#assimilation of Western European cultures into one pan-white culture in order to place us as white folks above everyone else. and how as a
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#I don’t really know if I have the words to talk about this which is why it’s hiding in the notes but I think it’s important to talk about#how a lot of Western European/white cultures were lost especially in the United States due to racism and white supremacy and the#assimilation of Western European cultures into one pan-white culture in order to place us as white folks above everyone else. and how as a#result a lot of white folks think cultural appropriation is okay or maybe understand it’s not okay but don’t understand why because ‘well I’#‘don’t HAVE a culture’ and it’s not that you don’t have one. you do. you just lost it in the battle for your ancestors to become Superior To#The People of Color. and that’s devastating in a number of ways. because it means that being white is very blanket. and it means that white#supremacy is rooted in you *continuing not to have a culture of your own*. and it means that white people appropriate from each other. which#pisses me off. a lot of white people especially in the US are Pan-European or Pan-western European and part of that is because of the#like. assimilation of white cultures into One White Culture Which Is Superior™️. but some white people are primarily X or Y European.#and then we look around and we’re like ‘well that guy is white and he’s doing that so it must be okay for me to do.’ and like. no. I’m Pan-#western european with a little central thrown in for Fun but the only cultures that I really feel like I have any right to are Scottish and#Polish (with a lot of extra love toward other Celtic cultures because fuck England <3). like it would be cultural appropriation for me to#just start calling Italian part of my culture. in fact that’s a good example! I have absolutely no ancestors from Italy as far back as I#can go! So if I just went ‘hm this Italian thing is kinda cool and I’m white so I want it’ that would be appropriation. but frankly and this#is actually what set off this rant in the first place I think that Celtic cultures are generally the most appropriated by other white folks.#like first of all most people when they think ‘Celtic’ are specifically thinking abt Irish culture. MAYBE Scottish because they happen to#be two of the more similar Celtic cultures. but Celtic also includes Manx and Breton and Galician and welsh and Cornish and I think a few#others farther East as well and these cultures although they have similarities are also vastly different and unique and individual! and#saying ‘Celtic’ when you mean ‘Irish’ and say. worshipping/working with Irish folklore/mythology (in the same sense as Christian ‘mythology’#so maybe like… irish religion?) if you are not Irish and then passing it off as Pan-Celtic when it’s not AND THEN practicing it in a way#that is DISRESPECTFUL? (again alluding to the post that set this whole thing off) that is cultural appropriation. yes even if you are white.#and yes even if you are. say. Manx but not Irish! although I expect most actually Celtic people to have more sense than that tbh but could#be wrong. anyway I think white people should start researching our heritage and cultures and bring it back and share it properly.#appreciation and not appropriation. all that. because we have the privilege of doing that! how many cultures did we/our ancestors destroy?#especially in the US? how many people don’t have the privilege of learning about their heritage and culture? but we do so we SHOULD and we#should stop appropriating from other ‘white’ cultures just because we’re all white.#i think I’m done.
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jazminebritney1 · 8 years ago
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Ransford Slater Constitution of Sierra Leone – Obstacles to Constitutional Change
Several elements had appeared to threaten the implementation of the 1924 Constitution. The measurement of the Legislative Council was regularly elevated between 1963 and 1920. The Executive Members as an example, who constituted an autocratic majority on the Legislative Council managed virtually all of the powers. Although there have been dynamic unofficial like A.J. Shorunkeh-Sawyerr and Samuel (later Sir Samuel) Lewis within the Legislative Council, there have been a number of elements which actually delayed the expansion of the Legislative Council and Executive Councils as really consultant institutions1. In different phrases, these elements could possibly be rightly seen as obstacles to the 1924 Constitution.
Colonialism and racism Colonialism implies dominance, that’s, the exploitation of the nationwide pursuits of a topic by a overseas nation. Since it all the time considerations overseas curiosity, race relations are usually concerned. This political and social system (colonialism) denotes a particular relationship between the imported oligarchy and its topic majority which represents the nucleus of what George Balandier referred to as la state of affairs colonial (the colonial state of affairs).
An examination of the colonial interval in Sierra Leone from the inception of the Province of Freedom in 1787 to the interval of independence in 1961 reveals that racism and colonialism have been handmaidens, that’s, they labored collectively. The efforts of Thomas Peters to turn out to be governor have been thwarted. Although a number of elements contributed to the outbreak of the Nova Scotia Rebellion, the truth that the expertise of slavery by the hands of the whiteman lingered a deep mistrust of whites in authority within the minds of the Nova Scotians should not be missed. Even the Maroons emerged from a traumatic expertise preventing for freedom for many years. White domination was strengthened with the formal imposition of colonial rule within the Colony on 1st January, 1808.
Since the times of the traditional Greeks, some philosophers held the notion that dwelling issues on earth advanced from easy to complicated types. It was, nevertheless, within the nineteenth century that Charles Darwin, the English naturalist, introduced an evidence for the existence of differing types of crops and animals and the explanations for the extinction of some and arrival of others. Since meals provide multiplies slowly than animals, the latter all the time wrestle to reside. The implication is that those that survive might assimilate their surroundings higher than those that perish. The fittest, subsequently, stay to produce one other era that’s tailored in the identical method. This pure approach of choice is what Darwin referred to as the principal of pure choice. The battle to stay, the survival of the fittest and pure choice are thus the three concepts which shaped Darwin’s concept of evolution.2
As Thomson famous, “so much had flowed into the Darwinist synthesis that as much again could be squeezed out of it”.three His theories (which have been transferred to phylogenetic) gained a strong array of converts starting from politicians like Chamberlain and Hitler to Scoiologists like Spencer and Sumner and all types of imperialisits and expansionists in the direction of the top of the final millennium. It is true that Darwin was not a racist however it’s equally true that “his theory of biological evolution was extended to social evolution giving birth to the Theory of Social Darwinism”four. Social Darwinism, subsequently, (used as a philosophical realization for imperialist and racist insurance policies) sustained a pseudo-scientific perception in Aryan or Anglo-Saxon cultural and organic superiority.
The French started to speak about la mission civilisatrice, the Germans Pan-Germanism, the Russians Pan-Slavism and the British In the phrases of Rudyard Kilpling) the whiteman’s burden. Although the realistically minded Kenneth Stamp rightly famous that “immensely Negroes are after all, only whitemen with blackskins, nothing more nothing less”5, it was (and is unfortunately nonetheless) true that “many Europeans…cherished the flattering notion of innate white superiority; such people could hardly help communicating something of their attitude to the Africans with whom they came into contact”6.
Perhaps nobody expresses the state of affairs higher or worse than a supreme racist, Arthur de Gobineau who, though in lots of phrases, clearly defined what many-if most- whites would swiftly endorse. He recognized the negro (who tends to mediocrity in every little thing) because the lowest when rated with its counterpart the yellow and the white. The yellow race, although superior to the negro, he argues, couldn’t create any civilized society. According to him the white race, probably the most superior of the three, is presented with reflective power or relatively with an lively intelligence.7
Racial discrimination or segregation was and continues to be tied up with the whiteman’s faulty and pseudo-scientific conception that the races are unequal. The new imperialism which developed within the latter half of the nineteenth century altered the unique coverage of getting ready the West African territories for self-authorities and “the General Act of the Berlin Conference and that of the Brussels Conference offered the juridical foundation for European enlargement into the hinterland in addition to for the acquisition on the coast… The coastal area of West Africa was shortly partitioned by the imperial powers after 1885.eight
With the expansion of racism and the proclamation of the Protectorate in 1896, a brand new period dawned on the face of Sierra Leone. It should not be forgotten that the Krios had an excellent begin over their counterparts within the inside (later the Protectorate) as a result of of the early imposition or importation of western schooling within the colony. The British realized that if given the chance the Krios would show their competence and certainly they have been initially companions within the administration.
As a end result of the insufficient provide of European manpower, the junior posts have been virtually an African monopoly. These posts gave them some perception within the workings of the colonial administration. A.J.G. Wyse in different phrases commented that “European appreciation of the skills of these Africans reached a excessive level in 1872 when Governor Pope Henessy exulted that there have been sufficient certified Krios to substitute your complete European employees”.9
James C.E. Parkes’ plan for administering the declared Protectorate was categorically rejected by the Colonial Office which uncared for Pope Hennessy’s assertion by noting that it will be a sensible impossibility to assemble a enough quantity of competent Krios In a sensible statement, Porter famous that “Cardew who disliked and mistrusted the Creoles, solely prolonged a line of coverage already agreed on. The occasions of the last decade that adopted confirmed the development of this coverage.”10
The period of the profession open to skills had handed away. Discrimination, fairly than competence or qualification, was the order of the day. Cardew’s coverage of changing Africans with Europeans was continued by his predecessors. It is lamentable to word that in 1900, J.E. Dawson, Assistant Head of Customs was not changed by an African, however relatively a European. After the dying of Enoch Faulkner, a Krio African Assistant District Commissioner, in 1908, the colonial administration amalgamated his district at Waterloo with an adjoining one and appointed a European to succeed him. maybe Fyle’s statistics clarify the state of affairs higher. As he famous, “Krios regularly misplaced their favoured place within the colonial hierarchy. Whereas in 1892, Krios held 18 out of about 40 senior positions by 1912, when these appointments had exceeded 90, Krios solely held 15 and 5 of these have been abolished within the subsequent 5 years.”11
The colonial authorities thought it match to drain a small space from malaria for the English inhabitants within the metropolis. In 1904, Hill Station was chosen as the suitable website and was become a reservation for the European inhabitants. This geographical distance was quickly translated into social distance. Hill Station turned a badge of superiority. The state of affairs was the identical within the medical area. Since blacks have been thought-about innately inferior, most whites disliked being handled by African docs. It quickly, subsequently, turned customary to exclude African docs irrespective of their qualifications. In 1902, African docs have been excluded from the unified West African Medical Service and the Government White Paper Policy in 1909 publicly proclaimed that “the committee are already strongly of opinion that it is generally inadvisable to make use of natives of West Africa as medical officers within the Government Service.”12
This discriminatory angle actually affected the speedy improvement of the Legislative and Executive Councils as really consultant establishments. The whitemen in these councils as an example wouldn’t have appreciated an African governor. In 1900 unofficial illustration was not elevated although the (Legislative) Council was now liable for the entire of the Colony and the Protectorate. It was argued that tribal Africans weren’t prepared for this, and that additional Creole illustration was unacceptable to the administration. Not unnaturally, this coverage this coverage of discrimination which enormously restricted alternative gave delivery to an excellent deal of resentment throughout this era.
Divide and rule
Closely tied with discrimination is the coverage of divide and rule. By intentionally suffocating the efforts of the Krios to maintain prime positions within the Protectorate and the Legislative Council and by widening the bridge between inhabitants of the Colony and Protectorate, the colonial administration was in impact controlling the diploma of opposition from her topics. It realized the impact of unity. By holding the 2 administrative models separated, the inhabitants of each areas won’t have a lot time to assault the federal government as a unified pressure. The authorities needed to forestall that ‘unity’ in politics which was current in Sierra Leone simply earlier than independence when all present political forces or events amalgamated right into a United Front to ask for the lengthy-awaited independence. Indeed, “outstanding among the many issues which have all the time dominated Sierra Leone politics is one usually described because the Colony-Protectorate concern.”13 Instead of uniting the Colony and Protectorate politically, it’s evident that the declaration of the Protectorate in 1896 divided it culturally and ethnically. It was very awkward to study that, in accordance to the Protectorate Ordinance in 1896, the administration of the Protectorate was to be by Europeans. The majority of the Krios clearly noticed that the federal government, as an alternative of bridging and cementing, was consciously widening the hole between the Colony and Protectorate. Official coverage fostered division and tribalism. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is certainly a timeless novel. The Europeans cleverly inserted the wedge and clearly divided Sierra Leoneans who might not see themselves as brothers. The decline of the Krios as an example was systematically deliberate by the colonial administration.
The Prospectus of the Bo School, if anything- reveals the implicit want of the colonial administration to forestall Protectorate boys from receiving the type of schooling the colony faculties offered. The administration in impact was saying that it needed to practice ‘sure males’ moderately than critics of the federal government. These Protectorate boys shouldn’t turn into just like the Krios. They shouldn’t comply with the instance of distinguished males like Ezzidio or Lewis. They ought to obey the powers that be irrespective of the impact of their actions. To foster division, the colonial administration in a really intelligent means argued that each native pupils and their academics ought to put on their very own nation clothes.
In a really forceful argument, Marcus Jones listed a number of factors which undoubtedly lend credence to the view level that it was a acutely aware or deliberate – moderately than an accidental- coverage of the colonial administration to hold the Krios of the Colony and the inhabitants of the Protectorate distinctly aside. He noticed that no legal professionals from the Colony have been permitted to seem within the Court of the Protectorate with out particular permission regardless that a extra legal system was being launched.14
The implication of this coverage of divide and rule on the Legislative Council was clear. The confidence loved by Africans prior to the declaration of the Protectorate was actually effaced. They turned mere advisers whose recommendation in lots of situations have been uncared for. The Legislative and Executive Councils between 1896 and 1920 subsequently have been mere rubber stamps of authorities coverage. The Protectorate inhabitants have been merely dismissed as unqualified males not but prepared for illustration within the colonial administration and the Krios within the colony (certified males) have been actually discriminated towards. By maintaining these two administrative models divided, the probabilities of difficult the federal government have been successfully lowered. Discrimination and divide and rule have been subsequently two highly effective obstacles to the event of the Legislative and Executive Councils as really consultant establishments.
The Great War (1914-1918)
Attention have to be drawn to an exterior issue (that’s the First War) which- even when indirectly- affected constitutional improvement in Sierra Leone throughout its period. The First World War broke the peace that had been rigorously maintained since 1815. While it was primarily a European War, it did have an effect on different elements of the globe. Colonial peoples joined the warfare for numerous causes. This is critical as a result of simply earlier than the conflict rumblings had been sounded which denoted challenges to British reign. By 1914, it was clear that the colonial administration and the Krios have been potential enemies. However, this hostile relationship however, all hatchets and grievances have been buried as one and all rallied around the British authorities or moderately the British Crown to defend that cherished empire and that gracious Queen.
The implication then is that each one political agitation or pressures have been suspended as a result of of the outbreak of the First World War. It have to be borne in thoughts that a number of strain teams had emerged by this era. The Ratepayers’ Association and the Civil Servants’ Association as an example have been among the many different strain teams that set the federal government on edge. Some Krios had even began speaking about a corporation such because the National Congress of British West Africa. Since your complete interval of the First World War was dormant as there was a short lived break in political agitation, the War might rightly be seen as an impediment to constitutional change or improvement.
The Great Debate
This impediment was largely inner in contrast to the First World War. The problem was the standing of the inhabitants of the Protectorate generally known as the Great Debate. This legal tussle was an necessary and thorny problem. Perusal of the motion of this debate lays naked two fascinating discoveries. First, it clearly confirmed the dynamism of the colony representatives, with a selected reference to Shorunkeh-Sawyerr. Second, it revealed the angle of the Colonial administration. It is of very important significance to put this Great Debate in perspective as a result of, amongst different issues, it threatened the implementation of the 1924 Constitution. By 1922 the composition of the Executive Council was the identical as 1863. In different phrases, it was nonetheless an advisory physique made up totally by European officers. The Legislative Council was then constituted as follows: President The Governor Official Members The Officer Commanding the Troops The Colonial Secretary The Attorney General The Colonial Treasurer The Principal Medical Officer Unofficial Members Three African Members One European Member.
It is obvious from the information said above that each Councils have been removed from being democratic establishments. However, strikes for a extra liberal structure started with the idea of workplace by R.J. Wilkinson’s successor, Alexander Ransford Slater (later knighted) who arrived in Sierra Leone in 1922. Although he ‘recognized’ the constitutional drawback, his conclusions have been to a big extent prejudicial.
The drawback which Slater recognized in Sierra Leone shortly after his arrival was nothing aside from the disproportionate stability between the numerical measurement of the 2 segments which constituted the nation’s inhabitants, He noticed that there was no illustration from the Protectorate within the Legislative Council which decided its legal guidelines whereas the Colony which had 80,000 Africans towards the 1,350,000 aborigines within the Protectorate had three unofficial representatives. Slater dismissed this as “an anomaly of a considerably obvious character”15 and he subsequently felt it incumbent on him to make an early research of the query of a attainable reform of the Legislative Council.
Slater assured the members of the Legislative Council that he would current his proposed reforms to the Duke of Devonshire. When the Council met once more on 28th December 1922, Governor Slater knowledgeable it that the Duke had already permitted of the enlargement and reconstitution of the Legislative Council of the Colony and Protectorate of Sierra Leone. The Legislative Council was to be enlarged to twenty-two members together with the Governor (that’s eleven official and ten unofficial members). Out of the ten unofficial members, three have been to be elected and 7 nominated. Those elected have been to be Colony members. Of the seven nominated members, two have been to be African representatives of the Colony, two Europeans and three Paramount Chiefs from the Protectorate. The concern which led to Blyden’s designation (The Great Debate) was the difficulty of Protectorate illustration on the Council and this ushered in a collection of acrimonious debates within the Legislative Council. A essential research of the development of occasions within the Legislative Council prior to the implementation of the 1924 Constitution reveals that “there isn’t a doubt that, in law, if not in reality, the Creoles of the Colony had a robust case towards the implementation of the proposed structure…”16 According to the Foreign Jurisdiction Act of 1890, the Protectorate was a overseas territory. The implication then is that its inhabitants are aliens who had no enterprise within the Legislative Council of the Colony.
In Slater’s view, the press of the day furnished the general public with false info. According to the Press, the Protectorate was nonetheless in its embryonic stage to earn direct illustration and the so-referred to as change was a fictional concept pressured on chiefs. Before the declaration of the Protectorate in 1896, Governor Cardew noticed that in his excursions the chiefs favoured the thought of a Protectorate. Almost 1 / 4 of a century later, Slater too claimed to have visited the chiefs who favoured illustration. He famous that in his current excursions, the chiefs themselves requested for direct illustration on the the Legislative Council. Commenting additional on the difficulty, Slater argued forcefully that “direct illustration can be inadvisable if there have been no appropriate chiefs to be representatives however this was not the case. I’m glad from my private expertise throughout my excursions within the Protectorate, and from info that there do exist in every of the Provinces, Paramount Chiefs who can adequately perceive and categorical their opinions on issues akin to we contemplate on this room”.17
Shorunkeh-Sawyerr- an exceptionally gifted man with nice sensitivity- was the Senior unofficial member of the Legislative Council in the course of the interval of the Great Debate. It would have been fantastic for a racist like Sir Richard Burton- who as soon as famous that “the negro in mass won’t develop past a sure level and that not respectable”18 to have been current within the Legislative Council when unofficial members (particularly Shorunkeh-Sawyerr) took the colonial authorities to activity with sound arguments. The colony politicians based mostly their opposition on a number of grounds. They believed that the Protectorate was not too superior for illustration. Bringing then Provincial Commissioners and Chiefs to the identical council will weaken Protectorate illustration as an alternative of buttressing it just because of the connection of subordination and domination between the chiefs and their bosses, the Provincial Commissioners.
Bringing these ‘sure males’ of the administration into the Legislative Council was a intelligent approach to improve supporters of the federal government. But Shorunkeh-Sawyerr was actually confused. There have been a number of points he wanted clarification on, an important being the actual or precise standing of the inhabitants of the Protectorate.
It can be reputable to infer that Shorunkeh-Sawyerr was in all probability proper on this quest. One of the burning points which had come on and off in query because the declaration of the Protectorate in 1896 was the political standing of the natives occupying these territories. In the area of seven years (1916-1923), three Crown Law Officers gave their candid opinions on the difficulty. The opinions of two of these- although unequivocal- have been divergent and that of the third was intermediate. The implication these controversial opinions had was that the difficulty was in want of a passable rationalization. Little marvel then that Shorunkeh-Sawyerr termed them as aliens- and aliens they actually have been.
The Foreign Jurisdiction Act of 1890 declared the Protectorate a overseas territory which meant that its inhabitants too have been foreigners or aliens. Before continuing, one should actually query the doubtful nature of the colonial coverage. When the Bo School was shaped, it was meant for the sons and nominees of chiefs and the boys must be given an schooling totally totally different from that which the Krios acquired. Soon after the punctuation of the Bai Bureh Rebellion, the British have been engaged within the pacification course of, that’s, the suppression of all resistant actions. The colonial authorities organized a Protectorate march throughout which its troopers displayed their refined weapons to present the individuals how robust the federal government pressure was and to frighten them to turn into pusillanimous so far as preventing or difficult the administration once more was involved. As Fyle famous, “after the warfare of freedom of 1898, the Sierra Leone hinterland settled down to a uninteresting acceptance of British rule”.19 Rulers like Madam Yoko, Nancy Tucker of Bagru and D.F. Wilberforce who have been beneficial to the British have been chosen to develop into Paramount Chiefs. Chiefs suspected to have been disloyal have been both deposed or exiled, for instance, the good Kebalai (Bai Bureh) of Kasse and Nyagua of Panguma.
The implication right here is that Paramount Chiefs will all the time attempt to protect the goodwill of the British fairly than domesticate the help of the individuals. By 1922, each chiefs and their individuals have been diametrically aside and the previous couldn’t be correct representatives of the latter. The inclusion of chiefs who neglect the needs of their individuals will subsequently make the Legislative Council unrepresentative. Neither the governor nor the Acting Attorney-General might persuade Shorunkeh-Sawyerr that the Protectorate inhabitants have been British topics. Shorunkey-Sawyerr’s request for annexation was impressed by the same state of affairs within the Gold Coast Colony. He was certainly sure that this may undoubtedly occur within the close to future and actually tried to avert the legal difficulties concerned. He was amongst one of the very first Sierra Leoneans to argue for annexation and it’s fairly subsequently to observe that the Krios weren’t essentially towards the inclusion of the protectorate into the council.
It appeared as if Shorunkeh-Sawyerr was busy counting the celebs within the sky in a brilliant night time. The Governor’s thoughts was fastened. He had thought of reconstitution and its course earlier than arriving in Sierra Leone and his thoughts was virtually closed. Maybe he erroneously thought that the Chiefs within the Protectorate area have been on a par with their Gold Coast counterparts. This over simplication was too deceptive. According to official opinion, the Protectorate inhabitants might take the Oath of Allegiance which is the primary precedent to be a member of the Council. However, it might seem as if official coverage needed to delay the thought of annexation since Governor Slater noticed that such a request should come from Protectorate inhabitants themselves.
An in depth take a look at the Great Debate exhibits that even the British weren’t too positive whether or not it was actually right to have the Protectorate representatives within the Legislative Council. It actually magnified the angle of the colonial administration. One sees traces of racism. The concept of race is tied up with the pseudo-scientific conception of the inequality of the races or worse nonetheless, the prevalence of European tradition. Since the blackman was believed to be on the foot of the human tree of evolution, he should settle for the ‘reality’ that the whiteman could be very intelligent and all the time proper. There was subsequently that typical ‘jumble obstinacy’ not to yield to the sensible and bonafide argument of the Africans throughout this Great Debate.
The colonial administration gave a blind eye to the validity of Shorunkeh-Sawyerr’s plea for annexation and somewhat discovered all types of ‘rationalization’ to justify their coverage.
Unfortunately, the Committee of Educated Aborigines (a Protectorate Organization) gullibly accepted Governor Slater’s place of although which unrealistically attributed the relative backwardness of the Protectorate to the selfishness of the Colony. Such tendencious statements weren’t solely silly or gratuitously provocative however have been additionally a hotchpotch of throroughly evil nonsense. Newspaper studies present that – if anything- there have been cries for Protectorate illustration within the Legislative Council. In the nineteenth century, Sir David Chalmers turned down Samuel (later Sir Samuel) Lewis’ cry for Protectorate illustration within the Legislative Council. The assertion subsequently that the colony individuals have been completely towards Protectorate illustration should not be in a blind method. Shorunkeh-Sawyerr cleared this level in a single of his speeches. He was not towards protectorate illustration. The colony raised eyebrows as a result of of the way of Protectorate illustration. It was clear that by 1924, the Paramount Chiefs have been all sure males of the federal government. As said above, this example was carved after the top of the Bai Bureh Rebellion (1898) when so-referred to as ‘disloyal’ chiefs have been both exiled or deposed and constant ones retained or put in.
It was clear that the members of the Committee of Education Aborigines who felt that the ‘anomaly’ have to be corrected represented solely a portion of the Protectorate. They have been all northerners and their primary motive was to foster protectorate points.
It was subsequently clear that the coverage of the colonial authorities was bias and as soon as it had been laid down, no quantity of goal evaluation by colony Africans in Sierra Leone might alter it. It is subsequently not shocking that on the suggestion of Governor Slater, the moot query was withdrawn. Deveneaux’s touch upon colonial coverage was an correct one. He commented thus, “the suggestion that colonial coverage was formulated in London and despatched abroad…describes the state of affairs within the nineteenth century (and in addition twentieth century) Sierra Leone. Undeniably, this determination in London was steadily last….”20
As already said, this Great Debate have to be put into perspective as a result of it actually ‘threatened’ the implementation of the 1924 Ransford Slater Constitution. The administration wouldn’t yield to the suggestion of Shorunkeh-Sawyerr, nevertheless legitimate it was. The finish of the Great Debate additionally coincided with the punctuation of the life of that archaic or historic Legislative Council which had served the colony of Sierra Leone for over a millennium.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Edward Blyden III, “The sample of constitutional change in Sierra Leone, 1924-1951), unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Harvard, 1975, p.127 2. Walter T. Wallbank, et.al. History and Life, (Illinois: Scott, Foreman and Company, 1977), p.487 three. David Thomson, Europe since Napoleon, (Norfolk: Lowe and Brydone Printers Ltd, 1957), p.257 four. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol.27, s.v. “Social Darwinism”, p.339 5. Kenneth Stamp, The Peculiar Institution, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956), p.three 6. Gustav Jahoda, Whiteman, (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), p.113 7. Howard M. Bahr, Bruce A. Chadwick, Joseph H. Stauss, American Ethnicity, (Massachusetts: D.C. Heath & Co., 1979), pp.128-129 eight. Boniface Obichere, West African states and European enlargement, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971), p.245 9. A.J.G. Wyse, “The Krios of Sierra Leone-Of British imperial overrule?”, p4 10. Arthur Porter, Creoledom, (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), p.61 11. Cecil M. Fyle, The historical past of Sierra Leone, (London: Evans Brothers Ltd., 1981), p.110 12. Christopher Fyfe, Sierra Leone Inheritance, ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), p.262 13. Gershon Collier, Sierra Leone: experiment in democracy in an African nation, (New York: New York University Press, 1970), p.9 14. W.S. Marcus Jones, “Legal development and constitutional change in Sierra Leone, 1787-1971”, unpublished manuscript, pp.260-261 15. Sierra Leone Legislative Council Debates (henceforth ‘Debates’), 1922-23, Sierra Leone Public Archives, Fourah Bay College, p.6 16. Blyden, op.cit., p.128 17. Debates, No.II, 1922-23, p.6 18. Sir Richard Burton: cited in Journal of the Royal African Society, Vol.70, p.240 19. Cecil M. Fyle, Alimamy Suluku of Sierra Leone (London: Evans Brothers Ltd., 1979), p.52 20. Deveneaux, op.cit., p.47
Source by Oliver Harding
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marybarbara1 · 8 years ago
Text
Ransford Slater Constitution of Sierra Leone Obstacles to Constitutional Change
Several elements had appeared to threaten the implementation of the 1924 Constitution. The measurement of the Legislative Council was regularly elevated between 1963 and 1920. The Executive Members as an example, who constituted an autocratic majority on the Legislative Council managed virtually all of the powers. Although there have been dynamic unofficial like A.J. Shorunkeh-Sawyerr and Samuel (later Sir Samuel) Lewis within the Legislative Council, there have been a number of elements which actually delayed the expansion of the Legislative Council and Executive Councils as really consultant institutions1. In different phrases, these elements could possibly be rightly seen as obstacles to the 1924 Constitution.
Colonialism and racism Colonialism implies dominance, that’s, the exploitation of the nationwide pursuits of a topic by a overseas nation. Since it all the time considerations overseas curiosity, race relations are usually concerned. This political and social system (colonialism) denotes a particular relationship between the imported oligarchy and its topic majority which represents the nucleus of what George Balandier referred to as la state of affairs colonial (the colonial state of affairs).
An examination of the colonial interval in Sierra Leone from the inception of the Province of Freedom in 1787 to the interval of independence in 1961 reveals that racism and colonialism have been handmaidens, that’s, they labored collectively. The efforts of Thomas Peters to turn out to be governor have been thwarted. Although a number of elements contributed to the outbreak of the Nova Scotia Rebellion, the truth that the expertise of slavery by the hands of the whiteman lingered a deep mistrust of whites in authority within the minds of the Nova Scotians should not be missed. Even the Maroons emerged from a traumatic expertise preventing for freedom for many years. White domination was strengthened with the formal imposition of colonial rule within the Colony on 1st January, 1808.
Since the times of the traditional Greeks, some philosophers held the notion that dwelling issues on earth advanced from easy to complicated types. It was, nevertheless, within the nineteenth century that Charles Darwin, the English naturalist, introduced an evidence for the existence of differing types of crops and animals and the explanations for the extinction of some and arrival of others. Since meals provide multiplies slowly than animals, the latter all the time wrestle to reside. The implication is that those that survive might assimilate their surroundings higher than those that perish. The fittest, subsequently, stay to produce one other era that’s tailored in the identical method. This pure approach of choice is what Darwin referred to as the principal of pure choice. The battle to stay, the survival of the fittest and pure choice are thus the three concepts which shaped Darwin’s concept of evolution.2
As Thomson famous, “so much had flowed into the Darwinist synthesis that as much again could be squeezed out of it”.three His theories (which have been transferred to phylogenetic) gained a strong array of converts starting from politicians like Chamberlain and Hitler to Scoiologists like Spencer and Sumner and all types of imperialisits and expansionists in the direction of the top of the final millennium. It is true that Darwin was not a racist however it’s equally true that “his theory of biological evolution was extended to social evolution giving birth to the Theory of Social Darwinism”four. Social Darwinism, subsequently, (used as a philosophical realization for imperialist and racist insurance policies) sustained a pseudo-scientific perception in Aryan or Anglo-Saxon cultural and organic superiority.
The French started to speak about la mission civilisatrice, the Germans Pan-Germanism, the Russians Pan-Slavism and the British In the phrases of Rudyard Kilpling) the whiteman’s burden. Although the realistically minded Kenneth Stamp rightly famous that “immensely Negroes are after all, only whitemen with blackskins, nothing more nothing less”5, it was (and is unfortunately nonetheless) true that “many Europeans…cherished the flattering notion of innate white superiority; such people could hardly help communicating something of their attitude to the Africans with whom they came into contact”6.
Perhaps nobody expresses the state of affairs higher or worse than a supreme racist, Arthur de Gobineau who, though in lots of phrases, clearly defined what many-if most- whites would swiftly endorse. He recognized the negro (who tends to mediocrity in every little thing) because the lowest when rated with its counterpart the yellow and the white. The yellow race, although superior to the negro, he argues, couldn’t create any civilized society. According to him the white race, probably the most superior of the three, is presented with reflective power or relatively with an lively intelligence.7
Racial discrimination or segregation was and continues to be tied up with the whiteman’s faulty and pseudo-scientific conception that the races are unequal. The new imperialism which developed within the latter half of the nineteenth century altered the unique coverage of getting ready the West African territories for self-authorities and “the General Act of the Berlin Conference and that of the Brussels Conference offered the juridical foundation for European enlargement into the hinterland in addition to for the acquisition on the coast… The coastal area of West Africa was shortly partitioned by the imperial powers after 1885.eight
With the expansion of racism and the proclamation of the Protectorate in 1896, a brand new period dawned on the face of Sierra Leone. It should not be forgotten that the Krios had an excellent begin over their counterparts within the inside (later the Protectorate) as a result of of the early imposition or importation of western schooling within the colony. The British realized that if given the chance the Krios would show their competence and certainly they have been initially companions within the administration.
As a end result of the insufficient provide of European manpower, the junior posts have been virtually an African monopoly. These posts gave them some perception within the workings of the colonial administration. A.J.G. Wyse in different phrases commented that “European appreciation of the skills of these Africans reached a excessive level in 1872 when Governor Pope Henessy exulted that there have been sufficient certified Krios to substitute your complete European employees”.9
James C.E. Parkes’ plan for administering the declared Protectorate was categorically rejected by the Colonial Office which uncared for Pope Hennessy’s assertion by noting that it will be a sensible impossibility to assemble a enough quantity of competent Krios In a sensible statement, Porter famous that “Cardew who disliked and mistrusted the Creoles, solely prolonged a line of coverage already agreed on. The occasions of the last decade that adopted confirmed the development of this coverage.”10
The period of the profession open to skills had handed away. Discrimination, fairly than competence or qualification, was the order of the day. Cardew’s coverage of changing Africans with Europeans was continued by his predecessors. It is lamentable to word that in 1900, J.E. Dawson, Assistant Head of Customs was not changed by an African, however relatively a European. After the dying of Enoch Faulkner, a Krio African Assistant District Commissioner, in 1908, the colonial administration amalgamated his district at Waterloo with an adjoining one and appointed a European to succeed him. maybe Fyle’s statistics clarify the state of affairs higher. As he famous, “Krios regularly misplaced their favoured place within the colonial hierarchy. Whereas in 1892, Krios held 18 out of about 40 senior positions by 1912, when these appointments had exceeded 90, Krios solely held 15 and 5 of these have been abolished within the subsequent 5 years.”11
The colonial authorities thought it match to drain a small space from malaria for the English inhabitants within the metropolis. In 1904, Hill Station was chosen as the suitable website and was become a reservation for the European inhabitants. This geographical distance was quickly translated into social distance. Hill Station turned a badge of superiority. The state of affairs was the identical within the medical area. Since blacks have been thought-about innately inferior, most whites disliked being handled by African docs. It quickly, subsequently, turned customary to exclude African docs irrespective of their qualifications. In 1902, African docs have been excluded from the unified West African Medical Service and the Government White Paper Policy in 1909 publicly proclaimed that “the committee are already strongly of opinion that it is generally inadvisable to make use of natives of West Africa as medical officers within the Government Service.”12
This discriminatory angle actually affected the speedy improvement of the Legislative and Executive Councils as really consultant establishments. The whitemen in these councils as an example wouldn’t have appreciated an African governor. In 1900 unofficial illustration was not elevated although the (Legislative) Council was now liable for the entire of the Colony and the Protectorate. It was argued that tribal Africans weren’t prepared for this, and that additional Creole illustration was unacceptable to the administration. Not unnaturally, this coverage this coverage of discrimination which enormously restricted alternative gave delivery to an excellent deal of resentment throughout this era.
Divide and rule
Closely tied with discrimination is the coverage of divide and rule. By intentionally suffocating the efforts of the Krios to maintain prime positions within the Protectorate and the Legislative Council and by widening the bridge between inhabitants of the Colony and Protectorate, the colonial administration was in impact controlling the diploma of opposition from her topics. It realized the impact of unity. By holding the 2 administrative models separated, the inhabitants of each areas won’t have a lot time to assault the federal government as a unified pressure. The authorities needed to forestall that ‘unity’ in politics which was current in Sierra Leone simply earlier than independence when all present political forces or events amalgamated right into a United Front to ask for the lengthy-awaited independence. Indeed, “outstanding among the many issues which have all the time dominated Sierra Leone politics is one usually described because the Colony-Protectorate concern.”13 Instead of uniting the Colony and Protectorate politically, it’s evident that the declaration of the Protectorate in 1896 divided it culturally and ethnically. It was very awkward to study that, in accordance to the Protectorate Ordinance in 1896, the administration of the Protectorate was to be by Europeans. The majority of the Krios clearly noticed that the federal government, as an alternative of bridging and cementing, was consciously widening the hole between the Colony and Protectorate. Official coverage fostered division and tribalism. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is certainly a timeless novel. The Europeans cleverly inserted the wedge and clearly divided Sierra Leoneans who might not see themselves as brothers. The decline of the Krios as an example was systematically deliberate by the colonial administration.
The Prospectus of the Bo School, if anything- reveals the implicit want of the colonial administration to forestall Protectorate boys from receiving the type of schooling the colony faculties offered. The administration in impact was saying that it needed to practice ‘sure males’ moderately than critics of the federal government. These Protectorate boys shouldn’t turn into just like the Krios. They shouldn’t comply with the instance of distinguished males like Ezzidio or Lewis. They ought to obey the powers that be irrespective of the impact of their actions. To foster division, the colonial administration in a really intelligent means argued that each native pupils and their academics ought to put on their very own nation clothes.
In a really forceful argument, Marcus Jones listed a number of factors which undoubtedly lend credence to the view level that it was a acutely aware or deliberate – moderately than an accidental- coverage of the colonial administration to hold the Krios of the Colony and the inhabitants of the Protectorate distinctly aside. He noticed that no legal professionals from the Colony have been permitted to seem within the Court of the Protectorate with out particular permission regardless that a extra legal system was being launched.14
The implication of this coverage of divide and rule on the Legislative Council was clear. The confidence loved by Africans prior to the declaration of the Protectorate was actually effaced. They turned mere advisers whose recommendation in lots of situations have been uncared for. The Legislative and Executive Councils between 1896 and 1920 subsequently have been mere rubber stamps of authorities coverage. The Protectorate inhabitants have been merely dismissed as unqualified males not but prepared for illustration within the colonial administration and the Krios within the colony (certified males) have been actually discriminated towards. By maintaining these two administrative models divided, the probabilities of difficult the federal government have been successfully lowered. Discrimination and divide and rule have been subsequently two highly effective obstacles to the event of the Legislative and Executive Councils as really consultant establishments.
The Great War (1914-1918)
Attention have to be drawn to an exterior issue (that’s the First War) which- even when indirectly- affected constitutional improvement in Sierra Leone throughout its period. The First World War broke the peace that had been rigorously maintained since 1815. While it was primarily a European War, it did have an effect on different elements of the globe. Colonial peoples joined the warfare for numerous causes. This is critical as a result of simply earlier than the conflict rumblings had been sounded which denoted challenges to British reign. By 1914, it was clear that the colonial administration and the Krios have been potential enemies. However, this hostile relationship however, all hatchets and grievances have been buried as one and all rallied around the British authorities or moderately the British Crown to defend that cherished empire and that gracious Queen.
The implication then is that each one political agitation or pressures have been suspended as a result of of the outbreak of the First World War. It have to be borne in thoughts that a number of strain teams had emerged by this era. The Ratepayers’ Association and the Civil Servants’ Association as an example have been among the many different strain teams that set the federal government on edge. Some Krios had even began speaking about a corporation such because the National Congress of British West Africa. Since your complete interval of the First World War was dormant as there was a short lived break in political agitation, the War might rightly be seen as an impediment to constitutional change or improvement.
The Great Debate
This impediment was largely inner in contrast to the First World War. The problem was the standing of the inhabitants of the Protectorate generally known as the Great Debate. This legal tussle was an necessary and thorny problem. Perusal of the motion of this debate lays naked two fascinating discoveries. First, it clearly confirmed the dynamism of the colony representatives, with a selected reference to Shorunkeh-Sawyerr. Second, it revealed the angle of the Colonial administration. It is of very important significance to put this Great Debate in perspective as a result of, amongst different issues, it threatened the implementation of the 1924 Constitution. By 1922 the composition of the Executive Council was the identical as 1863. In different phrases, it was nonetheless an advisory physique made up totally by European officers. The Legislative Council was then constituted as follows: President The Governor Official Members The Officer Commanding the Troops The Colonial Secretary The Attorney General The Colonial Treasurer The Principal Medical Officer Unofficial Members Three African Members One European Member.
It is obvious from the information said above that each Councils have been removed from being democratic establishments. However, strikes for a extra liberal structure started with the idea of workplace by R.J. Wilkinson’s successor, Alexander Ransford Slater (later knighted) who arrived in Sierra Leone in 1922. Although he ‘recognized’ the constitutional drawback, his conclusions have been to a big extent prejudicial.
The drawback which Slater recognized in Sierra Leone shortly after his arrival was nothing aside from the disproportionate stability between the numerical measurement of the 2 segments which constituted the nation’s inhabitants, He noticed that there was no illustration from the Protectorate within the Legislative Council which decided its legal guidelines whereas the Colony which had 80,000 Africans towards the 1,350,000 aborigines within the Protectorate had three unofficial representatives. Slater dismissed this as “an anomaly of a considerably obvious character”15 and he subsequently felt it incumbent on him to make an early research of the query of a attainable reform of the Legislative Council.
Slater assured the members of the Legislative Council that he would current his proposed reforms to the Duke of Devonshire. When the Council met once more on 28th December 1922, Governor Slater knowledgeable it that the Duke had already permitted of the enlargement and reconstitution of the Legislative Council of the Colony and Protectorate of Sierra Leone. The Legislative Council was to be enlarged to twenty-two members together with the Governor (that’s eleven official and ten unofficial members). Out of the ten unofficial members, three have been to be elected and 7 nominated. Those elected have been to be Colony members. Of the seven nominated members, two have been to be African representatives of the Colony, two Europeans and three Paramount Chiefs from the Protectorate. The concern which led to Blyden’s designation (The Great Debate) was the difficulty of Protectorate illustration on the Council and this ushered in a collection of acrimonious debates within the Legislative Council. A essential research of the development of occasions within the Legislative Council prior to the implementation of the 1924 Constitution reveals that “there isn’t a doubt that, in law, if not in reality, the Creoles of the Colony had a robust case towards the implementation of the proposed structure…”16 According to the Foreign Jurisdiction Act of 1890, the Protectorate was a overseas territory. The implication then is that its inhabitants are aliens who had no enterprise within the Legislative Council of the Colony.
In Slater’s view, the press of the day furnished the general public with false info. According to the Press, the Protectorate was nonetheless in its embryonic stage to earn direct illustration and the so-referred to as change was a fictional concept pressured on chiefs. Before the declaration of the Protectorate in 1896, Governor Cardew noticed that in his excursions the chiefs favoured the thought of a Protectorate. Almost 1 / 4 of a century later, Slater too claimed to have visited the chiefs who favoured illustration. He famous that in his current excursions, the chiefs themselves requested for direct illustration on the the Legislative Council. Commenting additional on the difficulty, Slater argued forcefully that “direct illustration can be inadvisable if there have been no appropriate chiefs to be representatives however this was not the case. I’m glad from my private expertise throughout my excursions within the Protectorate, and from info that there do exist in every of the Provinces, Paramount Chiefs who can adequately perceive and categorical their opinions on issues akin to we contemplate on this room”.17
Shorunkeh-Sawyerr- an exceptionally gifted man with nice sensitivity- was the Senior unofficial member of the Legislative Council in the course of the interval of the Great Debate. It would have been fantastic for a racist like Sir Richard Burton- who as soon as famous that “the negro in mass won’t develop past a sure level and that not respectable”18 to have been current within the Legislative Council when unofficial members (particularly Shorunkeh-Sawyerr) took the colonial authorities to activity with sound arguments. The colony politicians based mostly their opposition on a number of grounds. They believed that the Protectorate was not too superior for illustration. Bringing then Provincial Commissioners and Chiefs to the identical council will weaken Protectorate illustration as an alternative of buttressing it just because of the connection of subordination and domination between the chiefs and their bosses, the Provincial Commissioners.
Bringing these ‘sure males’ of the administration into the Legislative Council was a intelligent approach to improve supporters of the federal government. But Shorunkeh-Sawyerr was actually confused. There have been a number of points he wanted clarification on, an important being the actual or precise standing of the inhabitants of the Protectorate.
It can be reputable to infer that Shorunkeh-Sawyerr was in all probability proper on this quest. One of the burning points which had come on and off in query because the declaration of the Protectorate in 1896 was the political standing of the natives occupying these territories. In the area of seven years (1916-1923), three Crown Law Officers gave their candid opinions on the difficulty. The opinions of two of these- although unequivocal- have been divergent and that of the third was intermediate. The implication these controversial opinions had was that the difficulty was in want of a passable rationalization. Little marvel then that Shorunkeh-Sawyerr termed them as aliens- and aliens they actually have been.
The Foreign Jurisdiction Act of 1890 declared the Protectorate a overseas territory which meant that its inhabitants too have been foreigners or aliens. Before continuing, one should actually query the doubtful nature of the colonial coverage. When the Bo School was shaped, it was meant for the sons and nominees of chiefs and the boys must be given an schooling totally totally different from that which the Krios acquired. Soon after the punctuation of the Bai Bureh Rebellion, the British have been engaged within the pacification course of, that’s, the suppression of all resistant actions. The colonial authorities organized a Protectorate march throughout which its troopers displayed their refined weapons to present the individuals how robust the federal government pressure was and to frighten them to turn into pusillanimous so far as preventing or difficult the administration once more was involved. As Fyle famous, “after the warfare of freedom of 1898, the Sierra Leone hinterland settled down to a uninteresting acceptance of British rule”.19 Rulers like Madam Yoko, Nancy Tucker of Bagru and D.F. Wilberforce who have been beneficial to the British have been chosen to develop into Paramount Chiefs. Chiefs suspected to have been disloyal have been both deposed or exiled, for instance, the good Kebalai (Bai Bureh) of Kasse and Nyagua of Panguma.
The implication right here is that Paramount Chiefs will all the time attempt to protect the goodwill of the British fairly than domesticate the help of the individuals. By 1922, each chiefs and their individuals have been diametrically aside and the previous couldn’t be correct representatives of the latter. The inclusion of chiefs who neglect the needs of their individuals will subsequently make the Legislative Council unrepresentative. Neither the governor nor the Acting Attorney-General might persuade Shorunkeh-Sawyerr that the Protectorate inhabitants have been British topics. Shorunkey-Sawyerr’s request for annexation was impressed by the same state of affairs within the Gold Coast Colony. He was certainly sure that this may undoubtedly occur within the close to future and actually tried to avert the legal difficulties concerned. He was amongst one of the very first Sierra Leoneans to argue for annexation and it’s fairly subsequently to observe that the Krios weren’t essentially towards the inclusion of the protectorate into the council.
It appeared as if Shorunkeh-Sawyerr was busy counting the celebs within the sky in a brilliant night time. The Governor’s thoughts was fastened. He had thought of reconstitution and its course earlier than arriving in Sierra Leone and his thoughts was virtually closed. Maybe he erroneously thought that the Chiefs within the Protectorate area have been on a par with their Gold Coast counterparts. This over simplication was too deceptive. According to official opinion, the Protectorate inhabitants might take the Oath of Allegiance which is the primary precedent to be a member of the Council. However, it might seem as if official coverage needed to delay the thought of annexation since Governor Slater noticed that such a request should come from Protectorate inhabitants themselves.
An in depth take a look at the Great Debate exhibits that even the British weren’t too positive whether or not it was actually right to have the Protectorate representatives within the Legislative Council. It actually magnified the angle of the colonial administration. One sees traces of racism. The concept of race is tied up with the pseudo-scientific conception of the inequality of the races or worse nonetheless, the prevalence of European tradition. Since the blackman was believed to be on the foot of the human tree of evolution, he should settle for the ‘reality’ that the whiteman could be very intelligent and all the time proper. There was subsequently that typical ‘jumble obstinacy’ not to yield to the sensible and bonafide argument of the Africans throughout this Great Debate.
The colonial administration gave a blind eye to the validity of Shorunkeh-Sawyerr’s plea for annexation and somewhat discovered all types of ‘rationalization’ to justify their coverage.
Unfortunately, the Committee of Educated Aborigines (a Protectorate Organization) gullibly accepted Governor Slater’s place of although which unrealistically attributed the relative backwardness of the Protectorate to the selfishness of the Colony. Such tendencious statements weren’t solely silly or gratuitously provocative however have been additionally a hotchpotch of throroughly evil nonsense. Newspaper studies present that – if anything- there have been cries for Protectorate illustration within the Legislative Council. In the nineteenth century, Sir David Chalmers turned down Samuel (later Sir Samuel) Lewis’ cry for Protectorate illustration within the Legislative Council. The assertion subsequently that the colony individuals have been completely towards Protectorate illustration should not be in a blind method. Shorunkeh-Sawyerr cleared this level in a single of his speeches. He was not towards protectorate illustration. The colony raised eyebrows as a result of of the way of Protectorate illustration. It was clear that by 1924, the Paramount Chiefs have been all sure males of the federal government. As said above, this example was carved after the top of the Bai Bureh Rebellion (1898) when so-referred to as ‘disloyal’ chiefs have been both exiled or deposed and constant ones retained or put in.
It was clear that the members of the Committee of Education Aborigines who felt that the ‘anomaly’ have to be corrected represented solely a portion of the Protectorate. They have been all northerners and their primary motive was to foster protectorate points.
It was subsequently clear that the coverage of the colonial authorities was bias and as soon as it had been laid down, no quantity of goal evaluation by colony Africans in Sierra Leone might alter it. It is subsequently not shocking that on the suggestion of Governor Slater, the moot query was withdrawn. Deveneaux’s touch upon colonial coverage was an correct one. He commented thus, “the suggestion that colonial coverage was formulated in London and despatched abroad…describes the state of affairs within the nineteenth century (and in addition twentieth century) Sierra Leone. Undeniably, this determination in London was steadily last….”20
As already said, this Great Debate have to be put into perspective as a result of it actually ‘threatened’ the implementation of the 1924 Ransford Slater Constitution. The administration wouldn’t yield to the suggestion of Shorunkeh-Sawyerr, nevertheless legitimate it was. The finish of the Great Debate additionally coincided with the punctuation of the life of that archaic or historic Legislative Council which had served the colony of Sierra Leone for over a millennium.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Edward Blyden III, “The sample of constitutional change in Sierra Leone, 1924-1951), unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Harvard, 1975, p.127 2. Walter T. Wallbank, et.al. History and Life, (Illinois: Scott, Foreman and Company, 1977), p.487 three. David Thomson, Europe since Napoleon, (Norfolk: Lowe and Brydone Printers Ltd, 1957), p.257 four. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol.27, s.v. “Social Darwinism”, p.339 5. Kenneth Stamp, The Peculiar Institution, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956), p.three 6. Gustav Jahoda, Whiteman, (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), p.113 7. Howard M. Bahr, Bruce A. Chadwick, Joseph H. Stauss, American Ethnicity, (Massachusetts: D.C. Heath & Co., 1979), pp.128-129 eight. Boniface Obichere, West African states and European enlargement, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971), p.245 9. A.J.G. Wyse, “The Krios of Sierra Leone-Of British imperial overrule?”, p4 10. Arthur Porter, Creoledom, (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), p.61 11. Cecil M. Fyle, The historical past of Sierra Leone, (London: Evans Brothers Ltd., 1981), p.110 12. Christopher Fyfe, Sierra Leone Inheritance, ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), p.262 13. Gershon Collier, Sierra Leone: experiment in democracy in an African nation, (New York: New York University Press, 1970), p.9 14. W.S. Marcus Jones, “Legal development and constitutional change in Sierra Leone, 1787-1971”, unpublished manuscript, pp.260-261 15. Sierra Leone Legislative Council Debates (henceforth ‘Debates’), 1922-23, Sierra Leone Public Archives, Fourah Bay College, p.6 16. Blyden, op.cit., p.128 17. Debates, No.II, 1922-23, p.6 18. Sir Richard Burton: cited in Journal of the Royal African Society, Vol.70, p.240 19. Cecil M. Fyle, Alimamy Suluku of Sierra Leone (London: Evans Brothers Ltd., 1979), p.52 20. Deveneaux, op.cit., p.47
Source by Oliver Harding
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