RAINY, WILLIAM

William Rainy (circa 1819-1878) was a courageous and distinguished Afro-West Indian barrister who devoted himself to fighting colour prejudice in Sierra Leone and elsewhere in West Africa. A passionate defender of political rights, he was the first Sierra Leonean delegate to the Anti-Slavery Conference held in Paris in 1867.

He was born in Dominica in the West Indies about 1819, and migrated to Sierra Leone where he worked at the customs department from 1844-47. He then went to England where he studied law at the Inner Temple, returning to Freetown to set up a private practise which lasted from 1850-71.

Rainy was successful in his work at the Bar in Freetown, and gained considerable popularity in the general community. In the Sierra Leone courts he fought all cases that smacked of colour prejudice. One example is the case of Dr. Robert Bradshaw, colonial surgeon. In November, 1864, Rainy brought an action against him for whipping his groom who had left his horse unattended in a rainstorm. Bradshaw sensibly settled the matter out of court with a payment of £30. A similar action was brought by Rainy against the colonial treasurer, Adolphus Pike, for striking his watchman. Certain businessmen retained Rainy merely to prevent him issuing writs against them.

Although he did once appear for the Crown, it was more usual for him to appear against it, as in the case of Whobay of Imperi, charged with the murder of Patience Peters, a recaptive from Popo in Dahomey (present-day Benin). His role was always that of champion of the helpless and oppressed. A shrewd and skillful debater, he often used ridicule to discredit his opponents in court and occasionally provoked judges to discipline him to the extent, in one or two instances, of being charged and fined for contempt of court.

At a time when petitions were the most effective, if not the only, legitimate means of expressing a sense of public injustice, Rainy became almost a professional organiser of petitions. He was a signatory to nearly all petitions to the Colonial Office protesting against colonial officers or unpopular government measures and fell out with a series of governors — Sir Stephen, John Hill (term of office 1854-62), Major Samuel Wensley Blackall (term of office 1862-67), and even Sir Arthur Edward Kennedy (terms of office 1852-54 and 1868-72), with whom he was initially on very cordial terms. Rainy’s political protests and legal practise were not confined to Sierra Leone.

He appealed successfully on several occasions to the judicial committee of the Privy Council in England, and appeared in person in an action at the Queen’s Bench in London, thus becoming the first barrister of African origin to plead in the English courts. Through his initiative a number of questions relating to Sierra Leone were raised in the British Parliament. These included the dangers of trials without a jury, as in the Sierra Leone Vice-Admiralty court, and the question of the professional competence of Judge Horatio Huggins, whom Rainy had exposed for imposing higher sentences than were legally warranted.

Rainy exercised a major influence, amounting almost to proprietary rights, over several local newspapers, including The Sierra Leone Observer, The African Interpreter and Advocate, and The West African Liberator. In these, as well as in overseas papers, such as The African Times, he attacked his critics and denounced his adversaries.

In 1867, he attended a meeting of the Anti-Slavery Conference in Paris where, as Sierra Leone’s first delegate—to be followed by Samuel Lewis—he voiced the discontent of all West Africa. In a fiery impassioned speech, he underlined the defects and imprecisions in the political rights of Sierra Leoneans. The French government awarded him a gold medal in recognition of the professional services he had given to French citizens who were his clients in Sierra Leone.

When Rainy returned to Sierra Leone he made sure that a local branch of the Anti-Slavery Society was set up in Freetown. In July 1871, he left for London, a tired and sick man, destined never to return home again. In the same year, he emigrated from London to Australia, where he died.

CYRIL P. FORAY