lyunolu
Osagie
Historical
New
National
The
Revisited
and
Memory
Consciousness:
Amistad
Revolt
in Sierra
Leone1
a
THE YEAR 1807THE SIERRA LEONE COMPANY, which
tO
helped
area
a
of settlers in the
small community
of Sierra Le
IN found
one called Freetown,
too
that Freetown
had become
decided
a
to
of
for
it
What
else
could
maintain.2
the
Com
much
burden
the constant
from the
pany do, faced with
barrage of problems
of
settler community
that constantly
the
challenged
authority
saw both the Company
natives who
Temne
the Company?the
and its settlers (the Nova
and rescued
slaves
Scotians, Maroons,
a
as
to
own
threat
from other African
their
existence;
countries)
to claim Freetown
the French who had, at least once, attempted
as a booty
in one of its territorial
skirmishes
with
the British?
over
to
the
handed
Overburdened
the British,
indeed,
Company
a Crown Colony
in 1808. From then until
and Freetown
became
an independent
in 1961, the colony
Sierra Leone
nation
became
crown because
was a proud
it stood out as
jewel in the British
to Africa?a
benevolence
home
for displaced
Britain's
Africans
from the Americas.
and for returning
captives
to define
Sierra Leone
of the 1800s was a colony
struggling
itself. Even
its borders were not clearly defined;
it could hardly
or for that matter
have been called "a nation,"
"a people."
Far
was
a
from being a community
Leone
Sierra
pot,
melting
place
to identify
where
tended
with
communities
with
recaptives
which
ties and a deeper historical
they shared deeper historical
for
consciousness.
the
Maroons
from the West
Thus,
example,
the
Nova
and
other
fresh off the
Indies,
Scotians,
recaptives
areas of West Africa
coastal
often
lived in separate
communi
ties and erected complex
with
each other. Needless
social boundaries
in their interaction
to say, the recaptives'
relationship
63
The Massachusetts
Review
the natives of Sierra Leone was culturally
with
of each other. Out
and natives were
suspicious
an imposed historical
identity, Sierra Leoneans
themselves
into the canvas of national
identity.
It was against
that
this historical
backdrop
in
and
around
Sierra
tives, originally
captured
return was not
to Sierra Leone
in 1842. Their
strained.
Settlers
of this chaos of
to etch
struggled
the Amistad
cap
returned
Leone,
marked
by any
the return
Indeed
them.
fanfare. No welcoming
party awaited
of the captives
could not have been of any particular
interest
to the growing
of Freetown,
for they all had
settler community
some personal
were
all recaptives
either cap
story of mishap;
or
were
free Negroes
tured into slavery (or their ancestors
were)
in the Americas
who decided
that life in Africa would
be pref
of white
erable to the vicissitudes
racism. The Amistad
captives'
nuance
whose
story was
settler-story
just one more
particular
canvas
of
the
into
public
nation-building.
disappeared
and fifty years, has the story re
then, after one hundred
Why
accounts
event in Sierra Leone? What
turned as a memorable
in years past? My genealogical
lack of interest
project
to
understand
the
years of silence and the story's mne
attempts
in the national
monic
consciousness
of the Sierra
reappearance
Leonean
people.
seems to suggest
on collective
that a
The
literature
memory
a
to
of
and
historical
selection
significance
ascription
society's
to Barry Schwartz
event is not an arbitrary
process.
According
in an essay titled "The Re
scholars
and other collective memory
A Study in Collective
covery of Masada:
Memory,"
for the
of
of the past is preserved mainly
Memory
by the chronicling
events and their sequence;
for
the events selected
however,
are not evaluated
in the same way. To some of these
chronicling
events we remain indifferent; other events are commemorated
are invested with an extraordinary
and as
?they
significance
of the
distinct place in our conception
signed a qualitatively
past.
(148)
Consequently,
to the analysis
collective
of the
scholars pay much
attention
memory
commemorative
of
processes
history.
According to George Herbert Mead in The Philosophy of the
Act (81) and Maurice Halbwachs in On Collective Memory (40),
how
a society
understands
its past
64
is significant
to how
that so
Historical
Memory
and
a New
National
Consciousness
its present
Mead
and Halb
values. However,
ciety constructs
as
in their theoretical
Schwartz
wachs
differ
emphasis,
points
out: "While Halb wachs
seeks to show how the present
situation
aim is to understand
of the past, Mead's
affects our perception
in
the use of historical
the present"
knowledge
interpreting
that the past
both scholars believe
(Masada,
149). Nonetheless,
"a social construction
is, in the words of Barry Schwartz,
shaped
and needs of the present"
221).
(Social Change,
by the concerns
theorists
like Halbwachs
Constructionist
and Mead also agree
are not ar
in recovering
that our mnemonic
exercises
history
to meaningful
bitrary and random but constructively
employed
because
the past helps us in
and useful
ends: in other words,
our
we
are
to select material
careful
terpret
present
day reality,
serve
that will
in fact
the purpose
of interpreting
the present.
Thus we learn that past events are commemorated
"only when
to define
the contemporary
is motivated
them as such"
society
note
should
that for Mead
further
the past
(Masada,
149). We
a present
It is only from the standpoint
always
implies
reality.
that we can recall the past. The past exists be
of the present
we exercise
cause
there is a present
from which
the images of
In the same vein,
the mind
"backward."
the future exists be
cause we exercise our minds
from the standpoint
of the present
In "The Sociological
H.
of
"forward."
G.
Mead's
Import
Theory
et cd summarize
of the Past," David R. Maines
radical
Mead's
manner:
in
of
time
this
conception
The question
of boundaries marking
off the past, present, and
future are fundamental
for Mead, but he maintained
that no
matter how far we build out from the present,
the events that
constitute
the referents of the past and future always belong
to the present.
(161; emphasis
added)
our conception
the present
determines
of the past and
it is safe to say that the past and future,
like the pres
future,
to change.
and given
In The Philosophy
ent, are dynamic
of
states that the past is "as hypothetical
as the
the Present,
Mead
future"
(12); the past is not "final and irrevocable"
(95) as we
so often believe;
the past's
structural meaning?and
meaning
on the basis of a given
in the present?is
is always
constructed
et al conclude,
As Maines
"For Mead,
the existence
of
present.
events
is beyond
the meaning
doubt:
of those events, however,
Since
65
The Massachusetts
Review
or implied
the past ismythical
(165). So whether
in society's
its validity
lies in the position
it occupies
objective,
or collective memory.
shared consciousness
By implied objective
for the
that a past action must
have occurred
past Mead means
to
are
events
be
it
the
Amistad
what
is.
present
By extension,
in
led
believable
because
and
and
to,
they happened
fact
they
of the Mende
in Sierra
fit in with,
the establishment
mission
in the nineteenth
of the Mende
Leone
evidence
century. The
are still very much
to the nation
and its contribution
mission
is problematic"
in place
today.
event of 1839-1842 as an objective
Yet the Amistad
past regis
tered little on the consciousness
of the nation
of Sierra Leone.
Although
the final stage of the incident played itself out in Sierra
on the collective
it left no visible marks
of the
Leone,
memory
More
nation. Why did the nation
forget?
why does
importantly,
now remember?
as
not
if
the nation
it
is
this event
Interestingly,
In America,
has not been chronicled
both before and
anywhere.
on the
books were written
after the American
civil war, many
In Sierra Leone,
in university
such books are available
incident.
event has never been studied as part
libraries; but the Amistad
of the official history of Sierra Leone,
and it has never been stud
or
ied in the school
translated
into the folk traditions
system
In other words,
of the people.
it is an event that Sierra Leoneans,
as part of their national
before
the 1980s, never identified
with
to
trace
I
how
the
of this objective
here
intend
history.
validity
of
in
the
shared
consciousness
taken
its
has
past
place
recently
the people
of Sierra Leone.
a group
in 1839 when
The events of the Amistad
story began
named
of African
slaves on board an American-built
schooner
Friendship
(La Amistad
in Spanish) mutinied,
killed the cap
did they
tain and the cook, and took charge of the ship. Little
Two
at the time of their action's
know
Span
significance.
the schooner
had chartered
iards, Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montez,
to
Ramon
of the Amistad,
from the owner
and captain
Ferrer,
slave trad
slaves. A Portuguese
their recently bought
transport
some six hun
had purchased
and transported
er, Pedro Blanco,
from a slave
slaver Tecora
dred slaves on board a Portuguese
of
Sierra
the
south of Freetown,
Leone,
port
capital
holding
in one of
to a barracoon
It was
Cuba.
Havana,
just outside
three girls and one
sales that Montez
Blanco's
advertised
bought
66
Historical
Memory
and
a New
National
Consciousness
twelve years of age, and Jose Ruiz bought
boy all under
forty
nine men. On June 28, 1839, Ferrer, the captain of the Amistad,
his half caste cook Celestino
and African
cabin boy Antonio,
two
seamen and the
other
with
Ruiz, Montez,
together
Spanish
a
Leonean
for
Sierra
sailed
slaves,
port near Puerto
fifty-three
to
Due
the
than
took longer
contrary winds,
Principe.
journey
on
and
third
the
the
led
Pieh
slaves,
expected,
by Sengbe
night
as Joseph Cinqu?),
in America
armed
themselves
with
(known
cane knives,
attacked
and
the
and
the
cook,
fatally
captain
was
took charge of the ship. In the ensuing
struggle, Montez
two
the
wounded
Sierra
Leonean
the
other
slaves,
by
Spanish
seamen escaped overboard
on a small boat, and two of the slaves
lost their lives. The charismatic
leader of the revolt, Sengbe Pieh,
then ordered
the ship to sail east, towards
the rising sun, in the
of Africa.
direction
the slaves all seemed to speak or understand
Mendi,
Although
the dominant
in southwest
Sierra Leone,
language
they were
from the interior parts of Sierra Leone
and had no navigational
skills. Consequently,
and Montez
alive
they had to keep Ruiz
so that they could navigate
two men had no in
the ship. These
tention of taking the slaves to Africa. During
the day they headed
east as commanded,
and at night Montez
sailed west and north
to reach American
shores. The
schooner
by the stars, hoping
two months
followed
its erratic route for almost
until it was cap
tured on August
26 by Commander
and his crew who
Gedney
on board
were
near Culloden
the Washington
Point,
Long
to New London,
towed the Amistad
Island, New York. Gedney
Connecticut.
The Africans were charged with murder
and piracy
and jailed in New Haven. When
the case, taken up by the abo
reached
the Supreme
the Africans
litionists,
Court,
eventually
won
their freedom, and on November
the
27,1841,
they boarded
some American
for Free
Gentleman,
missionaries,
along with
town, Sierra Leone.3
case caused plenty
The
of tension
three major West
among
ern powers?Spain,
the
and
United
States. As Spain
England
to
influence
the
to repatri
American
sought ways
government
ate the Amistad
slaves to Havana
for trial, she found herself
test
the
of
her
on
1817
with
ing
treaty agreement
strength
England
the suppression
of the African
slave trade. England
reminded
the American
of its duty to free the Africans
who
government
67
CINQU?
Nathaniel
(1796-1881)
portrait
by
Jocelyn
of New Haven
Historical
(Courtesy
Colony
Society)
first in MR Summer
10,No.
1969, Volume
Reproduced
3
Historical
Memory
and a New National
Consciousness
to its treaty agreement
with
free men,
were,
Spain,
according
not slaves. In the United
about
constitutional
States,
questions
of
the
the
American
the nature of man
tried
jus
sorely
validity
itself was on trial as
tice system. The American
government
tried to influence
Van Buren, who on two occasions
President
the captives, was seemingly
"tried" and found
the courts against
who
de
Adams,
John Quincy
by former President
wanting
as
world
and the Spanish
the Africans
and won. Cuba
fended
a whole
as
for
lost diplomatic
compensation
triumphs
hopes
with
its human
and the return of the schooner,
cargo, were
dashed.
the outcome
Indeed,
in America
effects both
trial had far reaching
of the Amistad
It was,
for the American
and abroad.
numerous
which
had
divisions
suffered
movement,
Antislavery
a time of healing
in its ranks, a rallying
and a refreshing
point,
new sense of direction.
of the case exposed more
The publicity
to the debate over slavery, and sympathy
for the Anti
Americans
increased.
slavery agenda
to Africa,
the imme
with
the return of the captives
Although
nature
of the case disappeared
diate
fascination
and celebrity
the historical
from the American
impact of the Amistad
psyche,
to have its effect on both
the United
States
incident
continued
For example,
the Amistad
and Sierra Leone.
headed
Committee,
in
the Mende
which
had supported
by Lewis Tappan,
captives
saw
see
to
role
them
and
desire
its
its
America,
strengthened,
in their homeland
into a new
embrace Christianity
expanded,
the American
called
Association
Missionary
in
AMA
The
been
credited
with
establish
has
(founded
1846).
of
hundreds
schools
and
for
blacks
the re
ing
colleges
during
construction
for
it helped
the
foundation
years. In this way,
lay
the Civil Rights Movement
decades
later.
notes
Sierra Leonean
historian
Arthur
Abraham
that Sierra
as a nation,
set in
also benefitted
from the processes
Leone,
even though
are
motion
"the origins
incident,
by the Amistad
consolidation
out the
further points
mostly
forgotten
today"
(23). Abraham
of American
in Sierra
work
consequences"
"positive
missionary
to "create an elite
Leone:
churches
schools helped
and mission
not only in Sierra Leone
that excelled
but in the United
group
States as well"
of this elite class would
later press
(21). Members
for independence
from its colonial
rulers?the
British.
69
The Massachusetts
Review
to the ori
have paid
both nations
little attention
Ironically,
events. As
and cultural
historical
gins of these well-documented
a
to
out
in
David
Clifton
contribution
Driskell's
Johnson
points
artists and writers
II: Afro American
Amistad
Art, it is mainly
in the U.S. who have kept the "drama of the Amistad
incident"
For
unfor
Sierra
alive in the U.S.
Leoneans,
(15).
imagination
events
the
of
the
of
Amistad
story
tunately,
grand
ignorance
In recent
national
them of a victorious
identity.
largely robbed
in the imag
the Amistad
years, however,
story has been birthed
artists.
ination of Sierra Leonean
I read Charles
episode began when
My interest in the Amistad
a
novel
that
takes
the Amistad
Middle
(1990),
Passage
Johnson's
In reading
microfilms
incident as its point of departure.
through
the Amistad
about
revolt, which
impressed me as a truly revo
ac
to find out that the principal
story, I was shocked
lutionary
I was not only born
tors in the revolt were
from Sierra Leone.
in Freetown,
but also received my formal educa
Sierra Leone,
I never once heard
this
tion there. In all my years in Freetown
a
was
not
our
of
school
curric
it
told;
part
story
revolutionary
case opened
the Amistad
with
ulum. Therefore
my encounter
I
the past
which
could
for me a window
through
contemplate
know
did I, as a child of independence,
and the present. What
to survive
our ancestors,
and their struggles
about our history,
slave
in a land ridden with
slave-catchers
long after the Atlantic
in
buried
memories
be
could
trade was banned? What
possible
to
lost
be
for
needed
exhumed
the national
that
long
psyche
could an event of the Amistad's
of identity? How
markers
mag
nitude
escape memory?
to suggest,
that
I wish
in line with Mead's
theory of the past,
was
an
that
inherited
the
Amistad
until
1992
past,
up
only
to argue
I hasten
that the
is to say an implied
past.
objective
make
in the past does not necessarily
Amistad's
factual existence
I
with
Mead's
for an inherited memory.
essay
agree
Although
to remember
does not
that the refusal
of the Past"
"The Naure
mean
that "the past is lost" (238), Sierra Leoneans
for
actually
to
the
take
remember
does
it
the
Amistad
then,
What,
story.
got
see
the
tradition
of
theorists
collective
Constructionist
past
past?
a "guiding
rites as transmitted
and commemorative
through
to "subsequent
222).
("Social Change,"
generations"
pattern"
as Schwartz
is important
transmission
This
states, "Sta
because,
. . .
links between
the living and the dead
ble memories
creat[e]
70
Historical
Memory
and
a New
National
Consciousness
over time" (222). The Amistad
consensus
account
and promot[e]
struc
because
the mnemonic
entered history
but not memory
common
ture of the oral tradition, which
is the guiding
pattern
to Sierra Leonean
story.
groups, was not in place in the Amistad
we
the Amistad
from
recall today about
is culled
Most
of what
events
events
in
the
U.S.
Even
the
the
that
written
about
history
in Sierra Leone were
the
transmitted
followed
largely
through
to their home base in the U.S. Given
letters of missionaries
that,
even today, some 80% of the Sierra Leonean
is il
population
trans
of written
the existence
could never
chronicles
literate,
We
also remember
late history
that the
should
into memory.
to
to
a
not
returned
freedom
but
land
under
Amistad
captives
masters
the colonial
colonial
rule. Should
have celebrated
the
over
master
the
colonized's
class
momentary
victory
by declaring
a national
or the like? British
char
colonial
education
holiday,
national
all
histories
and,
discouraged
acteristically
by imperi
ally instituting
its own history, Colonial
Britain
instilled in
an attitude
of self-cynicism.
Sierra Leoneans
can be seen, perhaps more clear
This
attitude of self-cynicism
a Temne
of
to
in
resistance
Bai Bureh,
the
chief,
ly,
legendary
to impose a hut tax on Sierra Leonean
the attempts
of the British
to cur
in 1897 attempted
natives. The Colonial
administration
tail the deteriorating
relations
between
the different
ethnic
a house
or hut tax throughout
and clans by imposing
groups
were
to
the hinterland.
the natives
in cash or
Since
pay either
in kind?mainly
the
from
the
District
Commis
land,
produce
to stop the inter-ethnic
sioner hoped
raids incited by the con
tinued demand
for slaves and the resulting
of
incapacitation
on
This
land cultivation.
will
the
of
the
Co
part
seeming
good
a shrewd Sierra Leonean
lonial government,
A.B.C.
Sibthorpe,
historian
of the era notes,
lacked good
judgment:
to pay tax to their natural Kings,
That a people not accustomed
and without
of
it
in their traditions,
that such a
knowledge
their Chiefs and their Kings, would
people,
easily submit to
taxation ought not to have been supposed.
Common-sense
act 'as a bull un
should have dictated
that they all would
to the yoke' [Jer. xxxi. 18]. (125)
accustomed
The Colonial
the Protectorate
naive arrogance
the citizens
power's
agitated
on whom
the levy had been imposed;
this
71
in
led
The Massachusetts
Review
to armed resistance
in some districts.
Historian
Joe Alie notes
"a resilient
and "military
that Bai Bureh,
general"
strategist"
a "successful
the Co
warfare"
guerrilla
against
(145), initiated
success
initial
incited other com
lonial government
(146). His
to resist the hut tax aggressively.
Lives were
lost on
munities
in
the
of
but
forces
the struggle,
both
sides
end, government
Bureh
their pre-eminence.
Bai
maintained
gave him
Although
he
evaded
had
for
self up nine months
later,
months,
capture
a certain
to British
fear and re
and his name,
ears, commar?ded
a state prisoner
to
and was banished
he became
spect. Though
the Gold Coast until
1905, it is on record thatHer Majesty
the
He did re
that Bai Bureh be treated humanely.
Queen
pleaded
turn to Sierra Leone
and was reinstated
Chief of Kasseh.
now view Bai Bureh's
resistance
Sierra Leoneans
ingenious
to
their
To
Bureh's
Bai
minds,
ability
ambivalently.
legendary
of British might
in defiance
has a vic
invincible
himself
make
con
Sierra Leoneans
torious ring, but, being a practical
people,
to the British. Often
in his ultimate
surrender
cede his mortality
deal with
both
the Bai Bureh
story, Sierra Leoneans
recalling
of victory and defeat,
and mortality.
the ambiguity
invincibility
from both victory and defeat,
from both
themselves
Distancing
the British
and the conquered
Sierra Leon
natives,
conquerors
to them, are adept
almost
eans, in a spirit of cynicism
unique
at the game
at making
unruffled
themselves
spectators,
umpires
as commentators
who can mold
of life. Situating
themselves
any
to size the major
event to a manageable
down
size, they whittle
events of the Bai Bureh
in this song handed
story as illustrated
to generation:
down
from generation
Bai Bureh was a warrior
the British,
He fought against
The British made him surrender,
/ ala Koto Maimu
E Koto Gbekitong/'
"E Koto Maimu,
I ala Kortor Maimu.4
as historical
lines of the song are chanted
fact,
The
third line, in its very
by any social commentary.
slant. It is no
from this objective
sharply deviates
presentation,
as the
to
the
Bai
Bureh
himself
surrendered
British,
longer that
him"
"made
that
the
but
British
goes,
story officially
give
The
first
untainted
two
72
Historical
and a New National
Memory
Consciousness
to surrender
a
Bai Bureh's
active move
up. By making
accom
of heroism
that might
have
one, any residue
passive
to surrender himself
is erased from the pic
his decision
panied
no reference
to the fact that he was
ture. Also,
the song makes
as chief. Consequently,
to his former position
in the
restored
himself
in Temne,
the
fifth and sixth lines of the song, rendered
from
itself
the
warrior's
then
distances
great
predictable
public
to define
to ridicule what
their decision
fall through
they choose
are generally
as his personal
intolerant
failure.5 Sierra Leoneans
of failure, and they absorb Bai Bureh's
failure?and
by extension
a well-rehearsed
to the
the nation's
indifference
failure?with
idea of success. Besides,
the settler communities,
the Krio people,
the co
who were
the elite in the nation,
tended to identify with
than they did the indigenous
natives. This
lonialists more
"psy
it in Black
Skins,
puts
(141), as Frantz Fanon
chopathology"
fourth,
the fault lines along which
the very
aptly describes
has been forged. Thus
for Sierra Leoneans,
their
as a nation,
a
translates
into
collec
collective
memory,
easily
when what
tive amnesia,
they remember
highlights
especially
the present
failures of the nation.
character
of national
This
ambivalent
and unstable
memory,
as in the case of Bai Bureh, was certainly more marked
fifty years
earlier when
reached
the
captives
Sengbe Pieh and the Amistad
in Amer
shores of Sierra Leone. The victory
they had celebrated
once they reached
ica all but dissipated
their native
land. When
the missionaries
embarked
from the Gentleman
and the captives
to stay together
in 1842, their plans
and build a mission
house
around Mani,
much
talked
Pieh's
about
evap
Sengbe
village,
cou
orated with
each passing
American
day. First, the African
to
who
had
with
the
other
volunteered,
missionaries,
ple
along
build
the Mende
that
the
the
leader
of
mis
Mission,
perceived
was not capable
of keeping
sion, Raymond
Williams,
every
on
next
left
for
Liberia
the
available
thing together. They
ship.
Then word came that Pieh's village had been razed, and his fam
White Masks,
idea of nation
the vision
that would
have kept them together
ily killed. With
no longer feasible,
the liberated captives mostly
scattered. None
theless, Sengbe Pieh did help the AMA with much needed con
tact and
however,
the missionaries
was restless.
in Bonthe
Sherbro. Pieh,
in his play The Broken
"could not quite gather
not to stay
(32). Pieh decided
finally settled
Desouza
George,
Pieh as a man who
describes
Handcuff,
the bits and pieces
together
again"
73
The Massachusetts
Review
a trader and then faded from
the missionaries.
He became
historical
significance.
we can surmise
From Pieh's
that his mem
tragic experience,
a
orable
of
in
loss
land and family
loss of memory
symbolizes
the psyche
of the nation. Having
in
for his freedom
the
fought
not to his wife and two children
United
returned
States, Pieh
who were, perhaps,
into slavery, or killed,
but to the
captured
wars
of
territorial
the
still
slave
reality
instigated
by
thriving
to their native
the conditions
trade. Under
of return
land, the
on
to
Amistad
had
down
the
beau
little
basis
which
hand
group
in the U.S. With
tiful story of victory
the ever-present
danger
re
of being
the issue of their survival
into slavery,
recaptured
with
This
mained
the fact that there
unresolved.
reality, coupled with
was a power
over who
tussle between
Pieh and Williams
should
in Sierra Leone,
lead the mission
but
away
slowly
surely chipped
at the profound
nature of their victorious
in Amer
experiences
to us, therefore,
ica. It should not be surprising
that Pieh and
to perform
the other
in neglecting
the
freed captives
chose,
to forget
the oral
their
tradition,
story's continuity
through
own story. Liberated
seem to have handed
in general,
Africans,
not their
in the minds
of Sierra Leoneans,
down and established
even
not
victories
of
their
achieve
capture,
eluding
sporadic
ment
of freedom after capture,
but their irreducible
conviction
Pieh
that captivity
is a way of life. The
of Sengbe
experience
in his native
land as well as the experiences
of many
Sierra Le
a basis for them to commem
oneans
thereafter did not establish
orate their past.
then
is the Middle
of the Amistad
Passage
experience
in
such
attention
Leone
Sierra
today? During
captives
receiving
in April of 1994,1 examined
the means
my visit to Sierra Leone
event
which
has been
the
Amistad
of
memory
through
diasporic
in the Sierra Leone
articulated
that through
society. I discovered
the active medium
the event has taken
of cultural
performance
on new-found
and his
and the result is a cultural
significance
torical unfolding
of a new political
awakening.
The
of the African
in 1985 at
Studies Department
inception
now the University
should
Fourah Bay College,
of Sierra Leone,
the initial steps taken in disseminating
be credited with
knowl
incident. Although
Fourah Bay College
edge about the Amistad
was
in 1876 and was considered
the Athens
founded
of learn
Why
74
Historical
Memory
and a New National
Consciousness
a decade
it was not until
ago that young,
ing in West Africa,
were able to
enthusiastic
Humanities
faculty at the University
the establishment
their dream of seeing
of an African
achieve
Institute.
Studies
historians,
Ethno-musicologists,
anthropolo
are some of the core-faculty
in this
gists, and theater specialists
an
and a
American
department.
Joseph Opala,
anthropologist
to
was
a key
lecturer at Fourah
from
1985
1991
also
Bay College
course
in
in
the
Freetown.
Amistad
His
titled
"Art,
story
player
was the Pandora's
and National
Consciousness"
Anthropology,
to the Amistad
in introducing
students
affair. In acquaint
with
students
historical
of
laid
stature, Opala
past
ing
figures
on
the
historical
the
of
incident
Amistad
emphasis
importance
success in get
and the role Sengbe Pieh played. Perhaps Opala's
to
was
not
his
hearers
ting through
heightened
just by the fact
to
that students were being
for
this
the first time
story
exposed
a lecturer of theater arts in the Afri
but also, as Desouza-George,
can Studies
Institute points out, by the fact that Opala's
lectures
in themselves,
and
it
infectious."6
were,
"captivating
Opala,
to
the value of putting
the oral tradition
seemed, had learned
are
the guiding
Sierra Leoneans
work,
pattern
through which
most
influenced.
found
his
for
Desouza-George
play
inspiration
a play that honors
The Broken Handcuff,
the spirit of Sengbe
from one such lecture to the Fourah
Pieh,
Bay College
history
a student at the institute
in 1989. Charley Haffner,
students
in
for his play Amistad
Kata Kata from
1986, also found inspiration
encounter
this eye-opening
in one of Opala's
lectures
(See Fig
ure One).
a
Haffner's
become
the channel
play would
through which
of
the
access
Sierra
Leone
to
majority
population
gains
Sengbe
Pieh as hero. Haffner,
founder of The Freetong
the first
Players,
in Freetown,
theater group
and one of the most
professional
theater groups
lecture
ever, told me of the effect Opala's
popular
had on him. He
said simply,
"I wept when
I heard
[Sengbe
Haffner's
emotional
story." Observing
Pieh's]
response,
Opala
to write a play on Sengbe Pieh for his thesis
Haffner
encouraged
Kata Kata or,
project. The end result was the play The Amistad
a story of Sengbe Pieh and the Amistad
which
Revolt,
premiered
at the British
Council
Hall May,
1988. Before Haffner's
play,
the general
knew nothing
the Amistad
about
public
story. Ac
with a history of defeat for so long, many
that
doubted
quainted
box
75
w
a
of the play, Amistad
Fig. 1: The Freetong Players in street performance
Kata Kata or, A Story of Sengbe Pieh and the Amistad Revolt, written by
Charley Haffiier.
ill
Fig. 2: A 5,000 Leone bank note, the highest circulating
with a picture of Sengbe Pieh imprinted on it.
denominator,
Historical
Memory
and a New National
Consciousness
incident
could ever have occurred.
such a victorious-sounding
that it ever happened.
denied
As Haffner
said, "Sierra Leoneans
as
I
the
it was not possible,
whole
felt
made
that
up
story
They
could exist that they
that any such accounts
in their judgment,
knew nothing
about"
(4).
to the constant
It is in response
reflection
of them
negative
com
in The Broken Handcuff,
selves
that Desouza-George,
on the dishonorable
manner
ments
in which
Sierra Leoneans
treat their heroes,
and in effect their own national
identity:
is the usual epitaph we ascribe to the memory
Ridicule.
That
sons of the soil. Those worthy
sons we neglect
of our valiant
as we bask in our chronic aura of nationalistic
indifference
and
ignorance.
(2)
to cast the Amistad
the opportunity
story in a dismal
Kata Kata beau
Leoneans
found
Haffner's
Amistad
Sierra
light,
take several modes
of
tiful but of little use to them. It would
street
im
theater
drama
formal
and
presentation,
presentation,
to convince
in a variety of settings,
the
provisations
performed
was
not
the
but
historical
that
fiction
story
reality.
populace
the play in no small measure
the peo
introduced
Nonetheless,
awareness.
and historical
With
ple to a new sense of national
as a theater
the people
the Freetong
embraced
gratitude,
Players
a theater for the people. The play in fact catapulted
of relevance,
to both
and international
national
Freetong
Players
promi
nence.
a grant
In 1992, through
from the National
Black Arts
and the Freetong
toured New
Festival,
Charley Haffner
Players
where
the
of
freedom
for the
dialectics
Haven,
Connecticut,
a
Amistad
had
been
debated
earlier, and
century
captives
hotly
other North
and South eastern cities of the United
States.
Denied
Although
denial of the Amistad
story was dispelled
through
constant
to make
the ingredients
needed
the story
education,
not just a known
historical
past but an "available
past," a com
event belonging
to the people
memorative
of Sierra Leone, was
The Amistad
still wanting.
and Ray
plays by Charley Haffner
were certainly
mond
to Sierra Le
educational
Desouza-George
onean
even before
these plays,
the cultural
icon of
audiences;
the Amistad had appeared on a 1985 stamp pointing people
their own
forgotten
history.
Still,
77
the Amistad
story did not quite
to
The Massachusetts
Review
as usable
in the present,
inscribe
itself on the national
psyche
as valid to one's own experiences.
the symbol
Mead's
of
theory
the
use-value
of
reconstructed
past emphasizes
past events
ically
as determinant
of the kinds of historical
past we recall for present
use. What,
the present
time in which
this revelation
then, was
was born?
In the 1980s, Joseph Momoh,
the army chief-of-staff
of Siaka
All People's
Stevens'
govern
one-party
(APC)?the
Congress
as Head
an
ment
in power?succeeded
of State through
Stevens
of "heir to the throne." Having
known
undemocratic
process
as Stevens' most
Momoh
trusted bodyguard,
Sierra Leoneans
in an indifferent
and
received Momoh's
conferred
leadership
was articulated
in their
Their
cynicism
cynical manner.
mainly
a name
to Josephine,
from Joseph
of his name
re-christening
suited to his overfed, overly pampered,
round
they felt was more
like Amer
Momoh's
cultural
advocates
regime,
figure. During
com
ican Joseph Opala
that the APC
government
requested
a publication
on the neglected
heroes of Sierra Leone,
mission
Heroes.
titled Sierra Leonean
and the book
finally
emerged,
Since 1968, the All People's Congress had ruled Sierra Leone
as its personal
and offered very little in terms of nation
property
and integrity.
officials
fat on bribes,
al esteem
grew
Corrupt
in
worsened
that
with each
the people
while
poverty
languished
in
work
his
Political
year. John Cartwright
Leadership
passing
out that the chronic
of the
in Sierra Leone
skepticism
points
two
with
started
the
first
towards
very
government
populace
and his
Sir Milton
of Sierra Leone,
Prime Ministers
Margai
brother Albert Margai:
. . . the effects of the Marg?is'
style of politics had accustomed
were out primarily
for
to thinking
most people
that politicians
of altruism were to be treated
their own good, that professions
not of
was a source of material
Politics
payoffs,
skeptically.
sacrifices.
(266)
with
has been plagued
Sierra Leone
leadership
unprofitable
of
the anxieties
in
thus
since its independence
1961,
enhancing
to define
itself as
has beset its very attempt
which
nationhood
that even
It is no wonder
a place of "unity,
freedom,
justice."7
to pro
meant
of Sierra Leonean
the publication
with
Heroes,
78
Historical
mote
Memory
and a New National
Consciousness
of Sierra Leonean
and diversity
the
cultures,
to
the
nation's
of
leaders
continued
feed
demoralizing
lifestyle
It was not until
the barren
nationalism.
the
trope of cultural
over
National
Provisional
Council
Revolutionary
(NPRC)
in a military
threw the Momoh
29,
coup on April
government
acclaim
in paint
received an unprecedented
1992, that the work
the richness
to match
in search of heroic
symbols
ings of artists and youths
re
with which
the NPRC.
the enthusiasm
they hailed
Opala's
on street art, Ecstatic
cent work
a
detailed
Renovations,
gives
cultural
of this exciting
of the
outburst.
writes
analysis
Opala
events
series of almost
incidental
that led to the establishment
hero in Ecstatic Renovations:
of Sengbe Pieh as national
The April 29 coup occurred during a symposium
at City Hall,
named for the Amistad Revolt,
and when young people
took
to the streets to celebrate
[the coup], they found a ready-made
in the form of a twenty-foot model
symbol of their liberation
on the City Hall
of the ship Amistad
it
steps. They paraded
through the streets, chanting praises to the soldiers and Sengbe
Pieh.
moment
to
This
made
available
spontaneous
iconographie
the revolution
the
dramatic
directions
taken
symbolized
being
it was a regime
in the deter
by the new regime;
sailing
swiftly
mined
direction
of hope,
liberty and justice. This
iconographie
in the form of the Amistad
an im
representation
ship became
in the nation's
unconscious.
The Living
print
Lloyd Warner's
and the Dead, Michael
Kammen's
"Revolutionary
Iconography
in National
and Barry Schwartz's
"Social Context
Tradition,"
to the significant
of Commemoration"
all draw our attention
role iconography
in
the
collective
of a people.
memory
plays
to the "pictorial"
Schwartz makes
reference
of rep
significance
resentation
the
is
often
(377). Iconography
yet effective,
quiet,
to commemorate
dated events. Far beyond
official
celebra
way
as
such
and
busts
tions, iconographie
representations
paintings
the work of harmonizing
continue
national
with
identification
the celebrated
historic moment,
thus making
the historical
past
part of the present-day
landscape.
the NPRC
was quick
in Freetown
to
Indeed,
government
realize
that the cultural
icons displayed
enthusiasts
by young
79
The Massachusetts
Review
were
in fact doing
the work of the revolution.
.Artists?painters,
the unofficial
dramatists
and musicians?became
cheerleaders
as
The birth of the NPRC
for the government.
the
it were,
was,
birth of a new cultural
The
and
revolution
identity.
political
were so intertwined
to
the cultural
that each helped
awakening
as Opala points out, the present NPRC
fuel the other. Although,
take over the unfolding
did not officially
cultural
government
scene.
its impact on the political
it acknowledged
revolution,
the cultural
of the Amistad
Furthermore,
through
significance
event to the United
the NPRC
received
States,
regime
recogni
tion in the United
thus affirming
itself at home. Opala
States,
notes:
Strasser was in the United
coincidence,
by another
Captain
of a statue of Sengbe Pieh, only five
States for the unveiling
months
after the coup, generating
considerable
back
publicity
home. Strasser was seeking treatment for wounds
he suffered
in the Rebel War, and, otherwise, would probably not have left
the country so soon after taking power.
(10)
events did indeed
cultural
Strasser's
strengthen
political
in
the
made
and
turn,
revolution,
base,
Pieh,
Sengbe
political
"the unofficial
of the
leader of the Amistad
revolt,
symbol
revolution"
10).
[NPRC]
(Opala,
of Freetown,
Pieh
To
the parallels
between
and
the youth
like Sengbe
of State
Strasser were
unmistakable:
Pieh, Head
in Sierra Leone
the unprecedented
Valentine
Strasser was doing
one
in
fell
of a cane knife,
Like
Pieh
who,
swoop
history.
Sengbe
of slavery, Strasser was defying
the established
tradition
resisted
a tradition of African
in high places.
nation
corruption
regimes:
to have been in his twenties,
Like Sengbe Pieh who was believed
as a mere youth
took the helm of government
Strasser
Captain
in his twenties.
rides on the back
Strasser's
popularity
Easily,
more
of the re-discovered
hero, Sengbe
Pieh, but
interestingly,
Such
to national
and identification
has
Pieh's ascendancy
recognition
to memory
in the
of its present
because
usefulness
rebounded
new political
the NPRC
It was not long before
environment.
Pieh
that
artists'
grace the
government
request
accepted
Sengbe
on
Pieh's
nation's
currency
appearance
(See Figure
2). Sengbe
has
wall paintings
around
the city and in many
neighborhoods
event household
notes that
made
the Amistad
vocabulary.
Opala
80
Historical
Memory
and a New National
Consciousness
art showcasing
the nation's
and
this type of "patriotic
history
no tradi
in "a country with
almost
culture"
is unprecedented
tion for patriotic
(6).
imagery"
and re
The
incident
is now a collective
celebrated,
memory
are
now
see
a
to
the
able
reflec
because
vitalized,
they
by
people
in the struggles
of Sengbe
Pieh and
tion of part of themselves
in this sense, as Schwartz
slaves. Collective
the other
memory
a significant
force in a dialectic
and others point out, "becomes
to
The
Amistad
of social change"
incident,
160).
("Masada,"
now have access, was appropriated
to express
the people
which
as historical
It
of themselves
their present
agents.
recognition
the audio
took the direct impact of the new political
upheaval,
of the theater, and the iconography
visual advantages
in an interpretive
and sculptures
paintings
exchange
to elevate Sengbe
social interests and concerns
people's
event to the present
status as the symbol
the Amistad
national
consciousness.
of wall
with
the
Pieh and
of a new
NOTES
to thank the Research
*Iwish
and Graduate
Studies Office of the
Liberal Arts College,
and the Minority
Office, The Pennsylvania
for providing
State University,
the financial assistance which made
to members
I am equally grateful
this research possible.
of the Free
theater group and to Raymond
of the
tong Players
Desouza-George
of Sierra Leone for allowing me to interview
them. They
University
helped sharpen my interest on the topic of the Amistad.
2In 1787, the Sierra Leone
made
like
up of men
Company,
Granville
William
Wilberforce
and
Clarkson,
Sharpe, Thomas
formed an anti-slave
trade movement
in England.
Zachary Macaulay,
Concerned
about
the increasing
numbers
of the Black Poor
in
in theWest African
they helped found a settler community
England,
nation of Sierra Leone. For a comprehensive
history of The Sierra
Leone Company
read Christopher
Fyfe's A History
of Sierra Leone,
I-V. See also Part III of Utting's
The Story of Sierra Leone.
Chapters
3The following
books can be consulted
for an expanded
version
of the Amistad
Martin,
story: The Amistad
Affair by Christopher
London:
Abelard-Schuman,
1970; Black Odyssey: The Case of the
Slave Ship Amistad
Press, 1971;
by Mary Cable, New York: Viking
on the Amistad
Mutiny
by Howard
Jones, New York: Oxford Uni
versity Press, 1987.
4The italicized words are sung in Temne,
Bai Bureh's
tongue, to
in which
he supposedly
gave himself
poke fun at the manner
up.
The words mean: He hollered,
I beg, oh,
"Master, I beg; oh, Master,
81
The Massachusetts
Review
It's enough." He hollered,
"Master, I beg."
Master,
5The youth of Sierra Leone
today remain the noticeable
exception
to the self-cynicism
which
has plagued
earlier generations.
They
in a medi
have rejected the all-too-familiar
portrait of Bai Bureh
in favor of a dynamic,
tative and defeatist posture,
hero.
conquering
Like the Amistad
hero Sengbe Pieh, Bai Bureh is one of the heroes
in the present cultural awakening.
His portrait graces the one-thou
sand Leone bank note of the present political
regime.
6Cited in the foreword to Opala's Ecstatic Renovations.
7The words "unity,
freedom, justice" are inscribed on the Sierra
Leone
these watchwords
which
should
coat-of-arms.
Ironically,
in the path of development
the nation
have been barren in
guide
their true realization. Until
recently, the nation has been politically
divided along ethnic lines, and the continued
looting of the national
has denied
the
moral
treasury, and its consequent
degeneration,
people any true sense of freedom and justice.
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83