a role of ensuring concerted action for political or economic purposes. It could as easily place a ban on war as on the harvest, a ban which no one dared disobey. It thus fulfilled the role of a modern judiciary system and police force. It was this that Kpana Lewis used to effect a boycott of trade with Europeans and the Krio people who Kpana Lewis and other indigenous tribal leaders accused of supporting the British. When the District Commissioner called a meeting of chiefs in the area to warn them against any kind of rebellion, one of the chief said that he had to confer with Kpana Lewis, whom he regarded as his leader. So great was his power and influence over these rulers that they were willing to openly defy powerful British officials in favour of Kpana Lewis' authority. The British then quickly passed a law making it a criminal offence to use the Poro to restrain trade. When the Hut Tax War of 1898 broke out, led by Temne war-chief Bai Bureh, nothing could convince the District Commissioner that Kpana Lewis was not the brain behind the resistance. Even though the British had no evidence connecting Kpana Lewis with the Rebellion, he was detained as a suspect and was subsequently sent into exile in the Gold Coast along with Bai Bureh and the Mende chief Nyagua. The British then installed their own man, Fama Yani, as the leader of the Sherbro people. Fearing that if Kpana Lewis returned and his presence would lead to the overthrow of Fama Yani, the British refused to allow his return, though Bai Bureh was ultimately brought back to Sierra Leone. Despite protests by Kpana Lewis' son, Kong Kuba, and of intervention by the Anti-Slavery Society in London, the British Government held him in the Gold Coast where he died after more than a decade in exile. External links BAI SHERBRO KPANA LEWIS (ca. 1830-1912) SHERBRO CHIEF AND OPPONENT OF COLONIAL RULE at www.sierra-leone.org Sherbro people Hut Tax War of 1898 1830 births 1912 deaths