BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : SYRIAN IMMIGRANTS AND EUROPEAN RACISM HINDERED PROSPERITY OF CREOLES :

                                                                                                

BLACK    SOCIAL   HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                   Syrian immigrants and European racism hindered prosperity of Creoles

The arrival of Syrians in the late 1800s combined with relentless racism by British colonial officials posed a challenge to the dominance of Creoles in Sierra Leonean business and government administration. Like the early settlers of America, the collection of people who eventually became the Creoles of Sierra Leone were a resilient lot. Some of them had survived slavery in the Americas. Some of them were rescued from the holds of slave ships on the high seas and brought to a strange land called Freetown where they had to overcome disease, hostile tribes and bad weather. But within a century of their arrival in 1787, the Creoles, a group of people drawn from diverse backgrounds had coalesced enough to create a common language and culture. They cleared virgin forests and built settlements with schools and hospitals. In addition to being the most educated, they became some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the Sierra Leone Colony. Until the Syrians started arriving in the 1890s. The Middle Easterners who arrived in the 1890s were actually Lebanese Maronite Christians fleeing religious persecution from the Ottoman Turks. They were erroneously called Syrians because Lebanon was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from Syria. In Sierra Leone, the Lebanese earned the nickname “Corals” because they sold coral beads and other small items on the streets of Freetown. With their profits, they were soon opening shops. With the completion of the railroad, demand for kola nuts, piassava and palm products increased and the Lebanese moved into the Protectorate to open more shops and become middlemen for the larger European firms. Caught between fierce Lebanese competition and the huge capital of European firms, Creoles were wiped out as entrepreneurs. But Creole aspirations to fall back on their education and experience in government administration was obstructed by racist British colonial officials. Creoles were denied promotions in the civil service and passed over for recruitment into the police and military forces. Colonial governors were disdainful of the vibrant Freetown press, dominated by Creoles, which called for the expulsion of the Lebanese. Edward Merewether, twice governor of Sierra Leone between 1910 and 1916 believed that uneducated Protectorate men were superior to Creoles whom he accused of behaving like the only educated blacks. Merewether questioned Creole suitability to hold public office and even dismissed the credentials of those who had graduated from English universities. Creole dissatisfaction, striking railway workers and public frustration with high food prices which were blamed on Lebanese hoarding led to riots in Freetown and parts of the Protectorate in 1919. Known as the “anti-Syrian” riots, Lebanese shopkeepers and their families had to flee to shelters while their stores were looted. These days the Creole and Lebanese communities seem to have let bygones be bygones. Creole lawyers and doctors can count Lebanese-Sierra Leoneans among their best clients. But the population of Lebanese-Sierra Leoneans is now dominated by Shia Moslems from South Lebanon and not Maronite Christians.