Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0314/03143.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 18KB | 297 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03143}
$Pretitle{380}
$Title{Sierra Leone
Chapter 4B.   Interethnic Relations}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Irving Kaplan}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{sierra
language
leone
languages
temne
mende
creoles
groups
ethnic
spoken}
$Date{1976}
$Log{}
Country:     Sierra Leone
Book:        Sierra Leone, A Country Study
Author:      Irving Kaplan
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1976

Chapter 4B.   Interethnic Relations

     The major factor dominating interethnic relations has been the historic
rift between the Creoles and the peoples of the interior. From the beginning
of Sierra Leone's modern history, Creoles have proudly regarded themselves as
having created an outpost of Western civilization. Members of other ethnic
groups have deeply resented what they perceived as contemptuous and
condescending Creole behavior. This resentment has provided a bond among these
groups, which at times has overshadowed whatever latent rivalries and tensions
may have survived from earlier warfare during the settling of the interior. As
the power of the Creoles has declined and the number of educated people in
other ethnic groups has grown, rivalries among the latter have surfaced but
without the virulence that has occurred in some other African countries.

     A number of factors have made for fairly peaceful coexistence. Creoles
failed to notice differences among the various peoples of the Protectorate who
came to work in the Western Area. This prevented the development of fixed
conceptions and fostered a feeling of oneness among the different ethnic
groups.

     Cities and towns grew slowly, and newcomers were absorbed singly or in
small groups. People usually settled in ethnically mixed neighborhoods, and
there was a fair amount of intermarriage. Only the Kroo have continued to live
exclusively among themselves in small villages.

     Ethnic groups, such as the Susu, Vai, and Kissi, whose major distribution
is in neighboring countries are not very important numerically, whereas the
three biggest groups, the Temne, Mende, and Limba, are concentrated mainly
inside Sierra Leone. Thus another factor that frequently colors interethnic
relations in African countries-that of ethnic loyalties reaching beyond
national borders-is missing.

     Traditional institutions, such as the secret societies, cut across ethnic
boundaries in many instances. For example, details and rituals of the Poro
secret society vary from one ethnic group to another and even within
subgroups, but migrations during the past two centuries have facilitated the
diffusion of some features of Poro from one ethnic group to another (see ch.
5). A Poro member from one group may under certain conditions enter the Poro
councils of another. Poro persisted to some degree in the 1970s as a channel
of interethnic communication, but its importance was declining.

     Islam, too, has been an important unifying factor. Generally relations
between members of different ethnic groups seem to be closer when both are
adherents of Islam.

     The history of political party alignment has been mirrored in changes in
interethnic relations. In the first election in 1951 Creoles formed two
parties of their own while the peoples of the Protectorate united in the
Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP). In 1957 in the last election before
independence the Creoles, recognizing their numerical weakness, backed a new
countrywide party, the United Progressive Party (UPP), while most of the
people of the Protectorate continued to vote for the SLPP. But cracks were
appearing in the formerly united front. The Mende and Temne had begun to see
each other as rivals, and there was strife between the Susu and Fullah. By
1962 the Mende seem to have been perceived by others as the major threat,
which led to a wholesale flight from the SLPP. It became primarily a Mende
party, and the other groups, including the Creoles, formed the All People's
Congress (APC). In 1967 the Temne and other northern groups were firmly lined
up against the Mende and the minor southern groups. Half of Kono District,
which has a mixed population, voted for the APC and half for the SLPP. Creoles
continued to be seen as a privileged group in wealth, level of education, and
prestigious jobs, but the historic division between Creole and non-Creole no
longer dominated interethnic relations. It has been superseded to some extent
by competition between northern and southern peoples, crystallized
respectively around the Temne and the Mende (see ch. 10).

     As interethnic contacts have increased with the growth of the cash
economy, urbanization, and the development of mining, members of the different
ethnic groups have developed a number of stereotypes about others and about
themselves. The Mende are proud of their generosity, friendliness, and
diligence and are admired for these characteristics by others. They tend to
look down on the Kissi as primitive and on the Lokko as poor and backward, but
they admire the Madingo as aristocratic, and they somewhat grudgingly admire
the Temne for the fighting prowess they demonstrated in the intertribal wars
of the past century.

     The Limba have high regard for the Fullah and Madingo who live among
them, partly because of their reputation as devout Muslims. The Limba give
their daughters as wives to Madingo but seem not to be allowed to marry
Madingo girls. The Limba are generally regarded  as traditional, a reputation
they share with the Koranko. The Limba are proud of their honesty, peaceful
disposition, and ability to work hard. The Temne are regarded as
self-confident, proud, obstinate, unwilling to bow to authority, and always
spoiling for a fight, a view of themselves they share. The Gola and Vai are
said to be unwilling to work for others, possibly because of the dominant role
they once played in the slave trade.

NON-AFRICANS

     A few thousand Europeans, Americans, and Middle Easterners (chiefly
Lebanese) reside in the country. There are also a few hundred Indians,
originally from Gujarat, who are usually active in commerce. Europeans and
Americans are engaged in private or government-sponsored enterprise or aid
requiring a fairly large and consistent number of persons over a period of
years. Europeans are mostly from Great Britain, but there are also French,
Swiss, Germans, and a sprinkling of other nationalities.

     Nearly 7,000 Lebanese were registered aliens in 1971. Lebanese and
Syrians (all of whom were called Syrians at the time of the Ottoman Empire)
began coming to Sierra Leone during the 1890s. Most arrived penniless, but
within thirty years they became a formidable power in commerce and trade and
had an almost total monopoly of these activities in the early 1920s. In the
process they destroyed the hitherto predominant economic position of the
Creoles, who from then on concentrated on the professions and government
service. Resentment against the Lebanese erupted into riots after World War I.

     Lebanese usually started as trading partners of European firms and had
the encouragement of the colonial government. They leased land from paramount
chiefs in the Protectorate and built small stores. In time they became the
country's foremost middlemen and the principal source of credit in rural
areas. They bought goods in bulk from European firms and sold them in small
amounts to cultivators. They bought the local crops and sold them to European
firms and in later years to the Sierra Leone Produce Marketing Board for
export (see ch. 13). By introducing new wares into the countryside they
changed rural consumption patterns and stimulated the growing of cash crops.
Their family-oriented business operations expanded until they controlled all
motor transport in the Protectorate and owned hotels, motion picture houses,
and manufacturing plants. After World War II they entered the expanding
diamond trade.

     After independence in 1961 they were in the same situation as the Indians
in East Africa. Africans who could n