{"id":45729,"date":"2012-08-05T22:27:51","date_gmt":"2012-08-05T22:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=45729"},"modified":"2012-08-05T22:27:51","modified_gmt":"2012-08-05T22:27:51","slug":"tides-in-sierra-leone-poetic-history-of-sierra-leone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=45729","title":{"rendered":"Tides in Sierra Leone [Poetic History Of Sierra Leone]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pr\u00e9cis<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1462, the waves carried the shrill cry, \u201cSierra Lyoa!\u201d<\/address>\n
Lion Mountains! Professed the sailor, Pedro Da Cintra<\/address>\n
To this wonderful abode of nature, valour and power<\/address>\n
Reduced to a mall for humans during the colonial era<\/address>\n
Land of the homeless, the Athens of old West Africa\u2026<\/address>\n

Early History<\/strong><\/p>\n

Historiography has it that the land was inhabited by numerous independent natives,<\/address>\n
With religious similarities but different languages and independent political motives<\/address>\n
The Buloms anchored in the coastal areas between the Sherbro\u00a0and\u00a0Freetown\u00a0estuaries,<\/address>\n
Lokos clung further\u00a0northwards of the Freetown estuary, extending to the\u00a0Little Scarcies,<\/address>\n
Temnes nested close to the mouth of the\u00a0Scarcies; Limbas\u00a0moved farther up the Scarcies,<\/address>\n
The Mendes were interspersed; emigrants of sporadic migration from Sub-Saharan colonies,<\/address>\n
The Susus and Fulas settled in the hilly Savannah, trading along the coastal boundaries.<\/address>\n

15th<\/sup> Century<\/strong><\/p>\n

This period was graced by European contacts, who visited regularly,<\/address>\n
Maintaining a fort on the north shore of the Freetown Estuary,<\/address>\n
Giving rise to the incessant trading and the birth of slavery\u2026<\/address>\n
\u2018The brutal and harsh transatlantic practice\u2019 that continued for centuries,<\/address>\n
Mostly patronized by the Portuguese, Dutch, French and English colonies;<\/address>\n
As their quivering captives, tilled the United States, Brazil and the West Indies.<\/address>\n

16th<\/sup> Century<\/strong><\/p>\n

Around the mid 16th<\/sup> century, events of profound importance<\/address>\n
Changed the scenery and means of survival and sustenance;<\/address>\n
Expelled from Mandimansa, unleashing mayhem with fierce agitation;<\/address>\n
To lands they subdued; with warring factions, they caused a division\u2026<\/address>\n
As warriors armed with shields, reeds, quivers\u2026 to combat resistance<\/address>\n
From their victims, meet the Manis in their historic Mane invasion.<\/address>\n
\u00a0<\/address>\n
Plunder and acquisition, clearly spoke for the pains they inflict\u2026<\/address>\n
When resistance, plunged a continual state of chaos and conflict,<\/address>\n
With Chiefs forming a confederacy, to which they pledged their loyalty<\/address>\n
As their benighted subjects, stood up for theirs, by taking an oath of fealty;<\/address>\n
Ostensibly, to protect, formed secret cultural practices; such as the Poro society,<\/address>\n
Analogous to the female Sande society; the transience to adulthood, from puberty.<\/address>\n
\u00a0<\/address>\n
In 1652, the first batch of slaves set sail for the fields of North America,<\/address>\n
To till the sugar and rice plantations in Georgia up to South Carolina<\/address>\n
Recanting on the promise made to the children of Mother Africa\u2026<\/address>\n
Bounded with chains, stocked in dungeons, severed from families,<\/address>\n
They soiled in blood, with whip-cracked skins, clinging to fading vestiges<\/address>\n
Of hope; they sang, as they labored; for their blighted cultural practices.<\/address>\n

17th<\/sup> Century<\/strong><\/p>\n

Imperialism waned in; heightening the nascent invasion, by means of trading;<\/address>\n
In the auspice of religion and civilization; the bedrock of the imminent usurping,<\/address>\n
This atavistic urge sprung trading posts; \u2018Factory\u2019, a highly fortified building\u2026<\/address>\n
Trading, migration and acquisition for gains, gave a tone for the imperialism,<\/address>\n
As displacements and division, embroidered the acquiescence of colonialism;<\/address>\n
The continent yielded to the clever \u2018oyibo\u2019 in a pliant gesture akin to quietism.<\/address>\n
\u00a0<\/address>\n
The \u2018Province of Freedom\u2019 a scheme designed as an adjunct for the \u2018black poor\u2019<\/address>\n
Became an ideal move for the defunct \u2018Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor\u2019<\/address>\n
Set up in 1787 by Granville Sharp – the British abolitionist, along the coastal swathes<\/address>\n
Of Sierra Leone, already booming with the medieval concepts among indigenous natives;<\/address>\n
Such initiative was a kicker, gracefully embraced by Thomas Peters, the African American<\/address>\n
Who later, in the company of compatriots, saw it fit that \u2018human machine\u2019 trade faced a ban!<\/address>\n
\u00a0<\/address>\n
Lieutenant John Clarkson, to be the first Governor, in the company of the Nova Scotians<\/address>\n
Established the \u2018Colony of Freetown\u2019; for the freed slaves, who predominantly were Christians.<\/address>\n
A pyrrhic victory! To those brave and useful hands, called the \u2018Negroes\u2019 or \u2018Liberated Africans\u2019<\/address>\n
On 11 March 1792, the first Baptist service in Africa, voiced by Rev David George, the preacher<\/address>\n
Under the obelisk, the \u2018cotton tree\u2019; Nathaniel Gilbert gave the exhortation and a word of prayer.<\/address>\n
The land was christened, dedicated\u2026; an epoch moment for the colonial era, in old West Africa.<\/address>\n

18th<\/sup> Century<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1800, the Colony of Freetown was turned to British adjudication,<\/address>\n
Through which disputes amongst indigenous natives sought pacification,<\/address>\n
With indigenous Mendes and Temnes forming a bulk of the population,<\/address>\n
Dissents were stifling, among chiefs, for the imminent colonial dictation;<\/address>\n
An ethereal feat also, was matching up with the ardent British exaction\u2026<\/address>\n
The final straw and sore to injury being the minority, the Creole intervention.<\/address>\n
\u00a0<\/address>\n
The arbitrary clustering and audacity totally feigned insubordination<\/address>\n
By some Chiefs who saw the colonial powers to be a unilateral acquisition;<\/address>\n
To this sprout annoyance, remonstrance and a call for total emancipation<\/address>\n
And with fierce resistance, they responded to this British arrogation<\/address>\n
Dissident comments amongst others were an apt to broil the uprising;<\/address>\n
This was succinctly evident in the demotic eruptions, which were forth coming!<\/address>\n
\u00a0<\/address>\n
In 1827, the first European-styled institution in the western sub-Sahara Africa<\/address>\n
Was erected for English speaking Africans to be a magnetic learning Mecca;<\/address>\n
Frouah Bay College – Sierra Leone, profoundly, \u2018the Athens of old West Africa\u2019\u2026<\/address>\n
In the midst of soaring public dissensions, chorused by the indigenous natives<\/address>\n
For taxes, asymmetric treatment, power toppling; they cried with spirited voices,<\/address>\n
As principals – Bai Bureh, Gbana Lewis, Nyagua\u2026 rose to form dissident forces.<\/address>\n
\u00a0<\/address>\n
In January 1839 the Spanish cruise \u2018La Amistad\u2019 set sail with an illegal commission<\/address>\n
Of hundreds of native African slaves; reneging on the 1807 afore British\u2019s prohibition;<\/address>\n
A faux pas by the Merchants led to a deadly siege, the renowned \u2018Amistad revolution\u2019<\/address>\n
Set scene, on the high seas, 1st<\/sup> July 1839; with Sengbe Pieh as one of the leading actors,<\/address>\n
In a mutinous attack, they defeated, turned both tables and tides by subduing the Captors;<\/address>\n
Later to be charged with murder; S. Staples, R. Baldwin and T. Sedgewick were the proctors.<\/address>\n
\u00a0<\/address>\n
Acquisition and extension, the bedrock and blueprint for the spate of Colonialism<\/address>\n
Gave an impetus to the \u2018Scramble for Africa\u2019, also synonymous to sectionalism;<\/address>\n
As both Western and European powers, like a piece of cake, took share by incursion<\/address>\n
Extending and at the same time protecting their already carved demarcation,<\/address>\n
Hostility was a factor, with the most hostile, fiercely bagging the most delimitation\u2026<\/address>\n
Until the treaties in January 1895; this used geographical references, ignoring affiliation.<\/address>\n
\u00a0<\/address>\n
The upheavals by the natives \u2013 an unavoidable consequence of sectionalism,<\/address>\n
Inevitably suppressed and undermined the all-pervading redolence of racism,<\/address>\n
In August 1895, an Order-in-council found these factors to be very delicate,<\/address>\n
Yielding the declaration on 31st<\/sup>– 10- 1896; Freetown \u2013 a British protectorate.<\/address>\n
In 1898, effects of prolonged repression, to which the natives had a proclivity<\/address>\n
Summed up their strength in the hut tax war; amassed for the sake of posterity.<\/address>\n
\u00a0<\/address>\n

19th<\/sup> Century<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the hut tax war, the resistance to colonialism progressively toned down<\/address>\n
Owing the many lives that counted, and the major players exiled from Freetown<\/address>\n
To Gold Coast, present day Ghana; in the most fearsome prison at James Town\u2026<\/address>\n
Fanning the flames were a few creoles, who returned back home as educationists;<\/address>\n
Prominent amongst were Henry Carter Bankole Bright, a middle class capitalist,<\/address>\n
And Isaac Theophilus Akuna Wallace Johnson, the bold and accomplished socialist.<\/address>\n
\u00a0<\/address>\n
In 1924, a new constitution was drafted, prior to the calm that was solicited<\/address>\n
To introduce potential individuals to have the natives squarely represented<\/address>\n
In the political rigors; the need for a bicameral administration was deliberated<\/address>\n
In the same year and thus the political institution was divided, as they opted<\/address>\n
For two entities, a \u2018colony\u2019 and a \u2018protectorate\u2019, based on proposals submitted,<\/address>\n
However, though of different political systems, antagonism was duly unabated.<\/address>\n
\u00a0<\/address>\n
The uproar between the two independently defined entities escalated<\/address>\n
As the minority Creole colonists found out their powers were substituted,<\/address>\n
This was made true in 1947, in a debate as dissatisfactions were demonstrated<\/address>\n
Owing to the proposals which the majority and minority factions presented<\/address>\n
With the protectorate raising the stake, I. T. A. Wallace Johnson protested<\/address>\n
To the imbalance, creating a rift, to which the astute Milton Margai mitigated.<\/address>\n
\u00a0<\/address>\n
In a bid to keep the peace, calm the ensuing violence and intransigence<\/address>\n
Educated Creole elites, paramount chiefs and loyalists of prominence<\/address>\n
In a delegation led by Milton Margai for the quest of non-dependence,<\/address>\n
Left the shores of Freetown, April 20 1960 for the constitutional conference<\/address>\n
At Lancaster House, London, they held \u2018The Negotiations for Independence\u2019.<\/address>\n
\u00a0<\/address>\n
Queen Elizabeth II, H. R. H \u2013 Head of the British Monarchy<\/address>\n
Lain Macloed \u2013 then the British Colonial Secretary<\/address>\n
Sir Milton Margai\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/address>\n
Sir Banja Tejan Sie<\/address>\n
Siakia Probyn Stevens\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/address>\n
Sir Albert Margai\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/address>\n
Lamina Sankoh\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/address>\n
Prof. Kandeh Bureh<\/address>\n
Dr John Kerefa Smart\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/address>\n
Amadu Wurie<\/address>\n
Isaac T. A. Wallace Johnson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/address>\n
Mohamed Sanusi Mustapha<\/address>\n
PC Ella Koblo Gullama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/address>\n
Hector Reginald S. Boltman<\/address>\n

***Complete version: Jay\u2019s Anthology \u2013 \u201cCradle of the Mind\u201d***<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Jusu Jaka Yawmah (in photo)<\/em><\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pr\u00e9cis In 1462, the waves carried the shrill cry, \u201cSierra Lyoa!\u201d Lion Mountains! Professed the sailor, Pedro Da Cintra To this wonderful abode of nature, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,745,1],"tags":[10236,10237],"class_list":["post-45729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-life-and-entertainment","category-uncategorized","tag-jays-anthology","tag-jusu-jaka-yawmah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}