677; Hommel, Art of the Mende, 5. 36. Ibid., 10, 167– 68; see also B. A. Foday Kai, “Mende Cultural Dances,” (typescript, n.d.) 4. for other mask names. Notes ● 191

37. Ibid., “The Sande Society Masks,” 140; Jedrej, “Structural Aspects of a West Afri- can Secret Society,” 241; Boone, Radiance from the Waters, 238. 38. Phillips disputes the prevailing opinion of other anthropologists and art historians that these motifs have symbolic meaning. She feels that the motifs are customary and carved without conscious intent to convey meaning. See also Boone, Radiance from the Waters, 16367, for a discussion of this issue. 39. Priscilla Hinckley, “The Sowo Mask: Symbol of Sisterhood,” African Studies Center (working paper 40 [1980]), 7; Foday Kai, “Mende Cultural Dances,” 3. 40. Boone, Radiance from the Waters, 170, 184–201, 206–23; Hinckley, “The Sowo Mask,” 89; Hommel, The Art of the Mende, 5–8; Kai, “Mende Cultural Dances,” 4. 41. Boone, Radiance from the Waters, 170; Ferme, The Underneath of Things, 77. 42. MacCormack, “Health, Fertility, and Birth,” 14. 43. Ibid. The iconography of sexual references was not openly discussed by the art historians’ interviewees, but Sande songs are full of ribald references and openly celebrate heterosexual coupling. Active and productive sexuality is one of Sande’s principal goals. Though unspoken, the iconography of the masks salutes human sexuality. A five- lobed hairstyle appears to be a visual representation of the vagina, and many sowei masks are topped by phallic symbols representing penises or per- haps the unexcised clitoris. 44. Harry Sawyer, “Origins of the Mende Concept of God,” Sierra Leone Bulletin of Religion, 7 (December 1956): 71. Bledsoe speaks at length about the dichotomous yet conjoined male and female realms in “The Political Use of Sande Ideology and Symbolism,” American Ethnologist 11, no. 3 (August 1984), 455– 72; See Jedrej, “Structural Aspects of a West African Secret Society,” 235– 45, for an analysis of the hale (medicine) as a ritual separator, which divides children from and men from women. For humorous folkloric renderings of the chaos that ensues when men and women step out of their proper roles, see the work of Dennis Cosentino. 45. Phillips, “Sande Society Masks,” 164. 46. Quoting Paramount Chief B. A. Foday Kai in Phillips, “Sande Society Masks,” 179, note 8. 47. Foday Kai, “Cultural Heritage of Sierra Leone,” 3. 48. “She is a in her own right. The women mimic warfare when she dies. They go around town holding swords; if they happen to catch a goat or chicken you can’t take it away from them. This is to show she died a warrior.” Quoting Foday Kai in Phillips, “Sande Society Masks,” 179n8. 49. Foday Kai, “Cultural Heritage of Sierra Leone,” 4; Phillips, “Sande Society Masks,” 164n9. Phillips witnessed this ceremony in , Jaiama-Bongor Chiefdom in 1972. Such a ceremony was called the musu kŢ (women’s war) in an ethnographic account from the 1930s. It describes women dancing with knives and cutlasses and then arresting the husband of a woman who died in childbirth. Robert T. Parsons, Religion in an African Society (Leiden: Brill, 1964), 44. 50. Benjamin G. Dennis, The Gbandes: A People of the Liberian Hinterland (Chicago: Nelson- Hall, 1972), 173. 51. Thomas J. Alldridge, “Wanderings in the Hinterland of Sierra Leone,” The Geo- graphical Journal 4 (1894): 135. 192 ● Notes

52. D’Azevedo, “Historical Problems in the Delineation of a Central West Atlantic Region,” 516, 524– 25, 528; Little, The Mende, 27; Phillips, “The Sande Society Masks,” 186; Horton, “Stateless Societies in the History of West Africa,” 97104. 53. Horton, “Stateless Societies,” 102. 54. Alldridge, The Sherbro and Its Hinterland, 133. 55. William Vivian, “The Mende Country and Some of the Customs and Characteris- tics of its People,” Journal of the Manchester Geographical Society 12 (1896), 30. 56. Dapper, Umbstaendliche, 35– 39; Almada, Tratado Breve dos Rios de Guiné, 32. 57. John Newton, The Journal of a Slave Trader: 1750–1751 , ed. Bernard Martin and Mark Spurrell (London: Epworth Press, 1962), 107. 58. John Matthews, A Voyage to the Rivers of Sierra Leone (1788; London: Frank Cass, 1966), 84–85. 59. Ibid. 60. Thomas Winterbottom, An Account of the Native Africans in the Neighborhood of Sierra Leone, 2nd ed. (1803; repr. London: Frank Cass, 1969). 61. C. Braithwaite Wallis, “The Poro of the Mendi,” Journal of the African Society, 4, no. 14 (1905): 183. 62. Parliamentary Papers (hereafter P.P.), vol.60 (1899), Sir David Chalmers, “Report on the Subject of the Insurrection in the Sierra Leone Protectorate: 1898,” vol. 1, 137. (Cited hereafter as the Chalmers Report). 63. Wallis, “Poro of the Mendi,” 188. 64. Chalmers Report, 52. 65. Wallis, “Poro of the Mendi,” 188– 89. 66. C. Braithwaite Wallis, “In the Court of the Native Chiefs in Mendiland,” Journal of the African Society (1905): 4035. 67. One letter asks for permission to bring society medicine in to swear the chief- dom people in the run-up to the election. See Eastern Province Archives, Small Bo: Deaths and Elections of Paramount Chiefs, Foday Vana and Lahai Kekala, letter to the Provincial Commissioner, June 16, 1952; a secret oath- swearing is complained of in a petition to the , Eastern Province, from numerous signees led by Bobo Jumbo dated October 31, 1961. Both letters were kept in the Provincial Archives. Eastern Province, , “Deaths and Elections of Paramount Chiefs.” 68. Wallis, “The Poro of the Mendi,” 184. An area of tall trees conveying a cathedral- like appearance could be seen near all the towns and villages I visited in Sierra Leone. Though I never went deep into these areas, I walked on paths just adjacent to, or which cut through, the edge of these forested areas. These groves, as they might properly be termed, imparted a sense of mystery and great age even to an outsider like myself. Once I was told straight away by my guide that this was the sacred bush where women never went and where important decisions were made. At another town, I was told that it was in the grove of trees that the spirits of the first settlers of that town dwelt. 69. Personal communication; see also Little, The Mende, 118– 19. 70. Little, The Mende, 124– 5. 71. Little, The Mende, 245– 46. Notes ● 193

72. Walter Rodney, A History of the Upper Guinea Coast: 1545– 1800 (Oxford: Claren- don Press), 66; Little, The Mende, 241– 243 also mentions this. 73. Little, The Mende, 245. 74. Alldridge, The Sherbro and Its Hinterland, 133. 75. Ibid. 76. Ibid., 133; Kenneth Little, “The Political Function of the Poro I,” Africa, vol. 35, no. 4 (October 1965): 361. 77. Little, The Mende, 245. 78. Ferme, The Underneath of Things, 78. 79. Ibid., 77– 79. 80. Ibid., 79. 81. Bledsoe, “Political Use of Sande Ideology,” 465. 82. Christopher Fyfe, History of Sierra Leone (London: Oxford University Press, 1962), 271. 83. George MacMillan Domingo, “The Caulker Manuscript II,” Sierra Leone Studies, o. s. 6 (Nov. 1922): 7. 84. “Chalmers Report,” 52. 85. Alldridge, A Transformed Colony, 269– 271. 86. Little, “Role of the Secret Society,” 204. 87. Ibid. 88. Little, The Mende, 357, referencing Hall (1939) and Augustus Cole (1886). 89. Author’s observation, Medina, January 2007. 90. Research Seminar, University of Sierra Leone, , 25 January 1982; Author interview with E. J. QueeNyagua of Bambara, Freetown, 18 May 1981; Author interview with Abdulai B. M. Jah, , 26 May 1981. 91. Little, MacCormack, and Phillips assert that women paramount chiefs become junior members of Poro. See Little, The Mende, 245– 46; MacCormack ; Phillips, Alpha M. Lavalie, “History and Development of the Institution of Mende Chief- taincy from the PreColonial Period to Independence: A Case Study from ” (BA thesis, University of Sierra Leone, 1976), 20. 92. Bledsoe, “Political Ideology of Sande,” 465. 93. Ferme, The Underneath of Things, 79.

Chapter 2 1. Treaty of 1787, printed in Christopher Fyfe, Sierra Leone Inheritance (London: Oxford University Press, 1969) 112– 13. 2. Parliamentary Papers (hereafter P.P.), vol. 47 (1883), no. 9 enc. 9, “Treaty of 1825.” The Ya Kumba referred to in the Treaty of 1825 was later described as being the principal ruler of an area stretching from the Kagboro River south, including Imperri country, to the border of the Gallinas. See Sierra Leone Archives (hereafter S.L.A.) S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book: 1885– 1886, October 20, 1885 (memo for His Excellency . . . relative to some of the Sherbro districts). 3. Julien de Hart, “Notes on the Susu Settlement at Lungeh, Bullom Shore,” Sierra Leone Studies o.s. 2 (March 1919), app. D; P.P., vol. 47 (1886), no. 38, enc. 1, 194 ● Notes

“Lavannah Agreement,” 16 May 1885; Kenneth Little, The Mende of Sierra Leone (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1951), 195. 4. Walter Rodney paraphrases André Dornelas’s account and mentions two other Por- tuguese sources that tell of a high-ranking woman leader of the Manes. See Walter Rodney, “A Reconsideration of the Mane Invasions of Sierra Leone,” Journal of African History 8, no. 2 (1967): 223– 25; A. P. Kup, A History of Sierra Leone: 1400– 1787 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961), 132– 39. 5. Qāsā, the senior wife of Mansa Suleiman, the Sultan of , was accused of con- spiring with her brother to overthrow her husband’s regime. Battuta notes that Qāsā commanded the loyalty of many captains and units of armed men. Ibn Bat- tuta, Ibn Battuta in Black Africa, trans. and ed. Said Hamdun and No?l King, with a foreword by Ross E. Dunn (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 1994), 55– 56. 6. Olfert Dapper, Umbständliche und Eigentliche Beschreibung von Afrika (Amsterdam: J. von Meurs, 1670), translated from German and extracted from Christopher Fyfe, Sierra Leone Inheritance (London: Oxford University Press, 1964). Twentieth century ethnographers of Mende sociocultural structures described practices very similar to those described by sixteenth- and seventeenth- century visitors to the coast. See Little, The Mende, 96– 98, 164– 165, 195. M. C. Jedrej stresses the role of cognatic descent in Mende kinship reckoning, residence, and inheritance customs. M. C. Jedrej, Ecology and Kinship: A Study of Varying Patterns of Domestic Groups Among the Sewa Mende of Sierra Leone (PhD diss., Edinburgh, 1969), 92– 93. See A. P. Kup, A History of Sierra Leone, 150–51, for a description of “Seniora Maria,” who in addition to founding a town, acted as “interpreter and peacemaker” for the Royal African Company. 7. Adam Afzelius, Sierra Leone Journal, 1795– 1796, ed. A. P. Kup (Uppsala, Sweden: Alquist and Wiksells, 1967). 8. S.L.A., Aborigine’s Minute Papers, no. 7, Thomas G. Lawson to Governor Arthur Havelock, February 21, 1882. 9. S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book: 1876– 1878, Thomas G. Lawson to Faingaray Purroh, August 1, 1877, 161. 10. S.L.A., Aborigine’s Minute Papers, no. 155, Commandant of Sherbro to His Excel- lency the Administrator, October 30, 1889. These Sherbro and the duties of their holders are described by Thomas J. Alldridge in The Sherbro and Its Hinter- land (London: Macmillan, 1901), 143– 49. 11. See Oyèrónké Oyĕwùmi, “Introduction: Feminism, Sisterhood, and Other Foreign Relations” and “The White Women’s Burden: African Women in Western Feminist Discourse,” in African Women & Feminism, ed. Oyèrónké Oyĕwùmi (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2003), 1– 24, 25– 43, for a critique of Western feminist theoriz- ing of the public- private dichotomy. 12. James Littlejohn, “The Temne Ansasa,” Sierra Leone Studies, n.s., 13 (June 1960): 32. 13. Two researchers in the late 1960s visited the region and conducted extensive inter- views with the people of Kagboro and chiefdoms. Carol (P. Hoffer) Mac- Cormack’s dissertation, “Acquisition and Exercise of Political Power by a Woman Paramount Chief of the Sherbro People” (PhD diss., Bryn Mawr, 1971), contains a wealth of information about the Caulker and the other clans of Kagboro Chiefdom. Notes ● 195

Darrell Reeck’s field notes of interviews in Bumpe Chiefdom are available at the Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music. The interviews cited here were collected by Reeck as handwritten notes on May 1– 5, 1969, and typed into final form two months later. 14. Christopher Fyfe, History of Sierra Leone (London: Oxford University Press, 1962), 10; MacCormack, “Woman Paramount Chief of the Sherbro People,” 68–77. See especially the genealogical chart on page 73. 15. P.P., vol. XLI [1883], no. 9 enc. 9, “Treaty of 1825.” Thomas J. Lawson outlined the relationship of the Ya Kumba and the Caulkers in an 1879 memo discussing this treaty. He wrote, “Ya Comba [Ya Kumba] is the queen of the lands including lands and territories now claimed by the Caulkers but immediately under the King of the Sherbro country. She appears to be the Land Lady of the Caulkers but was overwhelmed and her influence paralized [sic] by the wealth, power and influence of the Caulkers during the Spanish slave trade time, thus at the time the Treaty was signed she was represented by them (the Caulkers.) Very often a male is styled Queen to keep up the original name and of the one the female originally bore.” S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book: 1878–1879 , no. 28, February 13, 1879. 16. Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music, Darrell Reeck, Field Notes, inter- view no. 134 with the Kong Charma, Samu, 1 May 1969. A representative of the Muslim chiefly family in the Bumpe Chiefdom described his connection to the Kong Charma as follows: “Our grandfather, Pa Mogbei, was born at Walai. The Koromas found out that the head of this country was Madam Kong Charma of the Bendu. When our grandfather came, Brima Fona, there was no rest— just a warlike spirit. He is the Mandingo man. He came to Mogbei, the chief of all the Koromas . . . Mogbei was a Sherbro.” 17. Darrell L. Reeck, “Innovators in Religion and Politics in Sierra Leone, 1875– 1896,” International Journal of African Historical Studies 4 (1972): 591– 92. 18. Indiana University, Darrell Reeck, Field Notes, interview no.135 with Alimamy Fosana II, Yenkissa, May 2, 1969, 841– 42. 19. P.P., vol. 27 [C4840] (March 1886), no. 24, enc. 2, “Assault on Private Moses Han- son, Sierra Leone Constabulary. 20. Indiana University, Darrell Reeck, Field Notes, interview no.144 with C. E. Mey- ers, , May 4, 1969, 862. 21. S.L.A., Aborigine’s Minute Papers, no. 7. 22. Indiana University, Darrell Reeck, Field Notes, interview no.144 with C. E. Mey- ers, Rotifunk, May 4, 1969, 862. 23. Vernon R. Dorjahn, “The Organization and Functions of the Ragbenle Society of the Temne,” Africa 29 (1959): 162– 63. 24. The myths of origin of the three chiefly clans of Kagboro Chiefdom in the subse- quent paragraphs were recorded by Carol [P. Hoffer] MacCormack and collected in her dissertation. MacCormack, “Woman Paramount Chief of the Sherbro People,” 98– 108. 25. Frederick Lamp, “Frogs into Princes: The Temne Rabai Initiation,” African Arts (January 1978): 28. 196 ● Notes

26. S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book, 1885– 1886. Memo for His Excel- lency . . . relative to some of the Sherbro Districts, October 20, 1885. 27. The Sousanth line achieved the right to stand for chieftaincy elections in Kagboro Chiefdom in the first decade of the twentieth century. The governor of the Sierra Leone colony himself traveled to to hear the claims of two rival families for the office of paramount chief. The governor agreed with the arguments made by both houses and awarded the staff to Sei Lebbi, a member of the Sousanth house who had risen against the British in 1898 and had helped murder the loyalist chief Thomas Neale Caulker in 1898. See MacCormack, “Woman Paramount Chief of the Sherbro People,” 207– 11. 28. MacCormack, “Woman Paramount Chief of the Sherbro People,” 219. 29. S.L.A., Aborigines Minute Papers, letter from Thomas G. Lawson to Governor Arthur Havelock, February 21, 1882, no.7; S.L.A., Aborigines Minute Papers, letter from Richard Canray Ba Caulker to Governor Arthur Havelock, February 8, 1882; no. 7, enc. 30. Thomas J. Alldridge, A Transformed Colony: Sierra Leone as it Was (London: Seeley, 1910), 277. 31. S.L.A., Aborigines Minute Papers, letter from Richard Canray Ba Caulker to Gover- nor Arthur Havelock, February 8, 1882; S.L.A., Aborigines Minute Papers, no. 7. 32. Vernon Dorjahn, “Organization and Function of the Ragbenle Society of the Temne,” Africa 29 (1959): 162. 33. Indiana University, Reeck Field Notes, interview no. 144 with C. E. Myers, Roti- funk, May 4, 1969, 862. 34. McCormack, “Woman Paramount Chief of the Sherbro,” 108. See the genealogical chart on page 73. 35. Reeck, interview no. 135, 842. 36. “For the past 30 years, no one has had that title [Yah-Kye/Ya Kai] and that part of the country has been governed by the late father of Canray Mahoi who I became acquainted with in 1842. After his death, his son the Elder brother of Canray Mahoi was placed in his stead; this was in 1857, he died in 1864 when Canray Mahoi the present Chief began to reign.” S.L.A., Aborigine’s Minute Papers, no. 7. 37. S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book: 1878–1879 , April 14, 1879, 161 (statement by Ellis on the history of Sherbro). 38. S.L.A., Aborigine’s Minute Papers, no. 22, March 1, 1882 (memo to His Excellency in relation to the Gallinas); Thomas J. Alldridge, A Transformed Colony (London: Seeley, 1910), 276; S.L.A., Sherbro Letter Book, Letters to Chiefs 1895– 1906; S.L.A., Intelligence Book-Volume I: Sherbro 1904, “Krim Country/Turner’s Penin- sula,” 10. 39. S.L.A., Aborigine’s Minute Papers, no. 22. 40. P.P., 1886, vol. XLVII [C.4642], no.21, Rowe to Earl of Derby, May 14, 1885; P.P., 1886, vol. XLVII [C.4642], Rowe to Earl of Derby, no. 38, enc 2, “Lavan- nah Agreement,” May 16, 1885; Numerous references to Fahwundu can be found in P.P., 1886, vol. XLVII [C.4642, 4840, 4905] correspondence from April 1885- August 1886 passim. May 1885. 41. Colonial Office (hereafter C.O.) 879/25. African 332, Report by Lawson and Parkes, 48– 51. Notes ● 197

42. Solomon Bockari Kolia (Collier) interviewed by author, Bo Town, November 3, 1981. 43. “The Government is not altogether despotic, the king cannot do anything without consulting the Nain Banna, Pa Cappra, Nain Sogo and four queens besides other less influential chiefs.” S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book: 1876– 1878, n.d., 275 (memo to His Excellency in relation to the Quiah country). 44. A concise summary of the critical role Naimbana played in the founding of the Freetown Colony can be found in E. A. Ijagbemi, Naimbana of Sierra Leone ( Lon- don: Heinemann Educational Books, 1976). 45. S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book: 1876–1878 , 178 (memo to His Excel- lency in relation to the Quiah country); see also S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book: 1876– 1878, 37–38, 166, 376; Government Interpreter’s Letter Book: 1878– 1879, 222– 23. 46. Bubu Inga, “Ceremonies on the Death and crowning of a Paramount Chief in the Timne Country,” Sierra Leone Studies, n.s., 2 (March 1919): 59. 47. Dorjahn, “Organization and Function of the Ragbenle Society,” 160n2; G. W. James, “A Brief Account of Timne Constitutional Law, with Especial Reference to the History and customs of the Koia Chiefdom,” Sierra Leone Studies, n.s., 22 (Sept. 1939): 112– 13, 117. 48. S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book: 1876–1878 , 274 (memo to His Excel- lency in relation to the Quiah country). 49. S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book: 1876–1878 , 280 (memo to His Excel- lency in relation to the Quiah country). 50. S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book: 1876–1878 , 281 (memo to His Excel- lency in relation to the Quiah country); S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book: 1878– 1879, July 8, 1879, 222– 23, letter to His Excellency the Governor of Sierra Leone from Bome Rufah and Bome Warrah, Queens of Quiah and Pa King, Pa Lamah, Asumana Quiah, and Bonyah Bonguy, Chiefs of Quiah. 51. In 1995, I met the then Ye Bom Warra of Koya Chiefdom who had fled the war and was living in Freetown. She spoke about her traditional responsibilities as the woman who must accompany the chief into kanta, and said she had inherited the position from her mother. Ye Bom Warra Kamara interview with author, Freetown, July 24, 1995. In 2007 I met the incumbent Bom Posseh. She was then active in a nongovernmental organization for women parliamentarians and cabinet members as well as a stalwart of the APC party in elective politics. She was working closely with parliamentarian Al Hadja Afsatu who became a cabinet minister in the first government of President Ernest Koroma in January 2008. Both the Ye Bom Warra and the Bom Posseh’s work as political organizers underscores the legitimate influ- ence of women titleholders in the public sphere and the respect they are accorded by virtue of their traditional ritual roles. 52. Ijagbemi, Naimbana of Sierra Leone, 16 (the terms ceremonial chiefs and nonceremo- nial district chiefs are Ijagbemi’s). Robin Horton, “Stateless Societies in the History of Africa,” in History of West Africa I, ed. J. F. Ajayi and Michael Crowder (New York: Columbia University Press, 1972), 95. 53. S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book: 1876–1878 , 281 (memo to His Excel- lency in relation to the Quiah country); Kup, History of Sierra Leone, 127– 138. 198 ● Notes

54. S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book: 1878–1879 , April 14, 1879. This woman may have been the titleholder Ya Kumba whose representatives signed the 1825 treaty with Governor Turner. 55. Reeck, interview no. 135, 847. 56. Dorjahn, “The Organization and Function of the Ragbenle Society of the Temne,” 162; Vernon R. Dorjahn, “The Initiation of Temne Poro Officials,” Man, no. 27 (February 1961): 38. 57. Author interview with Ye Bom Warra Kamara, Freetown, July 24, 1995.

Chapter 3 1. Arthur Abraham, Introduction to the Precolonial History of Mende in Sierra Leone (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003): 50– 60; Arthur Abraham, “The Pattern of Warfare and Settlement Among the Mende of Sierra Leone in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century,” Kroniek van Afrika 2 (1975): 121– 40; Darrell L. Reeck, “Innovators in Religion and Politics in Sierra Leone, 1875– 1896,” International Journal of African Historical Studies 5, no. 4 (1972): 587– 609; Kenneth C. Wylie and James S. Harrison, “Initiative and Response in the Sierra Leone Hinterland, 1885–1898: The Chiefs and British Intervention,” Africana Research Bulletin 3, no. 1 (1972): 16– 45: Kenneth Little, The Mende of Sierra Leone (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1951); John Davidson, “Trade and Politics in the Sherbro Hinter- land: 1849– 1890” (PhD diss., University of Wisconsin, 1969). An alternative view stressing demographic and ecological factors is presented in D. J. Siddle, “War Towns in Sierra Leone: A Study in Social Change,” Africa 38 (1968): 47– 56. 2. Adam Jones, From Slaves to Palm Kernels: A History of the Galinhas Country (West Africa), 1730– 1890 (Wiesbaden, Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag GMGH, 1983), 20– 42, 81– 155; Svend Holsoe, “ and Economic Response Among the Vai,” in , ed. Meiers and Kopytoff (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1977): 294– 97. 3. An 1823 report by the Sierra Leone commissioners described the method of slave collecting employed by King Siaka of the Vai. “The course of trade at Gallinas . . . is to contract with the King or chief headman, Siaca, for the supply of the total number of slaves wanted . . . He makes subordinate contracts with the interior headmen and with slae dealers of the vicinity who undertake to furnish scores or dozens according to the means of procuring them,” quoted in Holsoe, “Slavery and Economic Response,” 294. 4. Holsoe, “Slavery and Economic Response,” 296–300; Davidson “Trade and Poli- tics in the Sherbro Hinterland,” 174–198; Walter Rodney, “African Slavery and other forms of Social Oppression on the Upper Guinea Coast in the context of the ,” Journal of African History 7 (1967): 431– 43. 5. E. A. Ijagbemi, “The Freetown Colony and the Development of Legitimate Com- merce in the Adjoining Territories,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 5 (June 1970): 243–56; See also George Thompson, Thompson in Africa (New York: Printed for the author, 1852) for a contemporary account of competition between stranger chiefs and local leaders for control of key towns and waterways. Notes ● 199

6. Abdulai B. M. Jah interview with author, Pujehun, May 26, 1981. Victor Foh, a Mende former district officer of the maintained that the Jah and Kai Kai chiefly families had “colonized” the indigenous Krim people and still “ruled with an iron hand.” Victor Foh interview with author, Kenema, October 1, 1981. 7. Ijagbemi, “Legitimate Commerce,” 253. 8. Abraham, “The Pattern of Warfare and Settlement,” 126. 9. , Parliamentary Papers (hereafter P.P.), (1875) [C.1402], vol. 52, Wall to Budge, June 7, 1875; United Kingdom, Colonial Office (hereafter C.O.) C.O./879/24/96, Sorie Kessebah to Thomas G. Lawson, 24 March 1886: “The warriors are determined to make war for themselves and carry it to the Yonnies . . . I forbad [sic] them, now again they are preparing another one against my will. You can please tell the Governor this that he sends at once to stop them.” 10. P.P., (1875) [C.1402] vol. 52, Berkeley to Earl of Kimberly, February 18, 1874. 11. P.P., (1883) [C.3765] vol. 47, “Correspondence respecting the disturbances in the neighborhood of British Sherbro,” quoted in Arthur Abraham, Mende Government and Politics under Colonial Rule (Freetown: Sierra Leone University Press, 1978), 8n36. 12. C.O./879/17/149/, Budge Report, January 28, 1879. 13. See for example Dick Simpson, “A Preliminary Political History of the Kenema Area,” Sierra Leone Studies, n.s., 21 (July 1967): 52– 62; Brian H. A. Ranson, “The Founding of Moyamba,” Sierra Leone Studies, n.s., 22 (January 1968): 52– 59; Dar- rell Reeck, “Innovators in Religion and Politics in Sierra Leone, 1875–1896,” The International Journal of African Historical Studies 5, no. 4 (1972): 587– 609. 14. William Vivian, Mendiland Memories (London: H. Hooks, 1926), 17. 15. Thomas J. Alldridge, “Wanderings in the Hinterland of Sierra Leone,” The Geo- graphical Journal 4 (1894): 128. 16. Vivian, Mendiland Memories, 17. See also Thomas J. Alldridge, “Pioneering in the Sierra Leone Hinterland,” Travel and Exploration (1909): 275. 17. Alldridge, “Wanderings in the Hinterland of Sierra Leone,” 128. 18. J. Bockari, “Mende Warfare,” Farm and Forest 6, no. 2 (April– June, 1945): 104. 19. Bockari, “Mende Warfare,” 104; Alldridge, “Wanderings in the Hinterland of Sierra Leone,” 128; Thomas J. Alldridge, The Sherbro and Its Hinterland (London: MacMillan, 1901), see list of illustrations. 20. Bockari, “Mende Warfare,” 104; Siddle, “War Towns in Sierra Leone,” 47– 56. Abraham analyzed and outlined this phenomenon in his early paper, “The Pattern of Warfare and Settlement,” and developed it more completely in his recent 2003 study, Introduction to the Precolonial History of Mende in Sierra Leone, 61– 72. 21. Abraham, Introduction to the Precolonial History of Mende in Sierra Leone, 73. 22. C. Magbaily Fyle, “A Note on ‘Country’ in Political Anthropology,” Africana Research Bulletin 3, no. 1 (1972): 46– 49. 23. Sierra Leonean scholar Arthur Abraham designated nine states in a late nineteenth- century Mende state-building process, which was truncated by the imposition of colonial rule. Arthur Abraham, Introduction to the Precolonial History of Mende in Sierra Leone and Mende Government and Politics under Colonial Rule. The distinc- tion between ndŢ-mahei (land chief) and kŢ-mahei (war chief), and the rise in importance of the latter in Mende society in this period has been discussed by 200 ● Notes

several scholars, but see Alpha M. S. Lavalie, “History and Development of the Institution of Mende Chieftaincy from the Pre- colonial Period to Independence: A Case Study from Kenema District” (BA thesis, University of Sierra Leone, 1976), 14, for a succinct definition. See also Lynda R. Day, “Nyarroh of Bandasuma, 1885– 1914: A Re- interpretation of Female Chieftaincy in Sierra Leone,” Journal of African History 48 (2007): 415–37, for a discussion of women chiefs in this structure. 24. “She [Ya Kumba] appears to be the Land Lady of the Caulkers but was over- whelmed and her influence paralized by the wealth, power and influence of the Caulkers during the Spanish slave trade time,” Sierra Leone Archives (hereafter S.L.A.), Government Interpreter’s Letter Book 1878– 1879, no. 28, February 13, 1879, 92. “Originally or formerly that River Ribbee was under the control of a woman named Kate, whence [sic] the river was called Kate’s River. Her native name was Yah- Kye that is Mother or Lady Kye; this woman had great influence in her time,” S.L.A., Aborigine’s Minute Papers, no. 7 (1882), Thomas G. Lawson to Gov- ernor Arthur Havelock, February 21, 1882. 25. “Of late about thirty or forty years ago there arose a new Queen called Messeh in the Cream [Krim] Country who and other chiefs now are exercising jurisdiction in that country.” S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book 1878– 1879, statement by Ellis on the history of Sherbro , April 14, 1879, 161. “Queen Messeh’s territory or jurisdiction commences from Carlay lying east of Korankoh Tucker’s territory on the west to Kargboh; formerly it extends as far as Casseh in the Kittim river now appears to be claimed by the Gallinas chiefs and all the lands on the right going up the Boom river from Tay to Bemboe,” S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book 1878– 1879, February 12, 1879, 88– 89 (information received from William Caulker, Freetown). 26. C.O./879/25/332, (1886) Report by T.G. Lawson and J.C.E. Parkes, 48. “Maagao” is an alternate spelling of the titled head of a Sande chapter, the maajo. 27. Paramount Chief B. A. Foday Kai interview with author, Telu, November 11, 1981; P.P. (1887) [C.5236] vol. 60, no. 131, enc. 3, Garrett to Deputy Governor Hay, August 26, 1887, 168. 28. A. B. C. Sibthorpe, The History of Sierra Leone, 4th ed. (London: Frank Cass, 1970). 29. S.L.A., Records of Paramount Chiefs (1899), 177. 30. Bandasuma is located approximately forty miles inland from the mouth of the Moa (Sulima) River in what is now the Kpanga-Kabonde Chiefdom, Pujehun District. For his research on Nyarroh, see Arthur Abraham, “Women Chiefs in Sierra Leone: A Historical Appraisal,” Odu 10 (July 1974): 36– 7. 31. P.P. (1886) [C.4642] vol. 47, no.16, enc.1, Festing to Rowe, April 18,1885, 17. 32. P.P. (1886) [C. 4642] vol. 47, no. 17, enc. Peel to Rowe, April 21, 1885, 20. 33. Alldridge, The Sherbro and Its Hinterland, 166. 34. P.P. (1886) [C.4642] vol. 47, no. 17, Rowe to the Earl of Derby, April 24, 1885, 19. 35. P.P. (1886) [C.4905] vol. 47, Rowe to Peel, March 30, 1886, 19. The prospect of trade to Bandasuma is described in the newspaper article cited below: “Beyond the Gallinas country there lies that hitherto unknown tract of country but lately pen- etrated by His Excellency, Sir Samuel Rowe, known as the Barrie Country: seldom Notes ● 201

if ever visited by Europeans and hardly ever by Sierra Leone traders. The position of its principal town, Bandazuma, as a trading centre, renders it of such importance to the commercial community that it cannot but be said to be peculiarly fortu- nate that it has been opened to commerce in these trying times. From it there are roads to the Toonchia country rich in palm kernels and palm oil, the Wenday and Gowrah and other districts beyond as yet uninvaded by traders; it is within easy access of both Yonnie [Temne] and Mesmah in the Kittam and is not very distant from Sulimah . . . Rich in produce, which its people would gladly exchange for European products, it is undoubtedly one of the finest markets which has for some time presented itself, and which it is to be hoped, now that peace has been restored to the district, and it has been opened to the traders.” P.P. (1886) [C.4642] vol. 47, no. 38, Rowe to the Earl of Derby, July 18, 1885, enc. 19, The Sierra Leone Church Times, June 17, 1885. 36. P.P. (1886), [C.4642] vol. 47, no. 17, Rowe to Earl of Derby, April 24, 1885, 19. 37. P.P. (1886), [C.4642] vol. 47, no. 38, enc. 10, Rowe to Peel, April 22, 1885, 64. 38. Ibid.,“[The boys] carry with them 20lbs. of tobacco for you which you can make a present to Queen Nyarroh, and one case of gin, and one piece white cloth, and one handkerchief as a present to her.” 39. P.P. (1886) [C.4642] vol 47, no. 38, enc.13, Peel to Rowe, April 25, 1885, 66. 40. P.P. (1886) [C.4905] vol. 47, Peel to Rowe, January 9, 1886 and January 21, 1886, 5, 8; A. B. M. Jah interview with author, Pujehun, May 26,1981; P.P. (1886) [C.4905] vol. 47, Peel to Rowe, January 21, 1886, 8. 41. P.P. (1886) [C.4905] vol. 47, Peel to Rowe, January 24, 1886, 9; ibid., [C.4642] vol. 67, no.66, enc., Peel to Rowe, December 20, 1885, 101. 42. P.P. (1886) [C.4642] vol. 47, no.19, Rowe to the Earl of Derby, May 4, 1885, 23. 43. Ibid., no. 66, enc., Peel to Rowe, December 20, 1885, 101. 44. Ibid., no. 66, enc., Peel to Rowe, 20.12.1885, 102. 45. P.P. (1889) [C.5740] vol. 56, no. 28, Peel to Rowe, enc. 2, April 10, 1886, 53. 46. Alldridge, The Sherbro and Its Hinterland, 166, 170. 47. Ibid., 259– 60. 48. P.P. (1886) [C.4642] vol. 47, no. 38, enc.1, Lavannah Agreement May 16, 1885, 55– 56. 49. P.P. (1886) [C.4840] vol. 47, no. 17, enc. 5, Rowe to Makavorey [Makavoreh] of Tikonkoh, January 2, 1886, 25. “I have sent messengers to him [], and my officer has gone also to tell him that I will not have Bandasuma destroyed. It is down in the last treaty I made at Lavannah, that no war would attack Bandasuma, and if Darwah or any one else does attack it, they can never be my friends or the friends of my Queen. Send and tell him what I now write to you, advise him, warn him not to attack Bandasuma, or to disturb the peace of that part of the country.” 50. P.P. (1886) [C.4905] vol. 47, Peel to Rowe, December 7, 1885, 3; P.P. (1887) [C.5236] vol. 60, Conversation between Rowe and Momo Jah, February 6, 1887, 47. 51. P.P. (1886) [C.4642] vol. 47, no. 38, enc. 17, Festing to Rowe, May 29, 1885, 67. 52. P.P. (1886) [C.4905] vol. 47, Peel to Rowe, March 22, 1886. “Foray Gogra has sent to me from Bandasuma to say that he has called all the people together there and sworn for peace; he is ready to attend the meeting; so I only want to clear the war- boys from this side of the river; then take Boccary Governor up and finish everything.” 202 ● Notes

53. Little, The Mende, 37; “It is worth mentioning that if a chief desired to call for a cessation of hostilities between two forces, he would send as his representative a woman of fair coloured skin (nyaha gowale) with a white cloth (kula- gole) a gun (kpande) and salt (kpolo) to plead on his behalf,” Bokari, “Mende Warfare,” 104; Thompson, Thompson in Africa, 130, 138– 41. 54. P.P. (1887) [C.5236] vol. 60, no. 42, enc., Revington to the Colonial Secretary, February 8, 1887, 60. 55. P.P. (1886)[C.4642] vol. 47, no. 16, enc. 1, Festing to Rowe, April 14, 1885; P.P. (1886) [C.4840] vol. 47, no.17, enc. 9, Mackaia to Rowe, February 27, 1886, 27; P.P. (1886) [C.4642] vol. 47, no. 17, enc., Peel to Rowe, April 21, 1885, 20. 56. Chiefs’ fear of detention. 57. P.P. (1887) [C.5236] vol.60, no. 88, enc. 3, Statement of William Dixon, a trader of Bandasuma sworn before the Civil Commandant at Sulimah, May 5, 1887, 118. 58. P.P. (1887),[C.5236] vol. 60, no. 117, enc. 1, Makavoreh to Hay, July 16, 1887, 159. 59. Ibid. The Governor was particularly concerned that Nyarroh’s ransom had not become a pretext for enriching both the kidnappers and the negotiators. For his part, Makavoreh did indeed ask for more money to give to Ndawa to secure Nyar- roh’s release but insisted Nyarroh would be able to repay any money spent by the government when she was free. Indeed, indications are that Nyarroh had gained considerable personal wealth through the trade in palm kernels and other goods that passed through Bandasuma. 60. P.P. (1887) LX [C.5236:118– 119] no. 88, enc. 4, Dixon to Commandant, 2.5.1887. 61. P.P. (1889) [C.5740] vol. 56, 89. 62. Ndawa’s death is described in Abraham, Introduction to the Precolonial History of Mende, 98– 100, and reported in an 1889 dispatch from Sgt. Ben Johnson. S.L.A., Aborigine’s Minute Papers, no. 209, Sgt. Ben Johnson to Captain (illegible) Le Poer, October 10, 1889. 63. Alldridge, The Sherbro and Its Hinterland, 166– 67. 64. Ibid., 258– 62; S.L.A., Records of Paramount Chiefs, 177; Jah interviewed by author, May 26, 1981; S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book, 1888– 1889, 73, December 17, 1888. 65. The direct quotes regarding Nenge included here on the following pages are taken from the translated transcript of my interview with Jusu Sungulo and Pa Momoh Lagawo at , December 10, 1981. The two primary informants were the town chief of Baoma, who spoke both English and Mende, and Pa Lagawo, an elderly man of at least eighty years of age, possibly as old as one hundred, who had worked for all the female paramount chiefs of the Nenge dynasty, and who spoke only Mende and some Krio. Translation was provided by a local teacher and my translator, Mr. Emmanuel K. Samba, a union organizer. 66. Elders of the region described Palima as Benya Wa’s principal war town, the forti- fied center from which the people of several chiefdoms defended themselves against the predatory warrior Ndawa. See Little, The Mende, 75– 76. The following quote is representative: “They chose Palima as their military base while fighting at Wunde [Ndawa’s headquarters]. Everybody participated in the war at Palima . . . the Benyas Notes ● 203

were always the hosts. Those who waged war were like strangers being hosted by the Benyas . . . They were there purposely for the war.” Momo Foday interview with author, Sendume, November 23, 1981. United Kingdom, [C.3020] Correspondence relating to Domestic Slavery in the Sierra Leone Protectorate, January 1928, 41. 67. Francis Gbondo and elders’ interview with author, Jenne, September 23, 1981; F. W. H. Migeod, View of Sierra Leone (London: Kegan Paul, 1926), 93– 95. 68. Abraham, Mende Government and Politics under Colonial Rule, 253– 58. 69. As described in the Chalmers Report or in Little, The Mende. 70. Carol (P. Hoffer) MacCormack, “Madam Yoko: Ruler of the Kpa Mende Confed- eracy,” in Women, Culture, and Society, ed. Michelle Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974), 175– 78; Darrell Reeck, “Innovators in Religion and Politics in Sierra Leone, 1875– 1896,” The International Journal of African Historical Studies 5, no. 4 (1972): 594. 71. C.O. 879/17/149 (1880) Report by William Budge, January 28, 1879, 26. Budge also mentions that he insisted on paying for the rice and rather than taking an in kind gift, Yoko took cash which she intended to use to buy blue imported cloth from the Krio traders in Senehun. 72. S.L.A., Aborigine’s Minute Papers, no. 73 (1882), September 13, 1882. 73. Mohvee welcomed William Budge in January 1879 and provided his own well- furnished bedroom in which to sleep. He also put the school building at Budge’s disposal for meetings and as a barracks for his men. By 1883, he was reciving a stipend from the colonial government. Later reports describe him as drinking heav- ily, a practice which may have affected his health. Report by Budge, 24; Abraham, Mende Government and Politics, 71, 255. 74. P.P. (1887) [C.5236] vol. 60, Revington to Colonial Secretary, March 10, 1887. In addition to her rice farms, Yoko is believed to have taken up trading in imported items with the Creole traders in Senehun, another source of ready cash and prestige goods, Reeck, “Innovators in Religion and Politics,” 608. Her response to a ques- tion about the use of glass windows as a measure of prosperity in the region and the inhabitants’ ability to pay the hut tax is another indication of Yoko’s wealth and personal consumption of imported goods. “Glass windows? I have not seen anybody able to afford it. I have carried it [sic] up to my place, but I have not seen others.” Chalmers Report, Testimony of Madam Yoko, September 6, 1898, 236. 75. M. C. F. Easmon, “Madam Yoko: Ruler of the Mendi Confederacy,” Sierra Leone Studies, n.s., 11 (December 1958): 166. 76. MacCormack, “Madam Yoko”; Easmon, “Ruler of the Mendi Confederacy”; Reeck, “Innovators in Religion and Politics.” The authors do not agree on whether she married two or three times. 77. Easmon, “Ruler of the Mendi Confederacy,” 166. 78. Caroline Bledsoe, “The Political Use of Sande Ideology and Symbolism,” American Ethnologist 11, no. 3 (August 1984): 466– 67. 79. Easmon, “Ruler of the Mendi Confederacy,” 167; MacCormack, “Madam Yoko,” 183. 80. Sir Harry Luke, Cities and Men: An Autobiography. Volume One: The First Thirty Years, 1884– 1969 (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1953), 182– 83. 204 ● Notes

Chapter 4 1. See Chapter 3 for a discussion of female chiefs in the 1880– 98 period. Sierra Leone Archives (hereafter S.L.A.), Records of Paramount Chiefs (1899). For a list of women chiefs in 1914, see Carol (P. Hoffer) MacCormack, “Mende and Sherbro Women in High Office,” Canadian Journal of African History, 6, no. 2 (1972): 151– 64. 2. After the protectorate ordinances were put in place, succession to chieftaincy tech- nically became an open process, no longer legitimized solely by sanction in the secret Poro bush or grove. A vote on the eligible candidates was made in a public meeting of the tribal authorities. However, the candidates’ eligibility was decided by the British- imposed senior administrative officer in charge of the district. Those persons seeking office would have to prove descent from previous chiefs recognized by the British when the protectorate was established in 1898. See Kenneth Little, The Mende of Sierra Leone (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1951), 199–202, for a discussion of chieftaincy elections in the colonial period. 3. Judith Van Allen, “‘Sitting on a Man’: Colonialism and the Lost Political Institu- tions of Igbo Women,” Canadian Journal of African Studies 6, no. 2 (1972): 169– 82; Kamene Okonjo, “The Dual- Sex Political System in Operation: Igbo Women and Community Politics in Midwestern Nigeria,” in Women in Africa: Studies in Social and Economic Change, ed. Nancy J. Hafkin and Edna G. Bay (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1976), 45– 58. 4. The British arrested the asantehemaa (supreme female ruler) of the Asante along with her son the asanthene in a bid to break the power of the Asante empire. See Ivor Wilks, “Asante in the Nineteenth Century: Setting the Record Straight,” Studies Journal 3 (2000):13– 59. In contrast, the British installed warrant chiefs in Igboland in an effort to establish a governing structure through which to rule. See Nwando Achebe, The Female King of Nigeria (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011), 99,105– 7. 5. United Kingdom, Parliamentary Papers (hereafter P.P.), 1886, vol. 47, no. 17, enc. 10, Makavorey to Rowe, February 28, 1886; P.P., 1886, vol. 47, no. 17, enc. 9, Makaia to Rowe, February 27, 1886. 6. Arthur Abraham, Mende Government and Politics under Colonial Rule (Freetown: University of Sierra Leone Press, 1978), 100–101. 7. Christopher Fyfe, History of Sierra Leone (London: Oxford University Press, 1962), 403– 4. 8. Adeleye Ijagbemi, “The Yoni Expedition of 1887: A Study of British Imperial Expansion in Sierra Leone,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 7, no. 2 (June 1974): 241– 54. 9. Abraham, Mende Government and Politics, 88– 89. 10. United Kingdom, Colonial Office (hereafter C.O.)/267/377/173, enc. 2, Men- degla (Mendingrah) to Abdul Lahai of Juring, 1889, quoted in Abraham, Mende Government, 100, n160. 11. For a summary of the Hut Tax War, see Fyfe, History of Sierra Leone, 558– 94 passim. 12. Fyfe, History of Sierra Leone, 585, 594. Notes ● 205

13. For a discussion of this subject, see E. A. Ijagbemi, “The Freetown Colony and the Development of Legitimate Commerce in the Adjoining Territories,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 5, no. 2 (June 1970): 243–56; see also Abraham, Mende Government and Politics, chap. 2. 14. S.L.A., - Bandasuma Intelligence Book, n.d., 88, 102. 15. S.L.A., , “Paramount Chief Elections: 1898– 1926,” quoted in Abraham, Mende Government and Politics, 262n102. 16. Arthur Abraham has discussed this view on Mende women chiefs in several places. He raised the issue in his MA thesis, “The Rise of Traditional Leadership among the Mende” (Sierra Leone: University of Sierra Leone, 1971); again very pointedly in his article “Women Chiefs in Sierra Leone: A Historical Appraisal,” Odu 19 (July 1974): 30–44; and in his widely acclaimed monograph, Mende Government and Politics, 249– 68. His most recent book, Introduction to the Precolonial History of Mende in Sierra Leone (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen, 2003), modifies his position that women chiefs were imposed on the Mende by colonial authorities by recalling the many women town and section chiefs. 17. S.L.A., Panguma- Bandajuma Intelligence Book, n.d., 61. 18. S.L.A., Records of Paramount Chiefs (1899), 5– 6. 19. P.P., 1899, vol. 60, Report of Her Majesty’s Commission and Correspondence on the Subject of the Insurrection in the Sierra Leone Protectorate: 1898 (hereafter Chalmers Report), Testimony of Farwoonda (Fawundu), September 22, 1898, 336. 20. Momoh Gulama’s testimony from the Chalmers Report is quoted in Brian H. A. Ranson, “The Founding of Moyamba,” Sierra Leone Studies, n.s.22 (January 1968): 58. 21. P.P., Chalmers Report, Testimony of Madam Yoko, September 6, 1898, 233, 235. 22. S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book: 7 September 1888– 25, January 1889; S.L.A., Department of Native Affairs Letter Book: 1893– 1894, no. 255, June 2, 1893, 100; Chalmers Report, Testimony of Madam Yoko, September 6, 1898, 235. 23. S.L.A., Department of Native Affairs Letter Book: 1893– 1894, no. 541, November 18, 1893, 241. 24. S.L.A., Department of Native Affairs Letter Book: 1893– 1894, no. 344, August 5, 1893, 146; S.L.A., Department of Native Affairs Letter Book: 1893– 1894, no. 539, November 18, 1893, 240; P.P., 1887, vol. 60, Revington to Colonial Secretary, March 10, 1887. 25. S.L.A., Department of Native Affairs Letter Book: 1893– 1894, no. 79, February 6, 1894, 319. 26. Darrell L. Reeck, “Innovators in Religion and Politics,” International Journal of African Historical Studies 4 (1972): 598; S.L.A., Department of Native Affairs Letter Book, 1894, no. 14, January 9, 1894, 288; S.L.A., Government Interpreter’s Letter Book, September 7, 1888– January 15, 1889, Letter to Yoko, September 1888. 27. P.P., Chalmers Report, Testimony of Mr. Ebenezer Albert Lewis, September 14, 1898, 487. Yoko’s subchiefs charged her by saying: “You are the person who brought the Government to the country; you are the person who is the cause of our slaves being taken away from us; you are the person who has stopped our woman 206 ● Notes

palaver (fines levied against any man having sexual relations with another man’s wife).” For her part, Yoko astutely and presciently retorted that “you are not aware that I am myself a subordinate.” P.P., Chalmers Report, Testimony of Madam Yoko, September 6, 1898, 234. 28. Martin Kilson, Political Change in a West African State: A Study of the Modernization Process in Sierra Leone (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966), 16. 29. Kilson, Political Change in a West African State, 16– 21; William Hailey, Native Administration in the British Territories Part III (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1951), 311– 14; C. Braithwaite Wallis, “In the Court of the Native Chiefs in Mendeland,” Journal of the African Society 16 (1905): 397–408; Little, The Mende, 40–42, 186–89; and N. C. Hollins, “Mende Law,” Sierra Leone Studies, o.s., 12 (June 1928): 30– 37. 30. Wallis, “Court of the Native Chiefs,” 402. 31. Hailey, Native Administration, 312. 32. Ibid., 403. 33. Hollins, “Mende Law,” 32– 33; Kilson, Political Change in a West African State, 58. 34. Hollins, “Mende Law,” 26– 27. 35. P.P., Chalmers Report, Testimony of Chief Nyagua, September 22, 333–35; Kilson, Political Change in a West African State, 58. 36. See, for example, Kenneth C. Wylie, “Innovation and Change in Mende Chief- taincy 1880– 1896,” Journal of African History 10, no. 2 (1969): 295– 308. 37. Dick Simpson, “A Preliminary Political History of the Kenema Area,” Sierra Leone Studies, n.s., 21 (July 1967): 58. 38. Jusu Sungulo and Momo Lagawo interview with author, Baoma, December 10, 1981. 39. Kelfala Feika interview with author, Sendume, November 23, 1981. 40. M. C. F. Easmon, “Madam Yoko: Ruler of the Kpaa Mende Confederacy,” Sierra Leone Studies, n.s., 11 (December 1958): 167. 41. S.L.A., Panguma-Bandajuma Intelligence Book, n.d., 62, 88, 102, 106. 42. Joko Sengova interview with author, Njala, January 15, 1982. 43. Kelfala Feika interview with author, Sendume, November 23, 1981; In reference to Nancy Tucker, Mr. Harris of Mano Bagru testified, “She has made a little money, and like all these old women, has got hold of the best girls, and for some cause they have made that woman Queen.” Chalmers Report, Testimony of Mr. Harris, 490. 44. Paramount Chief Mamawa Benya and Saidu Benya interview with author, , September 27, 1981. 45. Harry Ranson, “The Growth of Moyamba,” Journal of the Sierra Leone Geographi- cal Association, no. 9 (1965): 56; Jusu Sungulo and Momo Lagawo interview with author, Baoma, December 10, 1981. 46. H. Osman Newland, Sierra Leone: Its People, Products and Secret Societies (New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969), 119, 151, originally (London: John Bale, 1916). 47. Pujehun District Decree Book, vol. 3, no. 49, statement concerning yearly tribute to P.C., 220. 48. Momo Lamin interview with author, Kpetewooma, November 9, 1981. Most of the following information and quotes regarding Maajo of Limeh is taken from a Notes ● 207

taped and transcribed interview conducted in Mende and English at Maajo’s town in Small Bo Chiefdom. 49. Senessi Jombo became the first paramount chief of Small Bo elected under Brit- ish rule. Older, more senior leaders of the district agreed that he should hold the staff because he was familiar with the British and spoke English. His brother, Pere- nyamu, inherited his lands and wealth and succeeded him as chief. Eastern Province Archives, Small Bo Chiefdom, “Deaths and Elections of Paramount Chiefs,” letter to the Kenema District Commissioner from George S. Panda, September 3, 1945. 50. Momo Lamin interview with author, Kpetewooma, November 9, 1981. 51. Kelfala Feika interview with author, Sendume, November 23, 1981. 52. S.L.A., Records of Paramount Chiefs (1899), 165, 185, 198; Pujehun District Decree Book, vol. 3, no. 49, “Gallinas Election 1926,” 135. 53. A detailed summary of Nancy Tucker’s background and ascension to the position of chief of Mano Bagru can be found in the Chalmers Report, testimony of Ebenezer Albert Lewis, September 12, 1898, 486. See also F. W. H. Migeod, View of Sierra Leone (London: Kegan Paul, 1926), 186. 54. S.L.A., Records of Paramount Chiefs (1899), 1, 13, 185. 55. Carol (P. Hoffer) MacCormack, “Acquisition and Exercise of Political Power by a Woman Paramount Chief of the Sherbro People” (PhD diss., Bryn Mawr College, 1971), 208. 56. Abraham, Mende Government and Politics, 97. 57. Kilson, Political Change in a West African State, 54, 25, 58– 59. 58. Migeod, View of Sierra Leone, 198; Kelfala Feika interview with author, Sendume, November 23, 1981. 59. Migeod, View of Sierra Leone, 58– 59, 102. 60. Jusu Sungulu and Momo Lagawo interview with author, Baoma, December 10, 1981; Migeod, View of Sierra Leone, 94. 61. Abraham, Mende Government and Politics, 296– 300. 62. Simpson, “Political History,” 58– 59. 63. Kelfala Feika interview with author, Sendume, November 23, 1981; H. Osman Newland, Sierra Leone: Its People, Products and Secret Societies (New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969), 153, originally (London: John Bale, 1916). 64. Simpson, “Political History,” 58; Abraham, Mende Government and Politics, 296–97. 65. As an assessor chief to the circuit court, Madam Yaewa was invited to deliberate on critical issues outside Niawa Chiefdom and was therefore considered particu- larly powerful and influential. Her testimony to the British Commissioner Bording helped settle a chieftaincy dispute and established the Benya’s rights as the main ruling family of Small Bo Chiefdom. Kelfala Feika interview with author, Sen- dume, November 23, 1981 66. Eastern Province Archives, Niawa Chiefdom, letter from Southeast Province Com- missioner to Chief Commissioner- Bo, February 19, 1946.

Chapter 5 1. The concept of “natural rulers” was critical to the colonial system of indirect rule. Without enough European administrators to run the colonial state bureaucracy, 208 ● Notes

those leaders who retained any existing legitimacy as political leaders in the preco- lonial political system were termed “natural rulers” and given functional positions in the colonial state. These rulers might have been kings of vast territories or heads of villages in a complex state system. The British dubbed them all “chiefs,” while demoting them from the status of kings and queens they had been given when they signed treaties in the decades before colonial rule. For a discussion of natural rulers in the shift to the modern state in Africa, see Richard Rathbone, “Kwame Nkrumah and the Chiefs: The Fate of Natural Rulers under Nationalist Govern- ments,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser., 10 (2000): 45– 63. 2. John R. Cartwright, Politics in Sierra Leone: 1947– 1967 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1970), 18– 40; Martin Kilson, Political Change in a West African State: A Study of the Modernization Process in Sierra Leone (Cambridge, MA: Har- vard University Press, 1966), 53– 68; Christopher Fyfe, A History of Sierra Leone (London: Oxford University Press, 1962), 318– 20. 3. William Hailey, Native Administration in the British African Territories: Part III (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1951), 315. 4. Hailey, Native Administration, 316; Cartwright, Politics in Sierra Leone: 1947– 1967, 39. 5. Arthur Abraham discusses the evolution of Mende chieftaincy and its articulation in the modern nation-state in his book, Mende Government and Politics under Colo- nial Rule (Freetown: University of Sierra Leone Press, 1978). See especially pages 301– 6. See also Cartwright, Politics in Sierra Leone: 1947– 1967, 43– 63. 6. C. Brathwaite Wallis, “In the Court of the Native Chiefs in Mendiland,” Journal of the African Society 4, no. 16 (1905): 397– 408; Alimami Bokhari, “Notes on the ,” Sierra Leone Studies, o.s. 2 (March 1919): 53–56; Kilson, Political Change in a West African State 1– 24. 7. Cartwright, Politics in Sierra Leone: 1947– 1967, 39. 8. C. Magbaily Fyle, The History of Sierra Leone: A Concise Introduction (London: Evan Brothers, 1981), 141– 42. 9. Carol (P. Hoffer) MacCormack, “Acquisition and Exercise of Political Power by a Woman Paramount Chief of the Sherbro People” (PhD diss., Bryn Mawr College, 1971). 10. Carol (P. Hoffer) MacCormack, “Mende and Sherbro Women in High Office,” Canadian Journal of African History 6, no. 2 (1972): 152; Sierra Leone Govern- ment, Ministry of the Interior, “List of Paramount Chiefs,” typescript (1981). 11. Jebbeh Wilson, “Women Paramount Chiefs in National Politics: Madam Ella Koblo- Gulama of , A Case Study” (BA thesis, University of Sierra Leone, 1981), 33. 12. Eastern Province (hereafter E.P.), Small Bo Chiefdom, “Deaths and Elections of Paramount Chiefs,” B. Jombo and K. Panda to the interior minister, September 18, 1961; In one interview, Saidu Benya and Madam Benya described how the chief- dom councilors were entertained in the Benya compound until time for the elec- tion. Paramount Chief Mamawa Benya and Saidu Benya, interview with author, Blama, September 25, 1981. 13. Paramount Chief Theresa Vibbi and Town Chief Momo’s interview (in English) with author, Levuma, November 13, 1981. Notes ● 209

14. MacCormack, “Woman Paramount Chief of the Sherbro People,” 248. 15. Ibid., 248– 50. 16. Elders and court officials interview with author, Senehun, July 10 1981. 17. Paramount Chief Hawa Ngokowa and the elders’ interview with author, Dambara, July 13, 1981. 18. Wilson, “Women Paramount Chiefs in National Politics,” 20– 24; Harry Ranson, “The Growth of Moyamba,” Bulletin of the Journal of the Sierra Leone Geographical Association 9 (1965): 60. 19. Wilson, “Women Paramount Chiefs in National Politics,” 27– 29. 20. Paramount Chief Vibbi and Town Chief Momo interview with author, 1981. 21. E.P., Small Bo Chiefdom, “Deaths and Elections of Paramount Chiefs,” James Kougbaka and other chiefdom officials to the Prime Minister, n.d., 124. In one conversaston with E. K. Samba about woman paramount chiefs, he remarked that he personally was opposed to woman paramount chiefs because of their inability to bring development to the chiefdom. Nevertheless he acknowleged that Mamawa Benya had the full support of the electors when she ran for office because “the people were so grateful to her brother.” He further mentioned the prediction of the alpha (diviner) that she was the correct choice. Emmanuel K. Samba interview with the author, Gelehun, November 7, 1981. 22. MacCormack, “Woman Paramount Chief of the Sherbro People,” 251– 52. 23. Paramount Chief Yatta Koroma Sefawa and elders’ interview with author, Golahun- Vaama, 28 September 1981. 24. In answer to the question, why do you think the Mende and Sherbro have women chiefs while the Temnes do not, one of my research collaborators, a former deputy speaker of the parliament from Panga-Kabonde Chiefdom, gave me three rea- sons: (1) It’s according to customs and traditions; (2) Poro among the Temne is not the same as Poro among the Mende, because the Temnes do not have a place (meaning location) for women; (3) It depends on the particular society. Societies in some places allow women to reign, others do not. Abdulai B. M. Jah interview with author, Pujehun, May 26, 1981. In answer to the same question, Paramount Chief Mamawa Benya replied (translated into English) that “the place where the Temne take the chiefs after election, no woman can go there. So this is the rea- son.” Mamawa Benya, interview with author, September 22, 1981. Also Osman Gamanga and Mr. Vandi interview with author, Golahun- Vaama, September 28, 1981; and E. J. Quee-Nyagwa of Bambara Chiefdom interview with author, Free- town, May 18, 1981. 25. Talabi Aisie Lucan, The Life and Times of Paramount Chief Madam Ella Koblo Gulama (Freetown: Sierra Leone Association of Writers and Illustrators, 2003), 22. 26. Wilson, “Women Paramount Chiefs in National Politics,” 27– 36; Lucan, Life and Times, 21– 22. 27. Joseph Kargobai interview with author, Selenga, July 13, 1981; Gamanga and Mr. Vandi interview with author. 28. David Quee interview with author, Freetown, May 28, 1981. 29. Richard During interview with author, New York, July 9, 1985; Richard During interview with author, New York, October 25, 1987. 30. MacCormack, “Mende and Sherbro Women,”161. 210 ● Notes

31. E.P. Confidential Policy Subject File, “Correspondence Relative to the Suspension of Madam Mamawa Benya,” letter from A. M. Kougbaka to President Siaka Ste- vens, n.d., 45. 32. E.P. Confidential Policy Subject File, “Correspondence Relative to the Suspension of Madam Mamawa Benya,” letter from Permanent Secretary Ministry of the the Interior to Provincial Secretary, June 11, 1977. 33. Ibid. 34. The reference for Madam Gulama’s membership in poro comes from a source who wishes to remain anonymous. 35. MacCormack, “Mende and Sherbro Women in High Office,” 161. 36. Wilson, “Women Paramount Chiefs in National Politics,” 36. 37. Lucan, Life and Times, 25; MacCormack, “Mende and Sherbro Women in High Office,” 161. 38. MacCormack, “Mende and Sherbro Women in High Office,” 161. 39. Author’s personal observation. Saturday, December 12, 1981, was the day that a major initiation event took place in Blama. The Sande enclosure where several girls had been secluded for the Sande season was just adjacent to the rear kitchen area of Madam Benya’s compound. That night, under a full and bright moon, Madam Benya was in and out of the enclosure while I kept watch from a distance with a few of her nephews. They had teased me that if I went any closer, I would have to be initiated, so I did indeed keep may distance. Late in the night, a big crowd of women rushed from the enclosure and marched/danced all around the village loudly singing Sande songs. This was a public part that the boys and I were allowed to join in, so we marched and danced with them in moonlight nearly as bright as day, until they went down with the girls to the stream. 40. Mohammed Rex Benya interview with author, Blama, October 3, 1981. 41. Paramount Chief Yatta Koroma Sefawa and elders’ interview with author. 42. E.P., Small Bo Chiefdom, “Deaths and Elections of Paramount Chiefs,” letter from Bobo Jombo and Karimu Panda to the resident minister, September 18, 1961; E.P., Small Bo Chiefdom, “Deaths and Elections of Paramount Chiefs,” letter from Bobo Jombo and others to the resident minister, October 31, 1961; E.P., Small Bo Chiefdom, “Deaths and Elections of Paramount Chiefs,” letter from Joseph B. Garrison to the resident minister, September 30, 1961. 43. E.P., Small Bo Chiefdom, “Deaths and Elections of Paramount Chiefs,” letter from Joseph B. Garrison to the resident minister, October 12, 1961. 44. See Eastern Province Archives, Small Bo Chiefdom, “Deaths and Elections of Par- amount Chiefs,” September-December 1961 for numerous letters and petitions from the chiefdom people as well as the district officer, Resident Minister and Provincial Secretary. 45. E.P., Small Bo Chiefdom, “Deaths and Elections of Paramount Chiefs,” letter from Bobo Jombo and others to the resident minister, October 31, 1961. 46. E.P., Small Bo Chiefdom, “Deaths and Elections of Paramount Chiefs,” letter from Joseph B. Garrison to the resident minister, September 30, 1961. 47. Mr. Emmanuel K. Samba interview with author, Gelehun, November 7, 1981. 48. E.P., Small Bo Chiefdom, “Deaths and Elections of Paramount Chiefs,” letter from James Kougbaka and other chiefdom officials to the Prime Minister, n.d., 124. Notes ● 211

49. People wanting to farm for a given season go to the head of the family that holds usufruct rights to that land and request the use of it for a specified time period. These two individuals go to the native administration court, fill out a form laying out the details of their contract, and then file it with the court records. The para- mount chief does not get involved in the administrative details of land transactions such as this, but in the case of a dispute, the pronouncement of the paramount chief is legally binding, short of appeal to the district officer (loosely translated from Mende) Paramount Chief Madam Mamawa Benya interview with author, Blama, October 26, 1981. 50. Ibid. 51. E.P., Small Bo Chiefdom, “Local Court Staff Matters and Complaints,” letter from senior district officer to provincial secretary, September 17, 1976; E.P., Small Bo Chiefdom, “Local Court Staff Matters and Complaints,” minute paper from senior assistant secretary to provincial secretary, September 27, 1976. 52. Francis Benya interview with author, Blama, October 1, 1981. 53. Reynald Benya interview with author, Blama, September 27, 1981. 54. N. C. Collins, “Mende Law,” Sierra Leone Studies, o.s. 12 (June 1928): 36. 55. Rex Benya and Francis Benya interview with author, Blama, February 12, 1982. 56. Mamawa Benya and Saidu Benya interview with author,, 1981. 57. E.P., Open Policy Subject File, Personal File of P.C. Madam Theresa Vibbi, March 23, 1970, March 30, 1973. 58. For example, Julius Gulama was a founding member of the Protectorate Educa- tional Progressive Union (PEPU), an organization established to raise college schol- arship money for boys from the union, a move designed to raise the educational level of those from the hinterland vis- à- vis the educated Creole elite in Freetown. He also initiated conferences of the chiefs of his district, a successful venture that attracted national attention and became the basis for the district councils, which were later established in all the districts. And lastly, the first colony-protectorate football match was played in his town, an event aimed at aiding national integra- tion. Cartwright, Politics in Sierra Leone, 38; Wilson, “Women Paramount Chiefs in National Politics,” 20– 25. 59. Madam Ella Koblo Gulama interview with author, Freetown, July 25, 1995. Oral interviews conducted in Moyamba ca. 1980 stressed Julius Gulama’s foundational role in building the SLPP and the help he gave to in the early days of the party. He was known as one of the protectorate chiefs with close and cordial ties to the Krios in Freetown. Wilson, “Women Paramount Chiefs in National Politics,” 21– 22. 60. Lucan, Life and Times, 10– 13; Wilson, “Women Paramount Chiefs in National Politics,” 25. 61. Lucan, Life and Times, 15– 18. 62. MacCormack mentioned the support among Sande women that Gulama enjoyed. There were also demonstrations in some villages by groups of Sande women singing in a heckling way when Madam Bailor- Caulker appeared to speak. MacCormack, “Woman Paramount Chief of the Sherbro People,” 245; MacCormack Mende and Shebro Women in High Office,” Canadian Journal of African Studies 6, no.2 (1972): 151– 64. 212 ● Notes

63. Lucan, Life and Times, 31. 64. Rex Benya interview with author, 1981. 65. During interview with author, 1985. 66. E.P., Small Bo Chiefdom, “Local Court Staff Matters and Complaints,” Mamawa Benya to the provincial secretary, August 30, 1974. 67. E.P., Small Bo Chiefdom, “Local Court Staff Matters and Complaints,” petition from Mamawa Benya to Resident Minister, March 14, 1975. 68. E.P., Small Bo Chiefdom, “Local Court Staff Matters and Complaints,” petition from Mamawa Benya to President , n.d. 69. During interview with author, 1985; E.P., Small Bo Chiefdom, “Local Court Staff Matters and Complaints,” senior district officer to provincial secretary, September 17, 1976; E.P., Small Bo Chiefdom, “Local Court Staff Matters and Complaints,” minute paper from senior assistant secretary to provincial secretary, September 27, 1976. 70. E.P., Confidential Policy Subject File, “Correspondence Relative to the Suspension of Madam Mamawa Benya,” permanent secretary minister of the interior to pro- vincial secretary, June 11, 1977; E.P., Confidential Policy Subject File, “Correspon- dence Relative to the Suspension of Madam Mamawa Benya,” Mamawa Benya to President Siaka Stevens, June 20, 1977. 71. E.P., Confidential Policy Subject File, “Correspondence Relative to the Suspen- sion of Madam Mamawa Benya,” letter from unidentified A. P. C. Party Supporter (Blama) to the resident minister Eastern Province, June 24, 1977. 72. E.P., Confidential Policy Subject File, letter from Mamawa Benya to President Siaka Stevens, 1977. 73. “Too nice” in Krio translates as very nice in English and does not imply a compari- son, just an abundance of that quality. 74. Musa Hagbe and other elders’ interview with author, Gelehun, November 7, 1981; Reynald Benya interview with author, Blama, September 27, 1981. 75. Paramount Chief B. A. Foday Kai interview with author, Telu, November 11, 1981. 76. Paramount Chief Vibbi and Town Chief Momo interview with author,, 1981. 77. Victor Foh, Ahmed Kamara-Taylor, and Samuel Atara, interview with author, Ken- ema, November 5, 1981. 78. Madam Segbureh interview with author, Freetown, August 8, 2005. 79. Madam Gulama interview with author, 1995 80. Something from Lucan re: the difficulties with Bai Koblo and the chiefdom people. 81. Paramount Chief Vibbi and Town Chief Momo interview with author, 1981; Para- mount Chief Foday Kai interview with author, 1981; Quee interview with author, 1981.

Chapter 6 1. Mariane Ferme, The Underneath of Things: Violence, History, and the Everyday in Sierra Leone (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), 1– 21. Notes ● 213

2. Meredith Turshen, “Women’s War Stories” in What Women Do in Wartime: Gender and Conflict in Africa, ed. Meredith Turshen and Clotilde Twagiramaiya (London: Zed Books, 1998), 9. 3. Ferme in The Underneath of Things points out that in Mende, a kpako (a big per- son) may be a male or female, who is expected to be able to control the “bodily and discursive processes that transmit potent knowledge, substances or agencies to the body,” and more specifically to be able to support numerous dependents through their generous and judicious distribution of wealth and resources (159– 86). 4. Cynthia Cockburn, “The Gendered Dynamics of Armed Conflict and Political Violence,” in Victims, Perpetrators or Actors: Gender, Armed Conflict and Political Violence, ed. Caroline O. N. Moser and Fiona C. Clark (New York: Zed Books), 13, 17– 24. 5. Cockburn, “The Gendered Dynamics,” 19. 6. Allesandra Dal Secco, “Truth and Reconciliation Commissions and Gender Jus- tice,” in Gender and Peace: Women’s Struggles for Post- War Justice and Reconciliation, ed. Donna Pankhurst (New York: Routledge, 2008), 65– 106. 7. Dal Secco, “Truth and Reconciliation Commissions,” 65. 8. Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report, vol. III B (2005): 137, quoted in Dal Secco, “Truth and Reconciliation Commissions,” 82. 9. Dal Secco, “Truth and Reconciliation Commissions,” 84. 10. Arthur Abraham, “The Elusive Quest for Peace: Lomé to Abidjan,” in Between Democracy and Terror, ed. Ibrahim Abdullah (Dakar: CODESRIA, 2004), 200. 11. John L. Hirsch, Sierra Leone: Diamonds and the Struggle for Democracy, Interna- tional Peace Academy Occasional Papers (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2001), 31. 12. Jimmy Kandeh, “Ransoming the State: Elite Origins of Subaltern Terror in Sierra Leone,” Review of African Political Economy 26, no. 81 (September 1999): 351– 52; William Reno, Corruption and State Politics in Sierra Leone (Cambridge: Cam- bridge University Press, 1995). 13. Kandeh, “Ransoming the State,” 358– 59. 14. Several authors have grappled with the question of why a relatively peaceful postin- dependence nation like Sierra Leone descended into such a maelstrom of violence from 1991 to 2001. Robert Kaplan in his article, “The Coming Anarchy,” Atlantic Monthly (February 1994), famously proposed that the civil war represented a “new barbarism” fueled by population pressures, environmental stresses, disease, and a general social anomie, a position refuted by many other scholars. Paul Richards in Fighting for the Rain Forest (London: James Currey, 1996) highlighted the rational- ity of alienated and rebellious youth grabbing resources and lashing out against their elders in the context of a collapsed state and economy. Lansana Gberie in A Dirty War in West Africa: The RUF and the Destruction of Sierra Leone (Blooming- ton: Indiana University Press, 2005), and Yusuf Bangura, “The Political and Cul- tural Dynamics of the ,” in Between Democracy and Terror: The Sierra Leone Civil War, ed. Ibrahim Abdullah (Dakar: CODESRIA, 2004) pro- posed that a more complex confluence of trends, including the failure of the pat- rimonial state to deliver benefits to the nonelites of the country; the breakdown of civil society; the constraints on the economy by international agencies; the deliber- ate destabilization of the countryside by the APC government; and state-sponsored 214 ● Notes

violence by the ruling party to maintain power, culminated in the civil war. Kan- deh, in “Ransoming the State,” pointed out that violence and thuggery had always been a component part of the maintenance of postindependence authoritarian rule, the only difference being that when the state collapsed, the thuggery and violence were wielded by elements of the poor and uneducated masses to enrich themselves directly and not by the political elite who enriched themselves through the state apparatus (356). 15. Kadie Sesay, “Women, Human Rights and Democracy in Africa” (unpublished paper presented at the African Studies Association Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, 1998); Kandeh, “Ransoming the State,” 353. 16. Hirsch, Diamonds and the Struggle for Democracy, 28. 17. Ibid., 26; See Reno, Corruption and State Politics for a more extensive discussion of this point. 18. Hirsch, Diamonds and the Struggle for Democracy, 30. 19. Kandeh, “Ransoming the State,” 354. 20. Gberie, A Dirty War in West Africa, 81–82; Arthur Abraham, “State Complicity in Perpetuating the War in Sierra Leone,” in Between Democracy and Terror, ed. Ibrahim Abdullah (Dakar: CODESRIA, 2004) 106– 7. 21. Ismail Rashid and Ibrahim Abdullah, “‘Smallest Victims: Youngest Killers’: Juvenile Combatants in Sierra Leone’s Civil War,” in Between Democracy and Terror: The Sierra Leone Civil War, ed. Ibrahim Abdullah (Dakar: CODESRIA, 2004), 239. 22. William P. Murphy, “Military Patrimonialism and Child Soldier Clientalism in the Liberian and Sierra Leonean Civil Wars,” African Studies Review 46, no. 2 (Septem- ber 2003), 65. 23. Ibid., 75. 24. Abdullah and Rashid, “Juvenile Combatants in Sierra Leone,” 240. 25. Ibid., 241. 26. Gberie, A Dirty War in West Africa, 91. 27. Abraham, “State Complicity,” 113. 28. Abdullah and Rashid, “Juvenile Combatants in Sierra Leone,” 240–41; Tom Argent, “The Usual People”: Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons from Sierra Leone, U.S. Committee for Refugees Issue Paper. February 1995. 29. Hirsch, Diamonds and the Struggle for Democracy, 56– 72. 30. Abraham, “The Elusive Quest for Peace,” 212– 13. 31. Ifi Amadiume, Laura J. Shepherd, Gender Violence and Security: Discourse as Practice (London: Zed Books, 208), 51. 32. Ferme, The Underneath of Things, 221. 33. See Shepherd, Gender Violence and Security, 42– 54 for a valuable critique of the violence against women versus gender violence literature in a variety of disciplines. 34. Ferme, The Underneath of Things, 220. 35. Filomena Steady, “An Investigative Framework for Gender Research in Africa in the New Millenium,” in “Oyèrónké Oyĕwùmi, ed. African Gender Studies: A Reader (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 326. Steady insists here that rather than thinking of African cultures as archaic, they should be seen as paradigmatic and capable of launching transformative and empowering policies for women. 36. Abator Cheedy interview with author, Freetown, January 11, 2007. Notes ● 215

37. Reynald Benya interview with author, Freetown, August 5, 2005. 38. Francis Benya and Ibrahim Kamara interview with author (videotaped), Leicester, June 26, 1995. 39. Reynald Benya interview with author, 2005; Benya and Kamara interview with author (videotaped), 1995. 40. Sidi Daboh and Sheik Daboh interview with author, Dallas, Texas, June 1, 2010. 41. Talabi Aisie Lucan, The Life and Times of Paramount Chief Madam Ella Koblo Gulama (Freetown: Sierra Leone Association of Writers and Illustrators, 2003), 48–49. 42. Paramount Chief Madam Ella Koblo Gulama interview with author, Freetown, July 25, 1995. 43. Lucan, Madam Ella Koblo Gulama, 49– 50; Madam Gulama interview with author, 1995. 44. Madam Gulama interview with author, 1995. 45. Lucan, Madam Ella Koblo Gulama, 50– 53; Obai Kabbia interview with author, Lawrenceville, NJ, June 29, 2010. Mr. Kabbia is Madam Gulama’s son and a retired United Nations senior staff member. 46. Kabbia interview with author, 2010; Gberie, A Dirty War in West Africa, 131. 47. Lucan, Madam Ella Koblo Gulama, 53– 54. 48. Yabowarra Kamara’s narrative and her remarks quoted here are taken from the author’s videotaped interview with her, July 24, 1995, at the headquarters of the National Coordinating Committee for Peace in Freetown. 49. Gberie’s account of an attack on , a town in the diamond- producing region, suggests that the main point of the attack was to drive the people out so that the RUF could mine diamonds undisturbed. Gberie, A Dirty War in West Africa, 77. 50. Paramount Chief Madam Matilda Minah, statement made at a meeting of the Displaced Paramount Chiefs audiotaped by the author, Freetown, July 6, 1995. 51. Most of this narrative is taken from Paramount Chief Madam Matilda Minah and Dr. Jacob Minah interview with author (videotaped), Freetown, January 23, 2007. Other details are drawn from Florence Margai interview with author (by telephone), August 23, 2010. Florence Margai is Madam Minah’s daughter. 52. Chief Hinga Norman interview with author, Freetown, July 7, 1995; Abraham, “The Elusive Quest for Peace,” 217. 53. Chief Hinga Norman, statement made at a meeting of Displaced Paramount Chiefs audiotaped by the author, July 6, 1995. 54. Statement of Minah, 1995. 55. Benya and Kamara interview with author (videotaped), 1995. 56. Paramount Chief Madam Mamie Gamanga and Reynald Benya interview with author, Freetown, July 22, 1995. 57. Ibid. 58. Benya and Kamara interview with author (videotaped), 1995. 59. Paramount Chief Madam Mamie Gamanga interview with author, Freetown, June 28, 1995. 60. Paramount Chief Madam Margaret Segbureh’s narrative and her remarks quoted here are taken from the author’s audiotaped interview with her, August 8, 2005 in the members’dining room, Parliament Building, Freetown. 216 ● Notes

61. Paramount Chief Madam Mamie Gamanga interview with author, Freetown, July 5, 1995; Paramount Chief Madam Mamie Gamanga interview with author (by telephone), August 23, 2010. 62. Yabowarra Kamara interview with author, Freetown, July 24, 1995. 63. Jimmy Kandeh, “In Search of Legitimacy: The 1996 Elections,” in Between Democ- racy and Terror: The Sierra Leone Civil War, ed. Ibrahim Abdullah (Dakar: CODES- RIA, 2004), 123– 43. 64. Sierra Leone Government, Local Government, List of Paramount Chiefs, type- script, n.d. 65. Clare Castillejo, Strengthening Women’s Citizenship in the context of State-building: The Experience of Sierra Leone, Fundación para las Relaciones Internationales y el Dialogo Exterior (FRIDE), Working Paper no. 69 (September 2008): 2– 7. 66. Report of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Paramount Chiefs and Traditional Justice, Freetown Conference on Accountability, 20– 22 Feb. 2001, accessed January 10, 2011, http://www.sierra-leone.org. 67. Joe Lassie Sheku, remarks made at a meeting with Madam Gamanga, Reynald Benya and others, videotaped by the author, August 6, 2005. 68. Author’s personal observation during a visit to on August 6, 2005. 69. Madam Gamanga interview with author, Boajibu, August 6, 2005. 70. Awareness Times, “Support Women Saturday,” March 8, 2008. 71. Many African feminist scholars have explored the model of motherhood as an ideological construct for women’s power in African societies. See for example Ifi Amadiume, Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion and Culture (London and New York: Zed Books, 1997), 114– 20; One special issue of the Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering was devoted to these concepts in the African Diaspora. See Mothering in the African Diaspora, ed. Andrea O’Reilly, 2, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2000); Oyèrónké Oyĕwùmi, “Introduction: Feminism, Sisterhood and Other For- eign Relations,” in African Women and Feminism, ed. Oyèrónké Oyĕwùmi (Tren- ton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2003), 5– 6; Molara Ogundipe- Leslie, Re- Creating Ourselves: African Women and Critical Transformations (Trenton NJ: Africa World Press, 1994), 225– 26; Lorelle Semley, Mother is Gold, Father is Glass: Gender in Colonial Yoruba (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010). 72. Kamara interview with author, 1995. Index

Note: Page numbers followed by an f refer to figures.

Abdullah, Ibrahim, 155 Ban Bondo Bonopio, 53 Abraham, Arthur, 68, 71, 78, 99 Bandasuma, 200n30 Mende state- building and, 199n23 Nyarroh of (see Nyarroh of Nyarroh in narratives of, 73 Bandasuma) AFRC. See Armed Forces Revolutionary as site for negotiations, 77– 78 Council strategic location of, 74, 76, 200n35, Afzelius, Adam, 47 201n49 agriculture war and, 76, 78– 80, 201n49, 201n52 in Kpukumu Krim, 175– 76 Bangura, Yusuf, 213n14 postwar condition of, 174– 75 Bangura, Zainab, 171 Alldridge, Thomas J., 30– 31, 56 Bannah, Serry, 59 on coronation of paramount chief, 38 Baoma, 84– 85. See also Nenge of Baoma on female Poro initiation, 36, 39 barrenness meeting with Batte Kaka, 78 female paramount chieftaincy and, meeting with Mendegla, 77 40– 41 meetings with Nyarroh, 81– 82 Poro female membership and, 36 travel narratives of, 70 barri, 107 All People’s Congress Party (APC), 121 Barrie country, 73 abuses of, 151, 153 Batte Kaka, 78. See also Gbatekaka ascendency of, 141– 42 Beijing Conference on the Status of Keitell and, 140 Women, 169 1967 victory of, 124 Benya, Dhaffie, 142 Poro opposition to, 130 Benya, Foday, 127, 134 Álvares de Almada, André, 32 Benya, Francis, 159 Amadiume, Ifi, 6 Benya, Lahai, 112, 127 archival materials, 11– 12 Benya, Maajo, 110, 111– 17 Armed Forces Revolutionary Council influence of, 112 (AFRC), 150, 156 Benya, Mamawa, xiii, 2, 119 coup of, 151, 161 All People’s Congress Party and, 140–42 Ella Gulama and, 161– 62 arrest and detention of, 141– 42 asantehemaa, 4, 204n4 author’s relationship with, 10– 11, 119– 20, 147– 48 , 100 challenges to, 141– 42 Bailor- Caulker, Honoria, 126, 127, 169, Civil War and, 158– 60 211n62 election of, 125, 127, 133– 35, 139 218 ● Index

Benya, Mamawa (continued) Cambeh, Conah, 47– 48 land use prerogative of, 135– 36, Canray Mahoi, 54– 55 211n49 Canray Vong, 56 marriages of, 134, 143– 44 Canribar, 89– 90 national politics and, 139– 42 Caulker, George, 46, 50 peacemaking abilities of, 133– 34 Caulker, John, 99 Poro backing of, 130 Caulker, Lucy, 127 Poro society and, 132 Caulker, Richard Canray Ba, 37, 54, 99 responsibilities of, xii Caulker, Robin, 50 Sande society and, 132, 210n39 Caulker, Sophia Neale, 113, 114 Sierra Leone People’s Party and, Caulker, Stephen, 50, 127 139– 42 Caulker, Thomas, 46, 50 sons of, 10– 11 Caulker family, 52– 53, 55, 126, 200n24 and “swear” issue, 130 CDF. See Civilian Defense Forces Benya, Saidu, 133, 137 chiefdoms, after independence, 124– 25 Benya, Reynald, xii chieftaincy Benya Wa, 83 eligibility under colonial rule, 97, Bergbeh Chiefdom, 101 112– 14, 204n2 Bledsoe, Caroline, 6– 7, 22, 29, 37, 91 in transition to independent state, blood diamonds, conflict over, ix, 148, 123, 208n5 152– 54 versus Western notion of political Boajibu chiefdom, postwar rubber project leadership, 5 in, 176– 77 childbearing, management of, 24– 25 Boakie Gomna, 73, 79, 80 child soldiers, 154– 55 Boisu, 110. See also Gbanja Ngialo II Civilian Defense Forces (CDF), 150, 157 Boko of Tenehun, 104 Civil War. See Sierra Leone Civil War Bom Posseh, 57, 58, 61 Bom Rufah, 46, 57– 59 Cleveland, James, 47 Bom Warrah, 46, 57– 59, 62 clitoridectomy, 22 Bouré, Farma, 35 and construction of female gendered British body, 23– 24 and maintenance of female leadership, 98 Cockburn, Cynthia, 149 policy toward warlords, 99– 100 colonial rule resistance to, 96 chief selection and, 97, 112–14, 204n2 white man’s war and, 88, 96 and codification of paramount chiefs, women chiefs as subjects of, 97 97 See also colonial rule and end of war chief era, 98– 101 Budge, William, 88 impact on chiefly families, 97 Bum Chiefdom, postwar conditions in, impacts on women’s leadership, 181 174– 75 land chiefs under, 105– 11 Bumpe Chiefdom, 48– 50, 49f, 55 Native Administration ordinances and, war chiefs of, 101 106– 8 Bundoo, Alimamy Lahai, 59 See also British Bundu societies Commission for the Management of background and social functions of, Strategic Resources, National 22– 23 Reconstruction and Development, response to male insult, 15– 16 157 Index ● 219

Congress People’s Party, 124 empowerment Conkeh, Ansumana, 59 chieftaincy as barrier to, 171– 72 Conteh, Alexander Bai, 58– 59 women chiefs as models for, 170 Corker, Thomas, 50 Executive Outcome, 154, 161– 62 corporate consciousness, promotion of, 24– 25 Faba, 101, 109 Council of Chiefs, xiii Fahwundu, 56 coups, 124 Fangawa, 98, 101, 110 of Armed Forces Revolutionary Feika, Kelfala, 207n63 Council, 151, 161 Feika, Yaewa, 2, 40, 98, 109– 10, 206n43 of National Provisional Revolutionary election of, 112 Council, 151 land chief prerogatives of, 114– 15 court system, under British rule, 106–8 in native administration system, 116– Crawford, Captain, 99– 100 17, 207n65 cultural associations, 6– 7, 15– 43. See also personal wealth of, 115 Poro society; Sande society; secret Feika chiefs, 109– 10 societies female chieftaincy and bilateral descent system, 9– 10 Daboh, Kelfala, 133, 143– 44 and contemporary women’s rights activism, 177– 78 Dal Secco, Allesandra, 149– 50 cultural origins of, 5– 6 Dapper, Olfert, 18 gendered cultural associations and, democracy 6– 7 during Civil War, 155– 56 mediatorship and, 7– 8 in independent state, 122 in Mende/Sherbro versus Temne, 128, de Winton, Francis, 99 209n24 Dixon, William, 81 origins of, 4– 5 documentary sources, 11– 12 Poro societies and, 38 Dornelas, André, 3, 47, 194n4 prevalence and responsibilities of, 5 Douglas, Mary, 37 wife/mother roles and, 8 Dung Pot War (kpovei guei), 82– 84 See also women chiefs; women leaders; women of authority; women Easmon, M. C. F., 90 paramount chiefs economic collapse, Civil War and, female initiation rituals, 22– 24 151– 53 female ritual leaders, 1 Economic Community of West African in Mende and Sherbro, 19– 22 States Monitoring Groups, 156, female title holders 161– 62 gender ambiguity of, 21– 22 economic development, postwar, 173– 74 names for, 21 elders source of influence for, 51– 52 authority of, 47 feminism and veto power over kings, 18 African, 177– 78 elections new paradigms for, 178, 216n71 in colonial era, 112– 13 Fendu, Momodu, 37 non- Poro, 112– 13 Ferme, Mariane, 22, 36, 149 See also under specific chiefs Fernandes, Valentim, 17– 18 220 ● Index

Festing, A. M., 73– 75, 80 gender ambiguity, 182 Fleming, Francis, 78 and dual membership in secret Foday Kai, B. A., 30, 65, 72, 145 societies, 132 Foh, Victor, 199n6 of female title holders, 21– 22 Fony of Mano Bagru, 46 mabŢle and, 36– 37 Foray Gogra, 79 Poro women members and, 34– 37, 39 Foray Vong, 101 gender complementarity Forna, Vicky, 178 and female authority in public Freetown, x domain, 47 postwar changes in, xiv versus , 6 Freetown Colony, treaty ceding land for, gender equity, 177– 78 46 gender relations, secret societies and, 6 Freetown Conference on Accountability gender roles, secret societies in Mechanisms for Violations of construction of, 17– 19 Humanitarian Law in Sierra Leone, genital cutting, 22– 24 173 Gessama, Haja, xiii, 178 frontier police, 105 Gola, xi government, of precolonial Mende states, Gallinas 71 queens of, 55– 59 grassroots activism, 169– 71 war in, 73– 82 Greenwood, Dolly, xii Gamanga, Kenewa, 176 Guinea coast, travelers’ accounts of, 17– Gamanga, Mamie, xiii, 2 18, 32– 33 Civil War and, 165– 66 Gulama, Ella Koblo, 2, 46, 118f, 125, and postwar economic development, 211n62 173– 74 postwar political activism of, 172– 73 All People’s Congress Party and, 142 and postwar rubber project, 176– 77 arrest and detention of, 142 Gamanga, Sandi, 165, 176 Civil War and, 160– 62 Garrett, G. H., 72 election to House of Representatives, Garrison, Joseph B., 133 131 Garrison, William, 112 marriage and, 138, 144– 45 Gbanja Ngialo I, 83, 85, 87, 109 national politics and, 137– 39 Gbanja Ngialo II, 87, 109 opposition to, 128– 29 Gbanya, 87– 88, 99, 104 postwar political activism of, 172 Gbatekaka, 113. See also Batte Kaka preparation for leadership, 127 Gbatekaka, Madam, 94 Sande society and, 131 gbenie, 38, 40 Sierra Leone People’s Party and, 138– Gbenje, 88, 90 39, 142 Gberie, Lansana, 213n14, 215n49 Wunde society and, 128 Gbondo of Jenne, 87 Gulama, Julius, 126– 27, 137– 38, Gendemeh, Sally, 172– 73, 178 211n58, 211n59 gender Gulama, Momo, 103 Mende concept of, 3 social construction of, 1, 17– 19, Havelock, Arthur, 89 23– 24 Hay, James, 56, 80, 81 Index ● 221

Humoi society, gender parallels and Kamajei Chiefdom, Sovula’s election and, intersections in, 20 126 Humonya of Kenema, 2, 98, 103 Kamara, Yabomwarra, 162– 63, 170, 179, background of, 109 215n48 colonial ties of, 116 Kandeh, Jimmy, 152 corruption of, 115– 16 Kandu- Leppiama Chiefdom, Vibbi’s personal wealth of, 111 election in, 125, 127 hungry season, xiii Kanre, 86 Hut Tax War, 37– 38, 96, 100, 106, 114 Kaplan, Robert, 213n14 kŢ- mahei Igbo women, influence in public domain, 3 influence of, 70– 71 independence, 120 during trade wars, 199n23 democracy and, 122 Keitell, Peter Balogun, 135– 36, 140 granting of, 124 Kema Maganya, 86, 87, 109 Krio people and, 121– 22 Kilson, Martin, 114 mediatorship after, 132– 35 Kinigbo, 99 paramount chiefs and, 122– 23 Kissi, xi state building and, 123– 24 Klakpu, 86 and survival of indigenous political Kobah, 73– 76, 80 organization, 125 Koblo, Bai, 145 women paramount chiefs and, 120 Kong Charma, 1, 48– 52, 49f women’s authority and, 181 Kono, xi infertility. See barrenness Koranko, xi initiation societies, 6. See also Poro korgba, 21, 51, 54 society; Sande society; secret Koroma, Johnny Paul, 156 societies Kortwright, Governor, 56 iyoba, in precolonial Benin, 4 Kougbaka, James, 133 Koya people Jah, Abdulai B. M., 199n6 base population of, 60 Jah family, 199n6 queens of, 55– 59, 60 Jaiama- Bangor chiefdom, women chiefs Kpaa Mende Confederacy, 46 of, 65 frontier police in, 105 Jalloh, Tejan, 178 puu- guei (white man’s war) and, 88 Jenne, Gbondo, abuses by, 115 Yoko’s leadership of, 87– 91, 96– 97, Jombo, Bobo, 133 103– 4 Jombo, Senessi, 112, 207n49 kpako, 149, 213n3 judicial system, under British rule, 106– 8 Kpanga Koti, 83 Kpangbavie, Lamina, 128 Kabbah, Alhaji Ahmad, 155– 57, 159, kpojito, in precolonial Dahomey, 4 162 Kpovei Guei (Dung Pot War), 82– 84 Kagboro Chiefdom, 48– 50, 49f, 52 Kpukumu Krim Chiefdom, xi, xiv Kahjay, 73 postwar women’s projects in, 175– 76 Kai Kai family, 199n6 See also Krim people Kai Londo, 78 Krim people Kaiyamba Chiefdom, Ella Gulama’s colonization of, 199n6 election in, 125 influential women of, 59– 60 222 ● Index

Krim people (continued) Lehbu, Madam, 64f, 113 tax resistance by, 38 Leppiama Chiefdom See also Messe amalgamation with other chiefdoms, Krio, xi, 10 82– 87 Krio language, x– xi other chiefs of, 87 krubas, 73. See also warriors See also Nenge of Baoma Lewis, Ebenezer Albert, 105 Lahai, Abdul, 99 Lewis, Gbanna, 101 land chief (ndŢ- mahei) Liberian fighters, 153– 54 and codification as paramount chiefs, Limba, xi 106 lineage under colonial rule, 98, 105– 11 importance of, 113 female, 92 paramount chieftaincy and, 126, 127 loss of power to war chiefs, 91– 92 ranked, 9– 10 Native Administration ordinances and, women’s chieftaincy and, 178 106– 8 Little, Kenneth, 35, 41, 43, 128 Nyarroh’s duties as, 73 local government, women chiefs in, 124– 25 participation in warfare, 75– 76 Loko, xi selection under British rule, 108– 11 Lomé (Togo) Peace Accord, 156– 57 during trade wars, 199n23 Lucan, Talabi Aisie, 128 women as, 97 land guardianship, paramount chiefs and, Maago of Lubu, 46, 56– 57 123 Maajo Benya, 98 land rights Maajo of Limeh, 2, 40, 206n48 paramount chiefs and, 135– 37 mabŢle, 34– 37, 43, 52 of ruling families, 126 Mabete. See Macarico languages author interviews and, 10– 11 Macarico, 3, 35, 45, 46– 47 currently spoken, x– xi MacCormack, Carol (P. Hoffer), xi, 4, 8, Mande family of, xi 21, 41, 52, 54, 88, 131 West- Atlantic family of, xi mahajandeh, 131 Lavalie, Alpha, 41 Makaia, 65– 66, 79, 99, 101 Lavannah Agreement of 1885, 46, 56, destruction of stronghold of, 99– 100 78, 79 impact on women rulers, 72 Lawson, Thomas George Makavoreh, 79, 80, 81 (correspondence) imprisonment of, 115 Caulkers, 72, 113, 195n15, 200n24 peace Poro of, 99 Queen Messe, 55 sources of wealth of, 114 queens of Koya, 57– 58, 60 Makavoreh of Bumpe, 102 Ya Kai, 51, 54 male- female binary, in West, 2 Yoko, 95, 103 male- female complementarity. See gender Leach, Edmund, 37 complementarity leadership Mali, queens of, 47 mothers and, 8 Mana, 113 See also women chiefs; women leaders; Mande family of languages, xi women of authority; women Mane invaders, 194n4 paramount chiefs queen of (see Macarico) Index ● 223

Mannah (Prince), 55 Mende region Manyahwa (Betty), 65– 66 British jurisdiction over, 98 during trade wars, 72 early colonial history of, 4 Marbarjeh, 101, 103, 110 political structures of, 98 Margai, Albert, 124 uprising against British, 100 Mamawa Benya and, 139– 40 warlord power in, 99 Margai, Milton, 124, 128– 29, 138, Mende society, social organization of, 211n59 18– 19 election of, 151 Mende speakers, xi Mamawa Benya and, 139 Mende states, precolonial government marriage, women paramount chiefs and, of, 71 143– 45 Mende women chiefs masculinity, social construction of, 34 political power of and legitimation masking societies, 22 of, 4 masks. See sowei masks precolonial roles of, 3– 4 Massaquoi, House of, 55, 113 Messe, 46, 55– 56, 72, 103, 200n25 Massaquoi, Woki, 111 Minah, Francis, 165 Matolo, 101, 109 Minah, Jacob, 164 Matree, attributes of, 110 Minah, Matilda, xiv, 2, 146f mediatorship abduction during Civil War, 163– 65 colonial rule and, 95– 117 Civil War and, 163– 65 history of, 7– 8 marriage and, 144 Nyarroh and, 77– 83 and postwar economic development, and women chiefs after independence, 174 132– 35 postwar political activism of, 172– 73 and women chiefs’ role with British, 101– 3 and postwar projects in Kpukumu of Yoko, 89– 90 Krim, 175– 76 See also peacemaking as Reverend Ma, 181 medical practices, 33 Mohvee, 88– 89, 203n73 medicine trials, 136 Momo Fofi, 113 Mende Confederacy. See Kpaa Mende Momoh, Joseph, 152, 153, 167 Confederacy Momo Jah, 78 Mendegla, 75, 79, 81, 112 Momo Kai Kai, 71, 78, 81, 100 meeting with Alldridge, 77 mothernity, 178, 216n71 peace poro of, 99 mothers, roles of, 8 Mende invaders, 60 , xi, 10– 11 Nain Banna, 57, 59 Mende people national politics, women paramount in colonial state, 121 chiefs and, 137– 42 Lavannah Agreement and, 46 National Provisional Revolutionary origins of, xi Council (NPRC), 142 slave trade and, 68 during Civil War, 153– 54 sociocultural practices of, 194n6 coup of, 151 warfare and power relations of, 66– 67 Native Administration ordinances, 106– warrior class and, 69 8, 123 224 ● Index natural rulers, concept of, 120– 22, 141, Pa Kolia, 57 172, 207n1 Pa Lagawo, 82– 86 Nayarroh of Bandasuma, 73– 82 Palima, and Dung Pot wars, 83 Ndawa, 72, 76, 99 Panda, G. S., 141 death of, 81, 202n62 Panga- Kabonde chiefdom, 68 and invasion of Bandasuma, 201n49 paramount chiefs and invasion of Baoma, 84 under British rule, 107 Nyarroh’s kidnapping and, 80– 81 colonial codification of, 97 ndŢ- mahei (land chief). See land chief criteria in colonial era, 110, 112– 14 (ndŢ- mahei) functions of, 106 Necy, Boye, attributes of, 110 and hardships of war, xiii Neighbo, Madam, 113 land chiefs codified as, 106 Nenge of Baoma, 2, 92, 110 land rights jurisdiction of, 135– 37 background of, 83 land use prerogative of, 135– 36, barrenness and, 40 211n49 chiefdom founded by, 109 prerogatives of, 123 and Dung Pot War, 82– 87 Sierra Leone People’s Party and, 124 marital strategies of, 85– 86 Stevenson Constitution and, 123– 24 peacemaking by, 82 See also women paramount chiefs peacemaking with British, 85 paramount chieftaincy sources of information about, 202n65 barrenness and, 40– 41 and evolution of nation- state, 121– 23 Newton, John, 32 and guardianship of land, 123 Ngokowa, Hawa, 126 Parkes, J. C. Ernest, 57, 103, 104, 113 Ngolie. See Nenge of Baoma party politics, 2, 124, 135– 36, 138– 42 NGOs, women’s rights, xiv patriarchy Nkrumah, Kwame, 124 Civil War and, 149 Nongowa Chiefdom, 101 versus gender complementarity, 6 Norman, Hinga, 164 resurgence of, 157 Nyagua, 83, 85, 100– 101 patrilineal descent, requirement of, 126 as stipendiary chief, 114 Pax Britannica, women chiefs and, 66 Nyarroh of Bandasuma, 2, 40, 65, 103 peacemaking kidnapping of, 80– 81, 202n59 examples of, 79– 80 meetings with Alldridge, 81– 82 Maago of Lubu and, 57 Nyarroh II, 82 Nenge of Baoma and, 85 as peacemaker, 77– 82, 92 Nenge of Leppiama and, 82 release of, 81 Nyarroh and, 77– 82, 92 situating, 73– 75 Poro society and, 32 warfare and, 75– 77 women’s role in, 19, 57 Nyuma, Tom, 158 Yoko and, 87 See also mediatorship Okome, Mojúbàolú O., 6 Peel, Edmund, 65, 74, 76, 80 Okonjo, Kamene, 3 Peters, Laura, 161 omu, in precolonial Onitsha, 4 Phillips, Ruth, 26 oral interviews, 10, 11 political activism, postwar, 172– 73 Oyĕwùmi, Oyèrónké, 1, 2, 6 , 135– 36 Index ● 225

Poro bush, 54 Reeck, Darrell, 45, 50– 51, 54 Poro medicine, female fertility and, Regbafri of Manho, 46 40– 41 Reverend Ma, 181. See also Minah, Poro society, 6, 31– 39, 34 Matilda barren women in, 36 Revington, A., 89, 104 chieftaincy and, 38 Revolutionary United Front (RUF) civil versus religious arms of, 42– 43 Civil War and, 150, 153– 57 early powers of purrah and, 32– 33 Ella Gulama and, 161– 62 gender complementarity and, 31 , 48– 50, 49f, 51, 54 influence and prerogatives of, 31– 32 Richards, Paul, 213n14 initiation rites of, 34 ritual leaders, female, 1, 19– 22, 181 political power of, 37– 39 Rodney, Walter, 35, 194n4 in precolonial era, 16 Rowe, Samuel, 56, 65 in rebellion against British, 100– 101 Nyarroh and, 73– 76, 85 religious versus political aspects of, 33 war in Gallinas and, 78– 79 structure of, 16 rubber project, in Boajibu, 176– 77 women chiefs and, 41– 43 RUF. See Revolutionary United Front women in, 7, 15, 34– 37, 39 ruling families, women chiefs as See also secret societies representatives of, 126– 27 Poro spirit, paramount chieftaincy and, 129 Sama, Mamawa, 98, 125 power. See female chieftaincy; women Samba, Emmanuel K., 11, 209n21 chiefs; women land chiefs; women sami, 35 leaders; women of authority; women Sande society, 6 paramount chiefs and construction of female gendered power relations, 19th- century warfare body, 23– 24 and, 66– 67 dances of, 90– 91 protectorate assembly, 122– 24 female corporate consciousness and, Protectorate Ordinance of 1896, 100 24– 25 public sphere, women leaders in, 2, initiates of, 14f 30– 31 leaders as public officials, 30– 31 Purroh, Faingaray, 47 male violations of, 24, 25 puu- guei (white man’s war), 88, 96 masks and dance in, 25– 29, 26f, 27f, 29f Qāsā, 47, 194n5 officials’ roles in, 23 Quee, David, 119, 145 in precolonial era, 16 queen mothers, of Swazi, 4 structure of, 16 queens, ix and women chiefs in colonial era, 110 of Gallinas and Koya, 55– 59 women paramount chiefs and, 131– historical references to, 45– 46 32, 210n39 of Koya, 60 women’s leadership and, 22– 31 of Sherbro, 48– 55 Yoko and, 90– 91 See also secret societies Rabai society, 52 Sankoh, Foday, 153, 156– 57 Ragbenle society, 21, 51, 54, 61– 62 Sawyer, Harry, 29 Rashid, Ismail, 155 secret societies, 3 226 ● Index secret societies (continued) Sierra Leone Army, 154, 156, 158– 59 dual membership in, 132 Sierra Leone Civil War functions of, 7 African feminism after, 177– 78 influence of, 6 attempts to explain, 152, 213n14 in social construction of gender roles, background of, 151– 53 17– 19 civilian casualties of, 155 women chiefs and, 127– 32 course of, 153– 57 See also Bundu societies; Poro society; democracy experiment and, 155– 56 Sande society dissolution of social structures in, Sefawa (warrior), 127 154– 55, 157 Sefawa, Yatta Koroma, 127 Ella Gulama and, 160– 62 election of, 133 escalating violence in, 155– 56 Segbureh, Margaret, xiii, 2, 147 gendered violence of, 157– 58, 169 Civil War and, 158, 166– 68 impact on initiations, 16– 17 funeral of, 39– 40 impacts of, xiii, 148– 51 marriage and, 144 impacts on women’s leadership, 2, 181 and postwar agriculture and last years of, 156– 57 development, 174– 75 Mamawa Benya and, 158– 60 and postwar economic development, Mamie Gamanga and, 165– 66 173– 74 Margaret Segbureh and, 166– 68 postwar political activism of, 172– 73 Matilda Minah and, 163– 65 Selenga Chiefdom, Ngokowa’s election primary targets of, 150– 51 and, 126 recovery from, xiii– xiv Senehun, Yoko of. See Yoko of Senehun women chiefs after, 171– 77 Seniora Maria, 47 women chiefs and, xiii, 157– 68 Sergbei, 83 and women’s peace movement and Serifu, Lahai, 69 sexual violence, Civil War and, 149– 54, women’s rights agenda, 168– 71 169 Yabomwarra Kamara and, 162– 63 shadow state, growth of, 153 Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), 121, Sharpe, Patricia, 170 211n59 Sherbro Ella Gulama and, 131, 138– 39, 142 bilateral descent in, 126 founding of, 124 female leadership in, 98, 168 Mamawa Benya and, 139– 42 joint king- queen rulership in, 61– 62 slave raids, 71, 198n3 Mende domination of, 66 increased militarization and, 67– 68 queens of, 48– 55 slaves tax resistance by, 38, 101 runaway, 104– 5 women leaders in, xi women chiefs’ marriages with, 86 Sherbro Intelligence Book of 1904, 56 slave trade, British suppression of, 67– 68 Sherbro speakers, xi Small Bo Chiefdom, xii Siaka, King, 67, 198n3 Benya’s election in, 125 Sierra Leone Maajo Benya of, 111– 17 author’s visits to, x, xii– xiii See also Benya, Mamawa livelihoods in, xi social identities, situational nature of, 2 media coverage of, ix social organization, principles of, 5– 10 profile of, ix Sofa war, 104 Index ● 227

Sorie Kessebah, 104 taxation, rebellion against, 100, 103, 114 Sousanth clan, 52– 53 tax collection, and selection of leaders, Sovula, Borteh, 126 113 sowei, 26f Taylor, Charles, 153 hierarchical roles of, 30 Tembi Yeva, 103 responsibilities of, 25 Temne Chiefdoms, xi, 18 warrior association of, 30 sowei masks in colonial state, 121 motifs of, 28 and nonsupport of women chiefs, 128 names of, 26– 27 tax resistance by, 38 otherworldly powers and, 28 Temu, Brima, 133, 134 in Sande society ritual, 25– 29, 26f, Thoma society, gender parallels and 27f, 29f intersections in, 20– 22 sexual referents of, 28– 29 Thompson, George, 79 state building, 119– 45 Thompson- Segbureh, Margaret. See and contradictions of women’s Segbureh, Margaret leadership, 142– 45 trade routes, 19th- century extension of, government structure and, 122 66– 67 land use and, 135– 37 treaties, women signatories of, 46 national politics and, 137– 42 Treaty of 1825, 193n2 paramount chieftaincy and, 121– 23 tribute payments and women chiefs and secret societies, chief’s right to, 108 127– 32 discontinuation of, 111 and women chiefs as mediators, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 132– 35 150 and women chiefs as ruling family Minah’s service on, 172– 73 representatives, 126– 27 Tucker, Nancy, 110, 113, 115, 204n43, and women chiefs in local 207n53 government, 124– 25 , Sama’s election in, 125 Steady, Filomena, 178, 214n35 Turay, A. K., 21 Stevens, Siaka, 121, 128 Turshen, Meredith, 149 Ella Gulama and, 160– 61 installation of, 124 Information Service, 170 Mamawa Benya and, 136, 140– 42 one- party rule by, 151– 52 , tax resistance by, 38 Stevenson constitution, 122– 24 Vai region, xi Suleiman, 47, 194n5 initiation societies in, 18 Susu, xi Vana, 99 Van Allen, Judith, 3 Taago, 87, 103, 115 Vibbi, Theresa, 2, 125, 127, 143 Tama, 83 violence, gendered, 157– 58, 169 Tane chiefdom, 21 Vivian, William, 32, 70 Tasso Island, 48– 50, 49f shrine at, 52 Wallis, C. Braithwaite, 33, 107 Ya Kumba of, 1 (see also Ya Kumba; Ya Wando Chiefdom, leadership, 101 Kumba people) war chiefs, 68 228 ● Index war chiefs (continued) power of, xiv British policy toward, 99– 101 Sande and, 110 decline in power of, 96– 97 secret societies and, 127– 32 end of era, 98– 101 in state building (see state building) female relatives of, 66 as substitute for war chiefs, 101– 3 land chiefs loss of power to, 91– 92 and support of male societies, 128 women chiefs as substitutes for, 101– 3 and survival of indigenous political warfare organization, 125 gendered/disparate impact of, 149 in war years, xiii Nyarroh and, 75– 77 wealth and influence in colonial era, slave trade and, 67– 68 114– 17 warrior class See also specific chiefs rise of, 68– 72 women chiefs during 19th- century trade in Small Bo region, 83 wars, 65– 93 warriors Nyarroh and Gallinas War, 73– 82 conflicts with local leaders, 68– 69, Pax Britannica and, 66 198n5, 199n9 reduced authority of, 66, 71– 72 Nyarroh and, 75– 76 and rise of warrior class, 68– 72 professional, 68 Yoko of Senehun, 87– 91 treachery of, 75– 76 women chieftaincy. See female chieftaincy wars, 19th- century, women chiefs during, women land chiefs 65– 93. See also women chiefs during under colonial rule, 105– 11 19th- century trade wars prerogatives of, 115 war towns, 69– 70 women leaders West- Atlantic family of languages, xi colonial impacts on, 181 white man’s war, 88, 96 as colonial subjects, 2 Winterbottom, Thomas, 33 wives, roles of, 8 contradictions of, 142– 45 Woki Massaquoi, 98 cultural support for, 7 womanist model, 177– 78 and mediation of colonial rule, women chiefs 95– 117 as ambassadors to British, 101– 3 precolonial, 4 background of, 3– 5 in public sphere, 30– 31 Civil War and, 2, 157– 68 traditional structures supporting, 179 during colonial era, 96– 98, 115– 16 women of authority list of, 183–84 and conflation of ritual and public marital strategies of, 85– 86 power, 48 methodology for study of, 10– 11 male- female complementarity and, 61 as models for women’s empowerment, mediating function of, 61 170 precolonial, 45– 62 and natural ruler concept, 120– 22, qualifications of, 46 141, 172, 207n1 as signatories on documents, 46 non- Poro elections and, 112– 13 Women Organized for a Morally as pawns of British, 102, 205n16 Enlightened Nation (WOMEN), personal wealth of, 110– 11 170 Poro and, 41– 43 women paramount chiefs, 97, 113– 14 in postwar Sierra Leone, 2, 171– 77 African feminism and, 177– 78 Index ● 229

ambivalence about, 209n21 Ya Kumba, 1, 54– 55, 60, 191n2 author’s visits with, 168 Caulkers and, 52, 72, 126, 195n15, in colonial era, 117 200n24 colonial ties of, 116 1825 Treaty and, 46, 191n2, 198n54 criteria for, 120 and founding of lineage, 52 elections after independence, 125 influence of, 48, 61 after independence, 125 during trade wars, 72 lineage of, 126 Ya Kumba family, 50– 51 marriage and, 143– 45 Ya Kumba people, 53 national politics and, 137– 42 Caulker family and, 126 and postwar economic development, dependence on outsiders, 54– 55 173– 74 origins of, 52– 53 postwar political activism of, 172– 73 Poro bush and, 54 rights and responsibilities of, 135– 37 shrine of, 48– 49, 53, 60 Sande societies and, 131– 32 Yalunka, xi Sharpe’s meeting with, 170 Yammacouba, 46 See also specific chiefs Yassi (Njaye) society of Sherbro Women’s Association for National gender parallels and intersections in, Development, 169 20– 22 women’s authority, in public realm, 2 Poro burial and, 39 women’s empowerment priestesses of, 44f existing indigenous constructs and, Yatta of Gallinas, 40 178 Yawry Bay, 48, 49f, 50 focus on, xiv Yoko of Senehun, 2, 4, 46, 87– 91, 92, Women’s Helpline, 175 94f, 95, 98, 137 women’s movement for peace and human accusations against, 205n27 rights, 168– 71 attributes of, 110 women’s rights activists, women’s barrenness of, 40 chieftaincy and, 177– 78 Budge and, 203n71 women’s rights movement, neoliberal, 2 frontier police and, 105 women’s sexuality, Civil War and, 149– 50 influence of, 96 Women’s Wing of Sierra Leone Labor as mediator, 89– 90, 103– 105 Congress, 10 personal wealth of, 110– 11, 116, women titleholders, 1 203n71, 203n74 historical background of, 47– 48 Poro Society and, 130 Wunde society as quintessential women leader, 96 dances of, 19, 79 runaway slaves and, 104– 5 and election of women chiefs, 128– 29 Sande society and, 90– 91, 110, 131 and female initiation into Poro, 36, 79 Yonnie Expedition, 99 gender parallels and intersections in, Yonnie Temne, 89 19– 22 trade wars of, 99 Yonnie Temne peace delegation, 79 Ya Bom Warra, 179 Yoruba, construction of gender in, 1 Ya Kai (Yah- Kye; Yankie, Kate), 51, 54– 55, 72 Zorocong, 56