Gbangbama is a town belonging to the Imperri Chiefdom, and is situate in the heart of the Mende country, having, within a radius of ten miles, several towns where murders committed in connection with the Human Leopard Society had recently taken place.
The Court was held in a large barri[[12]] specially erected for the purpose. The prisoners were confined in a number of huts surrounded by a stockade, and were guarded by a company of the West African Frontier Force. Several members of the Freetown Bar were present for the purpose of defending various persons to be tried by the Court.
The first two days were occupied chiefly with legal questions raised by counsel on the cases before the Court.
The first case dealt with was the one known as the Kale Case, which occupied the time of the Court for nearly a fortnight, and in which the evidence of a large number of witnesses was taken. Three men[[13]] were charged with the murder in or about the month of March, 1911, of a boy named Kalfalla, aged about fourteen years. The murder took place at a village named Kale, which is situated on the bank of the Mongheri River opposite the town of Mongheri, both of which places are within the Jong Chiefdom. The accused were all headmen and men of importance in the Chiefdom, and the deceased Kalfalla was the son of one of them, and was at the time of his death in the process of being initiated into the Poro.
The three boys who were put in the Poro bush at the same time as the deceased gave evidence before the Court, and described how they had been captured by the Poro Devils and taken to a Poro bush at the town of Senehun, which was under the control of an important person who was described as the Kumrabai (King-Maker) of the Jong Chiefdom. While they were in the Senehun Poro bush, two of the accused came to the Kumrabai and asked that these boys should be allowed to go to the Kale Poro bush, so that they should be available to assist in farm work. Permission was at first refused, but eventually they were allowed to go, where, in accordance with Poro custom, they worked out of sight of all women. A shimbek (i.e. a grass hut with grass walls) was built in the Kale Poro bush for the boys, and for several nights they slept in this shimbek.
A PORO DEVIL.
These three boys stated that one evening the three prisoners, one of whom was the father of the deceased, came into the Poro bush and told them that they were to come out of the bush that night and sleep in the barri (a shelter with low walls) at the back of a house belonging to one of the accused, the deceased’s father. They described the position in which they slept, how shortly before daybreak they were awakened by a noise, and how they saw one of the prisoners holding the deceased boy by the legs, whilst another of them, who had a leopard skin over the top of his head and hanging down his back, was bending over the body. The boys raised an alarm, and as the accused ran away they heard sounds which resembled the pit-a-pat of hurrying feet, and the impression created was that it was a large number of persons who were running away from the barri. Soon after this the father of the murdered boy again appeared on the scene; he went immediately to the barri and appeared to show grief on seeing that his son was dead. His accomplices next appeared, followed shortly afterwards by a number of other men, who assisted in carrying the body to the Poro bush. Arrived there the accused, together with some other members of the Society, consulted together or, as the witnesses described it, “hung head.” It was agreed to bury the body at once, and the boys were threatened that if they spoke about the matter something bad would happen to them; that if they were ever asked what had happened to the dead boy they were to say that a snake had bitten him. The eldest boy was also sworn on the Borfima not to reveal what he had seen and heard. This boy described the oath he took, which was to the effect that if he revealed this matter and afterwards went by water he would drown; if he went into the bush a snake would bite him; and if he walked on a road thunder would strike him. He was further sworn on his heart and on his kidneys that both would wither away if he broke his oath.
The boys and several witnesses described the wounds on the deceased, three of which were in the throat, and the other on the chest. From the description given of the wounds there could be no doubt but that they were caused by some sharp instrument, probably a knife, and could not have been caused by a leopard’s claws. The accused, in accordance with native custom, were compelled to report the matter to the “Grand Master” of the Poro, but contrary to native custom they did not report until after the body was buried. At this breach of custom the Kumrabai was annoyed, but he allowed himself to be pacified with a “head of money”—seven country cloths, valued at about thirty shillings.
