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 Sir Kenneth James Beatty

Author:Sir Kenneth James Beatty [Beatty, Sir Kenneth James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anboco
Published: 2017-01-30T23:00:00+00:00

15. These two witnesses were subsequently prosecuted for perjury before the Circuit Court and found guilty.

HINTERLAND TYPES.

CHAPTER VII

BORFIMA AND MEMBERSHIP CASES

The first of these cases was one against an important person who held high office in the Imperri Chiefdom. The charge against him was that in or about the month of July, 1912, he had in his possession without lawful authority or excuse certain articles, to wit a native medicine commonly known as “Borfima,” and a “kukoi” or whistle, contrary to Section 2 of Ordinance No. 28 of 1909 (The Human Leopard Society Ordinance) as amended by Section 7 of Ordinance No. 17 of 1912. There were two other counts charging him with (i) the custody and (ii) the control of the “Borfima” and “Kukoi” mentioned above. The accused was a man of striking personality, and appears to have exercised a great influence in the Imperri Chiefdom.

The facts of the case were simple. In July, 1912, it was stated by members of the Society who had turned King’s evidence that he had been present at several meetings of the Human Leopard Society and had taken a prominent part in the preliminary arrangements for securing various victims, and that he had at these meetings produced the “mother” Borfima of the Imperri Chiefdom. In these circumstances he was arrested and his houses at Gbangbama and Victoria were watched by Court Messengers.

Early one morning the senior Court Messenger saw one of the accused’s wives leave the house at Gbangbama with a bundle. He followed her, and when she saw that there was no escape she threw the bundle down and ran away. This bundle held, amongst other things, an iron pot containing “medicine.”

The accused admitted that the “medicine” was his, and made a statement as to how it had come into his possession. This will be best described in his own words: “I am a sick man. My sickness arose over a dream. A snake swallowed me up to my waist. I screamed and then awakened. In the morning I was unable to move. My legs and body up to the place where the snake had swallowed me became ‘dead.’ I remained like that for four years. I heard that there was a Mori Man at a town called Behol, and sent a messenger for him. I employed this man to make a medicine for me and I paid him £3 for it. That is the sebbeh (charm) which was in the pot which the Court Messenger took from my wife. The Mori Man told me that I would not dream again, and that the lassimo (medicine) would ward off ill-health and bad dreams so long as I always kept it with me. Ah! if he were not dead I would not be here” (meaning that had the Mori Man been living it would not have been in the power of the white man to interfere with him).

The accused caused some amusement in Court by describing how the senior Court Messenger brought the

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