Simon Ottenberg 
Design and Music in a Changing Northern Sierra Leone Chiefdom 

This is an anthropological and historical study of Wara Wara Balodea Chiefdoma, an ancient and formerly very isolated, hill chiefdom in northern Sierra Leone. West Africa, called Wara Wara Bafodea, with rice growing in the chiefdom’s south and grain in its north. The book is based on two-year’s personal study in 1979-1980, contrasting the chiefdoms music with its art and designs, to arrive at an understanding of the elements of its culture. Numerous color and black and white photographs, mostly taken by the author, illuminate the work. The book is also a study of a changing cultures, with Wara Wara Bafodea culture and language becoming overwhelmed by both Muslim and Christian influences -an African society undergoing rapid change from a an elemental indigenous society to a complex multicultural one.