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Categories: Feb-18-08
Date: Feb 18, 2008
Title: “Foulah Tong”: Creole or Yoruba land
Alhaji Abu Bakar Hamid What is now the heartland of the Eastend
stretching off from main Kissy Road
overlooking the Queen Elizabeth II quay and
dreaded for its nerve racking - jostling traffic
of vehicles, motor bikes and people was in the
early 1700s a lush green hilly slope on which densely populated pastoral Foulah traders
grazed their cows – hence the name Fullah
Tong. They did not occupy the land for long.
The Foulah Tong Mosque
What is now the heartland of the Eastend
stretching off from main Kissy Road overlooking the Queen Elizabeth II quay and
dreaded for its nerve racking - jostling traffic
of vehicles, motor bikes and people was in the
early 1700s a lush green hilly slope on which
densely populated pastoral Foulah traders
grazed their cows – hence the name Fullah Tong.
They did not occupy the land for long.
“Freed slaves, recaptives and business people
mostly Yoruba’s from Lagos and Abeokuta in
Nigeria came into Sierra Leone during the
1700s and from the mouth of the Quay – since the most popular form of transport those days
was by sea – they moved into Foulah tong and
later spread into Fourah bay and Aberdeen,”
Alhaji Abu Bakarr Hamid a revered son of the
early Yoruba settlers who has spent the whole
of his 58 years in the Foulah tong community recalled.
As the new group of settlers started building
houses and cutting down the trees to expand
the community, the Foulahs gradually left
because the land was no longer suitable for
rearing cows. “They went further east to Kissy which was
then still bushy” said Alhaji Hamid.
The Yorubas had founded a home, and Foulah
tong became aYoruba hegemony with the
culture and everything -Yoruba except the
name. These early Yoruba settlers were mainly
Muslims probably that is why the Foulah Tong
mosque became the epicenter of the
community.
There are very many streets like tree
branches shooting out from the main street (Mountain cut) named - First Street, Second
Street, Third Street… and it seemed when they
were tired of counting they gave typical
Yoruba names to the streets, like Haderudeen
Street.
Foulah tong in Freetown still bears the relics of colonialism captured in the architecture of the
houses.
These houses are either board or stone
houses with an upper room attached with a
window which is known in local circles as
“Kongosa Window” where most times the oldest member of the family who occupies
such houses would position themselves to
scrutinize every activity that goes on in the
community, - and now and then deliver the
greeting “e Karroh” (Yoruba word for ‘how are
you’) to passers by, mostly when they want to be recognized.
Sadly though, many of these houses were lost,
thanks to the January 6 invasion by rebels in
Freetown, who burnt them, causing the
landscape to now be increasingly dotted with
modern architecture. The Foulah Tong Mosque
The mosque stands stoutly on top of the hill on
Mountain cut and Second Street. There had
been claims that the mosque was a converted
church, but Alhaji Hamid dispelled this.
He disclosed that the mosque was actually built in 1882, further up the mountain and not
where it is presently located.
In those days Alhaji Hamid recalled there were
serious persecutions in the community by
Christians who considered non Christians as
pagans. “So there was a palaver and the Mosque was
burnt down by these Christians.”
Another mosque was built opposite the
mosque now but was again demolished after
some years because it was not big enough.
Finally they built the massive structure which is what is now the Foulah Tong mosque and
maintained the 1882 date as its establishment.”
Alhaji Hamid narrated.
Amariah Primary School he said was also built
in 1887 by Dr Blyden who saw the need for
education and that the land was donated for the project by twins - Alhassan and Alusine.
The mosque and the school he said to a large
extent came to mold the life, civilization and
education of the Yoruba people in the Foulah
Tong community.
The Former President of Sierra Leone, Tejan Kabbah was confirmed to have attended the
Amariah Primary School, though he was not a
Yoruba, others were the late Dr Sanusi
Mustapha, Late Justice Nasiru Alghalie, Late
Justice Bankole Rashid and Dr Aroun Daniya.
Alhaji said that the school was refurbished in 1997 by Plan International and that the whole
community still uses the school’s playground to
observe the feast of Eid-ul-ada.
A fading culture
“I think that the failure of the government to
recognize Yoruba as one of the national languages was one of the pivotal agents that is
killing the Yoruba people and language in this
country,” Alhaji argued.
He disclosed that he could not speak the
language as fluently as he wished to and it is
getting worse with their own children. “We found out now that we have to claim
Creole and speak krio to properly identify
ourselves in Sierra Leone other than that we
are Yoruba and Nigerians (foreigners).
On the other hand it is actually interesting and
peculiar for us Muslim Yorubas to claim ourselves as creoles with Muslim names like
Mohamed Cole, Mucktaru Pearce, Osman
Thomas, Saptieu King.
The Christian Creoles always think that they
are the pure and original Creole people, but
actually we are all brothers and sisters and came from the same origin with the same
culture.” Alhaji Hamid explained.
He continued that the expanding natures of
communities in cities, Freetown not excluded
has unknotted the threads that held them as a
cultural society. Alhaji Hamid said that Foulah Tong had
become cosmopolitan, in fact a home to many
tribes than Yoruba, and that most of their
properties have been sold out to other people
so with the mix they cannot operate as a
different entity with different cultural values but to move on and imbibe the various life styles
and culture of other people.
With nostalgia Alhaji revealed that they were
the tribe that started “Ashobie” which has been
used now by everybody else for weddings and
other celebrations. He pointed out that they have very rich cultural
celebrations for naming ceremony
-‘Khomojade’, wedding and the observance of
the three-day, seven-day and forty-day after
burial.
“The unbraided ‘kaftan’ had been our cultural dress and bread and ‘fourah’ the delicacies
served in all of our celebrations. The Ojeh and
Hunting society was also introduced by the
yorubas”
But all of theses are changing now Alhaji
sighed, “The western culture is also affecting us, many of our children are overseas and
they cannot keep these cultures. We hope that
our heritage does not die out completely.
What they still have is the ‘Adikali’, the head of
the court and the head of the community all in
one. The present Adikalie is Dr Fadlu Deen and his
function is to settle all disputes brought to him
ranging from land dispute, family palaver to
marital problems but he seldom uses the
‘Tambaleh’ (traditional drum) only to announce
the death of a very important personality or the day for pray-days.
However amidst all the changes of landscape,
people, and culture Foulah Tong continues to
sit on the hills stoically accepting the
transformations as they come and waiting for
the day its own name will be changed. By Mohamed Fofanah

I didnt read completely...summary, Some Afonjas are lost abroad!

Won tun ti gbe de

Some Yorubas are missing too?
Na wa o

Cuddlebugie:
Won tun ti gbe de

gbe kini de?