The Situation of the Literary Arts in
Sierra Leone
By Arthur Edgar
E Smith
Before
Sierra Leone independence in 1961, literature was seen
largely through the medium of newspapers of which the
famous Weekly News was the most prominent. It
was almost like a literary journal, though printed in
the form of a newspaper. Sawyer’s Bookshop at Water
Street also played a vital role as not only making wide
selections of literary works from the Western world
available, but in also publishing small pamphlets and
little books from time to time.
At that
time clubs flourished and many of them had literary
activities as part of their programme. Clubs like the
City Literary Institute and Greenfield Club organized
lectures and dramatic shows. The Greenfield Club was
aimed particularly at promoting literary activities.
The Eccentric Society (a Multiracial group) organized
periodic "mind-uplifting" concerts. However, many of
these clubs were short lived. According to historical
analysts this was due to the majority of Creoles lacking
interest in self-improvement and the disunity that was
then prevailing within the ranks of the upper level of
Freetown society. This was limited to a few hundred
people from whose ranks many of the other clubs drew
their membership. With this sort of close-knitted
society, personal disagreements were easily brought into
the open thus disrupting harmony and leading to their
break up.
It could then be
deduced that literary activities then were more or less
of an academic and philosophical or religious nature.
Seldom were genuine literary efforts displayed. This
scenario was transferred to the production of books.
Many of the books were more of textbooks or
dissertations/theses. One of the first written works by
a Sierra Leonean in 1865 reflected this concern. It was
the work of the medico James Africanus Beale Horton on
the Political Economy of British West Africa. His second
book three years later in 1868 was West African
Countries and People, British and Native (1868).
This was like many of the other works published in
London. Being one of the most prolific writers, James
Africanus Horton, wrote books and pamphlets on politics,
science, and medicine while he was a medical officer in
the British army between 1857 and 1871. [These books
included
The Dawn of Nationalism in Modern Africa,
reprint 1969;
Black Nationalism in Africa, 1867, reprint
1969.]
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There was also
A.B.C. Sibthorpe’s monumental historical work on
Freetown [The
History of Sierra Leone, reprint 1971]. There
were also 19th-century works on exploration by such
Sierra Leoneans as
Samuel Crowther, a bishop of the Anglican Protestant
faith, and another clergyman, John Christopher Taylor.
There has thus been an incipient literary tradition
developing in Freetown since the 19th century.
Bishop Samuel Ajayi
Crowther (left) |
This is
what must have led to the clearly creative and literary
output during this period of writers like
Adelaide Casely-Hayford and Gladys Casely-Hayford.
Gladys Casely-Hayford was perhaps the best-known from
this period. Some of her poems and stories have
appeared in American and British publications and are
still been included in recent anthologies compiled in
the West. Amongst her poems have been one written in
Krio which she published in a small book of poetry,
Take Am So in Freetown in 1948.
The Educationist
Mrs. Adelaide Casely-Hayford (nee Smith) wrote stories
following the traditions of Ghanaian writers like
Efua Sutherland and
Ama Ata Aidoo. The most popular of these is “Mister
Courifer” which is part of
Paul Geoffrey Edwards’ anthology
West African Narrative; an anthology for
schools which was widely used in Freetown schools in
the early 60s. This concern for culture is even seen in
her work in the educational field. According to
historian, Akintola Wyse, after studying in England and
Germany and returning home she was so appalled by the
system of education for women that she devoted her
whole life to introducing a system that gave an
important place to African customs, arts and crafts
amongst others. Such a preoccupation is reflected in her
literary productions.
Another poet
published during that period was Crispin George whose
collection of poems titled Precious Gems was
published by a well known vanity publishing outlet,
Arthur Stockwell in 1952.
A most important
name in Sierra Leone Literature is the broadcaster
Thomas Decker. His importance is not only because he
spans both the colonial and independence periods, but
because his pioneering work in propagating the wider use
of Krio for literary purposes was what generated the
flowering of Krio plays intensified by Dele Charley,
Raymond De Souza George, Esther Taylor-Pearce, Lawrence
Kweku-Woode amongst many others. He is seen as the
principal poet in Krio on to the Mid 50s. Some of them
were published in the mid 60s in the Sierra Leone
Language Review and Sierra Leone Studies. He
also came out with Krio adaptations of Shakespeare’s
plays like Julius Caesar. In addition his collection of
the Krio folktales translated into English and published
by Evans Brothers has continued to thrill and educate
generations of Sierra Leonean children.
It is difficult to account for all
of the creative works published then as many appeared in
varying media, newspapers, Sierra Leonean Languages,
magazines and journals locally as well as abroad.
Abioseh Nicol’s short stories had achieved a punch
internationally appearing in British Literary journals
and anthologies. They have also been for long popular
offerings in schools and colleges in Sierra Leone. Some
of these formed part of his two well known short story
collections
Two African Tales and The Truly Married
Woman and Other Stories all published by Cambridge
University Press. Sierra Leone is represented in most
anthologies of African- and English-language poetry and
short stories. In addition, the modern novels and short
stories of
Sarif Easmon,
William Conton, and
Eldred Jones give a vivid picture of modern life in
the country.
This period of
colonialism was marked by little publication of creative
works in book form. But with the onset of independence
and the publication of Robert Wellesley Cole’s
autobiographical work
Kossoh Town Boy by Cambridge University Press
more works in book form were published.
The plays of
Raymond Sarif Easmon.
Dear Parent and Ogre,
The New Patriots and his novel The Burnt
Out Marriage profited from this. Dr. William
Conton’s work,
The African was a breakthrough for the Sierra
Leone novel. It was almost like our own Things Fall
Apart. Like Things Fall Apart, The
African was first published in London. American
editions appeared the same year. It was published in
1960 with another edition a year after. It was reprinted
in Great Britain in 1964. Translations of it have been
made into Hungarian and Russian. Ekundayo Rowe also had
his collection of stories, No Seed For The Soil,
self- published in book form.
Another new name is Prince Dowu
Palmer whose novel The Mocking Stones was
published by Longmans in 1982 in their Drumbeat series.
The same publisher had a year earlier published Raymond
Sarif Easmon’s The Feud and other stories.
This period is also
characterized by the aggressive promotion of Macmillan
publishers in Sierra leone. They have already three
novels from Sierra Leone in their Pacesetter series.
This includes two young writers, the journalist and
teacher Edison Yongai who came out with Who Killed
Mohta; and the insurance manager, Osman Conteh, with
Double Trouble. From abroad also news of the
publication of Yayah Swarray’s plays was received. His
works include De Wol do for fraide. Other
writers, notably,
Talabi Aisie Lucan, Melville Stuart,
Marilyn Awoonor- Renner, Winston Forde and Clifford
N. Fyfe channeled their creative energies into producing
children’s literature many of which were published by
Evans.
After independence
a few newspapers and other magazines of schools,
colleges and churches carried limited quantity of
creative writing. The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service
(SLBS) which was then in the creative hands of the late
John Akar, a writer himself, gave much outlet for
creativity, whether literary, or performing. SLBS indeed
gave prominence to artists like Ebenezer Calendar, Allie
Ganda and the Rokel River Boys. There was also a
regular short story programme in some radio programming
quarter. This featured the short stories of young as
well as older Sierra Leoneans including two stories of
mine. In addition, there were book review programmes.
The children’s half hour programmes in English as well
as the national languages were opportunities for the
airing and dissemination of the rich folklore of the
country. Indeed many of us who had no grandmother at
home spinning such rich and interesting yarns for us the
story telling line on SLBS indeed filled in a yawning
gap in our social and cultural education.
With independence
also there were many newspapers including the Daily
Mail which was then a truly daily paper that gave
much space to creative writing, short stories as well as
stories for children in the children’s corner. There
were also regular publications of book reviews as well
as some attention given to other artistic activities
such as dramatic performances and musical concerts.
But unfortunately
today the literary arts no longer receive as much
attention as before in the press. The pressmen
themselves complain of paucity of space which limits
their publication to just political, social, and
economic news. The Daily Mail itself had
plummeted to an all time low in which it could no longer
be safely termed a weekly or bi-weekly. It too is in
dire shortage of space. But today it has finally gone
silent.
A commendable trend
started in the 70s with the interest shown by a Swedish
Linguist Nevillle Shrimpton in the sprouting plays in
krio of young as well as older playwrights, one of them
long dead.. Thomas Decker’s translation of Julius Caesar
was happily one of the plays he published. Also
published in the Shrimpton series have been Lawrence
Kweku Woode (God pas Konsibul) Raymond De Souza
George (Bohbohlef) Dele Charley (Fatmata,
Petikot Korner) and Esther Taylor Pearce (Bad
Man Pas Emti Os).
There were
occasional breakthroughs when Sierra Leonean young
writers were published in journals and magazines
abroad. A notable medium outside which featured short
stories regularly was WEST AFRICA Magazine. Stories of
younger writers like Peter Karefa-Smart and Brima
Rogers. Yet another of Rogers’ stories was broadcast on
the BBC’s Short Story programme on World Service. And a
lady writer won the short story competition organized by
the BBC African Service followed most recently by
Mohamed Sheriff who has in addition won several
playwright contests organized by the B.B.C. His name
seems like one to be watched as he has demonstrated
consistently strong signs of promise. He has published
three works already including a play, Sorie Clever,
another play The Crook and the Fools and a
novella titled
Secret Fear, which was co-winner of the ECOWAS
prize for excellence in literature. Macmillan Publishers
published it in the MacTracks series in 1997.
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posted 22 August 2007 * * *
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updated 16 October
2007
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