The Protectorate Courts Jurisdiction Ordinance, 1903, provides that in the Court of the District Commissioners or the Circuit Court judicial cognizance may be taken of any law or custom not being repugnant to natural justice. Courts of Native Chiefs are also recognized by the above Ordinance, and such Courts are declared to have jurisdiction according to native law and custom to hear and determine all civil cases arising exclusively between natives, other than a case involving a question of title to land between two or more Paramount Chiefs, and all criminal cases arising exclusively between natives, other than Murder, Slave-raiding, Cannibalism, and a few other of the more serious offences, provided that the Chief shall in no case be permitted to inflict punishment involving death, mutilation, or grievous bodily harm; formerly it was the custom to hand over the wrong-doer to the injured party, who could take his life or keep him as a slave until such time as he or his family paid a sufficient sum to have him redeemed.
The administration by the native rulers is kept under close observation, and they are encouraged to educate themselves in the application of their own code. Each chief has his advisers or counsellors, some of whom are selected by himself and others elected by the people. When a chief dies it is not customary to announce the fact at once—his chief speaker would announce first that he was suffering from a bad sickness, and was therefore unable to attend the affairs of State, later he would announce that he had gone to Futah—Futah Jalloh being in the eyes of the natives a land rich in cattle and everything that they most desire. Steps would then be taken to elect a new chief. The person usually selected would be the senior male member of the deceased’s family, though they sometimes go to the female side, as there is no Salic law to prevent such a course. The person nominated is taken to a hut on the outskirts of the town near the burial-place of the chief, where he lives out of sight of all persons for two or three months; during this period he is supposed to hold high converse with the mighty dead, and learn from them how to govern wisely and well. After the lapse of this period the principal men of the chiefdom visit him, and he is escorted into the town, which gives itself up to wild enthusiasm. The chief elect is carried round the town by a struggling, shouting mob, and at this stage it is permissible for any one to strike him. The reason given for this ceremony is that it enables the chief to feel the pain he will have in his power to inflict on others, and in consequence it may teach him compassion. After the chief has been formally elected and acclaimed, his body is sacred. Among the Mendes, women are frequently elected to the chieftainship; a chieftainess does not marry, but may have a consort, whom she changes at will. She is also permitted, contrary to a strict rule regarding other women, to join the Poro Society. The Bundu Society, a women’s society which corresponds with the Poro for men, plays a very important part in native life among the Mendes and Temnes. Bundu girls have to undergo during their novitiate period an operation somewhat similar to that performed on the Poro boys, and their backs and loins are cut in such a manner as to leave raised scars which project above the surface of the skin. They also receive their Bundu names by which they are afterwards known. Their release from the Bundu bush is carried out with great ceremony, and they are usually accompanied by persons wearing hideous masks who personate Bundu devils. A procession is formed, which marches through the town or village accompanied by musicians, who play on a collection of instruments consisting of drums, rattles and timbrels. A halt is made in the centre of the town and the girls are publicly pronounced marriageable.
BUNDU GIRLS AND BUNDU DEVILS.
The price paid for a wife varies according to the social position of the parties, but the usual price is between £3 and £5, though a man who has married a shrew will often sell her second-hand for a few shillings.
The majority of the people of the Protectorate are Pagans, but Mohammedanism is rapidly spreading among them; and as no good Mohammedan ever touches spirits, the advance of this faith may go a long way to put a stop to the consumption of trade gin, which is the curse of the Coast. The Government is doing everything possible to discourage its use as currency, and the principle of local option has been encouraged with good effect. One large District and portions of two other Districts have been declared prohibited areas into which no spirits can be lawfully imported.
One other matter which the Local Government is doing that is likely to result in much good is the effort being made to instruct the native chiefs and their people in sanitation and to teach them an elementary knowledge of hygiene.
The Colony and Protectorate of Sierra Leone at the present time comprise an area of approximately 30,000 square miles, and the population, given at the census taken in 1911, is 1,400,000. The Colony has an area of only 256 square miles and a population of 75,000, of which about 600 are Europeans; it is of course the Colony that has so often been referred to in song and story on account of the evil reputation of its climate; it is a case of “give a dog a bad name and it sticks to him.”
Sierra Leone was and is still known, though now quite undeservedly, as the White Man’s Grave. Mrs. Falconbridge, the wife of one of the early agents of the Sierra Leone Company, records that during her residence in the Colony (1793–4) it was usual to ask in the morning “how many died last night.” This can still be heard in Freetown as a form of morning greeting, but it now helps to start the day with a laugh, and that in West Africa is about the best tonic known.
Captain Chamiers, in his “Life of a Sailor,” says: “I have travelled east, I have travelled west, north and south, ascended mountains, dived in mines, but I never knew and never heard mention of so villainous and iniquitous a place as Sierra Leone. I know not where the Devil’s Poste Restante is, but the place must surely be Sierra Leone.”