Sierra Leonean poetry began in the late 19th century with poems published in English and lingua franca, Krio in Sierra Leone Weekly News , among the first newspapers to be created in the colony in 1860. The most famous of all Sierra Leone newspapers (which were high quality) at the end of the 19th and 20th centuries, was founded in September 1884 by Rev. JC May under the direction of Dr. E. W. Blyden and edited by brother JC May, Cornelius, who later became the mayor of Freetown in the 1920s.
Poems were sometimes written by settlers, mostly Europeans, who migrated into the country. Cryo’s first poems appeared in the weekly Sierra Leone news release on Saturday April 21, 1881. Others appeared in a room dated June 23, 1888 and July 1907. Although most of the poems were written by non-Sierra Leone, they served as an inspiration to educated Sierra Leone, which later began to strive to prove that they were the same competent poets as their European counterparts. The poems were usually written with ordinary patterns of legs, lines, and rhyme schemes, as fashion was then. Consequently, the publications published a poem in the news. This practice lasted quite a long time, according to Leo Spitzer Creoles of Sierra Leone who contains a number of such poems.
Then came Gladys Casely-Hayford and Thomas Decker, who wrote poems in the Krio. The first edition of the published poems by Gladys Kezeli-Hayford was named in Krio Take um so (1948). In 1948, Thomas Decker published three Cryo poems. It was yesterday, Tiday en Tumara, Slip Gud & # 39;
But these early poetry publications in Krio Sierra Leone Weekly News had a limited and constructive impact on the irresponsible development of the poetry of Sierra Leone. For it helped to limit the poetry of Sierra Leone in the Western District. Parts of the country were so passionate about oral poetry that there was no written literature.
There has always been a direct link between the development of written literature and education. Education in Sierra Leone was mainly concentrated in the early colonial period in the Western region. Only in some of them were some schools built in the provinces. But beyond that, education was not so widely and easily received by the provincials, because many could not send their children to school earlier. Only in 1906 the first secondary school was established in the provinces.
The head of the Western District had an education, and the warm attitude of people in other areas to education led to the fact that most of the recognized poets came mainly from the Western region. It also affected the poems that were courageous cryos, which were largely unable to penetrate and use the rich cultural traditions and customs of the country in which they were mostly ignorant. As a result, their work was characterized by the absence of traditional myths, legends and knowledge, unlike other West African writers, then they wrote, in particular, to Nigerians, Christopher Okigbo, Will Soiinka and J. P. Clark, who used such oral knowledge a lot. Christopher Okigbo, for his part, often used the myth of the maid in his poems, while Wole Soyinka and JPCLark used the common myth of Abik among others.
The poetry of the pioneering poets of Sierra Leone was bred instead of traditional and cultural materials with Christian religious doctrines and principles and moral platitudes. Even the Cryo culture is permeated through them. But they also wrote about the burning social problems of the time.
But in a poem like Joseph's “Betrothal,” Gladys Kaseli-Hyford tolerates the traditional Cru-Stop ceremony of the Jewish position of Joseph and Mary, the earthly parents of Jesus. In & nbsp; Baby Jesus wrapped in a blue paw. and fits into a hidden hidden door, instead of a diaper and nursery. Later, the poets used some kind of cultural material. Lemuel Johnson in the Prodigal song. Awujoh & & & quot; KuOmojade & Two Traditional Cryo Ceremonies.
The successive dissemination of education, accompanied by missionary activity in almost all parts of the country, contributed to the spread of literature, which led to a breakdown of the former monopoly that the Western District had for the production of poetry. As a result, an increase in the volume of poetry written in the country over the past four decades was noted. This was triggered by efforts at Fourah Bay College, Njala University College, Milton Margaya College of Teachers in promoting and conducting literary activities such as creative writing, and reading poetry among others. These efforts have been complemented by those of the Writers' Association, the Fura Bay College bookstore and various bulletin boards and campus magazines.
Thus, it could be said that most of Sierra Leone’s poetry was written in the 20th century. But the poetry of this period had a noticeable departure from the earlier forms of poetry, created, especially in their style and, to a limited extent, in their subject matter. Pioneer poets followed traditional forms of poetry using regular lengths of lines and rhyme schemes. Their simplified poetry usually expressed tasteless moods and strong religious Christian doctrines, with most of the poems themselves being active churchmen, strongly influenced by nineteenth-century English poets and the Bible, and common prayer and hymn books. One of them, Crispin George, was a longtime singer. The fact that they lived in the turbulent period of much political noise for nationalism and self-determination and other destabilizing social as well as political movements is not very impressive in their poetry, except for using a minority of Christian doctrines to hide their aspirations for social justice. This is very true of the poetry of Crispine George and Jacob Stanley Davis and to a lesser extent Gladys Casely-Hayford.
Contemporary poets, contemporaries of Chinua Achebe, Vole Soyinka and Christopher Okigbo, who at the university abroad, mainly in the UK, were exposed to modern English poets such as Gerard Manley Hopkins, TS Eliot, Ezra Pound, and D.H. Lawrence, the previous poetic tradition, through modern influence, influenced their style. They also began to absorb some African customs and traditions in their poetry, as they felt alienated and cut off from their roots. Thus, they dumped old methods of writing in regular lines and rhymes for free verse, distortion of logical syntax, ambiguity, and personal symbolism and images. They critically reviewed hitherto easily accepted British and American values and standards. They asked a question about racism and other social problems, as they were exposed in their foreign home to racial discrimination and its consequences associated with the consequences.
For example, the poetry of Abioche Nicole embraces pioneering and young modern poets demonstrating some African consciousness and not blindly accepting other people's values for a long time for a possible return home to Sweet Sierra Leone.
Most of Gaston Barth-William's poetry is associated with racism and racial discrimination. Jacob Stanley Davis, although a pioneer poet who expresses Christian doctrines in his poetry, has some poems like Libretton. who seems to be talking about timeless problems. Crispin George in The Suspension breaks away from the compressive effect of the rhyme scheme.
Significant development occurred after changing the profile of the poetry of Sierra Leone, although the possibilities of publication in print are not as friendly as they were then. But such a modified profile will make an interesting study.
