Speaking out: political protest and print cultures in West Africa

Article by:  Stephanie Newell, Dr Marion Wallace

West Africans made powerful use of writing and publishing to oppose colonialism and fight for independence. Since then, authors have not been reluctant to comment on the state of their nations and the world. Stephanie Newell (Yale University) and Marion Wallace (British Library) reflect on these developments.

Literature in West Africa

Authorship in West Africa takes a huge variety of forms. It can mean the work of an oral historian or poet whose compositions are set to music, an Islamic scholar writing or annotating manuscripts in Arabic, or a journalist, a novelist or a blogger. The common thread is that, whether oral or written, performed or printed, West African literatures tend to be dynamic and socially responsive as well as creative and inventive.

Postcard showing griot (musician and story-teller), c. 1904

This postcard shows a photograph taken by Edmond Fortier, a French photographer, in Senegal. 

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Free from known copyright restrictions 

Copyright: © Daniela Moreau (for digital image)

Speaking out through print

West African authors have used the medium of print not only to describe the world, but to participate in it. On the coast of West Africa, an African elite started to produce printed books and newspapers in European and African languages in the middle of the 19th century. They built on technologies and innovations brought by Christian missionaries – Western education, the printing press, the roman script (now used to write many African languages) and European languages, especially English. They wrote on a whole variety of subjects, from politics to medicine, history and geography, with varying degrees of radicalism.

Sawyerr's bookselling, printing, and stationery trade circular

This newspaper was published by T.J. Sawyerr, who from the 1880s ran the only African-owned bookshop in British West Africa.

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Opposing colonial rule 

Colonial rule came to West Africa over several centuries, but it was at the Berlin Conference of 1884–85 that Britain, France, Germany and Portugal cemented their rule over the region. Germany lost its colonies after the First World War and by 1922, Britain had possession of what is now Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and part of Cameroon. Portugal held Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau, and France occupied the remaining territories, including Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali and Senegal. The only country in the region to retain its independence was Liberia, which dates back to 1820, when freed slaves emigrated there from North America; it declared independence in 1847.

Map of West Africa in 1922

At the Berlin Conference of 1884–5 Britain, France, Germany and Portugal divided most of West Africa among themselves.

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Copyright: © British Library

It was against this background of European intervention and colonial rule that West African authors used their writings to speak out against enslavement and for racial equality. They argued against colonial stereotypes of Africans as ‘primitive’, ‘savage’ and lacking distinctive cultural and political systems of their own. These authors included the leading pan-African thinker Edward W. Blyden (1832–1912), who insisted that ‘[n]o nation or race has a monopoly of the channels which lead to the sources of divine grace or spiritual knowledge’.i Blyden, originally from the Caribbean, emigrated to Liberia in 1850 and later moved to Sierra Leone.

Edward Blyden, Christianity, Islam and the Negro race

One of the major works of Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832–1912), a pioneer of Pan-Africanist ideas.

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In 1911, the Ghanaian writer, journalist, lawyer and politician Joseph E. Casely-Hayford (1866–1930) published his novel Ethiopia unbound: studies in race emancipation. The book portrays the life of a highly educated intellectual, Kwamankra, who probes European religious and legal questions from the standpoint of African spiritual systems. He celebrates the subtlety and humanity of African society, which he contrasts with the European racist belief systems that underpinned colonialism. Authors such as Blyden and Casely-Hayford insisted that all humans are complex and culturally located, and that all societies have rich histories and traditions.

Early women writers

Most of the writers of the 19th and early 20th centuries were men, but a small number of women stood out as published authors and as activists. The earliest major female campaigner and writer to emerge was Adelaide Casely-Hayford, née Smith (1868–1960), an educator, feminist, cultural nationalist and writer who spent most of her life in Sierra Leone. She was ahead of her time in promoting female education, founding a girls’ school in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Adelaide Casely-Hayford

Adelaide Casely-Hayford (1868–1960), née Smith, educator, feminist, cultural nationalist and writer from Sierra Leone.

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Copyright: © The Hunter family

Her daughter (with her husband J.E. Casely-Hayford), Gladys May Casely-Hayford (1904–1950), was a talented modernist poet. As one of the first writers to break away from Standard English in her poetry, she experimented with the syntax of Sierra Leonean Creole and successfully captured the nuanced voices of non-elite Africans in Freetown in her collection of poetry, Take ’Um So, published in 1948.

Another outstanding woman was Mabel Dove (Danquah), the only African woman to work as a journalist in Ghana in the 1930s. In 1954 she also became the first African woman to be elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ghana. 

Dove wrote mainly for the Times of West Africa, where in 1934 she published a bitingly comic satire of George Bernard Shaw’s The adventures of the black girl in her search for God (1932), which was an attack on colonialism and mission. Dove called her version The adventures of the black girl in her search for Mr Shaw. In it, she mocks Shaw’s ‘black girl’ as ‘a very old type long gone out of date’. Dove herself creates a heroine who is a brilliantly sharp-witted ‘modern black girl’, and describes her encounters with racist colonial men, patronising white missionaries and supercilious European women.

Independence

The leaders of the generation who brought their countries to independence from the 1950s were influenced by similar thinking, although many moved in a more radical direction. The first president of independent Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah (1909–1972), stated that imperialism and colonialism were ‘unspeakably inhuman’.ii  ‘We affirm the right of all colonial peoples to control their own destiny’, he declared in a resolution adopted by the Pan-African Congress held in Manchester in October 1945.iii  

In 1957, Ghana became the first of Africa’s colonies to achieve independence in the 20th century. Guinea followed a year later. Most of West Africa became free of colonial rule in 1960, with the independence of France’s other West African colonies as well as Nigeria. Sierra Leone followed in 1961, and The Gambia in 1965. Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde were the last, in 1974 and 1975 respectively.

In many of these countries, independence campaigns were led by nationalist leaders with charismatic personalities and great intellectual ability. In touch with international Pan-Africanist, and in some cases Marxist, networks, they were able to frame ideas of equality, nationalism and Pan-Africanism in a way that both reached the masses and resonated at home and abroad. They published their ideas in newspapers, which were hugely important in communicating political messages, in books, and in short pamphlets, which were easily affordable. 

How Dr. Nkrumah conquered colonialism

This pamphlet celebrates the influence of Kwame Nkrumah (1909–72), Ghana’s first president.

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We have been unable to locate the copyright holder for . Please contact copyright@bl.uk with any information you have regarding this item.

The Nigerian nationalist and first president Nnamdi Azikiwe (1904–1996), for example, used his popular newspapers – including the African Morning Post in Accra, Ghana, and the West African Pilot in Lagos, Nigeria – to expose the unacceptable principles on which imperialism was built.

The first president of Senegal, Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906–2001), was an internationally acclaimed poet and one of the co-founders of the Negritude movement. This originated in 1930s Paris and aimed, through the arts, to reclaim Black identity, history and culture, oppose colonialism and assert racial equality.

Printed cloth showing President Senghor of Senegal

This printed cloth marks 15 years of Senegal’s independence in 1975.

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Writing and comment after independence

In the period after independence, writers and other commentators including musicians like Fela Kuti have responded to, and shaped, times often troubled by civil war, dictatorship, poverty and corruption. They have also reflected on the damage wrought by colonialism and the hopes brought by independence. 

This creativity has taken many forms in different times and places. The Nigerian Civil War (Biafran War) of 1967–70 is one example of an event which led to an outpouring of fiction and poetry. The war broke out when Nigeria’s south-eastern region broke away, as the Republic of Biafra, following a period of political instability and violence. The war caused an estimated 1.5 million deaths and ended with the defeat of Biafra. 

Among the dead was the poet Christopher Okigbo, a highly regarded modernist poet who joined the Biafran army at the outbreak of the war and was killed in action three months later. Others lived to produce literature ‘out of an experience red-hot with the memories and physical wounds of a most excruciating civil war’.iv  They adopted a variety of standpoints, some, like Flora Nwapa, concentrating on the violence and damage of war, others taking a position for or against Biafran independence.

Letter by Ken Saro-Wiwa

The execution by the Nigerian government of the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa in November 1995 shocked the world. This letter to his son was written from prison after his arrest.

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Copyright: © Ken Saro-Wiwa Jnr

Among Biafra’s supporters was Chinua Achebe. Those who opposed it included Ken Saro-Wiwa, whose novel on the theme, Sozaboy, deals with the experience of a minority ethnic group in Biafra. Saro-Wiwa was both a novelist and a campaigner against the devastating environmental effects of oil extraction in the Niger Delta region. In 1995, to international outrage, he was executed for alleged murder.

Writers, performers and musicians continue to engage with society, to demand rights and freedom and to reflect on political questions. Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2015, Angélique Kidjo, a singer and activist from Benin, said, ‘What I want to tell [world leaders] is…the world we’re living in won’t be sustainable if we don’t share its wealth more equally. And we have to work at this every day, every hour, every minute. Each of us with our own voice.’

i E. W. Blyden, West Africa before Europe and other addresses delivered in England in 1901 and 1903 (London: C.M. Phillips, 1905), p. 132.

ii Kwame Nkrumah, Towards colonial freedom: Africa in the struggle against world imperialism (London: Heinemann, 1962), p. x. This pamphlet was written in 1942 but iii Nkrumah could not find a publisher willing to print it for another twenty years. Nkrumah, Towards Colonial Freedom, p. 44.

iv Emmanuel Obiechina, ‘Foreword’, in Chinua Achebe, Arthur Nwankwo, Samuel Ifejika, Flora Nwapa et al., The insider: stories of war and peace from Nigeria (Enugu: Nwankwo-Ifejika and Co., 1971), p. vi.

• Written by  Stephanie Newell

• Stephanie Newell, Ph.D., is Professor of English at Yale University, USA. Her research focuses on the public sphere in colonial West Africa and issues of gender, sexuality, and power as articulated through popular print cultures, including newspapers, pamphlets, posters, and magazines. She studies how local intellectuals debated moral and political issues through the medium of print. She is interested in the cultural histories of printing and reading in Africa, and the spaces for local creativity and subversive resistance in colonial-era newspapers. Her research project, “The Cultural Politics of Dirt in Africa, 1880-present,” positions these interests in an interdisciplinary and comparative historical perspective, and includes the study of popular discourses about dirt in Nairobi and Lagos in relation to changing ideas about taste and disgust, sexuality, multiculturalism, and urbanisation.

• and Dr Marion Wallace

• Dr Marion Wallace is Lead Curator, African Collections at the British Library. In 2015, she co-curated the British Library’s major exhibition ‘West Africa: Word, Symbol, Song’. Her research interests centre on the history of Namibia, and she has also written on subjects including West African history and the impact of the digital revolution on African Studies. She was Chair of SCOLMA (the UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa) 2011–2014.

See also

Other Related Articles

• Building West Africa
• How word, symbol and song shaped history
• Crossings: African writers in the era of the transatlantic slave trade

Related Teaching Resources

• Introduction to West Africa through primary sources 
• Language systems: words, symbols, objects, and pictures
• Word, symbol and song: reading the image
• Key historical events that shape the circulation of cultural art forms between the diaspora and the wider world
• Who tells the story? West African writers and voices of protest
• Stories of the past to shape the present

• West Africa
• Articles

- See more at: http://www.bl.uk/west-africa/articles/speaking-out-political-protest-and-print-cultures-in-west-africa#sthash.QEbHGEBk.dpuf

BLACK HISTORY: BLACK LOYALISTS IN 18th CENTURY LONDON

Brief history of Black Loyalist [Slaves] who fought for Briton in the US Civil War  and their links with Sierra Leone. (344 freed blacks sailed to Sierra Leone in the Ship "MYRO" in 1787.

{Courtesy:  Mzuri Semra Silva; feeling the truth with Maria Miffy Smith- Facebook post - Tagged to me by Israel L Parper}

It was during the War of Independence in the colony of America that Britain gained herself these unlikely allies. Black loyalists fought for Britain against the American colonists. Free blacks were joined by thousands of slaves who had been promised freedom and land by Britain if they joined in this battle. The idea of British freedom, i.e. complete freedom in the shortest possible time, was appealing to the escaped Africans who in the 1770s made their way to the British army position to fight for Britain and for freedom.

In September 1783, the independence of the United States and the formation of its boundaries were formally recognised. The new country was founded by an egalitarian movement and based on the philosophy of ‘equal rights’ for all.  After this treaty had been signed, the whole British faction had to leave the United States. In the eight months between April and November 1783, over 3,000 black people leaving the country on British ships for destinations as varied as Nova Scotia, the West Indies, England, Germany, Quebec or Belgium, were recorded in the Book of Negroes .

Black Loyalists in 18th Century London

London had a severe poverty problem in the 18th century. This became more pronounced as growing numbers of African-American loyalists arriving from America ended up living on the streets. The black and white loyalists had all been promised compensation for their losses in the War of Independence, however, the majority of claims from the black loyalists were denied or they were given derisory amounts condemning them to lives of destitution. The Parliamentary Commission Compensation Board reviewing the claims stated, on several occasions, that they believed the black claimants were being deceptive in claiming they were free men with property and should adopt a state of gratitude that they were now at liberty rather than pursue applications for financial assistance. In 1786 there were over 1,000 black loyalists living in London. As the negative sentiment regarding the presence of Africans in England increased there were suggestions of where to relocate these black people; the main areas proposed where the Bahamas, where other loyalists had moved to or Sierra Leone, on the West African coast.

The following year around 200 of this impoverished group migrated to Sierra Leone with government assistance; the government wanted to remove the problem of black poverty and the presence of large groups of free black people from the streets of England. There were 344 poor black people on the ship Myro that sailed from London in 1787.  The plan was to move the burden of the ‘troublesome’ black person from the attention of the public, forever . This was an indication of the racially nationalist philosophy that was to perpetuate the abolitionist movement.

Further reading and research

The Book of Negroes – that listed all the Black Loyalists evacuated from America – can be found in the archives at Kew (Public Records Office).

There is also a copy available online here

The National Archives contain records, that can only be viewed in the reading room, about the Committee for the Relief of Poor Blacks and their emigration to Sierra Leone; this covers the details of events between May 1786 to April 1787.

This article was contributed by Marjorie Morgan.Writer, Researcher. © 2013 | Blackpresence has special permission to publish this article.

Related Link: Black Loyalists

http://www.blackpresence.co.uk/category/black-history/black-britain/

HOME EDUCATION: Sierra Leone-Fourah Bay College - 2!

The “THE TEARS OF FOURAH BAY COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF SIERRA LEONE”

BY: DR. DENIS M SANDY 

        {Courtesy: Sierra Leone Matters

            (sierraleonematters.co.uk)}

“The – Great Fourah Bay College, Citadel of Learning, Athens of West Africa and Centre of Academic Excellence, Beacon of Light of Education in Africa, Pride of Sierra Leone , etc, …”- this was how FBC was referred to in the greater part of the 20th Century. Yes, we were so proud of “our” FBC that the mere mention of its name and “us” being students were enough to instill fear in others and make them bow.

Unfortunately, the current FBC is totally different and the tears flowing from its eyes are asking just a single question- why? This is because FBC has not been given the attention it deserves in recent times and of the 3 constituent colleges of the University of Sierra Leone, FBC (including its environs) is on a life support machine, and it has been in such a state for almost 6 years now.

The entire infrastructure is completely decrepit – you name them – the buildings are completely dilapidated with no renovations for a long time now; the library is a mini pool during the raining season; the tiles in the EJ Hall (newly constructed few years ago) and Chemistry building (another floor has been recently added to the original building) have resurrected; the physics theatre and the engineering department are in a state of paralysis. To compound these ugly scenes, FBC is the only college in the world where a college is not a college, for there have been no accommodation facilities for students over the past 5 years.

The “Great” Blocks of A, C, G, E, M, H and J and the beautiful Lati Hyde and Beethoven have completely deteriorated. Scrambling for chairs and tables amongst students; and clamouring for lecture halls amongst lecturers have now become a norm at FBC – one reason being the increase in the student population over time has not equaled the available infrastructure which have almost remained constant. This mismatch has created tension between students and lecturers on one hand; and friction between lecturers and the Administration on the other.

Summing these problems is the deplorable state of the road from Lower Faculty, on campus as far as The Great Kennedy Building; and going towards Kortrght as far as that deep curve (immediately after the Principal’s residence at Kortright to where Prof Joe AD Alie is now staying). Talk to the students, lecturers and the Administration on why this sad state of affairs and you will hear a compendium of excuses/reasons. Without prejudice to any of these players/stakeholders, a summary has been provided below – lack of vision of the Administration, neglect by the government as current and past budgets over the years have not captured any rehabilitation component for FBC, no established research fund to spur Research and Innovation, inadequate “lecturing and understanding” materials, investment by the Administration not in tandem with the priorities of the college, (in)competent lecturers, ASA not getting the required support from colleague lecturers, lack of coordination between the Administration and the government, lack of trust between the lecturers and the Administration, lazy and dishonest students who want to have good degrees without deserving them and have made exams malpractices their specialties; etc, etc.

What has however seriously exacerbated the situation at FBC is this over reliance on BADEA to give a facelift to the entire college. In simple terms, BADEA is supposed to be the principal financier to transform the entire FBC (from hostels to lecture halls) but the project is yet to commence. Five years now down the road, nothing is happening in terms of rehabilitation and the paradigm around campus for a very long time now is “we are waiting on BADEA”. This BADEA project is a classic example of how donor dependency has hindered the implementation of projects in most Developing Countries and by extension making a whole generation to suffer.

So many students have started their studies at FBC without any hostel facility and have eventually graduated without any. For those students coming from the rural areas, you can now imagine the difficulties they are going through. It’s really a shame that too much emphasis has been placed on BADEA when the government has the resources to transform FBC – after all, education is one of the pillars of the Post Ebola Recovery Strategy. The writer strongly believes that FBC’s rehabilitation can be undertaken without BADEA. Exploring PPP is one route; the role of the Alumni Associations all over the world could be another; donations from philanthropists in the country and individuals are surest routes (for example, Hedge Fund Mogul Paulson donated US $ 400 M to Harvard University in America few months ago and this is why such universities are flourishing – so there are people here who can also do similar thing). This is because if these same people and MDAs made significant donations to His Excellency, the President at State House during the Ebola crisis, then they can also do the same for FBC.

What is more, even the lecturers are willing to contribute Le 200,000 of their salaries every month towards the rehabilitation of one of the buildings (preferable Arts Building) but should be given the authority to control the management of the funds and the eventual awarding of the contract. This should tell the reader the extent to which FBC has deteriorated and the displeasure of most lecturers to see how best the situation could be salvaged. The government can demonstrate its commitment towards FBC rehabilitation by first reconstructing the deplorable road through and on campus. This track is not even a mile long and as a Development Economist and Project Planner, US $ 300,000 can do the trick – I bet my last dollar.

To justify this, FBC has now become a thoroughfare as government and private vehicles are plying this route towards Gloucester, Leicester, Hill Station, Southridge, Regent and even Lumley. Hence, the once peaceful and tranquil FBC especially on a Sunday has been lost. The deplorable condition of the road with so many potholes has further dented the image of this once “adored” college. His Excellency, the President is the “Champion of Infrastructural Development” in the country and so, FBC should not be left out in this drive. An Executive Directive to the Deputy Minister of Works is all that is required for the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA) through the Roads Maintenance Fund to turn FBC into a works yard. When that happens, FBC will start the next academic year with a bang. So if BADEA cannot start now, let the road reconstruction at least commence now.

As for the encroachment on FBC land, that is going to be an interesting piece soon
To summarize the discussion, the current priorities/demands of FBC are as follows –
1) Let the government rehabilitate the college road immediately after the bridge through Lower Faculty, on campus and as far as Kennedy Building; and through campus as far as Professor Alie’s residence.
2) Let adequate “lecturing and understanding” materials and equipment be procured/provided before the commencement of the 2015/16 AY.
3) Let other avenues be explored for the transformation of FBC and government can take the lead in this by allocating 0.6% of the country’s GDP. We should not wait for BADEA any longer.

Until these happen, pray that the Obituary of FBC is not announced because the tears flowing from its face resembles a (wo)man lying on h(er)/is death bed and saying h(er)/is last wishes with tears rolling down.

 

About the Author:

Dr. Sandi is a lecturer at the Department of Economics and Commerce at Fourah Bay College.

COMMENTS- (Facebook)

Francis Amara

Hopefully, an alumnus from FBC (possibly from the diaspora) may want to embrace a leadership role to initiate RENEWAL of the college. As a Sierra Leonean academic ( didn't attend  FBC/Njala University College), I am ready to help an emerging leader willing to take on this role. It is really easy, some one needs to START! All the best of luck

Syl Juxon Smith

I CANNOT UNDER THIS FOURAH BAY COLLEGE QUAGMIRE STATE OF AFFAIRS. These are the kind of institution NASSIT or Sierra Leone Commercial Bank must take responsibility to take over, refinanced, refurbished, partially managed until such a period of time when the management can be stabilized. This is a national priority that has become already a national disgrace.........! 

Syl Juxon Smith

IF "NASSIT" CAN BUILD HOUSES AND SHOPPING MALLS, REHABILITATE HOTELS WHY NOT A NATIONAL PRIORITY SUCH AS THE FIRST UNIVERSITY IN AFRICA - FOURAH BAY COLLEGE.........? Why cant it take it up as well just like all the other projects it has already invested in that are still to yield any dividend..............!

Francis Amara

FBC is only going to be saved by its alumni.........This is the  hard truth! This is the case for all universities, even in Canada or the USA! Waiting for government or financial institutions to  infuse extra funds into universities can be long overdue.   I still hope a brave and courageous alumnus will step forward to start the ball rolling. It takes only a small stone to start a ripple! I cannot believe and accept the notion that, at least, there is no former graduate from FBC that can take up this challenge. Hopefully, someone can prove me right!

Peter Dumbuya

I lectured in the Law Department during the 2013/14 academic year, and so can attest to what Dr. Sandy has written about the deplorable conditions at FBC. Where's the Chancellor in all of this mess that goes on at FBC? I attended the University's first funding conference in 2014 and the Minister of Finance made it abundantly clear that the USL has to come up with a funding plan, which the Universities Act of 2005 provides for. I am willing and able to join our many compatriots at home and abroad, as Dr. Sandy has suggested, to rebuild FBC. It's our moral obligation to do what is right for our students and country!

http://sierraleonematters.co.uk/the-tears-of-fourah-bay-college-university-of-sierra-leone/

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Milton Margai -(Athens Of West Africa- Facebook post)

The Tears of #FBC, University of #SierraLeone

"What is more, even the lecturers are willing to contribute Le 200,000 of their salaries every month towards the rehabilitation of one of the buildings (preferable Arts Building) but should be given the authority to control the management of the funds and the eventual awarding of the contract. This should tell the reader the extent to which FBC has deteriorated and the displeasure of most lecturers to see how best the situation could be salvaged."

Comments

Abdul Barrie

Pls pls pls Messers Chancellor of the U S L and Minister of Education, dont wait to be told directly that this institution is the most precious jewel our nation can pass to future generations. Its a symbol of freedom and power! We all must jealously up-keep this institution n with utmost reverence! The state of the  U SL  reflects, in a way, the future of the Nation. Cant go further coz am drowning in tears!!!!! Y ? Y? Y?

Blanshard Meheu

Museums are managers of consciousness, they give us an interpretation  of history, of how to view the world and locate ourselves in it. They are, if you want to put it in positive terms, great educational institutions.  In Sierra Leone today, thought is subversive, destructive and terrible. It is merciless to established historical institutions, and comfortable habit. It has devoured the essence of glory, leaving the carcass of prestige to blind the eyes of bewildered onlookers.