This is a limited free preview of this book. Please buy full access.

---

4. Fyle (1981, 3) excludes the Kru and puts the number at sixteen. For many decades now, the Mende, Temne, Limba, and Krio have been considered the leading groups in Sierra Leone culture. The main news on the national radio station is read in the languages of these four groups. Also, in the current 6-3-3-4 educational system—6 years at primary school, 3 years at junior secondary school, 3 years at senior secondary school, and 4 years tertiary education—courses in the Mende, Temne, Limba, and Krio cultures and languages are offered in the country’s schools, colleges, and university. In the primary and secondary school levels, students are required to study one of these four ethnic groups.

5. Freetown peninsula was planned as an agricultural settlement for the ex-slaves, but poor soil in the peninsula frustrated farming efforts and did not make that come true (Wyse 1989, 5). This might be the reason why the Krio did not become farmers like the other groups in Sierra Leone. Commerce/trading provided an alternative for Krio men and women (Wyse 1989, 5; Fyle 1981, 72; Alie 1990, 80, 82).

6. In spite of the occasional difficulty inherent in having many wives, men in the hinterland traditionally like to marry many wives if at all possible. The reasons given for polygamy are both economic and social. A man’s wealth is measured by the number of wives and children that he has. The understanding is that a man with more wives must maintain a larger farm and build more houses than a man with fewer wives. It is also believed that each wife brings more wisdom to the husband. A man with one wife has only one outside source of information and guidance, a man with many wives will have many sources and, therefore, a distinct advantage. Polygamy is practised only rarely in Freetown because the higher cost of living in an urban environment makes it very difficult for a man to support more than one wife.