22/08/2023
Who Is Constance Cummings-John – The Beautiful Sierra Leonean Woman On The New Twenty Leone Currency
Constance Cummings-John was a Sierra Leonean educationist and politician in both pre and post-colonial Sierra Leone who campaigned for women’s rights in Sierra Leone and the continent of Africa at large.
She was born in 1918 in Freetown, Sierra Leone, into the elite Krio Horton family.
She was the first woman in Africa to join a municipal council, and in 1966, she was elected Mayor of Freetown, becoming the first woman to serve as mayor of Freetown and the first woman in Africa to govern a modern capital city.
At the age of 20, she became the youngest and only female politician to win an election in the African colonies.
Her outspokenness and reluctance to yield to the colonial government’s demands made Sierra Leone a dangerous location for her.
As a result, she travelled to the United States with her two kids in 1946, circumventing the British travel embargo.
After five years in the United States, Constance Cummings-John returned to Sierra Leone in 1951 to set up the Eleanor Roosevelt Preparatory School for Girls, which she funded through her quarrying business and US fundraising.
When Sierra Leone began the process of gaining independence from Britain, the 1951 constitution granted the power to the Protectorates, but Krio leaders formed their own party.
However, with the aim of national unity, some younger Krio intellectuals, notably Cummings-John, joined the Protectorate lawmakers’, the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP).
Constance Cummings-John was appointed to a seat in the Freetown City Council by the Governor of Sierra Leone at the time.
Cummings-John also served on the SLPP’s executive and maintained her campaign for the inclusion of Protectorate peoples and women in its policies.
General elections were held for a new elected House of Representatives in 1957 but were still restricted to men.
Cummings-John decided to stand for election as an SLPP candidate; she again gained the most votes and became one of two women in the new Sierra Leone government led by the SLPP.
Her move to stand for election as an SLPP candidate raised mixed reactions and concerns within the Krio community and therefore she was condemned and called a traitor by some of her Krio compatriots.
She was further accused of malpractice in the 1957 election and was taken to court where she was given a biased prison sentence but was later dismissed after she appealed to the court.
As a woman who had a notable reputation, she later resigned her seat rather than face further humiliation as she was deeply shaken by the accusations levelled at her.
She didn’t give up on her goals and vision for women’s rights in Sierra Leone, she again stood for elections in the Freetown Municipal Council in 1958 and topped the polls with the majority of the votes.
As a woman who lived in the era of British colonial rule where discrimination and oppression were the order of the day, Constance Cumming-John struggle was evident as she suffered a lot of backlashes.
She struggle to untie the knot of colonialism and gain acceptance in the British colony of Sierra Leone, where women were not expected to engage in political activities.
In 1966 she was elected mayor of Freetown, becoming the first African woman to govern a modern capital city.
Constance Cummings-John used her position to attempt to unite the people of Freetown and to elevate the position of women in Sierra Leone.
She initiated a sanitation campaign; street traders were regulated; attempts were made to channel the energies of the growing number of street children; a municipal secondary school was set up.
Cummings-John lived for the rest of life in London after unsuccessful return attempts to Sierra Leone in 1974 and 1996.
She passed away on February 21, 2000, at 82, in London.
