Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T15:46:11.142Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Reconsideration of the Mane Invasions of Sierra Leone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Walter Rodney
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

As a contribution to an already considerable historiography, it is suggested here that the Mane invaders of Sierra Leone comprised two principal elements —a ruling élite originating in the southern section of the Mande world of the Western Sudan, and numerical forces drawn from the area around Cape Mount. The first stage of movement took place in the first half of the sixteenth century, carrying Mande clans to the Liberian coast from the region around Beyla and perhaps even from the hinterland of modem Ghana. There then followed a number of incursions into Sierra Leone during the third quarter of the sixteenth century.

A new ruling class was established in Sierra Leone and adjacent regions, bringing increased exploitation and causing the destruction of the indigenous ivory-carving skills. On the other hand, the Manes brought improved military techniques and advances in the manufacture of iron and cloth. They also profoundly influenced religious and social patterns, particularly with respect to the secret societies of the area.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , July 1967 , pp. 219 - 246
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1967

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Dornelas, André: ‘Relaçāso sobre a Serra Leoa’, 1625; MS. 51–VIII–25 of the Biblioteca de Ajuda, Lisboa.Google Scholar

2 de Ficalho, Conde, Plantas Uteis de Africa Portuguesa (Lisboa, 1884).Google Scholar

3 Avelot, R., ‘Lea grandes mouvements de peuples en Afrique: Jaga et Zimba’, Bulletin de Géographie Historique et Descriptive, no. 27 (1912).Google Scholar

4 Thomas, N. W., ‘Who were the Manes?’, Journal of the African Society, XIX (1919), 176–88; XX (1920), 33–42.Google Scholar

5 Kup, Peter, A History of Sierra Leone, 1400–1787 (Cambridge, 1961), 128, 129.Google Scholar

6 Moity, Marcel: ‘Notes sur les Mani (Guinée Francaise)’, Bull. I.F.A.I.N. XIX sér. B (1957), 302–1.Google Scholar

7 Yves Person found it necessary to comment to this effect. See ‘Les Kissi et leurs statuettes de pierre’, Bull. I.F.A.N. XXIII, sér. B, no. I (1961).Google Scholar

8 Hakluyt Society, no. LVII, The Hawkins Voyages, 17–21.Google Scholar

9 Fyfe, Christopher, Sierra Leone Inheritance (London, 1964), 43.Google Scholar

10 Barcelos, Sena, Subsidios para a Historw de Cabo Verde é Guiné (Lisboa, 1899), part 1, ch. v;Google ScholarDe Almada, Alvares, ‘Tratado Breve dos Rios de Guiné’, Monumenta Missionaria Africana, Africa Occidental, 1569–1700, 2nd series, II (ed. Brasio, A.), 377.Google Scholar

11 de Almada, Alvares: ‘Rios de Guiné’, 231.Google Scholar

12 Ibid. 360, 361.

13 Ibid. 279.

14 Pereira, Pacheo, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, ed. R. Mauny, 64.Google Scholar

15 Ibid., editor's note 130.

16 Fyfe, Christopher, op. cit. 43.Google Scholar

17 Butt-Thompson, F. W., Sierra Leone in History and Tradition (London, 1926).Google Scholar

18 Kup, op. cit. 129, 130.Google Scholar

19 Guerreiro, Fernào, Relaão Anual da Companhia de Jesus, III, 255.Google Scholar

20 De Almada, ‘Rios de Guiné’, 365.Google Scholar

21 Guerreiro, , Relação Anual, 1, 339.Google Scholar

22 De Almada, ‘Rios de Guiné’, 361, 366. (He had heard that the original leader was woman, but his account is that the general of the army was called Macarico and it was his sister who was grief-striken at his death.) Also Manuel Alvares, ‘Ethiopia Menor’, MS. of the Biblioteca da Sociedade de Geographia de Lisboa.Google Scholar

23 Guerreiro, , Relação Anual, III, 255.Google Scholar

24 De Almada, ‘Rios de Guiné’, 361.Google Scholar

25 Cited in Kup, op. cit. 129.Google Scholar

26 De Almada, ‘Rios de Guiné’, 362.Google Scholar

27 Ibid. 362.

28 Ibid. 363.

29 Ibid. 369–73.

30 Guerreiro, , Relação Anual, III, 255.Google Scholar

31 De Almada, ‘Rios de Guiné’, 359.Google Scholar

32 Person, bc. cit. 21.Google Scholar

33 McCulloch, M., Peoples of Sierra Leone, 56.Google Scholar

34 Kup, op. cit. 129.Google Scholar

35 De Almada, ‘Rios de Guiné’, 360.Google Scholar

36 Ibid. 374. Manuel Alvares, ‘Ethiopia Menor’, Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia (Madrid).

37 B.R.A.H., Papeles de Jesuitas, tomo 185, no. 1343, ‘Relação da Costa da Guiné’, by Baltezar Barreira, 1606. (He excludes Sherbro from Sierra Leone proper, and thus has three kingdoms, plus a fourth mentioned in the following note.)Google Scholar

38 Guerreiro, , Relação Anual, III, 250 (Tora's was regarded as a kingdom in its own right).Google Scholar

39 Taylor, E. R. (ed.), The Troublesome Voyage of Captain Edward Fenton, Hakluyt Society, 2nd ser., no. CXIII.Google Scholar

40 Alvares, ‘Ethiopia Menor’. (The word ‘metropolis’ is his.)Google Scholar

41 See Hair, P. E. H., ‘An early seventeenth-century monarch of Vai’, African Studies (1964).Google Scholar

42 Ogilby's work is virtually a translation of Dapper's. Barbot and Ogilby are the two sources which will be utilized here.Google Scholar

43 Barbot, Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea, 96.Google Scholar

44 Ogilby, John, Africa (London, 1670), 407–12.Google Scholar

45 Kup, op. cit. 739.Google Scholar

46 Ibid. 745.

47 Pereira, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, map facing p. 46.Google Scholar

48 Hair, P. E. H., ‘An early seventeenth-century vocabulary of Vai’, African Studies (1964).Google Scholar

49 Hair, P. E. H., ‘Bibliography of the Mende language’, Sierra Leone Language Review, no. 1 (1962).Google Scholar

50 Thomas, Northcote, ‘Who were the Manes?’, J.A.S. nos. XIX, XX.Google Scholar

51 Person, ‘Les Kissi et leurs statuettes de pierre’. Also ‘En quête d'une chronologie ivoirienne’, in The Historian in Tropical Africa, 326.Google Scholar

52 The second article cited above slightly modifies the first, one particular being that the date of the second invasion is shifted from 1600–,10 to 1620–30.Google Scholar

53 Kup, A History of Sierra Leone, 144–8.Google Scholar

54 Ibid. 147.

55 Guerreiro, , Relação Anual, II, 204.Google Scholar It is to be noted that André Arcin did not make this error. He wrote that ‘Dapper tells us that Sierra Leone in 1607 was commanded by the chief Fatima’. See Histoire de la Guinée française, 133.Google Scholar

56 Ogilby, Africa, 375.Google Scholar

57 In this period there were English and Dutch traders on the rivers leading into the Sierra Leone and Sherbro estuaries, but the English provided no references to local events, while the Dutch sources are not yet fully explored.Google Scholar

58 Hakluyt Society, 2nd. ser., no. CXIII, The Troublesome Voyage of Captain Edward Fenton.Google Scholar

59 Coelho, Lemos, Duas Descriçces da Guiné, ed. Peres, Damilo (1953), 72, 230.Google Scholar

60 Guerreiro, , Relação Anual, 11, 211.Google Scholar

61 B.M., Cotton MS., Otho E viii, fo. 27ff. For Shere's ally, Kup reads ‘king of the (? Casseti)’, while Basil Davidson renders it ‘king of the Castros’. The latter can be verified because it appears twice in the document.Google Scholar

62 Hakluyt Society, no. LVII, The Hawkins Voyages, 71, 72Google Scholar

63 B.M., Cotton MS., Otho E viii, fo. 27.Google Scholar

64 De Almada, ‘Rios de Guiné’, 375.Google Scholar

65 Hakluyt, Richard, Voyages, III, 487, 488.Google Scholar

66 Barreira was in Sierra Leone between 1606 and 1610, and Manuel Alvares from 1608 to 1616.Google Scholar

67 De Almada, ‘Rios de Guiné’, 373.Google Scholar

68 De Almada, ‘Rios de Guiné’, 373.Google Scholar

69 Kup, op. Cit. 139.Google Scholar

70 Davidson, Basil, Old Africa Rediscovered (London, 1961), 66, 67.Google Scholar

71 Guerreiro, , Relação Anual, III, 255.Google Scholar

72 De Almada, ‘Rios de Guiné’, 559.Google Scholar

73 Ibid. 359.

74 Coelho, Duas Descrições da Guiné, 72.Google Scholar

75 Guerreiro, , Relação Anual, III, 255.Google Scholar

76 Fage, J. D., Ghana, A Historical Interpretation (Madison, 1961), 28, 29.Google Scholar

77 Thomas, ‘Who were the Manes?’, bc. Cit.Google Scholar

78 Little, K., The Mende of Sierra Leone (London, 1951), 21 (citing Migeod).Google Scholar

79 Ibid. 28

80 Kup, Op. Cit. 755–7.Google Scholar

81 Dornelas, André, ‘Relação sobre a Serra Leoa’; De Almada, ‘Rios de Guiné’, 365Google Scholar

82 Archives of the Propaganda Fide (Rome)—Lettre Antichi, vol. 248, fo. 7, ‘Declaration of king Farms, emperor of the Sapes, in favour of Fr. Seraphim de Leon’, 15 September 1654.Google Scholar

83 Schenkler, C. F., A Collection of Temne Traditions, Fables and Proverbs (London, 1861), 3.Google Scholar

84 McCulloch, , Peoples of Sierra Leone, I, 3.Google Scholar

85 Kup, op. cit. 124.Google Scholar

86 Ibid. 124.

87 Coelho, ‘Duas Descrições da Guiné’, 72.Google Scholar

88 Guerreiro, , Relação Anual, 1, 409.Google Scholar

89 De Almada, ‘Rios de Guiné’, 356.Google Scholar

90 Fernandes, La côte occidentale d'Afrique, 94.Google Scholar

91 De Almada, bc. cit. 374.Google Scholar

92 Guerreiro, op. cit. 1, 409.Google Scholar

93 Dornelas, ‘Relação sobre a Serra Leoa’.Google Scholar

94 Ibid.

95 De Almada, bc. cit. 374. For a description of methods of warfare in Sierra Leone, see Kup, A History of Sierra Leone, 165–72.Google Scholar

96 Hakluyt Society, no. LVII, The Hawkins Voyages, 17, 18.Google Scholar

97 Dornelas, Alvares de Almada: ‘Rios de Guiné’, 346, 353.Google Scholar

98 De Almada, bc. Cit. 347, 373.Google Scholar

99 Fernandes, La côte occidentale d'Afrique, 104 (also pp. 76, 96); Pereira, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, 80, 84.Google Scholar

100 Ryder, A. F. C., ‘A note on the Afro-Portuguese ivories’, J. Afr. Hist. V (1964), 363–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

101 Krifi is a generic term for spirits. See McCulloch, Peoples of Sierra Leone, 70, 71.Google Scholar

102 Alvares, ‘Ethiopia Menor’.Google Scholar

103 Brown, Stanley, ‘The Nomoli of Mende Country’, Africa, XVIII (07 1948).Google Scholar

104 Fernandes, op. cit. 88.Google Scholar

105 Person, ‘Les Kissi et leurs statuettes de pierre’.Google Scholar

106 Fernandes, op. cit. 76.Google Scholar

107 Laing, G., Travels in the Timannee, Kooranko and Soolima Countries (London, 1825), 81.Google Scholar

108 Easmon, M. C., ‘Sierra Leone country cloths’, in British Empire Exhibition (Sierra Leone Section) (London, 1920).Google Scholar

1090 Thomas, ‘Who were the Manes?’Google Scholar

110 Alvares, op. cit.Google Scholar

111 Xmas were represented by many Europeans as fetishes, but in fact the term usually referred to a locality or an object in which a spirit resided.Google Scholar

112 Alvares, op. cit.Google Scholar

113 Femandes op. cit. 88.Google Scholar

114 De Almada, bc. cit. 352.Google Scholar

115 Alvares, op. cit. For an analysis of the Mende conception of ‘spiritual medicine’ see Little, Kenneth, ‘The Mende in Sierre Leone’, in African Worlds, ed. Forde, D. (London, 1963).Google Scholar

116 Guerreiro, , Relação Anual, III, 259.Google Scholar

117 Little, The Mende of Sierra Leone, 564.Google Scholar

118 Fernandes, op. cit. 84, 85.Google Scholar

119 De Almada, ‘Rios de Guiné’, 351.Google Scholar

120 McCulloch, Peoples of Sierra Leone, 68.Google Scholar

121 Fernandes, op. cit. 84.Google Scholar

122 McCulloch, op. cit. 30.Google Scholar

123 McCulloch, op. cit. 69.Google Scholar

124 Ibid. 93.

125 Little, K., ‘The political function of the Poro’, Africa, XXV (10 1965), 350–64, and XXXVIM (January 1966), 62–72.Google Scholar

126 Alvares, ‘Ethiopia Menor’.Google Scholar

127 Hakluyt Society, no. LVII, The Hawkins Voyages, 17, 18.Google Scholar

128 De Almada, ‘Rios de Guiné’, 348–51.Google Scholar

129 McCulloch, op. cit. 69.Google Scholar

130 Ibid. p. 30.

131 Alvares, ‘Ethiopia Menor’.Google Scholar

132 Guerreiro, , Relação Anual, III, 259.Google Scholar

133 Ibid. 250.

134 Little, ‘The political function of the Poro’. He cites Harley to the effect that the pinnacle of power may not have lain within the Poro, but rather within the cult of the masks, of which the Poro was the most highly developed form for manifesting the power of the ancestors towards the people.Google Scholar

135 Alonso de Sanderval, Natureleza de Todos Etiopes, 40.Google Scholar

136 Vansina, Jan, Mauny, R. and Thomas, L. V., The Historian in Tropical Africa, 90–3.Google Scholar

137 Fage, Ghana, A Historical Interpretation, 26.Google Scholar