Raised By A Village

By Imodale Caulker-Burnett

Imodale Caulker-Burnett was born in Sierra Leone and has lived most of her adult life in the United States of America. She is a retired Family Nurse Practitioner, Substance Abuse Consultant and Healing Touch Practitioner, and lives with her husband of 54 years, Clive, in Midlothian Virginia. The Burnett's belong to St. Matthias Episcopal church who support her Mambo Project, and she sings with the Jubilation Senior Community Choir. Her first book entitled "The Caulkers of Sierra Leone - The story of a ruling family and their times" was published by Xlibris in 2020.

A synopsis of Hope

Starting in 1968, Imodale made biennial home visits to maintain family contacts. These changed to annual trips on her retirement in 2004 and soon after, she established The Lesana Community Development Services, to assist the people of Mambo Township, her father's birthplace in Kagboro chiefdom, Moyamba district. The goal being to effect redevelopment that would bring the township into the 21st Century. With the assistance of Cousin Isa Forna, God's Grace and the blessings of the ancestors, this work has continued for 17 years. The Organization also supports all students of the Caulker Memorial UMC Primary School in Mambo, who pass the National Primary School Examination to secondary school; Imodale now sponsors a student at the Methodist Girls' High School, Freetown.

• Language: English
• Publisher: NewGenerationPublishing
• Release date: Jan 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781803691732

Book preview

Introduction

The late singer Ransom Kuti Fela of Nigeria, in his song Lady, describes two types of African women: One is a "Lady, who has been abroad and now wants to ‘sit down before anybody’ and dances the Lady dance". The other is the African Woman. She knows she man nah master, she will do anything for him, she will cook for him, she will do anything he say, and she will dance the Fire dance."

When I first heard this song in 1970, it struck a chord, because the description of both types of women represents what I see as a dilemma for African women, including myself. On the one hand, the ‘Lady’ seems arrogant because of her western experiences, whilst the attitude of the ‘African woman’ seems too submissive. Indeed, I know many women who have been abroad, and returned home only to behave like ‘Lady’! They no longer speak Krio and no longer eat fufu or even wear African outfits. I ask the question, when one goes abroad, does one inevitably have to become either a proverbial ‘Lady’ or ‘African Woman’? Is it not possible to be both? I am sure there are many different answers to this conundrum.

For me, the answer lies in how I see myself. Everyone’s early experiences as they navigate through the challenges of life, have a profound influence on how they see themselves, who they are, where they want to go, and what they regard as their mission. Over the years, I believe I have answered the question at least for myself. Yes, a woman can come overseas, learn the values of a new culture, combine the positives of both countries, and develop an identity as a sophisticated, self-sufficient, and independent African woman. The role models in my life have demonstrated this for me.

Another reason for this project was to share the value of God’s presence in my life. That has been the foundation of everything I have stood for, whether I knew it or not.

As I thought about writing this story, I read the meditation for July 1st, 2016, in the Unity ‘Daily Word’ devotional. It was entitled Serendipity: "I am grateful that I am richly blessed". As I read it, I realized it was giving me the reason to write my memoirs. It said,

Looking back, I now see serendipitous events. Serendipity is defined as ‘finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.’ These things might include how I found my friends, jobs, church, or the town in which I live. My spiritual understanding and belief in the activities of God at work in my life, shows how I have been guided throughout my journey. This statement resonated with me, for my life has been filled with similar events.

Indeed, over the years, I have felt God’s presence and guidance on my journey, though I have not always recognized it as such. But, as I have aged, and developed spiritually, I have become more and more aware of God’s presence in my life. I have also come to realise that there were many people who influenced me as I grew up. Besides my parents and siblings, there were my grandparents, many uncles and aunties, teachers, members of my extended family and friends. All of them made up the ‘Village’ which raised me. I C-B

Chapter 1

Freetown Society

My story begins in Freetown, capital city of Sierra Leone, a small British colony on the West Coast of Africa. The country is a beautiful piece of real estate on the Atlantic Ocean with pristine beaches and rivers, with lionesque mountains. We enjoy six months of a rainy season, six months of a dry season beginning with a dry dusty harmattan breeze which can be quite cool especially in the evening. We have also been blessed with all the resources that we could possibly need. Sea food, fruit, coffee, peppers, palm kernels, and much more, as well as minerals including diamonds, gold, rutile, bauxite, and iron ore. Not to talk of our beautiful pristine beaches. Yet Sierra Leone is always described as one of the poorest countries in the world. (The reason for that is another conversation)

With the abolishment of slavery toward the end of the 1700’s, the English abolitionists sought a home for the many black poor in England. They chose Sierra Leone and purchased the peninsular with beads, rum, and guns. The first set of freed slaves arrived from London in 1787 and were settled in what they initially called Granville Town. But after the French demolished the first settlement, the British re-established the town, which was re-named Freetown. Over the years, Nova Scotians from Canada, Maroons from Jamaica, and the Re-captives (Africans in slave ships captured and returned to Freetown by British naval ships) joined the first settlers. This was the beginning of the British Colony. The rest of the country, which was made up of many tribes and chiefdoms, was considered ‘the Protectorate’, and the indigenous people were looked upon by the new arrivals as heathens. Over time, the British annexed all the chiefdoms "in the interest of security" they said, and Freetown became the administrative Capital.

Along with the colonialists, there were missionaries from different denominations. Led by the Anglicans of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), the Methodists, and the Roman Catholics, they came to ‘save the heathens’ and promote Christianity. Schools, hospitals, the legal and other systems were introduced in the Colony, all using the British models. Later, other missionary groups like the United Brethren Church from the United States joined them and worked mostly in the Protectorate where they built churches and schools promoting Christianity. Pre-independence tensions between the British and the Americans remained palpable prior to Independence. Americans were not entirely welcome in the colony and educational qualifications gained in America were deemed inferior.

After Freetown was established, the colonial administration began appointing West Indians to the civil service in Freetown. In her book, West Indians in West Africa 1808 - 1880, Nemata Blyden writes, West Indians came to Sierra Leone with the intent of exposing Africans to western civilization and Christianity. Like the other newcomers from America, they viewed the indigenous African cultures as inferior, and saw themselves as missionaries, both spiritual and cultural. They considered themselves peculiarly suited to the task of uplifting and civilizing those Africans who never left their native shores.

Rules were established, ostensibly to discourage natives who wanted to work. One such rule required that any African who wanted to work in Freetown had to be a Christian. This meant that, besides going to church and being baptized, one had to give-up their African name in favour of a ‘Christian’ name, preferably one from the Bible. Everyone I knew in Freetown had a Christian name and an African or ‘house name’ (Ose name).

The dress code for attending Church and other official functions was western clothing, including stockings and shoes with hats and gloves. On a ‘Big Sunday’ such as Easter Day, Krio women at St. George’s Cathedral for instance, proudly went to Church in their Sunday best with large hats and handbags ordered from England, while the sidesmen proudly wore (and still do) their tailcoats or morning dress, white gloves, and white shirts with highly starched collars in temperatures over 80 degrees Fahrenheit. For weddings Creole (now called Krio) ladies wore large hats, gloves, and dresses. If one could order an outfit from England, that was preferable. Similarly, in the law courts where offices and rooms had no air conditioning just overhead fans, the judiciary wore (and still do) woollen wigs, just like they do in England!

Meanwhile, the Protectorate was essentially left to continue business as usual. Local ‘Kings’ were now called ‘Paramount Chiefs’ (so as not to be seen as equal to Queen Victoria), but they were still allowed to rule their subjects.

At the turn of the 20th century, the United Brethren Church (UBC) Mission decided to establish a school in Shenge, the headquarters town of Kagboro chiefdom to provide secondary education for students from the Protectorate. However, they concluded that Shenge could not support such a large school. So, on October 4th, 1904, they opened the Albert Academy in Freetown. The colonial Governor did not approve of the school and hoped it would eventually be moved into the protectorate. Equally, the Krios resented the presence of students from the Protectorate in their city, and they labelled the school Mende Man College, as a derogatory term at the time.

Generally, western education in the Protectorate (hereafter referred to in this story as the provinces) was limited to a few primary and secondary schools. There were schools like Bo School, initially established for the education of the sons of chiefs, Harford School for Girls in Moyamba, and a couple of teacher training colleges. Most male students who came to Freetown for secondary school ended up attending the Albert Academy.

The hope in the old days was that boys would find their wives from girls at designated sister schools. The relevant pairs of the oldest boys’ and girls’ schools were thus identified: the CMS Grammar School and the Annie Walsh School; Methodist Boys High School and Methodist Girls High School; the government-run Prince of Wales School and privately owned Freetown Secondary School for Girls (FSSG); Albert Academy and Harford School. None of those parings worked however, and many couples married outside their designated partner schools.

Although there was trade between the Krios of the colony and the people from the provinces, the colonialists discouraged the Krios from inter-mingling with the ‘natives’, who were differentiated by their names: Koroma, Bangura, Momoh and so forth from the provinces, as opposed to Williams, Smith, Jones, Cole and so forth from Freetown. In the early days, social relationships between Krios and provincials was often seriously frowned upon, and a Johnson girl having a Bangura boyfriend was out of the question!

This was the society into which I was born. Now let me tell you about how a girl of West Indian descent from the Freetown Secondary School for Girls met and married a Sherbro boy from the provinces, who became Principal of the Albert Academy.

Chapter 2

My Parents and Grandparents

My parents were Richard Caulker of the Sherbro tribe in Kagboro Chiefdom and Olivette Farquhar Stuart of Caribbean heritage.

Richard was the second of nine children, born to George and Lulu Caulker. George, who was the great grandson of George Stephen Caulker I, was the section chief and landowner of Mambo Section (one of the 17 chiefdom sections in Kagboro Chiefdom, Moyamba District). Which he inherited from his father Francis Caulker.

In the old days, the chiefs gave large tracts of land to their children. Here they established their villages, peopled with their families, their war boys and their slaves who worked for them in peace time.

His wife Lulu was the daughter of Franklyn Caulker, brother to the late chief George Stephen Caulker II who was the son of chief Thomas Stephen. of Shenge/Plantain chiefdom. (Interestingly, when the chief died, his brother Franklyn, by custom, married his widow, with her children Joseph Hannibal, Alphonso Thomas, and Lucia. She then had Lulu, Susan Kaisha, and Michael (MM).) History tells us that George Stephen Caulker I and his brother Thomas Stephen, were educated in Clapham England.

George Mambo (as he was commonly known), was educated at Rufus Clarke school in Shenge and the Grammar School in Freetown.

Illustration

Richard and his siblings were home schooled by their dad in Mambo. At age 10, Richard was sent to the Rufus Clarke mission school in Shenge. At age 12 he was called home to be initiated with his brothers into the Poro Society (a secret rite of passage for boys). After the ceremony, he returned to Shenge and continued his schooling and then he attended the Albert Academy in Freetown. After graduation, he taught at the school for a few years, then in 1930, with a small scholarship from the UBC mission and help from his brother Albert, he left to attend Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, USA. He graduated in 1935 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education and returned home to teach at his alma mater. In 1939, Richard Caulker became the first African Principal of the Albert Academy; over the years, he and his siblings distinguished themselves within the Sierra Leone society and elsewhere.

The Caulkers were members of the United Brethren Church that later merged with the Evangelical United Brethren, and subsequently with the United Methodist Church. Richard attended King Memorial EUB now UMC Church in Freetown.

Illustration

Olivette’s parents were Amy and Arthur Stuart. Arthur was the grandson of Melvin Stuart, a business-man who had migrated from the Bahamas in the late 1800’s. Due to the early death of his parents, Arthur was raised by the Genet Family. He worked as a Deputy Town Clerk for the city of Freetown and travelled around inspecting schools. He organized the annual School March Pasts, and the school singing competitions. He became well known as the organist of the St Georges’ Cathedral from the mid 1940’s until he was succeeded in the early 1960’s. He had a stroke shortly afterwards and, passed away in 1968.

Amy was the daughter of Archdeacon Charles Farquhar. She was born in Antigua, West Indies. The family moved from Antigua to French Guinea when their father took up a position as a missionary. Amy was two years old, and her sister Olive was four years old when they moved. The girls went to school in England, and on their return to Conakry, taught French and English in the mission school their father had established.

Amy and Arthur were married in Conakry and had four daughters. They eventually moved to Freetown where Mrs. Amy Stuart taught Religious Knowledge, French, and Music at the FSSG; she soon gave birth to their son named Arthur.

The Stuarts were an upright family with very western traditions and Victorian principles. They spoke both English and French fluently and had blended easily into the Freetown Society (although they did not speak the Krio language.) Therefore, people assumed that they were Krios.

Olivette, the third of five children born to Arthur Stuart and Amy Farquhar, was born in Conakry, French Guinea and grew up in Freetown. Like her older siblings, she received her elementary and secondary school education at the Osora School, which eventually became the FSSG. However, unlike her other siblings she did not go to college in England but trained as a nurse at the Princess Christian Mission Hospital (PCMH) at the Eastend of Freetown. She also did some of her nursing duties in a mission clinic at Bullom shores. She told us she had to travel back and forth by launch, leaving Freetown from the PCMH pier. This meant she stayed there until she got her days-off. She told stories of rigorous training and work at Bullom, during which she had to carry cut wood to make fires in the wards, make tea for the English nursing sister (Sister Strickland) and doctors. In addition, she had to care for some very sick patients who had tuberculosis. She also told stories of how Richard, who was courting her at the time, often visited her at the hospital in Bullom.

She later became a midwife and taught midwifery and post-natal care at the PCMH. She trained with two other nurses who became life-long friends, Mrs. Mudgibola Pratt (who I am told delivered me) and Mrs. Rebecca Nicol-Cole (one of my godmothers).

Somehow, in a society that discouraged interaction between the Creoles? and the ‘natives’, Richard and Olivette met. According to Richard, one day just before he left for the States, he accompanied his sister Rachel who lived in Freetown, to church at St. George’s Cathedral. There he first saw the beautiful 10-year-old Olivette Stuart sitting with her mother and siblings. It must have been a glorious case of ‘love at first sight’ as, there, and then he vowed that he would marry her one day! He did not speak to her then but knew in his heart that sometime in the distant future she would become his wife.

He then went away to college in the USA. Ten years later, now Principal of the Albert Academy, he visited the Cathedral once again, with his sister Rachel. By then the now 20-year-old Olivette had been briefly engaged to a young Sherbro man named John Karefa-Smart, but he had left her to study in the United States. Inevitably, the distance of their separation, forced the ending of their relationship. Fortuitously, Olivette met another Sherbro man Richard Caulker, who it turns out was a cousin of John Karefa-Smart. (Both men were from the Caulker family, the ruling family of Bumpeh and Kagboro chiefdoms). As the story goes, Richard and his sister Rachel were going home from the church service at the St. Georges Cathedral, when they passed Olivette on the street. He remembered the beautiful 10-year-old girl he had seen years before. As I heard it, his sister introduced him to Olivette’s parents and was instrumental in gaining their approval for the romance to begin. Richard wooed her successfully, taking her up the greens (the slang name for Tower Hill) a favourite place with a magnificent view of the ocean, for couples.

As was tradition, Richard went to his sister and told her of his desire to marry Olivette. He also wrote a letter to Olivette’s parents, asking for her hand in marriage and (in a letter which I secretly read as a young teen) her mother replied saying, "While I do not have a problem with your relationship, Olivette’s father is being hesitant. He wonders how a combination of Colony and Protectorate will work. But I will keep working on him and let you know.

This time Rachel and her cousin Martha Forde nee Sumner who was also a member of the Cathedral paid a visit to the Stuarts to formally ask for her hand in marriage. They did agree, I suspect because they were impressed with the fact that he worked for the United Brethren Church Mission and was now Principal of the Albert Academy. I am told though, that a Krio delegation did visit my grandmother attempting to discourage the match. But they failed in their mission.

On April 2nd, 1940, the man from the Protectorate married his Freetown sweetheart! The challenge had been taken and Freetown society was defied. Many years later, Mummy told me the story of how, on her wedding day, Grandma would not allow her to wear any make-up. In fact, she made her wash off all the make-up she had already put on saying, "You are marrying a missionary!" The bride was very upset!

The two were married in St. George’s Cathedral with family from both sides present. The only bridesmaid still living, my cousin Lulu Coker-Wright, described the wedding to me. At the time, the bride lived at No. 2 Pademba Road and the groom lived in the principal’s apartment at the Albert Academy, though his family house was at No. 66 Wellington Street. Since only a few people owned cars in those days, the bridal party rode to the Church in a hired car and the rest of the party walked to St. George’s Cathedral: a relatively short distance. During the service, Olivette’s younger brother, Arthur, sang a soprano solo, I waited for the Lord. I am told the newlyweds honeymooned at the Eleady-Cole farm, now known as Cole Farm, in Murray Town. Cousin Lulu says she had to take food to them every day at midday from Wellington Street, travelling on a bus that ran infrequently from Westmoreland Street to Murray Town. She then spent the afternoon with them while waiting for the return bus at 5.00 pm. When they returned home from their honeymoon, they went to live in Richard’s apartment at the Albert Academy. Since Freetown was a small society in those days, everyone knew everyone else. I can imagine the comments made about the daughter of the ‘aristo’ Stuarts marrying a country boy. I can just hear them now.

Illustration

Front row L-R: Melvine Stuart, the bride and groom, William

Fitzjohn best man.

Back row: Ola Reffel, Lulu Coker, Bunting Caulker, Mudgibola

Pratt, Betty Conton, Maisie Forde.

Chapter 3

My Arrival and Introduction toFamily

Imodale Olivette Boieh1 Lesana2 made her entrance into this split-Society on March 29, 1941 (during World War II) as the first daughter born to parents from both sides of the social divide. Dada (as I called him then) felt I was his new star, so I became known as Boieh-Lesana. He also composed a simple ditty for his new baby (a tradition he continued with each of his girls as he sang us all to sleep). The words to my song were simple: Imodale, Imodale, who is calling Imodale? Imodale... (a song his sister Amelia always remembered. Much later, whenever I visited a very elderly and totally blind Aunty Amelia, I would sing it aloud to identify myself as I walked into her room).

I was the first grandchild of the Stuart family and third grandchild of the Caulkers. Being close families, on the day I was born (as I was often told by my Uncle Francis), he walked from Wellington Street in the West to PCMH on Fourah Bay Road in the East, some four miles to see his new niece. Mummy also told me that my great-grandmother Hilda Farquhar arrived from Conakry, French Guinea a few months before I was born, so she could be there for the birth of her first great-grandchild. As she was handy with a needle, she made many beautiful items for the new baby which she had brought with her. She was very excited. But unfortunately, a few weeks before my birth, she had a bad fall and died from her injuries; she is buried at Kissy Road Cemetery.

I have been told that my aunties and uncles on both sides of the family made a big fuss over my arrival. In 1943, when I was two years and four months old, my first playmate and younger sister, Lucilda Gwendolyn Yema3 arrived. The earliest memory I have of her birth was when Dada took me to see her at the Dr. Jones’ Nursing home where she had been born. I remember seeing a baby lying in my mother’s bed, but I could not see her properly because the sun was shining brightly on her face. I do not know why I remember that, but it is such a strong memory. Behold, my sister! Except for visiting Lucilda that first time, I have no memories of her as an infant, or of us growing up together in our apartment on Garrison Street; but she must have been there!

We lived in a building owned by a Lebanese trader called Mr. Sabra. The large house was located on the corner of Garrison Street and Howe Street, across from the Cathedral complex which then housed the Cathedral Primary School, Battenburg Hall and a two-floor residence, (Number 32 Howe Street). Interestingly and most conveniently for my parents, my Stuart grandparents, two of Mummy’s sisters, Melvine (Aunty Patty) and Aunty Lettie, and their brother, young Uncle Arthur, lived at 32 Howe Street. These family members were very much involved in my childhood.

Number 32 Howe Street was what was called a boad ose, a two-storey wooden house with a basement. Entering from Garrison Street, one walked through a small, paved playground, at the end of which was a gate. Turning left from the gate was the entry to the house. On the right was a small arbour of coralita flowers which grew wild. There was a bench in the arbour which was not used.

The Macfoys lived on the top floor, the Stuarts on the first floor, and in the front basement were offices and a large meeting room. This room was used every morning at 5.30 a.m. by the women of the cathedral who came for morning prayer. One could hear them singing shouts and praying for a good hour, till about 6.30 a.m. This of course woke up the rest of the house.

Two toilets and two bathrooms were in the back yard down a long flight of concrete stairs. The buckets in the toilets were emptied every night at about 4.30 a.m. by men whose job it was to go around town and collect all the waste. If one was awake at that time, one got a Whiff!! (At night we used chamber pots, so we did not have to go downstairs. These were taken downstairs and emptied in the morning.) Needing to use the toilet during the day was a process. I had to get toilet paper from Grandpa, which he handed out as needed. Two sheets for #1 and three or four sheets for #2. The toilet paper was smooth and shiny on one side and coarse on the other. When there was no toilet paper, we used crushed newspaper.

A small building, also in the yard but away from the toilets, and separated by a small gutter, served as the Kitchen. There was an outdoor tap where the laundry was done and hung on lines that were strung across the back yard. At the back of the basement was a room where the ironing was done using irons on a coal pot, or a ‘goose’. The back basement also had a room for the ‘houseboy’ (most westernized homes had house boys, to do the laundry, heavy cleaning, staining, and polishing of the floors, moving heavy furniture for sweeping and gardening if there was one. Sometimes they did the cooking as well. In some well to do homes there were two house boys. One did the cooking and the other the cleaning and gardening). While I was at number 32 the house boy was a man called Matthew. He did the cleaning, marketing, laundry and cooking for my grandparents.

In the back was a long flight of stairs leading to the apartments. At the top of the stairs, in the hall just outside the back door to the apartment was a small room which was Uncle Arthur’s bedroom. A flight of stairs on the left, led to the apartment on the top floor.

The hallway on the right led into the Stuart’s apartment. The first entrance on the right of that hall opened into a room which had the icebox, the larder for storage of food, and a large wooden wardrobe. On the far end of that room was Grandma’s bedroom. The pantry opened to the dining room which led into the parlour.

In the dining room was a set of table and chairs, with a piano against the wall. A small wall separated the dining room from the parlour, which opened to the front door. Down the hall on the left was a very large room with a king-sized bed and smaller double bed where most of the family slept sharing the beds. Grandpa’s room was at the end of the hall. Family members and staff had to use the back door as normal access whereas the front door that led into the parlour provided special access to visitors.

One of my favourite memories at number 32 was watching Grandma brush her hair. At 7 o’clock each morning she would stand at the window in the dining room drinking her tea (she never drank coffee) and watching people passing on Garrison Street as they began their day.

The BBC signature tune came on at the hour and the news was read, followed by British music. As grandma listened to the news on the rediffusion box4 (the local radio), she would