Author Archives: Jaelin Dawson Stoudt

Sierra Leone has had a very important role throughout the history of African development.  Because Sierra Leone is situated on the western coast of Africa, it was a hub for the transport of slaves from Africa to the Americas and also for the import of goods from Europe into Africa.  This involvement lead to a great deal of European influence, on the small country.  Like most of the other African countries, Sierra Leone opposed the colonization by the Europeans and this lead to high tensions between the native Africans, specifically the Temne people, and the British voyagers.  One notable flare up of these tensions was the Hut Tax War of 1898.

The Hut Tax War of 1898 was a resistance in Sierra Leone to a new, severe tax imposed by the colonial military governor. The military governor, Colonel Frederic Cardew, decreed that, to pay for British administration, the Protectorate residents had to pay a tax based on the size of their huts. The proposal revealed the ignorance of the administration about the lives of most residents, as it was unduly severe  The imposed tax constituted a major burden on residents of the Protectorate; 24 indigenous chiefs had signed a petition against it, explaining its adverse effects on their societies, to no avail.  The immediate catalyst for hostilities was the use of force by British officials to arrest the Temne chief Bai Bureh, a general and war strategist, because of ill-founded rumors that said he led an armed resistance against the British troops, when in reality his force was attacked by the troops.  Bai Bureh’s name is intertwined with the Hut Tax War of 1898 for this reason.

As a ruler, Bureh never wanted to cooperate with the British who were living in the capital city of Freetown. Bai Bureh refused to recognize a peace treaty the British had negotiated with the Limba people without his participation; and on one occasion, his warrior fighters raided the British troops across the border into French Guinea. On January 1, 1893, the British colonials instituted a hut tax in Sierra Leone and throughout British-controlled Africa. The tax could be paid in either money, grain, stock or labor. Many Africans had to work as laborers to pay the tax. The Hut Tax enabled the British to build roads, towns, railways and other infrastructure amenities in British-controlled Sierra Leone. Bai Bureh refused to recognize the hut tax that the British had imposed. He did not believe the Sierra Leonean people had a duty to pay taxes to foreigners and he wanted all British to return to Britain and let the Sierra Leoneans solve their own problems. After refusing to pay his taxes on several occasions, the British issued a warrant to arrest Bureh. When the British Governor to Sierra Leone, Frederic Cardew, offered the princely sum of one hundred pounds as a reward for his capture, Bai Bureh reciprocated by offering the even more staggering sum of five hundred pounds for the capture of the governor. In 1898, Bureh declared war on British in Sierra Leone. The war later became known as the Hut Tax War of 1898. Most of Bureh’s fighters came from several Temne and Loko villages under his command, but other fighters came from Limba, Kissi and Kuranko villages, sent to his aid. Bai Bureh’s men not only killed the British soldiers but also killed dozens of Creoles who were living in Northern Sierra Leone because it was thought by the indigenous people of Sierra Leone that they supported the British.Bai Bureh had the advantage over the vastly more powerful British for several months of the war. By 19 February 1898, Bai Bureh’s forces had completely severed the British line of communication between Freetown and Port Loko. They blocked the road and the river from Freetown. Despite their arrest warrant, the British forces failed to defeat Bureh and his supporters. Hundreds of British troops were killed, and hundreds of Bureh’s fighters also died during the war.

Eventually Bureh was captured by a small British patrol and was exiled.  This put an end to the war between the two sides as it left the Temne warriors without their powerful leader.  The significance of Bai Bureh’s war against the British is not a matter of whether he won or lost the war but that a man who had none of what could be called formal military training was able to show that for a significant number of months he was able to take on the British who were very proud of their great military successes across the globe.

If you take a step back and look at the countries of Africa and then look at the United States their stories are very different.  However, if you start to investigate more you are able to see how the African countries and America are tied together through the words slavery and imperialism.  Imperialism can be defined as a country, specifically the European powers, controlling less powerful countries through diplomacy or through military force.  This lead to many European countries colonizing many lands, Africa and the Americas in particular.  The European influence in Africa was different however, from that of the United States’.  Most African countries are still to this day influenced by there past colonization, evident in the culture and language of a country.  When a European country took control of a land they imposed their will on it, forcing the native people to speak their language and also enslaving them to be sold, the majority in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

In the early 15th century, European traders began to sell slaves. They raided towns to capture unwilling Africans. Some Africans captured in wars were sold to European traders by other Africans. One estimate is that 10 to 12 million Africans were forced into slavery and sent to European colonies in North and South America from 1520 to 1860. Many more were captured but died of disease or starvation before arriving. The slave trade would ultimately become the biggest factor in the major underdevelopment of Africa as a whole.

When Europeans ended the slave trade, they did not lose interest in Africa. Africa could supply Europe with raw materials and new markets for European goods. Scientists and explorers were interested in African wildlife and natural resources. European missionaries wanted to convert Africans to Christianity. Many missionaries taught European ways of thinking. These often conflicted with, and destroyed, African traditions.  Between the 1870s and 1900, Africa faced European imperialist aggression, diplomatic pressures, military invasions, and eventual conquest and colonization.  Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, and Spain were competing for power within European power politics. One way to demonstrate national preeminence was through the acquisition of territories around the world, including Africa.  This time came to be known as the Scramble for Africa.  At the same time, African societies put up various forms of resistance against the attempt to colonize their countries and impose foreign domination. By the early twentieth century, however, much of Africa, except Ethiopia and Liberia, had been colonized by European powers.

European countries, specifically England, also had control of new lands in the Americas which would come to be the United States.  These  lands however were colonized for the purpose of settling and spreading out, rather than for commerce in Africa.  England controlled large portions of the eastern coast of North America and created the 13 original colonies.  These new lands were the third party in the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade.  They received the African slaves that made it across the Atlantic and the goods that the slaves created were then shipped back to the Europeans who would then use to trade for more slaves, restarting the cycle over again.  The slaves were used primarily in the south for use in crop harvesting.  England built the colonies into a firm structure by continuously pouring resources and time into them.  The new land had a diverse collection of goods and resources and this allowed the colonies to thrive.  Eventually the colonies became strong enough to break free from the English rule by winning the Revolutionary War.

Both America and the African countries experienced an influence of imperialism, however, the two were influenced in very different ways.  African countries were hindered by the European hold while the United States was able to gain strength and become a new power.