RAI RESEARCH SEMINAR

SEMINAR SERIES AT THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE

Northcote W. Thomas, a Government Anthropologist in Sierra Leone, 1914-15

Dr Paul Basu, University College London

Wednesday 23 October at 5.30 pm

Northcote W. Thomas (1868-1936) is celebrated as the first ‘Government Anthropologist’ to be employed by the Colonial Office to conduct anthropological research that would benefit colonial administration in West Africa. In this capacity he undertook three tours in Southern Nigeria between 1909 and 1913, and a final tour in Sierra Leone in 1914-15. Much has been made of the reported animosity between the colonial authorities (particularly Lugard) and Thomas’ character and work (in one memo he was famously characterized as a sandal-wearing, vegetarian maniac). This paper takes a closer look at Thomas’ life and work, and places his anthropological endeavour in its historical context on the eve of the ‘fieldwork revolution’.

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