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108-579: The Temne , also called Atemne , Témené , Temné , Téminè , Temeni , Thaimne , Themne , Thimni , Timené , Timné , Timmani , or Timni , are a West African ethnic group. They are predominantly found in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. Some Temne are also found in Guinea . The Temne constitute the largest ethnic group in Sierra Leone , at 35.5% of the total population, which

216-611: A fertility statuette, created in the region of Senegambia , and may be associated with the emergence of complexly organized pastoral societies in West Africa between 4000 BCE and 1000 BCE. Though possibly developed as early as 5000 BCE, Nsibidi may have also developed in 2000 BCE, as evidenced by depictions of the West African script on Ikom monoliths at Ikom , in Nigeria . Migration of Saharan peoples south of

324-518: A Dutch writer, describing Benin in his book Description of Africa (1668) ". Its craft was the most adored and treasured bronze casting in the history of Africa. It was annexed by the British Empire in 1897 during the invasion and scramble of Africa. Portuguese traders began establishing settlements along the coast in 1445, followed by the French , English , Spanish , Danish and Dutch ;

432-520: A chiefdom. A chiefdom contained villages, with a sub-chief who would head one or more villages. The headman typically inherited the post, being the descendant of the village founder. In contemporary Sierra Leone, the chiefs are elected. Some of the Temne people clans have been socially stratified with a stratum of slaves and castes. However, other clans such as the Temne king Naimbana of the Kingdom of Koya

540-505: A decentralized political system with village chiefs and an endogamous hierarchical social stratification. The Temne were one of the ethnic groups that were victims of slave capture and trading across the sub-Saharan and across the Atlantic into European colonies. The Temne people constitute one of the largest ethnic groups of Sierra Leone. Their largest concentrations are found in the northwestern and central parts of Sierra Leone, as well as

648-635: A fisheries regulations Act in 2010 and installed a satellite-based monitoring system and Senegal enacted a fisheries code in 2015. In Cape Verde, the fishermen communities of Palmiera and Santa Maria have organized themselves to protect fishing zones. Mozambique finally created a conservation area, including a coastline. West Africa, broadly defined to include the western portion of the Maghreb ( Western Sahara , Morocco , Algeria , and Tunisia ), occupies an area in excess of 6,140,000 km , or approximately one-fifth of Africa. The vast majority of this land

756-649: A funeral involving the burial of the dead within one's house with gold ornaments. The Dutch and French colonial empires were not interested in Sierra Leone, and left the Temne land to the interests of the Portuguese and the English. The English trader Thomas Corker arrived in 1684 to Royal African Company , starting the presence among the Temne of the influential Caulker family. The Futa Jallon Jihad of early 18th century caused major sociopolitical upheaval among

864-407: A key mediatory role to the archangel Jibril (Gabriel). "Far from reducing Temne concepts, then, Islamisation (in southeastern Temneland at least) has generated further cosmological elaboration", states Shaw. Precise estimates of Muslims among the Temne alter. Bankole Taylor states an estimated 90% to 95% of Temne people to be Muslims. John Shoup states that "by the early 20th century, the majority

972-615: A language in the Mel branch of the Niger–Congo languages . It is related to the Baga language spoken in Guinea . In 1642, a Susu caravan of 1,500 people led by Touré, Fofana, Yansané, Youla, and Doumbouya from the North, invaded the city of Forécariah . Directed by Fode Katibi Touré and his brothers Fodé Boubacar Fofana and Fodé Boubacar Yansané, their primary mission was to Islamize the natives of

1080-432: A new Creole/Krio identity. Freetown also became a center for Christian missionary activity setting up schools and churches from the coastal south. Around the same time, Fouta Djallon had become a popular destination for higher studies and Islamic learning, with sons from several notable families being sent there to study. The Temne were a source of timber, groundnuts, palm kernels, palm oil, rubber and other goods which fed

1188-612: A result of increasing aridification of the Green Sahara , Central Saharan hunter-gatherers and cattle herders may have used seasonal waterways as the migratory route taken to the Niger River and Chad Basin of West Africa. In 2000 BCE, " Thiaroye Woman", also known as the " Venus of Thiaroye", may have been the earliest statuette created in Sub-Saharan West Africa; it may have particularly been

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1296-617: A rich array of biomes , from biodiversity-rich tropical forests to drylands supporting rare and endangered fauna such as pangolins , rhinoceros , and elephants . Because of the pressure for economic development, many of these ecologies are threatened by processes like deforestation , biodiversity loss , overfishing , pollution from mining , plastics and other industries, and extreme changes resulting from climate change in West Africa . The history of West Africa can be divided into five major periods: first, its prehistory, in which

1404-522: A signed letter to the British in December 1898 stating that the tax was a heavy load, and the British ban on "not to barter any slaves again, not to buy again, nor to put pledge again" under penalties of jail was unacceptable. The Temne chief's military response against the colonial British in 1898, states Michael Crowder – a professor of History specializing on West Africa, was a protest not just against

1512-554: A subgroup of the Igbo people. The Kingdom of Nri was unusual in the history of world government in that its leader exercised no military power over his subjects. The kingdom existed as a sphere of religious and political influence over a third of Igboland and was administered by a priest-king called an Eze Nri . The Eze Nri managed trade and diplomacy on behalf of the Nri people and possessed divine authority in religious matters. The Oyo Empire

1620-497: Is a transnational highway project to link 12 West African coastal states, from Mauritania in the north-west of the region to Nigeria in the east, with feeder roads already existing to two landlocked countries, Mali and Burkina Faso . The eastern end of the highway terminates at Lagos , Nigeria . Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) consider its western end to be Nouakchott , Mauritania , or to be Dakar , Senegal , giving rise to these alternative names for

1728-458: Is estimated at 419 million people as of 2021, and at 381,981,000 as of 2017, of which 189,672,000 were female and 192,309,000 male. The region is demographically and economically one of the fastest growing on the African continent. Early history in West Africa includes a number of prominent regional powers that dominated different parts of both the coastal and internal trade networks, such as

1836-424: Is mainly mangrove swamps but also includes tidal freshwater swamp forests. The site has also been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports significant populations of Eurasian oystercatchers , curlew sandpipers and hooded vultures . This Africa protected areas related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to

1944-496: Is on the north side of the harbor in an area called the "Bullom Shore." The primary means of transportation from the airport to Freetown are by speed boat or ferry. Hovercraft and helicopter services are no longer running. The 2,950 square kilometres (1,140 sq mi) of the Sierra Leone River estuary is classified as a wetland of international importance Ramsar Convention in the west of Sierra Leone . The area

2052-625: Is plains lying less than 300 meters above sea level, though isolated high points exist in numerous states along the southern shore of West Africa. Benin Burkina Faso The Gambia Ghana Guinea-Bissau Guinea Ivory Coast Liberia Mali Mauritania Nigeria Niger Senegal Sierra Leone Togo The northern section of West Africa (narrowly defined to exclude

2160-463: Is rather majestic and looks like a huge phallus and a deformed animal or thing is protruding from it. It is said to be the dwelling place of a pangool . Ngoye njuli is protected by the Senegalese authorities and attracts visitors. In West Africa, as in other parts of Africa where the baobab tree is found, the leaves are mixed with couscous and eaten, the bark of the tree is used to make ropes, and

2268-614: Is slightly bigger than the Mende people at 31.2%. They speak Temne , which belongs to the Mel branch of the Niger–Congo languages . The Temne people migrated from the Futa Jallon region of Guinea, who left their original settlements to escape Fula jihads in the 15th century, and migrated south before settling between the Kolenté and Rokel River area of Sierra Leone. They initially practiced their traditional religion before Islam

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2376-633: The African slave trade began not long after, which over the following centuries would debilitate the region's economy and population. The slave trade also encouraged the formation of states such as the Bono State , Bambara Empire and Dahomey , whose economic activities include but not limited to exchanging slaves for European firearms . In the early 19th century, a series of Fulani reformist jihads swept across Western Africa. The most notable include Usman dan Fodio 's Fulani Empire , which replaced

2484-498: The American South with 3–4 feet stone foundations with wooden superstructures. The city grew to be a center of European and African abolitionists in the early 1800s, who sought to detect and stop all slave trading and shipping activity. It is now the capital of Sierra Leone. After its founding in 1792, Freetown became the site of the settlement of freed slaves from Britain ( Black Poor ), North America ( Black Nova Scotians ),

2592-560: The Benue Trough , and others on a line running from Mount Cameroon to Lake Chad . Colonial boundaries are reflected in the modern boundaries between contemporary West African states, cutting across ethnic and cultural lines, often dividing single ethnic groups between two or more states. In contrast to most of Central, Southern, and Southeast Africa, West Africa is not populated by Bantu -speaking peoples. The West African region can be divided into four climatic sub-regions namely

2700-727: The Hausa city-states, Seku Amadu 's Massina Empire , which defeated the Bambara, and El Hadj Umar Tall 's Toucouleur Empire , which briefly conquered much of modern-day Mali. However, the French and British continued to advance in the Scramble for Africa , subjugating kingdom after kingdom. With the fall of Samory Ture's established Wassoulou Empire in 1898 and the Ashanti queen Yaa Asantewaa in 1902, most West African military resistance to colonial rule resulted in failure. Part of

2808-522: The Mali and Gao Empires . West Africa sat at the intersection of trade routes between Arab -dominated North Africa and further south on the continent, the source of specialized goods such as gold , advanced iron-working , and ivory . After European exploration encountered rich local economies and kingdoms, the Atlantic slave trade built on already existing slave systems to provide labor for colonies in

2916-751: The Senegambia region (Senegal and the Gambia) used to have a diverse wildlife including lions , hippopotamus , elephants , antelopes , leopards etc. However, during colonization, the European colonizers such as the French and British killed most of the wildlife particularly the lions, using their body parts as trophies. By the turn of the 20th century, the Senegambia region had lost most of its lion population and other exotic animals due to poaching . By

3024-459: The forest-savanna region, were ultimately acculturated and admixed into the larger groups of West African agriculturalists , akin to the migratory Bantu -speaking agriculturalists and their encounters with Central African hunter-gatherers . The development of the region's economy allowed more centralized states and civilizations to form, beginning with Dhar Tichitt that began in 1600 B.C. followed by Djenné-Djenno beginning in 300 B.C. This

3132-713: The "kingdoms" were graftings atop existing local structures which continued to survive and which influenced the newcomers. Between the 16th and 18th century, several Mandé ethnic groups such as the Koranko , the Susu and the Yalunka also arrived. A Fula ruler styled Fula Mansa seized power south of the Rokel River. Some Temne of the area fled to Banta near the Jong River , and these became known as Mabanta Temne , while

3240-576: The 10th-century Kingdom of Nri , which helped birth the arts and customs of the Igbo people , Bono State in the 11th century, which gave birth to the numerous Akan States, while Ife rose to prominence around the 12th century. Further east, Oyo arose as the dominant Yoruba state and the Aro Confederacy as a dominant Igbo state in modern-day Nigeria. The Kingdom of Nri was a West African medieval state in present-day southeastern Nigeria and

3348-494: The 1930s, the Gambian elephant population became extinct. That phenomenon was not only limited to the Senegambia region but affected much of West Africa as the region lost much of its "natural resources once tied so closely to its cultural identity. Poaching has stolen most of its wildlife." The British issued poaching licenses, and although they would later try to reverse the damage that had been done by attempting to preserve what

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3456-418: The 1950s. Some have identified the two recent decades as a recovery period. Others refer to this as a period of "hydrological intensification" with much of the annual rainfall increase coming from more severe rain events and sometimes flooding rather than more frequent rainfall, or similarly other works underline the continuity of the drought even though the rainfall has increased. Since 1985, 54 percent of

3564-601: The Americas. After the end of the slave trade in the early 19th century , European nations, especially France and Britain , continued to exploit the region through colonial relationships . For example, they continued exporting a number of extractive goods , including labor-intensive agricultural crops like cocoa and coffee , forestry products like tropical timber , and mineral resources like gold. Since independence, many West African countries, like Ivory Coast , Ghana , Nigeria and Senegal , have played important roles in

3672-612: The Atlantic. Due to Mauritania's increasingly close ties to the Arab World and its 1999 withdrawal from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in modern times it is often considered, especially in Africa, as now part of western North Africa . Major and principal cities in West Africa include, geographically eastward: Before European colonisation , West African countries such as those from

3780-568: The British had brought the region under their effective control, and they negotiated a boundary between the French Guinea and British Sierra Leone . The Temne territories went to the British. The British colonial government was directly ruling the Temne lands, enforced their anti-slavery laws, and instituted new taxes to finance their local administration in 1894. This included a hut tax, similar to property tax in vogue in England. This tax

3888-440: The British ignored the petition, assumed that the chiefs lacked mutual cooperation for any serious concerted action, and asked their collectors to proceed forward. Further, the British exempted Freetown and their own officials from having to pay an equivalent tax. By mid-1898, the British assumptions proved wrong, Temne people had refused to pay the new tax and launched a coordinated war. A notable Muslim chief named Bai Bureh sent

3996-543: The Caribbean ( Jamaican Maroons ) and large numbers of Liberated Africans rescued from blockaded slave ships by the Royal Naval Squadron . These efforts had been inspired and financed by philanthropic British abolitionists, African-Americans, and Christian missionaries. Over time, 60,000 such Liberated Africans (many of whom were Yoruba, Ibo, Congolese, Ashanti, Bassa, and other West African groups) joined

4104-464: The Guinea Coast associated with a reduction of the wet spells under both 1.5 °C and 2 °C global warming level. A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone. One of the goals of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is the development of an integrated railroad network. Aims include the extension of railways in member countries,

4212-684: The Guinea Coast, Soudano-Sahel, Sahel (extending eastward to the Ethiopian border) and the Sahara, each with different climatic conditions. The seasonal cycle of rainfall is mainly driven by the south-north movement of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) which is characterised by the confluence between moist southwesterly monsoon winds and the dry northeasterly Harmattan. Based on the inter-annual rainfall variability, three main climatic periods have been observed over

4320-516: The Islamic idea of an eternal paradise or hell. Those who are literate recite Quranic prayers, others offer the daily prayers required in Islam. Those retaining their traditionalist beliefs now categorize them between "Muslim spirits" or "an-yina" (plural "e-yina"), considered good, and non-Islamic spirits or "an-kerfi," often considered bad; while emphasizing the supreme deity "Ala" (Allah) and assigning

4428-625: The Ivory Coast, have lost large areas of their rainforest . In 2005, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ranked Nigeria as the state with the worst deforestation rate in the entire world. Causes include logging, subsistence agriculture , and the collection of fuelwoods. According to a ThoughtCo publication authored Steve Nix (2018), almost 90 percent of West Africa's original rainforest has been destroyed, and

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4536-645: The Maroons and Nova Scotian settlers to claim Freetown as their home. But this fast-growing center of newly resettled men, women, and children was regarded ambivalently by the Temne. Upon resettlement, the Liberated Africans intermarried with the Nova Scotian Settlers and Jamaican Maroons, and the two groups developed a unique set of customs and culture based on the fusion of western traditions and their diverse African ethnic heritages into

4644-531: The Niger River basin between eastern Ghana and western Nigeria (northern Benin), rice ( oryza glaberrima ) in the Inner Niger Delta region of Mali, pearl millet ( cenchrus americanus ) in northern Mali and Mauritania, and cowpeas in northern Ghana. After having persisted as late as 1000 BP, or some period of time after 1500 CE, remaining West African hunter-gatherers, many of whom dwelt in

4752-464: The Portuguese to colonize the region. This handbook also described Temne society and culture in the 16th century. The text mentions villages, their courts of justice, and lawyers who represented different parties while wearing "grotesque masks", with the chief presiding. Culprits convicted of serious crimes, claimed de Almada, were killed or enslaved. He also described the rituals of chief's succession involving goat blood and rice flour, marriage dances, and

4860-597: The Sahel: the wet period from 1950 to the early 1960s followed by a dry period from 1972 to 1990 and then the period from 1991 onwards which has seen a partial rainfall recovery. During the dry period, the Sahel experienced a number of particularly severe drought events, with devastating effects. The recent decades, have also witnessed a moderate increment in annual rainfall since the beginning of 1990s. However, total annual rainfall remains significantly below that observed during

4968-567: The Sahelian region resulted in seasonal interaction with and gradual absorption of West African hunter-gatherers, who primarily dwelt in the savannas and forests of West Africa. In West Africa, which may have been a major regional cradle in Africa for the domestication of crops and animals, Niger-Congo speakers domesticated the helmeted guineafowl between 5500 BP and 1300 BP; domestication of field crops occurred throughout various locations in West Africa, such as yams (d. praehensilis) in

5076-889: The Temne consider their ancestral home to be the Fouta Djallon highlands in the interior of present-day Guinea. In the 15th century, their region was dominated by Fulani causing a southern migration of the Temne to northwest Sierra Leone. Following their migration they came into contact with the Limba people , the Temnes fought and forced the Limba northeast and the Bullom southwards. The Limba, according to Alexander Kup, had settled in Sierra Leone at some point before 1400 CE invading land then-inhabited possibly by Gbandi people pushing them eastwards into Liberia . The Temne started resettling in

5184-465: The Temne people and the Mende people have often competed for powers of representation, being the two largest ethnic groups with each representing about 30% to 35% of the nation's population. Temne originally practiced a traditional polytheistic religion which included belief in a Supreme Being . Following their migration from their ancestral home of Guinea, triggered by invasions from neighboring Fulani in

5292-603: The Temne who accepted the Fula Mansa were called Yoni Temne . The precise origins of the Mane remain intensely debated. The Mane would eventually subsume into the Temne and Bullom peoples, in addition to forming the Loko ethnic group. The earliest mention of Temne and other ethnic groups of Sierra Leone are in the records of Portuguese financed explorers such as those of Valentim Fernandes and Pacheco Pereira who were traveling along

5400-558: The Temne, because it triggered slave raids and the sale of war captives into the Transatlantic Slave Trade, plus generated a major influx of Susu and Yalunka people from the north and west. It also marked the rise of the Solima Yalunka kings. The Temne king Naimbana (also spelled Nembgana) of the Kingdom of Koya was hostile to slave trading until his death in 1793. These wars brought European slave traders to

5508-514: The West African regions underwent an increase in the numeracy level throughout the 19th century. The reason for such a growth was predetermined by a number of factors. Namely, the peanut production and trade, which was boosted by the demand of the colonial states . Importantly, the rise of numeracy was higher in the regions which were less hierarchical and had less dependence on the slavery trade (e.g. Sine and Salum). Whereas areas with

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5616-592: The archaeology of the city of Kumbi Saleh in modern-day Mauritania, the Mali empire came to dominate much of the region until its defeat by Almoravid invaders in 1052. Three great kingdoms were identified in Bilad al-Sudan by the ninth century. They included Ghana, Gao and Kanem . The Sosso Empire sought to fill the void but was defeated ( c.  1240 ) by the Mandinka forces of Sundiata Keita , founder of

5724-572: The coast of Africa to find a route to India and China. Pereira's memoirs written between 1505 and 1508 mention Temne words for gold ("tebongo"), water ("'mant 'mancha") and rice ("nack maloo," borrowed from Mandinka). The Portuguese records describe the culture and religion of the Temne people that their ships met as communities living near water, worshippers of idols made of clay, and men having their gods, while women had their own"." A Portuguese citizen from Cape Verde named André Álvares de Almada wrote an extensive handbook on Sierra Leone in 1594, urging

5832-533: The coast of Sierra Leone which is also connected to its navigable rivers. The trading of various goods as well as slave raiding, capture, holding and trade between Temne lands and interior West Africa was already in vogue before the first European explorers arrived. Portuguese were already trading gold, ivory, wood, pepper, and slaves by the 17th century, while the British, Dutch and French colonial powers joined this trade later. The slaves were held in Temne clans as agriculture workers and domestic servants, and they formed

5940-655: The coastal capital city of Freetown . Although Temne speakers live mostly in the Northern Province, they also can be found in a number of other West African countries as well, including Guinea and The Gambia . Some Temnes have migrated beyond West Africa seeking educational and professional opportunities in countries such as Great Britain, the United States, and Egypt. Temnes are primarily composed of scholars, business people, farmers, and coastal fishermen. Most Temnes are Muslim. The Temne people speak Temne ,

6048-515: The colony of Guinea-Bissau , while Germany claimed Togoland , but was forced to divide it between France and Britain following First World War due to the Treaty of Versailles . Only Liberia retained its independence, at the price of major territorial concessions. Following World War II , nationalist movements arose across West Africa. In 1957, Ghana, under Kwame Nkrumah , became the first West African colony to achieve its independence, followed

6156-498: The coming years. In the mid 16th century, a Mandé army from the east, referred to as the Mane or Mani, invaded and conquered the Temne lands, with the general Farma Tami becoming the ruler of the Temne. His capital Robaga by the Sierra Leone River, now near Freetown , became holy and an economic center for the Temne. The Mane generals and captains divided Sierra Leone between themselves into four principal "kingdoms", with several subdivisions within each. However, Kenneth C. Wylie states,

6264-401: The earliest pottery in Africa – by at least 9400 BCE, and along with their pottery, as well as wielding independently invented bows and arrows , migrated into the Central Sahara, which became their primary region of residence by 10,000 BP. The emergence and expansion of ceramics in the Sahara may be linked with the origin of Round Head and Kel Essuf rock art, which occupy rockshelters in

6372-451: The early 15th century, the Temne resettled in northern Sierra Leone. There the Temne came into renewed contact with Muslims as Islam's influence grew in West Africa. Estimates vary between when Temne began converting to Islam . The 15th-century Portuguese explorers and traders recorded contacts with Muslim peoples. Early traders, warriors and holy men brought Islam into the Temne area by way of other ethnic groups. According to John Shoup, Islam

6480-456: The end of colonialism, the region has been the stage for some brutal conflicts, including: Geopolitically , the United Nations definition of subregion Western Africa includes the preceding states with the addition of Mauritania (which withdrew from ECOWAS in 1999), comprising an area of approximately 6.1 million square km. The UN region also includes the United Kingdom Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha in

6588-695: The entire region; and fifth, the post-independence era, in which the current nations were formed. West African populations were considerably mobile and interacted with one another throughout the population history of West Africa . Acheulean tool-using archaic humans may have dwelled throughout West Africa since at least between 780,000 BP and 126,000 BP ( Middle Pleistocene ). During the Pleistocene , Middle Stone Age peoples (e.g., Iwo Eleru people , possibly Aterians ), who dwelled throughout West Africa between MIS 4 and MIS 2 , were gradually replaced by incoming Late Stone Age peoples , who migrated into West Africa as an increase in humid conditions resulted in

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6696-479: The establishment of Freetown. The villages granted by the Temne king for resettlement of freed slaves of all ethnic groups, was modeled to include Christian missions and Churches of various denominations such as Methodist and Baptist. The Church Missionary Society founded in London in 1799, made Freetown as one of its major African bases. The Methodist missionaries from the Wesleyan Missionary Society arrived in Freetown in 1811. These and other missions began proselytizing

6804-422: The first human settlers arrived, developed agriculture , and made contact with peoples to the north; the second, the Iron Age empires that consolidated both intra-Africa, and extra-Africa trade, and developed centralized states; third, major polities flourished, which would undergo an extensive history of contact with non-Africans; fourth, the colonial period, in which Great Britain and France controlled nearly

6912-579: The fruit and seeds are used for drinks and oils. West Africa is greatly affected by deforestation and has one of the worst deforestation rate. Even "the beloved baobab tree" which is viewed as sacred by some West African cultures are under threat due to climate change , urbanization and population growth. "Huge swaths of forest are being razed to clear space for palm oil and cocoa plantations. Mangroves are being killed off by pollution. Even wispy acacias are hacked away for use in cooking fires to feed growing families." Nigeria, Liberia, Guinea, Ghana and

7020-408: The human population relies. West Africa is west of an imagined north-south axis lying close to 10° east longitude . The Atlantic Ocean forms the western as well as the southern borders of the West African region. The northern border is the Sahara Desert , with the Ranishanu Bend generally considered the northernmost part of the region. The eastern border is less precise, with some placing it at

7128-444: The hut tax but against a host of laws that had challenged the embedded social systems within the Temne society. Bai Bureh was partly a descendant of the Loko people , became one of the chiefs of Temne people, and led a key role in coordinating the military response to the British. His role in challenging the British laws in his times, and its effect on Temne people, has been widely studied. After Sierra Leone became independent in 1961,

7236-453: The intercession of patrilineal ancestral spirits, and sacrifices are offered to them when requesting for help. Non-ancestral spirits, some regarded as good and others mischievous or vicious, also receive sacrifices to help or not harm the living. Chiefdoms partake in secret societies such as the men's Poro , Ragbenle or Ramena , and the women's Bondo . Like with the introduction of Islam centuries later, this institution of societies

7344-649: The interconnection of previously isolated railways and the standardization of gauge, brakes, couplings, and other parameters. The first line would connect the cities and ports of Lagos , Cotonou , Lomé and Accra and would allow the largest container ships to focus on a smaller number of large ports, while efficiently serving a larger hinterland . This line connects 3 ft 6 in ( 1,067 mm ) gauge and 1,000 mm ( 3 ft  3 + 3 ⁄ 8  in ) metre gauge systems, which would require four rail dual gauge , which can also provide standard gauge . The Trans–West African Coastal Highway

7452-464: The lowest subservient layer of the social strata. Enslaved women served as domestic workers, wives and concubines. Among some clans of the Temne, there were endogamous castes of artisans and musicians. The terminology of this social stratification system and the embedded hierarchy may have been adopted among the Temne from the nearby Mandinka people, Fula people and Susu people. The caste hierarchy and social stratification has been more well established in

7560-408: The mid-17th to the late 18th century, holding sway not only over most of the other kingdoms in Yorubaland , but also over nearby African states, notably the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey in the modern Republic of Benin to the west. The Benin Empire was a post-classical empire located in what is now southern Nigeria . Its capital was Edo, now known as Benin City , Edo . It should not be confused with

7668-474: The modern-day country called Benin , formerly called Dahomey . The Benin Empire was "one of the oldest and most highly developed states in the coastal hinterland of West Africa, dating perhaps to the eleventh century CE". The Benin Empire was governed by a sovereign Emperor with hundreds of thousands of soldiers and a powerful council rich in resources, wealth, ancient science and technology with cities described as beautiful and large as Haarlem . " Olfert Dapper ,

7776-655: The new Mali Empire. The Mali Empire continued to flourish for several centuries, most particularly under Sundiata's grandnephew Musa I , before a succession of weak rulers led to its collapse under Mossi , Tuareg and Songhai invaders. In the 15th century, the Songhai would form a new dominant state based on Gao , in the Songhai Empire , under the leadership of Sonni Ali and Askia Mohammed . Meanwhile, south of Sudan, strong city-states arose in Igboland , such as

7884-601: The newly settled slaves, the Susu people and the Temne people in their neighborhood. The presence of Christianity grew as it opened centers of higher education and model schools for children in the 20th century. Christianity among the Temne has had its largest adherents in the Freetown area and southeastern region of the Temne region. Temne traditional religion involves belief in a Supreme Being and Creator referred to as Kuru Masaba, followed in rank by lesser deities. The term Masaba

7992-806: The newly-freed Black Nova Scotians who founded Freetown in 1792, as a resettlement for former slaves liberated by abolition activists, as well as a center of economic activity between the Europeans and the ethnic groups of Sierra Leone including the Temne people. The French attacked and burned Freetown in September 1794 during the War of the First Coalition . The city was rebuilt by the Black Nova Scotian settlers and by 1798, Freetown had between 300-400 houses with architecture resembling that of

8100-514: The next year by France's colonies (Guinea in 1958 under the leadership of President Ahmed Sekou Touré); by 1974, West Africa's nations were entirely autonomous. Since independence, many West African nations have been submerged under political instability, with notable civil wars in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ivory Coast, and a succession of military coups in Ghana and Burkina Faso . Since

8208-632: The northern part of the Pamoronkoh River (today is known as the Rokel River ). They followed the Rokel River from its upper reaches to the Sierra Leone River , the giant estuary of the Rokel River, and Port Loko Creek , one of the largest natural harbors in the African continent. This re-settlement remained precarious, as more ethnic groups arrived in the region to escape wars and jihads, and as wars began inside Sierra Leone in

8316-541: The northern parts of Temne territories. West African West Africa , also called Western Africa , is the westernmost region of Africa . The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin , Burkina Faso , Cape Verde , The Gambia , Ghana , Guinea , Guinea-Bissau , Ivory Coast , Liberia , Mali , Mauritania , Niger , Nigeria , Senegal , Sierra Leone , and Togo , as well as Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha ( United Kingdom Overseas Territory ). The population of West Africa

8424-490: The number of registered trawlers operating in African waters, increase the monitoring and control and set up regional fisheries organizations. Some steps have already been taken in the form of WARFP (the World Bank's West Africa Regional Fisheries Program which empowers west-African countries (i.e. Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cape Verde, and Senegal) with information, training and monitoring systems. Furthermore, Liberia enacted

8532-453: The opposite trends illustrated opposite tendencies (e.g. central and northern Senegal). Those patterns were further even more stimulated by the French colonial campaign. Britain controlled the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria throughout the colonial era, while France unified Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Ivory Coast, and Niger into French West Africa . Portugal founded

8640-534: The polygynous households of the Muslim chiefs and landholders. These Temne chiefs also opposed the Christian missionary efforts to end all slave trading, slave exports and resettle the slaves freed from slave ships, plantations and domestic situations. The early start did not, however, trigger mass conversions. The most significant presence and expansion of Christianity within the Temne territories began in 1787, with

8748-400: The population has been affected by five or more floods in the 17 Sahel region countries. In 2012, severe drought conditions in the Sahel were reported. Governments in the region responded quickly, launching strategies to address the issue. The region is projected to experience changes in rainfall regime, with climate models suggesting that decreases in wet season rainfall are more likely in

8856-452: The ports of the region to buy slaves from African chiefs and slave merchants, but it also brought the navies of the European colonial powers interested in safeguarding their interests in Sierra Leone. The Temne king, Naimbanna II , opposed slave trading but supported other trade and amicable relations with the European powers. He allowed the British to remain in the peninsula which had been ceded to them by his sub-chief, Tom . Naimbana signed

8964-521: The region's wildlife populations, there are still some protected nature reserves within the region. Some of these include: West Africa is also home to several baobab trees and other plant life . Some baobab trees are several centuries old and form part of the local folklore, for example, a mythical baobab tree named Ngoye njuli in Senegal which is regarded as a sacred site by the Serer . The tree itself

9072-524: The regional and global economies. West Africa has a rich ecology , with strong biodiversity and several distinct regions. The area's climate and ecology are heavily influenced by the dry Sahara to the north and east, which provides dry winds during the Harmattan , as well as the Atlantic Ocean to the south and west, which provides seasonal monsoons. This mixture of climates gives West Africa

9180-453: The rest is "heavily fragmented and in a degraded state, being poorly used." Overfishing is a major issue in West Africa. Besides reducing fish stocks in the region, it also threatens food security and the livelihoods of many coastal communities that largely depend on artisanal fishing . The overfishing generally comes from foreign trawlers operating in the region. To combat the overfishing, Greenpeace has recommended countries reduce

9288-446: The road: The capitals' airports include: Of the sixteen, the most important hub and entry point to West Africa are Kotoka International Airport , and Murtala Muhammed International Airport , offering many international connections. Sierra Leone River The river separates Freetown , Sierra Leone's capital city, which is on the south side of the harbor, from the country's principal airport, Lungi International Airport , which

9396-434: The said locality who were Temne people. The Temne, who refused to convert to Islam, were massively conquered from their region, which resulted in forced migration to northwest Sierra Leone. According to Bankole Taylor, the migration of the Temne to present-day Sierra Leone goes far back as the 11th and 12th century, Mainly due to the fall of Jallonkadu Empire in what eventually became Futa Jallon . According to oral tradition,

9504-736: The same regions (e.g., Djado , Acacus , Tadrart ). Hunters in the Central Sahara farmed, stored, and cooked undomesticated central Saharan flora , underwent domestication of antelope , and domesticated and shepherded Barbary sheep . After the Kel Essuf Period and Round Head Period of the Central Sahara, the Pastoral Period followed. Some of the hunter-gatherers who created the Round Head rock art may have adopted pastoral culture, and others may have not. As

9612-899: The south Atlantic Ocean . In the United Nations scheme of African regions , the region of Western Africa includes 16 states and the United Kingdom Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha : Mali , Burkina Faso , Senegal and the Niger are mostly in the Sahel , a transition zone between the Sahara desert and the Sudanian Savanna ; Benin , Ivory Coast , The Gambia , Ghana , Guinea , Guinea-Bissau , Liberia , Sierra Leone , Togo and Nigeria compose most of Guinea ,

9720-422: The southeastern parts of Temne territory (central Sierra Leone), according to Shaw's personal account, the conversion of Temne people have been semi-Islamic where people have syncretized Islam with traditional religious ideas rather than abandoning them outright. These southeastern Temne believe in spirits and divination by believing that their ancestral spirits reside in a transitional region before proceeding to

9828-538: The subsequent expansion of the West African forest . West African hunter-gatherers occupied western Central Africa (e.g., Shum Laka ) earlier than 32,000 BP, dwelled throughout coastal West Africa by 12,000 BP, and migrated northward between 12,000 BP and 8000 BP as far as Mali, Burkina Faso, and Mauritania. During the Holocene , Niger-Congo speakers independently created pottery in Ounjougou , Mali –

9936-400: The tax directly from the people. This triggered a Temne response that historians call as a rebellion or Hut tax war of 1898. Between the time Britain announced the tax and it becomes effective, the organized opposition against it grew. Many Temne chiefs told the British that their people would not accept it. These Temne chiefs petitioned Sierra Leone's protectorate governor to repeal it. Still,

10044-552: The trade between Sierra Leone and the Europe. However, the Temne kingdom of Koya was engaged in regional wars between 1807 and 1888, such as with the Loko, Mende and Susu rulers. The British intervened between the 1830s to 1870s, arranged numerous cease fires to help stabilize the socio-economic situation and trade. The treaties between the different rulers in and around the Temne lands were erratic and intermittent. The ongoing wars between

10152-661: The traditional name for the area near the Gulf of Guinea ; Mauritania lies in the Maghreb , the northwestern region of Africa that has historically been inhabited by West African groups such as the Fulani , Soninke , Wolof , Serer and Toucouleur people , along with Arab-Berber Maghrebi people such as the Tuareg ; Cape Verde is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean ; and Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha consists of eight main islands located in four different parts of

10260-459: The treaty in 1788 giving this land to the colonists. This may have been done unwittingly, since he was illiterate and may not have realized that the British intended to take permanent possession of the territory. Some of his later actions indicate that he was happy with the presence of the colony in his territory. In 1785, he also granted a French officer land on Gambia Island, close to what is now Hastings . Naimbana provided land and labor to help

10368-553: The various ethnic groups, along with the military action from the north by the Futa Jalon Almamate into the Temne territories, threatened the Sierra Leone-related economic interests of the European colonial powers. The French and the British then intervened militarily, with the French expanding into Guinea in the early 1880s and the British expanding from the south through Freetown. In 1889, the French and

10476-470: The western Maghreb) is composed of semi-arid terrain known as Sahel , a transitional zone between the Sahara and the West Sudanian savanna . Forests form a belt between the savannas and the southern coast, ranging from 160 km to 240 km in width. The northwest African region of Mauritania periodically suffers country-wide plagues of locusts which consume water, salt and crops on which

10584-545: The western Sahel, and increases more likely in the central to east Sahel, although opposite trends cannot yet be ruled out. These trends will affect the frequency and severity of floods, droughts, desertification , sand and dust storms, desert locust plagues and water shortages. However, irrespective of the changes in seasonal mean rain, the most intense storms are expected to become more intense, amplifying flood frequency. Enhanced carbon emissions and global warming may also lead to an increase in dry spells especially across

10692-484: Was Muslim", while Sundkler and Steed state "most of the Temne people have become Muslim". Christian missionaries first came to Sierra Leone with the Portuguese in the 17th century. These missionaries wrote that Temne people and their king worshipped idols. The memoirs of Jesuit Barreira state that he had converted and baptized the first group in 1607. According to Vernon Dorjahn, early Christian missions were opposed by Temne elites because it insisted on monogamy, compared to

10800-517: Was a Yoruba empire of what is today Western, North Central Nigeria and Southern Republic of Benin . Established in the 14th century, the Oyo Empire grew to become one of the largest West African states. It rose through the outstanding organizational skills of the Yoruba, wealth gained from trade and its powerful cavalry . The Oyo Empire was the most politically important state in the region from

10908-409: Was adopted through contact with Muslim traders from neighboring ethnic groups. Though most Temne converted to Islam over time, Some have continued with their traditional religion. The Temne are traditionally farmers, growing rice, cassava , millet and kola nut . Their cash crops include peanuts and tobacco. Some Temne are fisherman, artisans and traders. Temne society is patrilineal . It has featured

11016-420: Was borrowed from the Mandinka phrase mansa ba which means "the big king". The term Kuru means God, and is cognate with the word kur which suggests "old age", but Kuru also means "sky" or literally "the abode of God". The resulting Kuru Masaba means God Almighty to differentiate it from lesser deities. According to Taylor, the Temne believe that Kuru Masaba cannot be approached directly but only through

11124-499: Was brought in the 17th century by Mende traders from the south, and according to Rosalind Shaw it was brought beginning in the 18th century, by the Susu from the north and the Mandinka and Fulani from the northeast. The conversions among Temne to Islam progressed through the 18th and 19th century. In the northern parts of Sierra Leone, close to Futa Djallon, the conversions were near complete, and chiefdoms were Islamic. However, in

11232-430: Was hostile to slave trading until his death in 1793, because his Temne people had been victims to slave raiding and suffered from destroyed families. Slavery and slave trade thrived in some of the Temne territories, in part because it was well connected to two centers of slave demand and markets, the first being Futa Jallon and Niger valley region, and second being the deepest and largest natural harbor of Africa that forms

11340-716: Was introduced to the region by Mandé peoples . The largest of these societies are the Poro and Bondo which are found in the west, while the smaller Ragbenle is found in the east of Temne territory. According to Kenneth Little, writing in the 60s, even the prevalence of Poro societies was more widespread among Mende than Temne. These practices include secret initiation ceremonies, which are rites of passage for young boys and girls. The Temne are traditionally farmers of staples such as rice and cassava, fishermen , and traders. The cash crops include cotton, peanuts, palm and kola nuts. The Temne clans have been numerous, each independent, divided as

11448-499: Was left of the local wildlife, but by that time, it was too late. During the 1930s, the elephant population in the Gold Coast was about 300, and Sierra Leone between 500 and 600. Although a small number of elephants survived in Nigeria, hunting, agricultural expansion and clearing of forest in that country drastically affected its wildlife population, particularly elephants. Despite the historical damage that has been done to

11556-625: Was then succeeded by the Ghana Empire that first flourished roughly between the 2nd and 12th centuries C.E., which later gave way to the Mali Empire . In current-day Mauritania, there exist archaeological sites in the towns of Tichit and Oualata that were initially constructed around 2000 B.C., and were found to have originated from the Soninke branch of the Mandé peoples . Also, based on

11664-568: Was to become effective on January 1, 1898. A similar tax had existed in Sierra Leone before 1872, which the British Governor John Pope Hennessy had abolished within the Sierra Leone colony then ceded by the Temne king to the British. The French, too, introduced a similar tax in Guinea, at the same, but required the chiefs to collect it. The new tax by the British reversed their old decision, and they decided to collect

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