Hut Tax War of 1898

The Hut Tax War of 1898 was a resistance in the newly annexed Protectorate of Sierra Leone to a new, severe tax imposed by the colonial military governor. The British had established the Protectorate to demonstrate their dominion over the territory to other European powers following the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885. The imposed tax constituted a major burden on residents of the Protectorate; 24 indigenous chiefs had signed a petition against it, explaining its adverse effects on their societies, to no avail. The immediate catalyst for hostilities was the use of force by British officials to arrest the Temne chief Bai Bureh, a general and war strategist, because of ill-founded rumours. He is typically identified as the chief who initiated an armed resistance in the North in 1898, but the British forces shot first. Late 20th-century sources suggest he has been unfairly identified by the colonial government as a primary instigator and that the colonial government had provoked the war by its hostile actions. Later that year, resistance arose in the south by the leading Mende.

The military governor, Colonel Frederic Cardew, had decreed that, to pay for British administration, the Protectorate residents had to pay a tax based on the size of their huts. The proposal revealed the ignorance of the administration about the lives of most residents, as it was unduly severe. Because of the British "scorched earth policy", which dramatically affected his people, Bai Bureh surrendered in 1898 after several months of warfare to end the destruction. He was sent out of the country to exile for several years.

Colonel Frederic Cardew was not an administrator, but a professional soldier who had spent years in India and South Africa. He imposed the tax for economic reasons to raise revenues to pay for administration of the Protectorate.

The owner of a four-roomed hut was to be taxed ten shillings a year; those with smaller huts would pay five shillings. His staff failed to advise him that the taxes, first imposed on 1 January 1898, often were higher than the value of the dwellings. In addition, the government taxed unoccupied dwellings. Lastly, Cardew's demands that the chiefs organize their own residents to maintain the roads ignored the fact that the people needed to devote their labor to subsistence farming in order to survive. A total of 24 chiefs signed a petition to the colonial government explaining why these requirements were so burdensome and threatened their societies. In addition, the chiefs believed the tax was an attack on their sovereignty.

...
Wikipedia