ristians and colonial administrators was the integration of traditional African beliefs and ceremonies with Christianity and the practice of Islam in Freetown and surrounding villages. There are a number of documents of British missionaries voicing their concern over the use of such things as wake ceremonies, belief and use of gri-gri charms and the offering of libations to deceased by African Christians. One Revd. J.F. Schon even went so far as to attempt to halt a wake ceremony only to be rebuffed with the response, "We born in another country, this fashion we learned from our fathers. What they did we do" (237). The use of wakes by African Christians prompted the attempt to outlaw them by creating the punishment of expulsion from the Wesley church by any member found participating or attending a wake. Despite the attempts of the British, African forms of Christianity persisted.Both the British and African Christians clashed with Muslims. Muslims in Freetown were often treated as second class citizens and generally lived in separate sections of town. The Colonial Government attempted to suppress Muslims in the 1930s. The Governor, Richard Doherty, expressed his dislike for Muslims and a desire for a policy of "discrimination for recaptives" (240). He claimed he was "offended by their polygamy and wanted to break up their communities and have them pushed beyond the colony borders" (Brewer, Keenan & Doerr 10). In the late 1830s the Foulah town Mosque was destroyed by fire. This discrimination is one of the reasons Muslims tended to withdraw themselves to separate areas in Freetown or to the surrounding villages.Missionaries also expressed their disliking for Muslims and some of this transferred to African Christians. This enmity would change though and association between African Christian and Muslims would lead to the permanent establishment of a unified, diverse Creole culture with the formation of the Creole association. Begun in 188...
