Societies and Stool : Sierra Leone!

Michael A. Gomen discussed about the different societies of Sierra Leone and Liberia in chapter five of his book, “Exchanging our Country Marks.” There was a vast number of different ethnicities and other collective groupings that made up Sierra Leone and Liberia. However, Gomen mentioned that many people in Sierra Leone did not see themselves as different ethnicities during the period of the slave trade (Gomen, 89). Instead, there were many groups that developed a shared identity. This is interesting to me because they contributed to the slave trade of about 29% of their own people. Also, similar to the reading about the Saltwater Frontier, I was surprised at the advancement of Africans. Like the Natives, they are often portrayed as primitive and barbaric. Instead, they had structure and systems set up within their own societies.

The English and the Dutch were the first traders to arrive at Sierra Leone, followed by the Portuguese and the Spaniards. Gomen discussed about the different groups and their social structures that existed in the Sierra Leone. As Viktoriya Shalunova mentioned, he also talked about how some of their structures migrated towards the New World during the slave trade. For example, the rice cultivation and cotton in North America was primarily the contribution of women from Sierra Leone (Gomen, 94). This chapter provided a unique view on the societies in which Africans lived. Their advancements and civilizations are often neglected because people tend to stereotype that they are “backward” people.