M. JSi Wr- INSTITUTE ©E AF1SDCAN STHJEME FOURAH BAY COLLEGE university of sierra leone 23 JUIN 197* Africana Research ulletin FORMER FOURAH BAY COLLEGE CLINETOWN, FREETOWN. Vol. Ill No. 1 Session 1972-73 OCTOBER 1972 Editor: J. G. EDOWU HYDE Asst. Editor: J. A. S. BLAIR v.. AFRICANA RESEARCH BULLETIN CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ........ James A. S. Blair 1. ARTICLES Krio Ways of 'Thought and Ev-ression ooooooooeooooooooooo» Clifford Fy1er Initiative and Response in the Sierra Leone Hinterland, 1885-1898: The Chiefs and British Intervention .. ». ... Kenneth C. Wylie and James S. Harrison 2. RESEARCH NOTE A Note on 'Country' in Political Anthropology .................. C. Magbaily Fyle 3. REVIEW W. T. Harris and Harry Sawyerr, The Springs of Mende Belief and Conduct Arthur Abraham 4. NEWS ITEM Road Development Research Project - Progress Report ................. James A. S. Blair INTRODUCTION The present issue of the Africana Research Bulletin contains as its first article a contribution from two former Visiting Research Scholars of this Institute, Professor Kenneth Wylie and Mr James Harrison» We are always glad to welcome to our pages the work of past visiting scholars and we hope that many more such contributions will be received.. This mutual co-operation between foreign scholars and this Institute is a manifestation of the approval in this country for genuine scholarly wrork to be undertaken, both by indigenous and non- national scholars. In a forthcoming issue of the Africana Research Bulletin the conditions and responsibilities of visiting research status in this Institute will be laid out clearly so that intending applicants may be familiar with the opportunities for research open to them. Professor Wylie and Mr. Harrison's article focusses attention on the controversial period of late 19th Century Sierra Leonean history when British inter¬ vention became increasingly felt in the hinterland of the Crown Colony of Sierra Leone, Using evidence from both Mende and Temne areas, the authors indi¬ cate that the indigenous chiefs of the period were much less passive vis-á-vis contact with the British than has commonly been supposed. Indeed they show to an extent how the warrior chiefs used the skilfully British against their own enemies, The re-interpretation of the history of the pre- colonial period of foreign impact is Sierra proceeding in Leone, as is indicated- in the work of Mr. C. Magbaily Fyle, .another Visiting Research Scholar of this Institute, who in a short research note, discusses the interpretation of the term in the "country" area now encompassing Northern Sierra Leone and parts of Guinea. Mr. Fyle is undertaking research into the Solima-Yalunka State as a ment for require¬ his doctorate from Northwestern University. ïire Clifford Fyle is a member of staff in the Department of English of Fourah Bay College, and also a former contributor to the Africana Research As an Bulletin. established authority on the Krio language of the Sierra Leone Creoles, Mr. Fyle's contribution is of special interest on this occasion because of the implications it bears in terms of the education in English of native Krio speakers, for he puts forward several theses about the nature of the Krio language, and includes comment on the rythm patterns of the language. He suggests that these individualistic rythm patterns are often carried over to the English speech of native Krio speakers and that more attention is needed to problems encountered by school-children being educated in a second language with very different rythm patterns. Mr. Fyle's paper was first presented in the Colloquia Series of the Institute of African Studies. Mr. Arthur Abraham is yet another Visiting Research Scholar of the Institute of African Studies and in this issue raises some rather controversial points concerning "The Springs of Mende Belief and Conduct" the book written by the Principal of Fourah Bay College, Professor H. A. E. Sawyerr, on the basis of the field notes of Rev. W„ T. Harris, a European missionary amongst the Mende. Mr. Abraham suspects that biasses may exist'in the book as a result of its origin, and he presents his suspicions in a review article. Regrettably, I must end by asking our subscribers to once again be patient with us, as this Bulletin is still appearing well behind publication date. Thanks to the excellent efforts of Mrs. Delia Carpenter this particular issue has been brought out in a very short period of time, and I express the gratitude of the Editors to her for her careful and consistent typing. It is hoped to bring out one issue of the Africana Research Bulletin every month until it is up to publication date. James A. S. Blair Assistant Editor ARTICLES KRIO WAYS CE THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION Clifford Fyle Department of English Fourah Bay College In this paper I wish to put forward five theses about the ways of thought and expression of the Krio people of Sierra Leone, Krio is a West African language and therefore, understandably, it has affinities with other West African languages in its environment. In addition it is a Creole language and therefore, again -understandably, it has affini¬ ties with others of the world's Creole languages. For these reasons, some of the points made here xvould hold good for other West African languages or other Creole languages, or both. This paper, how¬ ever, limits itself to a purely Krio viewpoint. What the paper tries to do is to throw some light on the workings of the Krio language, and perhaps through this on the workings of the Krio mind. It does not claim, though,that the language is a very peculiar language,, or that the Krio mind is a pecu¬ liar kind of mind. The theses are as follows: Thesis 1 - Krio is a thematic language, This means that in thinking or speaking about any subject, the Krio man usually first states his topic of discussion before proceeding to say something about this topic. For example, consider the following well-known Krio sentences : 1. Da kaw we no get tel, na Gad go drgb in fiai. / The cow that riot has tail it is God will drive off its flies. / God helps those who cannot help themselves. 2. Pikin we se in mami no go slip, insef no go slip. ^ A child who says his mother not will sleep, 3. himself not will sleep. ^ Children who think they trouble their parents only succeed in troubling themselves much more than the parents « 3» Da tin we de bien siks i big, yu no si we sevin twis? ? The thing that exists behind the number six it is big, you not see how the number seven is twisted? / An innocent facade may conceal the gravest dangers. •'l0 Iodamasi monki, yu yon don don. / Lord have mercy monkey, your own has finished. ^ Alas, monkey, it is all over with you. We see what happens in these sentences. Let us take a look at the first one. An Englishman, in making such a sentence, might say something like, "Only God will drive away the flies off a cow that has no tail". The point is that the Englishman would tend to put the word "God" first because the word "God" is the grammatical subject - "Only God will drive away . But not the Krio man. God or no God, it is the cow that he is talking about, "Cow that not has tail" is his theme, so he puts "cow" first and says "Cow that not has tail, it is God will drive away its flies." The other sentences move in a similar manner. The point is that the Krio man makes a clear distinction between the grammatical subject and the subject under discussion, which we may call the "theme" subject. And he states this theme subject first. This often happens even where the theme subject is the same in meaning as the grammatical subject, as in sentence 2 where the theme subject "Child that says its mother will not sleep" means the same as the grammatical subject "he himself", and in sentence 3 where the theme subject "The thing that exists behind six" means the same as the grammatical subject "it" in "it is big". In general, a theme subject occurs irrespective of the grammatical function of any word or phrase in the rest of the sentence with which this theme subject may be equatable in meaning. For example, in sentence 1 the theme subject "Cow which- not has tail" may be equated only with the possess¬ ive pronoun "his" in the object phrase "his flies". Similarly in sentence 4 the theme subject "monkey" may be equated only with the possessive pronoun "your" in the grammatical subject "your own". There is more to thematisation in Krio than this, but enough has been said to make the point. Indeed, this phenomenon of theme subject preceding grammati¬ cal subject is such a common one in the language that as I have argued elsewhere^, one has to make provision in .the description of Krio sentence struc¬ ture for an intrinsic pre-subject or thematic phrase so that whereas in English for example we can talk about subject, verb and object, in Krio we have to talk about pre-subject, subject, verb and object. That is to say, we have to recognise an extra gramma¬ tical unit that does not occur in the English sentence. Theses 2 - The Krio man likes to express himself with emphasis in a manner that suggests that he wishes to give every thought, every idea, every piece of information a full and a clear significance. He is prone to overstatement rather than to under¬ statement. I do not have any sociological evidence of a scien¬ tific nature, but it would seem to me that one of the most common traits of the Krio character is the love for exaggerated gossip, the tendency to blow up a little piece of information until it assumes quite significant proportions.