Sculpture of Bai Bureh

A life-size model of the Temne warrior and hero of the Hut Tax War , Bai Bureh. This statue was commissioned by Gary Schulze, a Peace Corps Volunteer who served as acting curator of the Sierra Leone Museum in 1962-63. It was fabricated by a Krio carver named J. D. Marsh from wire, plaster and cement. Although the figure was modelled on a drawing of Bai Bureh made while he was in captivity in Freetown (subsequently published in the Illustrated London News), Marsh was told to use his imagination in reconstructing Bai Bureh's face, since this was in profile in the drawing. Schulze dressed the figure in a Kuranko gown and tasselled hat from the Museum's collection and wired an old sword to its hand. Even though the facial features and attire of the sculpture were not authentic, the Museum's representation of Bai Bureh became authoritative and was reproduced on Sierra Leone's Le1,000 banknote in 1993.

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Further Information

  • Type: Figures, sculpture
  • Object: Sculpture of Bai Bureh
  • Materials: No Data / Other
  • Culture Group: Krio, Temne
  • Dimensions: 1730mm [H]
  • Production Date: 1963
  • Associated Places: Freetown
  • Associated People: Gary Schulze (Commissioner); J. D. Marsh (Creator); Bai Bureh (Subject)
  • Museum: Sierra Leone National Museum
  • Accession Number: SLNM.1963.19.56

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