Tag: Sierra Leone

Kykunkor Souvenir Program Booklet

Courtesy of the New York Public Library/Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

A booklet from a 1934 musical drama by the Sierra Leonean composer Asadata Dafora.

Creators: Martha Drieblatt

Date of Creation: ca. 1935

Place of origin: New York, New York

Physical measurements: 31 x 23 centimeters, 16 pages

Materials: Paper

Process by which it was made: Printed by Cooper & Aronson

Current location: New York Public Library/Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Further Reading

Heard, Marcia Ethel. “Asadata Dafora: African Concert Dance Traditions in American Concert Dance.” Doctoral dissertation, New York University, 1999.  

New York Public Library. Asadata Dafora Papers Finding Aid.  <http://archives.nypl.org/scm/20812.> Accessed July 12, 2019.

Martin, John. “The Dance: A Revival, ‘Kykunkor’ is Restored to Its Original Form and Excellence – Week’s Programs.” The New York Times, January 13, X, 8, 1935.

Perpener III, John O. “Asadata Dafora,” <https://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/themes-essays/african-diaspora/asadata-dafora/.>

Stiehl, Pamyla A. “The Curious Case of Kykunkor: A Dansical/Musical Exploration and Reclamation of Asadata Dafora’s Kykunkor, or the Witch Woman (1934).” Studies in Musical Theatre, 3(2):143-156, 2009.

Information contributed by Amimbola Cole Kai-Lewis.

Settlement Negotiation for the Sierra Leone Company

Courtesy of National Archives, London.

The terms of a settlement between the Sierra Leone Company and a group of Maroons.

Creators: The Sierra Leone Company founder Henry Thornton sent The Terms in a letter to William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland and Home Secretary, in October 1799. Sierra Leone colony Governor Thomas Ludlam, Maroon Superintendent George Ross, and Maroon captains Montague James, Andrew Smith, Charles Shaw, John Palmer, Thomas Johnstone, and a captain named only as Baily discussed revisions to The Terms on October 2, 1800

Date of Creation: 1799-1800

Place of origin: England and Freetown, Sierra Leone

Physical measurements: 2 pages, one covered on both sides and one single-sided

Materials: Paper and ink

Process by which it was made: Handwriting

Current location: National Archives, Kew, London, United Kingdom

Further Reading 

Kenneth M. Bilby, True-born maroons (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005).

Ruma Chopra, Almost Home: Maroons between Slavery and Freedom in Jamaica, Nova Scotia, and Sierra Leone (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018).

Mavis C. Campbell, The Maroons of Jamaica, 1655-1796 (Amherst, MA: Bergin & Garvey Publishers, Inc., 1988).

Barbara Klamon Kopytoff, “Jamaican Maroon Political Organization: The effects of the Treaties,” Social and Economic Studies 25, no. 2 (June 1976), 87-105.

Cassandra Pybus, Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and their Global Quest for Liberty (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006).

Information contributed by Rachel B. Herrmann.