‘The Strangest Problem’: Daniel Wilberforce, the Human Leopards Panic and the Special Court in Sierra Leone

Whyte, Christine

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-45136-7_13

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…Chief Wilberforce was prominent among several Sherbro chiefs entrapped in this way. He stood trial for alleged complicity in leopard murder twicein 1905-06 and again in 1912-13 (Beatty 1915;Whyte 2016). In the first case, he managed to persuade the authorities that he was an American citizen and was tried by a jury of his peers in Freetown under Colony Law; the case was dismissed.…”

Section: A 'British' Chief Falls By His Own Weightmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Perhaps sensing that they might have been played, the judges baulked at the idea of sending a missionary to the gallows for such a 'primitive' crime, and the sentence was commuted to exile. Later, Wilberforce seems to have quietly returned to Freetown (Whyte 2016). Others accused before the tribunal were not so fortunate.…”

Section: A 'British' Chief Falls By His Own Weightmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Public authority and its demons: the Sherbro leopard murders in Sierra Leone

Richards¹

2021

Africa

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Demonization is a widespread aspect of political discourse. We are familiar with the demonization of Brussels bureaucrats as a tool for pursuing the British exit from the European Union, and we take stories about the compulsory straightening of bananas with a pinch of salt, however frustrating it might be that some disaffected voters choose to accept these canards as true. But somehow, stories about the demonic in Africa have been accorded much greater ontological respect, not only by colonial powers keen to boost their own legitimacy through claims to a civilizing mission, but also by anthropologists anxious to understand their informants’ imaginative concerns, perhaps without fully appreciating the political craft or guile with which these discourses are invested. In seeking to void the charge of delusion, an empathetic reading of demonization risks missing the strategic significance of mythic interventions intended to extract political advantage. This article examines an instance of mythic creativity in the politics of late nineteenth-century interior Sierra Leone as an example of the stagecraft sometimes implicit in African public authority. The case is that of the human leopard, an avatar of commercially compromised chieftaincy. The article asks whether the alleged activities of these leopards were the straight bananas of a certain form of anti-colonial political resistance. In a concluding discussion, some consequences for understanding current forms and practices of local public authority are inferred.

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Section: A 'British' Chief Falls By His Own Weightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A 'British' Chief Falls By His Own Weightmentioning

confidence: 99%