Public authority and its demons
The Sherbro leopard murders in Sierra Leone
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2103638 |
|---|---|
| Authors | P Richards (0000-0001-5813-0228, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 91 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 226-248 |
| Publication date | 2021-02-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Africa (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0001-9720 • E-ISSN: 1750-0184 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0001972021000048 |
| OpenAlex | W3133502264 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 38 |
Demonization is a widespread aspect of political discourse. We are familiar with the demonization of Brussels bureaucrats as a tool for pursuing the British exit from the European Union, and we take stories about the compulsory straightening of bananas with a pinch of salt, however frustrating it might be that some disaffected voters choose to accept these canards as true. But somehow, stories about the demonic in Africa have been accorded much greater ontological respect, not only by colonial powers keen to boost their own legitimacy through claims to a civilizing mission, but also by anthropologists anxious to understand their informants' imaginative concerns, perhaps without fully appreciating the political craft or guile with which these discourses are invested. In seeking to void the charge of delusion, an empathetic reading of demonization risks missing the strategic significance of mythic interventions intended to extract political advantage. This article examines an instance of mythic creativity in the politics of late nineteenth-century interior Sierra Leone as an example of the stagecraft sometimes implicit in African public authority. The case is that of the human leopard, an avatar of commercially compromised chieftaincy. The article asks whether the alleged activities of these leopards were the straight bananas of a certain form of anti-colonial political resistance. In a concluding discussion, some consequences for understanding current forms and practices of local public authority are inferred
Colonialism · Demonization · Ethnology · Legitimacy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sierra leone · Sociology · African Studies and Ethnography · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Cambodian History and Society · Law
The history of Sierra Leone
In the Wilderness
Africa as a Living Laboratory
The modernity of witchcraft
Modernity and its malcontents
Indigenous Agricultural Revolution
The Man-Leopard Murders
Four cultures
Mutiny on the Amistad
Topics in Sierra Leone History
A Transformed Colony
Large-scale land deals in Sierra Leone at the intersection of gender and lineage
Mende Government and Politics under Colonial Rule. A Historical Study of Political Change in Sierra Leone 1890-1937
The Underneath of ThingsViolence, History, and the Everyday in Sierra Leone
Who were the Vai
Technology, Trade and ‘A Race of Native Capitalists’
Underneath of Things
Ritual and Its Consequences
Cannibals and Tongo Players of Sierra Leone
Peasant grievance and insurgency in Sierra Leone
Who believes in witches? Institutional flux in Sierra Leone
A Transformed Colony
Cannibalism and African Historiography
Mende Government and Politics under Colonial Rule
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
African Political Systems
Sorcery accusations unleashed
The 'leopard' killings of southern Annang, Nigeria, 1943-48
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |