BANKOLE-BRIGHT, H.C.

Herbert Christian Bankole-Bright (August 23, 1883-December 12, 1958), whose political career spanned four decades, from the 1920s to the 1950s, was one of the most controversial, enigmatic, and misunderstood politicians of pre-independence Sierra Leone.

PHOTO CAPTION: Bankole-Bright, H.C. SOURCE: EA Library

He was born at Okrika, Delta state in Nigeria, east of the mouth of the Niger. His father, Jacob Galba-Bright, a “diplomatic agent” in the service of the Royal Niger Company, took his family back home to Freetown upon his retirement. Galba-Bright then set up a thriving commercial business in Freetown and used his wealth to educate his children.

After attending the Methodist (then Wesleyan) Boys’ School in Freetown, Bankole-Bright went to study medicine at Edinburgh, in Scotland. In 1910 he qualified as a medical doctor and returned to Sierra Leone. In 1911 he married Adda Bishop whose father, the Hon. T. Colenso Bishop, an affluent merchant, was mayor of Freetown at the time of his death in 1898. They had four children.

By the 1920s, in addition to running a nursing home, Bankole-Bright had become a leader of the more progressive faction in local politics. His political views found expression through his newspapers, the Aurora (1918-circa 1925) and the Evening Despatch, (founded in the 1950s) notable for their extremism, and through his membership in the Legislative Council.

The 1924 Constitution had given him the opportunity to enter the Legislative Council as an elected member. Gifted in oratory, Bright, and his fellow elected member, E.S. Beoku-Betts, dominated local politics for the next 12 years, agitating on issues associated with the activities of I.T.A. Wallace-Johnson and his West African Youth League. In addition to pressing for the repeal of the Assessor’s Ordinance (which provided for trial by three Assessors, nominated by the government, rather than by a jury, in some criminal cases involving government employees), they also urged the establishment of a West African Court of Appeal, workmen’s compensation, the extension of the franchise, the introduction of an unofficial majority in the Legislative Council, better pay and the abolition of discrimination against African staff.

Bright’s championship of the dignity and rights of the Sierra Leonean often placed him in opposition to the colonial administration. But, paradoxically, he remained a loyal British subject and was a member of the Royal Colonial Institute. He believed in constitutionalism, however, intemperate his language at times.

This belief, and his affirmation of “organic connections with the British Crown, were shared by leading contemporaries in West African politics, who maintained contact with one another across territorial boundaries. Bright, like his other contemporaries, supported the National Congress of British West Africa, a pan-West-African movement which had been inaugurated in Accra, in what was then the Gold Coast, in 1920. Bright himself was secretary-general of the delegation which the Congress sent to London in 1920 in an unsuccessful bid to meet with Lord Milner, British Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1918-21. He remained, however, an active Congress politician to the end.

The National Congress of West Africa grew less effective after the death of its founder, J.E. Casely Hayford (1866-1930) of the Gold Coast. But the ideals of the Congress had been embodied in the West African Student’s Union, which was founded in London in August 1925 through Bright’s efforts, and which carried on agitation for independence throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Such was the impact of Bright on local and regional politics that by the 1930s his prominence was generally recognised. One source described him as “the best politician in Freetown,” while an admiring but critical pen-portrait written in 1933 stated that: “Were West Africa a republic, he would be a fit candidate for the presidency.

But by the late 1930s, Bright had “mellowed.” Some British officials, who would have liked to see Bright in jail, noted his declining popularity and effectiveness with glee. The decline was due to a number of causes, some of them domestic. More importantly, contemporary developments required a more “populist approach to politics than the sedate stance of Congress.

In addition, Bright had supported unpopular government measures, such as the Three Bills of 1939. These bills, connected with undesirable literature, with sedition, and with expulsion, were passed by the colonial administration to neutralise the activities of the West African Youth League formed by Wallace-Johnson. Bright’s attitude on the Three Bills so angered his constituents that he was the subject of a vote of no confidence. He was dismissed as vice-president of the local National Congress and resigned his seat in the Legislative Council. For the following 11 years, he was to remain outside the Legislative Council.

When Bright returned to the Council in 1951, the experience was less than rewarding. The memory of his positive contributions in earlier days was dimmed by his role in opposing the political influence of the peoples of what was then the Protectorate, which they had gained under the provisions of the Stevenson Constitution of 1947. He conducted these activities in his capacity as leader of the National Council of Sierra Leone, which represented the Krio (Creole) party.

Though he opposed the predominance of the Protectorate in politics, he actively sought the interests of the Protectorate in the Legislative Council. For instance, he championed the case of A. T. Summer, the Mende linguist, who sought a better salary, and also agitated for the employment of Dr. M.A.S. Margai, the first Protectorate-born doctor, later to become Sierra Leone’s first prime minister.

Bright’s overbearing manner and his great pride in his family status often made him arrogant, conceited, and sometimes unscrupulous. It was therefore often difficult for the colonial administration, or the succeeding African government, to appreciate his finer points. His highest official title in Sierra Leone was Leader of the Opposition, and he was granted the title of “Honorable” for life. This last honor, however, came too late to mean anything to him. He was never given a decoration or an honor by the British Crown.

His other characteristics were his remarkable forthrightness and bluntness, acknowledged by friends and enemies alike, as well as his devotion to his church and his people. He was a trustee of his church, the Gibraltar Methodist, and used to organise activities for schoolchildren in his home village of Wellington.

Opinions on Bankole-Bright will continue to differ, but when he died in 1958, broken in spirit, Sir Milton Margai, prime minister of a non-self-governing Sierra Leone, described his death as the end of an epoch:

The grand old man of politics was a stalwart pioneer in a field which held very little rewards… His contributions to West African nationalism, to the political consciousness and activity of Sierra Leone, to the general cause of freedom and justice, are too numerous to mention… History and those who write history will make a spacious room to record (his) life and achievements.

AKINTOLA J.G. WYSE