The Temne people constitute one of the largest ethnic groups of Sierra Leone who speak a language (also called Temne) of the Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo family. Their largest concentrations are found in the northwestern and central parts of Sierra Leone, as well as the coastal capital city of Freetown.
Even though Temne speakers live mostly in the Northern Province, they also can be found in a number of other West African countries as well, including Guinea and The Gambia. Some Temnes have migrated beyond West Africa seeking educational and professional opportunities in countries such as Great Britain, the United States, and Egypt. Temnes are primarily composed of scholars, businesspeople, farmers, and coastal fishermen.
While the household consists of a husband and his wife or wives, their children, and other dependents. A Temne settlement contains a central meetinghouse surrounded by circles of mud-and-wattle houses with thatched roofs. Inheritance and succession are governed by patrilineal descent.
The Temne are divided into numerous independent chiefdoms, each governed by a paramount chief. Chiefdoms are divided into sections governed by subchiefs and containing one or more villages or hamlets. The village in turn is under the authority of a headman, formerly a descendant of the village founder but now an elected official.
The British colonial government was directly ruling the Temne lands, enforced their anti-slavery laws, and instituted new taxes to finance their local administration in 1894. By mid-1898, the British assumptions proved wrong, Temne people had refused to pay the new tax and launched a coordinated war.
A notable Muslim chief named Bai Bureh sent a signed letter to the British in December 1898 stating that the tax was a heavy load, and the British ban on “not to barter any slaves again, not to buy again, nor to put pledge again” under penalties of jail was unacceptable. The Temne chief’s military response against the colonial British in 1898, states Michael Crowder – a professor of History specializing on West Africa, was a protest not just against the hut tax but against a host of laws that had challenged the embedded social systems within the Temne society.
Bai Bureh was partly a descendant of the Loko people, became one of the chiefs of Temne people, and led a key role in coordinating the military response to the British. His role in challenging the British laws in his times, and its effect on Temne people, has been widely studied.
The chief’s office is partly religious, and he is sometimes a member of the ragbenle and poro male secret societies. The ragbenle is responsible for curing certain diseases and performing ceremonies to promote the growth of crops. The women’s bundu society mainly prepares girls for marriage. Traditional religious beliefs in a supreme god and in nature and ancestral spirits are declining, being replaced by Christianity and Islam. The 15th-century Portuguese explorers and traders recorded contacts with Muslim peoples. Early traders, warriors and holy men brought Islam into the Temne area by way of other ethnic groups.
