Nyarroh of Bandasuma, 1885-1914: A Re-Interpretation of Female Chieftaincy in Sierra Leone

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Periodical article

Title:	Nyarroh of Bandasuma, 1885-1914: A Re-Interpretation of Female Chieftaincy in Sierra Leone
Author:	Day, Lynda R.
Year:	2007
Periodical:	The Journal of African History
Volume:	48
Issue:	3
Period:	November
Pages:	415-437
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Sierra Leone
Subjects:	women rulers colonial history Mende Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Women's Issues History and Exploration Cultural Roles Historical/Biographical Sex Roles
About person:	Nyarroh
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/40206588
Abstract:	This study examines Nyarroh, a woman chief situated at the cusp of colonial penetration in what is today southern Sierra Leone. Nyarroh ruled a large, strategically located town and its surrounding villages from about 1880 to 1914. The documents which outline her public life have not previously been explored, yet they reveal the flexibility of gendered notions of political power and leadership in the region. Her life story allows us to look backward to precolonial Mendeland and forward to the colonial era, to consider the extent to which women's leadership and prerogatives were maintained or re-invented through colonial penetration and the nascent colonial State. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]