Prehistory of Sierra Leone
Only limited archaeological studies have been made of the part of coastal West Africa that includes present-day Sierra Leone. Stone tools had been found in several localities in the country and were identified as belonging to Late Stone Age cultures, but there had been little accurate dating. Styles of workmanship indicated that at least some of the early toolmakers had probably come from the Sahara region to the north and northeast. The time of this movement was unknown, but it was speculated that changing living conditions brought on by the gradual desiccation of the Sahara, which had become quite noticeable by the third millennium BC, were an important factor in the migration.
Sites apparently occupied by the new arrivals have been found in the savanna woodlands of northeastern Sierra Leone and have clear links to others in present-day Guinea. Other slightly later sites show apparent connection with a much broader West African area and contain remnants of pottery of the style current around Lake Chad, 2,000 miles to the east. This suggests that the early occupants of Sierra Leone were affected by widespread cultural influences, although their economy was still limited to gathering and hunting.
During the next two millennia an advanced culture began to develop in the savanna lands of West Africa as the population of the open and well-watered land increased. Contacts with the civilizations of the Nile Valley and later of North Africa and the Mediterranean continued across the drying Sahara. After the introduction of the camel to the Saharan region around the time of the birth of Christ, the developing culture was further spurred by the resurgence of Saharan trade. By the sixth or seventh century AD the kingdom of Ghana — centered in present-day Mali — appeared as the first of a series of complex centralized states.
Ghana and its successor states over the next 1,000 years, although encompassing large areas, were restricted almost entirely to the savanna zone. The deep forest zone to the south and the diseases — particularly sleeping sickness — that it harbored were a barrier that the forces of these states rarely penetrated. Sierra Leone lies almost entirely within this forest zone. As a result it had little direct association with the great Sudanic kingdoms. In contrast to the areas within the kingdoms, little opportunity exists to uncover the early history of the country.
Archaeology has revealed that by AD 800 iron and probably iron smelting had been introduced to the country and by 1000 the coastal people were generally cultivators. These groups experienced little pressure from outside their own communities, and the development of political organization was minimal. Most lived in small, independent or only loosely associated villages and hamlets, although some historians suggest that small forest kingdoms may have begun to appear. The staple crop was rice, which had been introduced from the Niger River valley sometime during the first millennium A.D. Fishing was also an important occupation, and cured fish and salt obtained by solar evaporation were probably trade items.
The archaeological remains seem to indicate that some of the early groups inhabiting the country have disappeared. It is generally agreed that the Bullom (now called the Sherbro), Krim, and other related tribes of Mel-language-speaking groups are the earliest people whose descendants still live in the country; to these groups some would add the Limba (see ch. 4). It is not clear whether these groups were an eaTly part of the first wave of migrants coming from the savanna in the eleventh or twelfth century or were in place at an even earlier time. It is known that by the twelfth century they had been joined by a related people, the Temne, who had followed a route from the savanna.
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