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Landlord and Stranger: Change in Tenancy Relations in Sierra Leone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

V. R. Dorjahn  and
Christopher Fyfe
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Extract

The relations between a stranger who leaves his home to settle in a distant chiefdom in Sierra Leone and his landlord have for centuries been guided by customary rules. They are of interest to the anthropologist studying contemporary society, and to the historian who can sometimes elucidate from them otherwise obscure incidents in the past. In this article we describe the landlord-stranger relationship as it exists in Sierra Leone today, then give examples of how it has been applied at earlier periods.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , November 1962 , pp. 391 - 397
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1962

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References

1 Little, K. L., The Mende of Sierra Leone (1948), 8z.Google Scholar

2 Dorjahn, Unpublished field-notes, 1954–1955.Google Scholar

3 This is not to say that economic considerations do not enter into a prospective landlord's thinking. A man short of labourers will take almost any tenant so as to gain help in making his farm.Google Scholar

4 A Temne man looks first to his father's patrilineage, makas, for land and then, if need be, to his mother's patrilineage, makara.Google Scholar

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6 Little, op. cit. 93.Google Scholar

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