Temne

Population: ≈ 2.5 million; one of Sierra Leone's two largest peoples

Location: Central and northwestern Sierra Leone — the Scarcies and Rokel river country, Bombali, Tonkolili, Port Loko and the northern approaches to Freetown

Language: Temne (KʌThemnɛ)

Language family: Niger-Congo → Atlantic → Mel (Temne)

Traditional governance: Paramount chieftaincies (the Ɔbai/Bai kings) with sub-chiefs, speakers and the ruling-house councils; the secret societies — Poro (men's), Bondo/Sande (women's), Ragbenle and Ramena — as parallel governments of initiation, law and ritual; today paramount chiefs within Sierra Leone's chiefdom system, and Temne prominent in national politics.

Most African peoples are federations of named sub-groups — clans, sections, chiefdoms or sub-tribes — each with its own dialect, territory and traditions.

Clothing: Country-cloth (strip-weave) gowns and the coastal trade-cloth; the ronko war-shirt sewn with amulets; the society regalia and masks; Islamic dress (many Temne are Muslim) with the kufi cap and gown; beadwork and ceremonial attire.

Food: Rice the staple and the meal itself — 'if I have not eaten rice, I have not eaten' — with cassava-leaf and potato-leaf plasas in palm oil, groundnut soup, fish and pepper; palm wine and ginger beer; the rice-farm and the coast the twin sources.

Ceremonies: Poro and Bondo/Sande initiation seasons with their masked spirits; the Ragbenle and Ramena society rites tied to chieftaincy and the land's fertility; chiefly installations and the crowning of paramount chiefs; Islamic festivals; funerary and naming rites.

Marriage customs: Bridewealth in cloth, kola, cash and goods negotiated by family heads; society initiation traditionally preceding marriage; Islamic marriage layered on custom; the alliance of ruling and common houses; polygyny by means.

Initiation rites: Poro for men and Bondo/Sande for women — the great initiation societies whose forest schools teach law, medicine, craft, sexuality and self-command, and whose masked spirits (the Bondo's is a rare women's mask, like the Mende Sowei) embody the sacred; graduation the passage to full adulthood.

“Rice not eaten is hunger not cured.”

The staple is the measure of a real meal and of security.

“The society's drum speaks only to the initiated.”

Knowledge and authority follow initiation.

“The chief rules the town, but the Poro rules the chief.”

Sacred societies check and underlie political power.

Creation: Kuru (Kurumasaba), the supreme God, created the world and gives rain and children; the ancestors and the society-spirits are the working sacred; the Poro, Bondo, Ragbenle and Ramena societies embody and mediate the spiritual order; today Islam (predominant among the Temne) and Christianity frame the cosmos over the older order.

Beliefs: Kuru the creator; the ancestors honoured; the society-spirits (the masked Poro and Bondo spirits) central to law and fertility; the Ragbenle tied to the land and chieftaincy; witchcraft and medicine treated by specialists; Islam strong, with the societies coexisting alongside the mosque.

Ancestors: The ancestors are honoured and the societies mediate the sacred order; the Ragbenle and Ramena tie chieftaincy to the land's fertility; Islam and the societies coexist in Temne religious life.

Traditional settlements: Towns and villages of rectangular mud-plastered houses with hipped thatch (now zinc) around the chief's compound and the court barri (open meeting-hall); the society forests (Poro and Bondo bushes) apart; rice-farm settlements and the coastal trading towns.

Building techniques: Wattle-and-daub and mud-brick with thatch or iron; the barri open meeting-hall on carved posts; the society enclosures in the forest; coastal building shaped by the Atlantic trade.

Village layout: Chief's compound and barri central; wards by lineage; the Poro and Bondo forests bracketing the town beyond sight; rice-farms and, on the coast, the trading quarters.

1. c. 1400–1600

   Temne (Mel-speaking) chiefdoms settle central and coastal Sierra Leone; the Poro and Bondo societies order the region; early contact with Portuguese traders.

2. 17th–18th c.

   Temne coastal chiefdoms broker the Atlantic trade; King Tom and King Jimmy deal with the settlers who found Freetown (1787) for freed slaves.

3. 1898

   Bai Bureh leads the Temne in the Hut Tax War against British rule — a celebrated guerrilla resistance; captured and exiled.

4. 1900s–1961

   Colonial protectorate; paramount chieftaincies formalised; Islam spreads among the Temne; the north integrated into the colonial economy.

5. 1961–present

   Independence; Temne prominent in national politics (including the presidency); the country recovers from the 1991–2002 civil war; Poro and Bondo societies and paramount chieftaincy remain living institutions.