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HUMAN LEOPARDS


[Illustration: SACKVILLE STREET, FREETOWN.]


HUMAN LEOPARDS

An Account of the Trials of Human Leopards Before the Special
Commission Court; With a Note on Sierra Leone, Past and Present

by

K. J. BEATTY

Of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law for Some Years Resident in
Sierra Leone

With a Preface by Sir William Brandford Griffith

33 Illustrations






London
Hugh Rees, Ltd.
5 Regent Street, Pall Mall, S.W.
1915

Printed by
Hazell, Watson and Viney, Ld.,
London and Aylesbury.




                                PREFACE


Captain Beatty, just before leaving for the Dardanelles, asked me to
write a preface. I think that the best preface will be to answer, as far
as I am able, several questions which were frequently put to me on my
return to civilization after the conclusion of the Special Commission
Court. These questions were, “What was the object of the Human Leopard
Society? Were its members cannibals for the purpose of satisfying an
appetite for human flesh, or was it some religious rite? Would the
sentences inflicted by the Special Commission Court have the effect of
stamping out the horrible practice?”

The first question can be answered with some confidence. The trend of
the whole evidence showed that the prime object of the Human Leopard
Society was to secure human fat wherewith to anoint the Borfima. The
witnesses told us how the occasion of a murder is used to “blood” the
Borfima, but the potency of this terrible fetish depends upon its being
frequently supplied with human fat. Hence these murders.

The question as to cannibalism it is not possible to answer with any
degree of certainty. The Commission sat for over five months, had before
it hundreds of witnesses, and the notes of evidence ran into thousands
of pages; but the Court was a judicial tribunal, and it was anxious to
bring its labours to an end as speedily as possible, so that no question
was asked or allowed by the Court which was not relevant to the issue.
Again and again answers given by witnesses opened up avenues which it
would have been most interesting to investigate, but, unless the
investigation was relevant to the case in hand or would have served to
elucidate some other part of the evidence which was doubtful, the Court
could not allow it to be pursued. Nor would it have been seemly for the
members of the Court to make private investigation into a matter before
them judicially. Consequently we could not probe down and ascertain the
reason of things, but had to be content with the bare facts which came
out by way of evidence.

Moreover, although it was possible to have a fair idea as to whether a
witness was generally speaking the truth or not, it was extremely
difficult to lay one’s finger on any detail and be satisfied as to its
reasonable correctness. Furthermore, whenever a witness approached
cannibalism he palpably made reservations or additions, whilst at all
the more interesting junctures we had to keep severely in mind that we
were not holding a scientific inquiry but were a judicial tribunal
having as the sole issue before us whether the deceased was murdered by
the prisoners in the dock in connection with an unlawful society.
Consequently, notwithstanding the time spent over the different trials,
and despite the fact that whenever the subject of cannibalism came up
the Court was keenly on the alert to fathom its objects, it is not
possible to state definitely why the members of the Human Leopard
Society ate their victims. There was, however, one outstanding fact: all
the principal offenders were men of mature age, past their prime; they
were the ones who, so to speak, managed the concern, who arranged for
victims, and who received the most coveted portions of the slaughtered
bodies; and I formed the opinion that when they devoured the human flesh
the idea uppermost in their minds was that they were increasing their
virile powers.

There is no sentence in the notes of evidence which I can quote in
support of this theory, but after an extended experience of the point of
view of the West African mind, and with some acquaintance with the
subject on the spot, I venture the opinion that the Human Leopards eat
the flesh of their victims, not to satisfy any craving for human flesh
nor in connection with any religious rite, but in the belief that their
victims’ flesh will increase their virility.

Whether that was the original idea when the first person fell a victim
to the Human Leopards may be questioned. Cannibalism is probably only a
bye-product in these murders. Originally it may have been to bind the
murderers together and so preserve inviolable secrecy that each member
of the Society partook of a portion of the flesh; or it may have been to
continue the leopard-acting, i.e. by devouring the prey; or it may have
been with a combination of these ideas that cannibalism originated.
Gradually, however, the notion arose that human flesh had specific
virtues; as the Borfima’s energy was replenished with human fat so would
the cannibal be reinvigorated with other parts of the human body; and
possibly during the last few decades the value placed upon human flesh
was equal to or even exceeded that set upon human fat. Such an
explanation would help to account for the expansion and increased
activity of the Society during the past twenty years.

Then comes the question whether the punishments inflicted by the Special
Commission Court will have the effect of stamping out the Society. In
considering this question the environment of the people must be taken
into account. I have been in many forests, but in none which seemed to
me to be so uncanny as the Sierra Leone bush. In Mende-land the bush is
not high, as a rule it is little more than scrub, nor is the vegetation
exceptionally rank, but there is something about the Sierra Leone bush,
and about the bush villages as well, which makes one’s flesh creep. It
may be the low hills with enclosed swampy valleys, or the associations
of the slave trade, or the knowledge that the country is alive with
Human Leopards; but to my mind the chief factor in the uncanniness is
the presence of numerous half-human chimpanzees with their maniacal
shrieks and cries. The bush seemed to me pervaded with something
supernatural, a spirit which was striving to bridge the animal and the
human. Some of the weird spirit of their surroundings has, I think,
entered into the people, and accounts for their weird customs. The
people are by no means a low, savage race. I found many of them highly
intelligent, shrewd, with more than the average sense of humour, and
with the most marvellous faculty for keeping hidden what they did not
wish to be known—the result probably of secret societies for countless
generations. But beyond such reasoning powers as are required for their
daily necessities their whole mental energies are absorbed in fetish,
witchcraft, “medicine” such as Borfima and the like. What they need is a
substitute for their bottomless wells of secret societies, for their
playing at being leopards or alligators and acting the part with such
realism that they not only kill their quarry but even devour it. In my
opinion the only way to extirpate these objectionable societies is the
introduction of the four R’s—the fourth, Religion, being specially
needed to supply the place of the native crude beliefs. No doubt the
energetic action of the Government, and in a lesser degree the labours
of the Special Commission Court, will have a good effect; but, I fear,
only a temporary effect. The remedy must go deeper than mere punishment:
the Human Leopard Society must be superseded by Education and Religion.

                                                  W. BRANDFORD GRIFFITH.

 2, ESSEX COURT, TEMPLE,
           _September, 1915_.




                                CONTENTS


                                _PART I_


                                CHAPTER I
                                                                    PAGE

 INTRODUCTORY                                                          1


                               CHAPTER II

 THE PORO, TONGO PLAY, BORFIMA, WITCH-DOCTORS, OATHS                  15


                               CHAPTER III

 THE KALE CASE                                                        27


                               CHAPTER IV

 THE IMPERRI CASE                                                     36


                                CHAPTER V

 THE KABATI CASE                                                      44


                               CHAPTER VI

 THE YANDEHUN CASE                                                    61


                               CHAPTER VII

 BORFIMA AND MEMBERSHIP CASES                                         71


                              CHAPTER VIII

 OTHER CASES OF LEOPARD MURDER; THE HUMAN BABOON SOCIETY              80


                                _PART II_


                               CHAPTER IX

 A NOTE ON SIERRA LEONE, PAST AND PRESENT                             88


                                APPENDIX

 DESPATCH FROM THE GOVERNOR OF SIERRA LEONE REPORTING ON THE         119
   MEASURES ADOPTED TO DEAL WITH UNLAWFUL SOCIETIES IN THE
   PROTECTORATE




                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


 SACKVILLE STREET, FREETOWN                               _Frontispiece_

                                                             FACING PAGE

 VIEW OF FREETOWN                                                      1

 A TEMNE GIRL                                                          3

 OBLIVIOUS OF HUMAN ALLIGATORS                                         9

 PORO DEVILS                                                          15

 ENTRANCE TO A PORO BUSH                                              19

 BUNDU DEVILS, SIERRA LEONE                                           21

 WIVES OF A NATIVE CHIEF                                              25

 A PORO DEVIL                                                         28

 WEAVING COUNTRY CLOTH                                                30

 BUNDU GIRLS AND DEVIL                                                35

 STOCKADE SURROUNDING GBANGBAMA PRISON AND GUARDHOUSE.                38
   PRISONERS AWAITING TRIAL, GBANGBAMA PRISON

 A NATURAL BRIDGE ON THE ROAD TO GBANGBAMA                            43

 A NATIVE VILLAGE                                                     46

 PALM FOREST, SIERRA LEONE                                            51

 A NATIVE VILLAGE                                                     56

 A SELF-CONFESSED CANNIBAL                                            63

 A WATER-SIDE VILLAGE                                                 66

 HINTERLAND TYPES                                                     71

 WEST AFRICAN SOLDIERS                                                74

 THE PRISONERS OF A NATIVE CHIEFTAINESS, CRACKING                     79
   PALM-KERNELS

 LADIES OF THE SIERRA LEONE HINTERLAND                                83

 A NATIVE CHIEFTAINESS                                                85

 EMPIRE DAY IN FREETOWN                                               88

 WHERE HAWKINS MAY HAVE LANDED FOR SLAVES                             90

 THRESHING RICE, SIERRA LEONE PROTECTORATE                            93

 A NATIVE HUNTER                                                      96

 PICKING PALM-KERNELS                                                 99

 THE HIGHLAND OF SIERRA LEONE, WITH HILL STATION IN THE              104
   FOREGROUND

 BUNDU GIRLS AND BUNDU DEVILS                                        111

 COTTON TREE STATION, 9 A.M. BUNGALOW TRAIN, FREETOWN                115

 FREETOWN FROM THE HARBOUR                                           117

 VIEW FROM GOVERNMENT HOUSE, FREETOWN                                125

[Illustration: VIEW OF FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE.]




                             HUMAN LEOPARDS




                                _PART I_




                               CHAPTER I
                              INTRODUCTORY


That there were cannibals in the Hinterland of Sierra Leone in former
days appears from the observations[1] of William Finch, who visited
Sierra Leone in August, 1607. This accurate observer states, “To the
South of the Bay, some fortie or fiftie leagues distant within the
Countrey, inhabiteth a very fierce people which are man-eaters, which
sometimes infest them.” This clearly points to the Mende country, where
the Human Leopard Society was lately flourishing. Finch does not,
however, refer to anything but pure cannibalism.

In 1803 Dr. Thomas Winterbottom, the Colonial Surgeon, Sierra Leone,
wrote an account of the native Africans in the neighbourhood of Sierra
Leone, and, after quoting and criticizing various authorities who had
alleged the existence of cannibalism in different parts of West Africa,
states (vol. i. p. 166) as follows:

“That this horrid practice does not exist in the neighbourhood of Sierra
Leone, nor for many hundred leagues along the coast to the northward and
southward of that place, may be asserted with the utmost confidence, nor
is there any tradition among the natives which can prove that it ever
was the custom; on the contrary, they appear struck with horror when
they are questioned individually on the subject, though at the same time
they make no scruple of accusing other nations at a distance, and whom
they barely know by name, of cannibalism.”

Joseph Corry[2] (1806) hints at human sacrifices, but neither he nor
Major Laing[3] (1822) heard anything of cannibalism, whilst Harrison
Rankin[4] (1834), who appears to have made considerable inquiry into the
matter, and who speaks of “slavery, cannibalism and polygamy” as being
deemed domestic virtues in the wilds of Africa, specifically mentions
the only definite and well-ascertained case of cannibalism which came to
his notice; it was the case of a liberated resident (i.e. a native
African liberated from a captured slaver) who had wandered in the bush
and had killed another native for food. Rankin in conclusion states, “In
the heterogeneous commixture of tribes in the British Colony, I
discovered none which doubted the practice of cannibalism, but none of
the established residents would plead