The othering of religions alternative to Christianity in Sierra Leone

Context

This document was written by Orishatukeh Faduma. Faduma was a Christian missionary who moved to Sierra Leone when he was seven. He received his education via Christian school in Sierra Leone moreover he later attended Yale and the University of London eventually settling down in Troy, North Carolina. During this time he worked as an instructor teaching Latin, ancient and modern history, and English literature and later taught at Theological Seminary and College. However, later in his life, Faduma decided to return to Sierra Leone to do missionary work. During this time spent as a missionary Faduma also wrote for the Sierra Leone Weekly News, where this piece comes from. This period was a turbulent time for Sierra Leone as you began to see the emergence of more anti-colonial ideas and even some rebellions from the people of this colony. A lot of this discontent was sown by Creole people and Muslim elites. The creole people were the descendants of former enslaved people who once freed settled in Sierra Leone. Faduma himself was Creole and took the name Orishatukeh Faduma in an attempt to exist in both the African and European worlds.

This piece was part of a series of articles where Faduma responds to Khalil’s Musulman code from the French of N. Seignette which was a guide to Maliki Law, the law of Islam commonly found in this area of Africa. In writing this I believe Faduma is attempting to other the religion of Islam creating a rift between the Creole Africans and the muslim leaders. However, as Faduma’s audience is well-educated men who most likely have some knowledge of Islam he has to be very particular about the way he discusses its ideas. Furthermore, I believe he is seemingly trying to lead these Muslim leaders away from Islam.

Source

Analysis 

To start this article Orishatukeh Faduma employs a strategy of acknowledging ideas of Islam that have evolved with time. He discusses how in Islamic law debt slavery has become banned and how alms are raised as “a positive obligation.” However, he undermines all of these compliments as he starts the article by referring to the followers of Islam as a primitive people which shows the belief that yes the followers of Islam have improved; however, they are still inherently beneath the believers of Christianity. This is directly comparable to what is shown in Queering Colonial Natal. This book looks at the settler colony of natal and the ways in which settler colonists othered the native Africans. One of the main ways they accomplished this was by creating a social order that allowed native Africans to advance by attempting to be more “western.” However they inherently could not reach the same social standing as the colonists.

Furthermore, Faduma discusses the “Restrictions to the Liberty of Transactions”. I think this part of the article was specifically pointed at the Muslim elite living in Sierra Leone. Many of these elites were also businessmen interested in protecting their wealth. Therefore  Islamic codes restricting the trade and circulation of certain raw materials would not be in the interest of the muslim elite. Furthermore these codes also “abolish interest on capital”. Fudama in his next paragraph discusses these restrictions. He decides to portray this code as if it is going to allow people to take money from those who rightfully earned it. While not as obvious as in Natal this article can offer insight into the way and reasons groups were othered in colonial Africa. Furthermore, as the reader of this newspaper is most likely educated it is interesting to see the methods of backhanded compliments and drawing attention away from the positives.