Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0315/03150.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 26KB | 426 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03150}
$Pretitle{380}
$Title{Sierra Leone
Chapter 7C.   Intellectual Expression}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Irving Kaplan}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{sierra
leone
published
music
appeared
freetown
college
early
mid-1970s
research}
$Date{1976}
$Log{}
Country:     Sierra Leone
Book:        Sierra Leone, A Country Study
Author:      Irving Kaplan
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1976

Chapter 7C.   Intellectual Expression

Scholarship and Intellectual Expression

     The early settlers brought with them a tradition of education that was
soon reinforced by missionary activities and government interest. By the
mid-1800s a small educated elite had developed, which grew in numbers as the
century progressed. Many were trained in Great Britain; others studied at
Fourah Bay College. This elite was composed primarily of Creoles, whose
reputation was spread throughout British West Africa by individual Creoles who
eventually constituted a considerable part of the British civil service there
and by others who achieved professional renown (see ch. 2; ch. 4).

     The great expansion of education after World War II and government
efforts in the postindependence years to train Sierra Leoneans for high-level
positions and professional occupations have led to increasing numbers of
persons with a higher education. The number of the elite who had acquired
degrees was unknown in the mid-1970s, but degree recipients from the
University of Sierra Leone alone totaled more than 650 between the 1968-69 and
the 1972-73 academic years, and a further estimated 1,100 were expected to be
awarded degrees by 1978. In addition an unknown number possessed degrees
earned abroad. In this period the Creoles' near monopoly of higher education
was broken as members of other ethnic groups (the so-called tribes) gained
access to educational opportunities. It is likely, however, that Creoles were
still heavily represented among those with a university education.

     Scholarship and intellectual endeavor in science and technology were
restricted by the inadequacies or lack of research facilities. Free
fundamental research appeared to be limited almost entirely to Fourah Bay
College and Njala University College; the staffs of some departments also
engaged in applied research. In addition to departmental laboratories, Fourah
Bay College included the Institute of Marine Biology and Oceanography, founded
in 1968 with the assistance of the UNDP, which carried out both fundamental
and applied research.

     Njala University College research was principally of an applied nature
and concerned with aspects of agriculture, including soil management, crop
production, plant diseases, and the like. The Rokupr Rice Research Station
associated with the college carried out some important work during the 1960s,
according to the 1975-79 development plan, but shortage of funds and staff
thereafter reduced its activities substantially. The station's research was to
be expanded considerably during the plan period with the aid of the UNDP and
the West African Rice Development Association.

     A comparatively small number of researchers in units of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Natural Resources also conducted applied research.
Laboratories of the fisheries division engaged in studies on maritime
fisheries. Other research staff dealt with silviculture, tree diseases, and
animal crossbreeding and health. Presumably a certain amount of applied
research was also engaged in by private industry.

     Little information was available on research in the social sciences,
economics, politics, and cultural areas. Some most likely was engaged in by
members of the Institute of African Studies at Fourah Bay College and by staff
members of the college. Sierra Leone Studies, published by the Sierra Leone
Society, included scholarly articles in these fields, and the Journal of
Education, issued by the Ministry of Education, published the results of
studies in education. Other outlets for scholarly studies included the Sierra
Leone Geographical Journal, the Africana Research Bulletin, and the Sierra
Leone Bulletin of Religion (see ch. 8).

     Access to information by the intellectual community appeared
unrestricted. Newspapers published in Sierra Leone contained little foreign
news, but airmail editions of British newspapers were sold in
bookstores-British newspapers and a variety of other periodicals could also be
read at British Council libraries in Freetown, Bo, and Kenema-and American
newspapers and periodicals were available at the United States Information
Service (USIS) center in Freetown. Several other foreign countries also made
newspapers and periodicals available to Sierra Leoneans. Such publications as
Time and Newsweek and a selection of British magazines were readily obtained
from bookstores. Several of these stores sold a considerable variety of books
including many in paperback.

Libraries and Museums

     Public library facilities and the borrowing of books were completely free
to the general public in the mid-1970s. Functioning under the direction of the
Sierra Leone Library Board, created by statute in 1959, main libraries were
located in Freetown and in each of the provincial capitals-Bo, Kenema, and
Makeni. In addition branch libraries existed in seven or eight other
localities that were not served by the provincial libraries or from which
those libraries were relatively inaccessible. A mobile primary school service,
begun in 1961, served over 700 isolated schools. It visited each area about
once a year and lent books based on the number of students in a school,
roughly one book for every two students in larger schools and three books for
every four students in smaller ones; teaching staff could borrow up to three
books. The library board had over 400,000 volumes in the mid-1970s. The
distribution among the different branches was not known, nor was the kind or
currentness of the collection.

     Other public library facilities of some substance were the USIS and
British Council libraries. The British Council library in Freetown, opened in
1944, was the first public library in the country. The Fourah Bay College and
Njala University College libraries appeared to restrict lending to members of
the staffs and students. Much of the intellectual life of Freetown reportedly
centered on Fourah Bay College, whose library contained some 85,000 volumes in
the early 1970s and received about 950 serial publications annually. It seemed
likely, therefore, that members of the intellectual community in Freetown
outside the college, many of whom were graduates of the college, also made
some use of the facilities.

     Other restricted libraries were those of the secondary schools. In the
late 1960s most of these were reported to have between 1,000 and 5,000 volumes
each, and the number was being added to through regular government allocation
of funds. The range of subjects covered was unknown, but the libraries offered
at least some possibilities for intellectual pursuits to the teaching staffs,
who included university graduates.

     The only museum of note in the mid-1970s appeared to be the Sierra Leone
National Museum in Freetown. It contained ethnographic and archaeological
collections and materials of historical interest. It was reported to have a
good collection of ritual and ceremonial carvings and also of nomoli (early
stone figures).

THE ARTS

Literature

     In common with other black African countries, Sierra Leone has an
extensive oral literature that includes fables, legends of origin, myths,
proverbs, puns, riddles, rituals associated with special events, and songs;
wide use is made of animal characters in anthropomorphic roles. This
literature occurs as both prose and poetry and frequently mixes the two; its
artistic character is enhanced by styles of presentation that can be conveyed
only in a limited way in written literature. Varying to a greater or lesser
degree in content and patte