Paper Short Abstract:

Silence envelopes the ethnography of slavery in provincial Sierra Leone. We consider ways in which this silence might be probed - records of enslaved carriers from Sierra Leone in the Kamerun campaign (1915), sickle cell gene anomaly (HbS), and personal testimony. We also consider consequences.

Paper Abstract:

Slavery was once widespread in provincial Sierra Leone. The institution was not abolished until 1928. The ethnography of slavery in Sierra Leone is almost entirely a silence. This silence needs to be understood because a legacy of slavery can be detetected in more recent events, not least the decade-long and exceptionally brutal civil war of the 1990s. Our paper is based on encounters with slavery, in both our research and in our personal lives. We consider three such encounters: work on records relating to carriers from eastern Sierra Leone in the Great War in Kamerun, examined while searching for a possible source of Lassa fever virus in Sierra Leone, work on interpreting regional data on the sickle cell gene anomaly (HbS), and personal testimony relating to family history. We conclude the presentation by considering the merits of giving voice to this silent institution, and how this voice might revise our understanding of larger highly problematic events, such as the Atlantic slave trade.