CUARTO CAPÍTULO MEDIDAS PARA MEJORAR LA EFICACIA DE

Photographer W.S. Johnston126 prefigured Lisk-Carew’s career and deserves special attention in terms of his unique contributions to the development of photography in Sierra Leone. Johnston, a pioneer in the field who had a prodigious and longstanding

125

Examples of Leomy’s photography are held in an album in the James Carmichael Smith Sierra Leone Collection, Royal Commonwealth Society Library, and

Cambridge Library. Leomy also opened a thriving watch and musical instrument repair firm under the name of Z. Dionysius Leomy. See SLWN, June 7, 1890, 6. By 1893 his advertisements read “Dead Pianos Back to Life.” See, for example, ibid., November 4, 1893, 7.

126

practice in Freetown, secured his place as one of the city’s leading photographers with his sophisticated portraits. Johnston was born in the Gold Coast and worked there as an itinerant photographer prior to travelling to Freetown in 1893 offering “landscapes, views of Lagos and Sierra Leone.”127 That year he settled in Freetown with his family and opened a studio in his home on Howe Street.128 A year later, perhaps following his positive reception in Freetown, he moved his enterprise to busy Kissy Street and then to Garrison Street, both of which were situated in an area near to Lisk-Carew’s childhood home.129 The description of Johnston’s business, as found in the Sierra

Leone Weekly News and the Sierra Leone Times from 1894 onward, suggests an

eclectic practice that catered to multiple clients and their interests. The views of various coastal regions and “native type” images featured on his postcards formed a large portion of Johnston’s output and generated income for his business. However, as part of his practice, he also engaged in artistic studio portrait work and personal commissions, such as compelling and thoughtful portraits of well-known African families and personalities. Johnson’s range of techniques also reveals an artistic flair in studio portraits of Bundu women following their successful initiation into the society.130

At the turn of the twentieth century, Johnston had popular appeal in the Freetown photography scene and was thus called upon by members of the city’s social elite. These connections and the attendant admiration for his work was recounted in a 1904 Sierra Leone Weekly News item detailing the wedding of a

127

Advertisement, Sierra Leone Times, May 27, 1893, 1. 128

Johnston travelled with his two young children – his son, W.S. (Kewsi) Johnson, and his daughter, Catherine.

129

See Chapter Two for more details on W.S. Johnston and his relationship with Lisk- Carew.

130

prominent society couple131 By 1910 through to 1911 his advertisements recalled his longevity in Freetown (for example, “The old established photographer to the

Imperial Government”) along with a long list of accomplishments and patronage (such as “Patronized by Messrs. Elder Dempster and Co. and by various missionary societies.”)132 It seems that Johnston trained his son(s) in photography, since by 1912 a new crop of advertisements in the Sierra Leone Times announce a change of address to Garrison street and the addition of “and Sons” to the business name.133 While the plural “Sons” had been used in the title of his expanded enterprise, I have found no extant evidence to suggest that Johnson indeed had more than one son. Coincidental with this move, the hallmark placed on the back of postcards read intriguingly “W.S. Johnston and Sons, Art Photographers [my emphasis].” The heir(s) to Johnston’s business continued to distinguish themselves within a competitive market by relying on reputable long-standing business, and placing emphasis on the creative aspects of their practice. Business must have increased at the new location, since by the

following year a help wanted advertisement was placed in the Sierra Leone Guardian that required “Two smart young men as learners of photography.”134 In 1915,

however, after more than twenty years as a photographer in Freetown, Johnston moved back permanently to the Gold Coast, where he became a publisher at the Gold

Coast Nation newspaper and served as secretary to the Aborigines Society.

Subsequently, the Johnston name was associated with photography through to at least

131

“Wedding, Palmer-McCormack,” SLWN, February 20, 1904, 5. The paper reported that “the Bride and Bridegroom and the party then walked out to the garden to be photographed by the well-known artist, Mr. W.S. Johnston.”

132

Advertisement, SLWN, March 12, 1910, 12. 133

The Colony and Provincial Reporter, September 21, 1912. In addition, similar newspaper accounts reveal that he had attended the Annie Walsh School at the junior level. See the unfortunate death notice of Catherine Cato Johnston, W.S. Johnston’s only daughter, “The Late Mrs. Catherine Cato,” SLWN, July 24, 1915, 13.

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1919 whereby his son W.S. (Kwesi) Johnston was mentioned as a reputable photographer in several news editorials.135 Nevertheless, Johnston’s impressive patronage, repertoire of photographs and mentorship, as well as the widespread distribution of his work, helped to distinguished him and place him in a central position in the development of photography in Sierra Leone.

Prior to the colonial presence in Sierra Leone until the turn of the twentieth century there emerged a range of local and foreign photographers, some itinerant and others permanent, who were engaged in a plethora of practices and genres. Local commissions and patronage shaped these photographic practices. The turn of the century reflected the establishment of additional African producers in Freetown such as W.S. Johnston who, along with Lisk-Carew, were engaged in actively constructing the image of “modern” Freetown and its inhabitants, and used their own individual aesthetics to mediate this image for viewers. To be sure, photographic histories and practices in Sierra Leone were shaped and influenced within local contexts using modern engagements with the medium, which went beyond a simple mimicking of Western practices.

This chapter began with a literature review. A historical overview of Sierra Leone followed which presented a wide trajectory of photographic practices operating in Freetown. It also underscored the myriad conditions under which early African photographers practiced and outlined the influential photographic heritage to which Lisk-Carew was not only the beneficiary, but also drew upon. In the chapter that follows, I propose a short biography of Lisk-Carew’s life and work, exploring the prolific nature of his enterprise, his political activism and his multifaceted oeuvre. The

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breadth of Lisk-Carew’s photographs gives testament to how he trained his lens on the fluid and developing life in Sierra Leone. In so doing, it is my contention that Lisk-Carew’s practice constituted acts of counter-discursivity that functioned as a bulwark to colonial superiority and that such acts belie Okwui Enwezor’s claim professing the lack of an “insurgent photographic practice” on the continent before the 1940s.

Illustrations

Fig. 1.1. “The Execution of Mormordoo,” advertisement, The Independent, April 10, 1875, 3.

Fig. 1.2. Z. Dionysius Leomy, A Panoramic View Taken from the Tower of St

George’s Cathedral, 1890, silver print, courtesy of Cambridge University Library,

Chapter Two

Alphonso Lisk-Carew’s Life and Work

Through his lens, he captured many facets of Freetown life in the first half of this century – its tastes, amusements, social customs and buildings … Particularly interesting is his grasp of what could best represent Sierra Leone’s traditional and contemporary culture in the photographic medium.1

There is probably no establishment in Freetown that is visited by more passengers from the steamers than that of Messrs. Lisk-Carew Brothers … Photography in its highest phases emerges from the plane of mechanical operation, into a realm of art far beyond the

commonplace of ordinary achievement, and it is the aim of Messrs. Lisk-Carew Brothers to exemplify in their portraiture all those pleasing details which, whilst apparently casual, are the outcome of long experience and close study of the best means and methods of securing superlative results.2

These two epigraphs testify to Alphonso Lisk-Carew’s prolific and diverse

photographic enterprise that spanned more than 50 years. The first quotation recounts Dr. Edward Blyden III’s observation on Lisk-Carew. It is taken from a catalogue for an exhibition of his work at Fourah Bay College’s Institute of African Studies in

1

Edward W. Blyden III, “Alphonso Lisk-Carew: The Man and His Work,” in

Exhibition of Sierra Leoneana, 1895-1970 (Freetown: University of Sierra Leone,

1970), 2. A more in-depth biography can be found in the exhibition catalogue presented by the Institute of African Studies, Fourah Bay College, British Council Hall, and December 5 to December 12, 1970. The catalogue was produced to

accompany a temporary exhibition of Sierra Leone’s social and political development over seventy-five years. Lisk-Carew’s life and photography were highlighted under the subheadings “Alphonso Lisk-Carew: The Man and His Work” and “Alphonso Lisk-Carew: The Artist.”

2

Allister Macmillan, The Red Book of West Africa: Historical and Descriptive,

Commercial and Industrial Facts, Figures and Resources (London: Collingridge,

1970, one year after his death. The second draws from Allister Macmillan’s

commercial and business directory, The Red Book of West Africa, published in 1920. Macmillan’s Red Book offered a profile on Lisk-Carew’s studio and described Lisk- Carew as a “clever exponent of photography in all its branches” and one of several photographers who had “the distinction of the use of the Royal coat of arms, as they were appointed photographers to H.R.H, the Duke of Connaught.”3

This chapter provides a biography of Alphonso Lisk-Carew. It illuminates the trajectory of his work as well the manner in which he navigated the complex power dynamics of the colonial regime. It also explores the tensions and ambiguities

between his standing as a professional photographer with a large clientele drawn from the colonial regime and his position as one involved in the early Pan-Africanist movement in Sierra Leone. As will be demonstrated, Lisk-Carew’s career was also informed and shaped by other modes of visual and popular culture, namely early bioscope and film presentations, community dances and music hall productions. Lisk- Carew charted his career across all of these fields during his professional life despite their different institutional contexts.

Much of the available information about Alphonso Lisk-Carew’s personal and professional life originates from oral family histories, newspaper editorials, articles, Macmillan’s Red Book, government documents and evidence gleaned from Lisk- Carew’s studio photography and that of his contemporaries.4

3

Ibid. In his write-up on the business, Macmillan erroneously notes that Arthur was part of the business in 1904/1905 when Alphonso first opened his studio.

4

The lone portrait photograph of Alphonso Lisk-Carew can be found in the Red Book on page 233. The photograph may have been taken around 1918, when Lisk-Carew was in his mid-thirties.

Macmillan’s endorsement of Lisk-Carew as one of the photographers of choice in 1920 Freetown highlighted his prominence as a photographer. The 1970 retrospective exhibition also puts Lisk-Carew life and work into context and reveals the ways in which African photography in Sierra Leone had evolved since then. The following biography documents the varied events that took place in Alphonso Lisk- Carew’s life and work.

Early Life in Freetown

Alphonso Sylvester Lisk was born into a middle-class Creole family on September 8, 1883,5 at 3 East Brook Lane, Freetown. The area where he was born was known as Overbridge,6 a predominantly Creole enclave at the time located in the northeastern section of the city.7 The early history of Alphonso Lisk-Carew is not documented, but oral accounts from his descendants fill in the gaps (keeping in mind their own

positionings) in the official record.8 Alphonso’s mother, Paulina Sabina Carew (or “Mama Carew,” as she was known), was born in Freetown in 1856. She first married

5

During my first fieldwork visit to Freetown in 2009, a distant uncle of Lisk-Carew’s accompanied me to Lisk-Carew’s grave site, known locally as “race course” cemetery because of its close proximity to an old race course. The grave marker indicates he died in 1969 at the age of 86.

6

Overbridge is located at the bottom of East Brook Street and is named for the bridge suspended over Nicol’s Brook. The wider area is also known as Gibraltar Town, founded in 1819 by returning soldiers who had served in Gibraltar.

7

The East End of Freetown encompassing the area in which Lisk-Carew’s family lived is considered the gateway to the city from the hinterland. Increasing migration to Freetown, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, created intense overcrowding in the East End. When I visited East Brook Lane in 2009, I was told very few Creole families remained in the area and many of the houses there had been destroyed during the rebel occupation of Freetown in 1999.

8

I was able to obtain information from several sources, including from his mother’s great-granddaughter, Paulina Holland-Campbell, who is in her early 70s, from his nephew, Sekoyeo Carlton-Carew, aged 91, and from an article published in a 1912 edition of the SLWN that editorialised his life and included a brief biographical account. See also “Bestowal of Royal Patronage on the Firm of Messrs. Lisk-Carew Brothers, Photographers, Sierra Leone,” SLWN, May 18, 1912, 7.

Thomas Carlton-Carew, with whom she had two children – Thomas Daniel and Paulina. After her husband died in 1881, Mama Carew married a Mr. Lisk, with whom she had two other children – Alphonso, born in 1883, and Arthur, born around 1890. Following Arthur’s birth, Mr. Lisk disappeared9 and Thomas Daniel, as the eldest brother, became the man of the house. He added the Carew name to the boys’ surname and paid for both Alphonso and Arthur’s education at the Methodist Boys’ High School.

Lisk-Carew’s surname was in line with the Creole naming practices of the time and reflected social strategies of the shifting Freetown milieu. Thus such

adaptation in relation to naming was linked to a selection of ethnic, class, and familial and individual choice in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Freetown. Creole men could choose to adopt the family name of their father or mother, and usually selected the one, which brought them the higher prestige.10 In some cases they adopted both names, linking them with a hyphen. This naming practice, as noted by Samuel Johnson, may have begun with the colonial British in Sierra Leone who “abolished native names wholesale, considering them ‘heathenish,’ and substituted European names instead.”11 It should be noted that by the mid to late 1890s, West Africans in Sierra Leone, in response to increasing exclusion and discrimination from colonial administrations, began to change and substitute Anglophone-derived names for “African” derived names, particularly Yoruba, as their interests became allied with

9

Mr. Sekoyeo Carlton-Carew did not recall Mr. Lisk’s first name. Pers. comm. August 18, 2012; however I came across a death notice for a Henry Lisk on page 11 of the March 15, 1890, issue of the SLWN, but I cannot verify he was the father or even a relation.

10

Abner Cohen, The Politics of Elite Culture: Explorations in the Dramaturgy of

Power in a Modern African Society (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of

California Press, 1981), 38. 11

Samuel Johnson, The History of the Yorubas: From the Earliest Times to the

local populations.12 Increasingly disillusioned with the colonial regime, Creoles changed their names as part of a range of resistance strategies.13 Such strategies mark the fluid identities of the Freetown scene.

As with many of her Creole Freetown contemporaries who took advantage of the ease of steamer travel from the 1850s,14 Mama Carew was an entrepreneur. She mounted and ran a successful business trading in cloth in the provinces, Bathurst and Conakry.15 During her business excursions by steamship, she traded European and local textiles for palm oil, rice and groundnuts, which she would then sell in

Freetown.16 Coastal women had long been intermediary traders, linking the interior of Sierra Leone with goods coming from long distances.17 Many successful women secured stalls in the Big Market, located in Freetown’s central business district near the busy wharf area. However, Mama Carew’s great-granddaughter insists that her venture was strictly small-scale and outside of the Big Market. Mama Carew’s

12

Leo Spitzer, The Creoles of Sierra Leone: Responses to Colonialism 1870-1945, (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1974), 117.

13

Akintola Wyse, The Krio of Sierra Leone: An Interpretive History (London: C. Hurst and Co., 1989), 52. Wyse also notes that part of an earlier strategy was the creation of the short-lived Dress Reform Society in 1887. The Society’s membership donned “native-inspired” attire only and changed their anglicised names to African ones.

14

Martin Lynn, “Technology, Trade and ‘A Race of Native Capitalists’: The Krio Diaspora of West Africa and the Steamship, 1852-95,” Journal of African History, vol. 3, no. 33 (1992), 426.

15

Paulina Holland-Campbell. pers. comm., October 24, 2008. Holland-Campbell said that Mama Carew continued in this enterprise until well into her old age.

16

For a more detailed discussion on Creole women traders, see E. Frances White,

Sierra Leone’s Settler Women Traders: Women on the Afro-European Frontier (Ann

Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1987). 17

Christopher Fyfe, A History of Sierra Leone (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962), 379.

enterprise was of a type well established by an earlier generation of settler women18 who had a reputation for their fierce independence and business acumen.

The Lisk-Carew’s had a large extended family that comprised uncles, aunts and cousins who resided both within and outside of the borders of the Overbridge community. Many of the immediate family members lived near the family home, including a younger half-brother, Dan Carlton-Carew, who was born in Nigeria and lived at 15 East Brook Street. At approximately the turn of the century, the Lisk- Carew’s moved from the smaller house at 3 East Brook Lane to a larger three-storey home at 20 East Brook Street, where, as Mrs. Holland-Campbell remembers, some photography took place at the ground level. This might have been a temporary move, as it seems that the original house at 3 East Brook Lane was retained by the family,