AFRICA

I always wanted to go to Africa. Like most Afro-Americans, I grew up in an environment idolizing everything, Africa. Once I got there, I realize I Knew nothing about Africa. My maternal grandmother made it clear that everything Africa is best. Granny did not, however, spend time disparaging the accomplishments of other cultures.

Growing up in Nicaragua’s Latino and black cultures. And for me, there is no differentiating between these two ethnicities. Latinos are blacks, and black are Latinos. But this is not so for everyone who finds favor with one group.

In Africa, these distinctions will magnify. Creating a surreal world where an elite minority will treat other with indifferent. Sometimes stereotype can explain things If it was easy as black and white. However, things are seldom black or white.

STEREOTYPES

 

The usual stereotype can’t explain Africa’s ethnic differences; most folk’s look dark to me, but they’re differences; differences that go back for centuries. The Sierra Leoneans asked me often, “are you Nigerian,” “American” or “Hausa,” those usually came up. Chief Morsay defined Biko and me as “white.” He told us that we are foreigners just like people with white skin. His index finger was rubbing the top of his hand for emphasis. When Afro-Americans do this in a conversation, we know that it’s an obstacle akin to “Whites Only.” “You’re not Africans,” he said. In Africa, it matters where you come from, or from what side of the river; in the case of the Congo’s Bushong and the Lele ethnic group; what side of the river makes a difference socially politically and financially.

But none of that was on my mind. I was excited to go to Africa. Relating to my grandmother’s Afrocentric beliefs; I wanted to see for myself the grandeur of the continent that launched civilization and everything that makes us beautiful: The melanin, the curves, rhythm, the food. A list of defense mechanism, my self-esteem used to combat the constant influx of American racist propaganda, where everything is about color, and black is the shade that faints all colors.

 

RACISM

Consequently, racism is the lens thru which most Afro-Americans view the world. It’s not a distorting lens; for the most part, the lens is accurate; although limiting. Focusing only on the one view. In a world where human beings find myriad of ways to segregate one another, racism makes this division possible.

ETHNIC GROUPS

It is clear that the Belgians of King Leopold II acted in the most racist, inhuman way towards the people of the Congo. But ultimately Mobutu Sese Seko of the Ngbandi ethnic group arrested Patrice Lumumba of the Tetela ethnic group. I don’t think that ethnicity was the cause for Mobutu Sese Seko transgression towards Lumumba. Thomas Sankara and Blaise Compaoré, both are from the Mossi ethnic group of Burkina Faso. But just like King Leopold II, greed was the reason for Mobutu’s treachery towards Patrice Lumumba and the destruction of countless Congolese lives. Compaoré did the same in Burkina Faso securing privileges for a ruling minority; keeping power at the expense of Thomas Sankara and the people of Burkina Faso. Using corruption, expropriation even foreign assistance to maintain power. With no state to answer to, these men were no different than King Leopold II in the inhumane treatment of their countrymen.

In Sierra Leone, the (RUF) will implement the same, cutting off limbs and add systematic rape and murder; dispersing thousands and enslaving the population to extract diamonds for their personal wealth.

INTERNALIZE RACISM

 Author, Toni Morrison explains that reacting to racism is a prison with no doors. Internalizing racism makes us complicit to its trap. We waste energy trying to prove what ethnic group is the biggest victim or isn’t racist. Meanwhile, the looting and inhumane treatment continue.

And I urge you to be careful for there is a deadly prison. A prison that is erected when one spends one’s life fighting phantoms, concentrating on myths and explaining over and over to the conqueror your language, your lifestyle, your history, your habits.

Toni Morrison

REPARATIONS

Some of us demand compensation for slavery and Africa, not realizing that any monies Europe and America will compensate are a byproduct of the commodities European, American, and Chinese corporations loot from Africa, the richest continent in the world for us, but not for the majority of Africans.

Europe, China, and America spend billions of dollars on Africa’s poor. Meanwhile benefiting from an untold amount of mineral wealth extracted from Africa.
Possible with the collaboration of dictators, warlords, and oligarchs: Mobutu Sese Seko; Teodoro Obiang Nguema; José Eduardo dos Santos; Robert Gabriel Mugabe. Africa has an extensive list of countries suffering from “Dutch Disease” whose Presidents amass vast personal wealth at the expense of their countries.

Africa as the world’s charity is big business

 

TAX HAVENS

Some tax havens like Switzerland and Bermuda benefit significantly with transfer pricing. According to Jane G. Gravelle, Senior Congressional Specialist in Economic Policy. Bermuda Profits 645.7 as a Percentage of GDP from registered companies.
Legally registered businesses in these countries pay more taxes to their designated countries for commodities that African nations produce.

“Rüschlikon a village in Switzerland with a very low tax rate and very wealthy residents. Thanks to one resident, it receives more tax revenue than it can use. Ivan Glasenberg, CEO of Glencore, whose copper mines in Zambia are not generating large bounty tax revenue for the Zambians. Zambia, a country with widespread corruption and the 3rd largest copper reserves in the world, but 60% of the population live on less than $1 a day, and 80% are unemployed.”

“You don’t waste your energy fighting the fever. You must only fight the disease. And the disease is not racism. It is greed and the struggle for power.” Toni Morrison

Tom Burgis brilliant and brave book: THE LOOTING MACHINE
Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa’s Wealth.

Burgis write’s an excellent account of the looting of Africa. He reveals how the leaders, of some of Africa’s most poverty-stricken countries, sell off natural resources, commodities, through “shadow states” whose only purpose is to enrich and preserve a tiny self-serving elite generating income by selling off the nation’s resources for their personal wealth.

For all my love of African art and culture. It never occurred to me. Why is Africa so poor? Africa’s resources insert minerals in our mobile phones and oil to our gas stations meanwhile inflicting hardship and destruction on African people. In fact, Sierra Leone is poor because a narrow political elite has organized society for their benefit at the expense of the of people of Sierra Leone. Political power has been concentrated and used to create great wealth for those who possess it. The losers have been the people of Sierra Leone.

POVERTY

But poverty is a relative thing. Having grown up in the Caribbean and Latin America. I was accustomed to third world reality. But none of this prepared me for Africa.

Africans are entrepreneurial. They work hard, finding creative ways to make profits. The minority political elite in power answers to whoever will pay them. The corporations who finances their economic rent while maintaining their low tax rate.

In the United States, the citizens keep politicians in check and get rid of ones who would use their offices to enrich themselves or create monopolies for their cronies. In Africa countries with “Dutch disease,” this check disappears. But for the minority political elite in charge, it’s a lucrative monopoly.

THE TRIP

The volume on conversations goes up the closer you get to the African departure lounge. Things are direct. Laughter strengthened; the sucking of the teeth is loud, the smiles big.

The plane landed in Lungi International airport to a great chorus of cheers and applauses. Like a Hollywood emancipation scene, Africans are happy and grateful to be home. You can feel their excitement. I too was excited, to greet the African air. Stepping out of the airplane, I found the humidity familiar. What was different, was to look into a crowd and seeing one shade of black people. I tried not to look surprised; I pretend I’ve been here before. The Africans looked at me like if I’ve been here before too.

The tarmac and runway are huge, like all airports. But at Lungi you don’t see the buses, trucks or the walking tunnel protecting you from inclement weather. Everything is open and wide as the sky. I didn’t see commercial airplanes or business aircraft; just empty tarmac with a far far away blue-green forest horizon with no buildings in sight.

Walking into the slight immigration building was a surprise, no crowds! I thought this strange for an international airport. Somehow, I thought they might be connecting flights to the other part of Africa. Only the people who will be boarding on the same plane in route to Liberia. Right away as you enter the building, you see some old fashion cubicles with modern fingerprint recognition machines. Immigration officers were easy and quick. They ask for passport and yellow vaccination card. Welcome to Sierra Leone!

The people of Sierra Leone are friendly; they are generous with their comfort zone. They greet you, touch you gently with a common custom.

Waiting for our luggage, I was attracted to two large, very impressive, standing wooden sculptures. Two action figures carved from a single tree trunk. No one paid these any mind. They walk by them like nuisance African souvenir. I always appreciated the attention to detail of African art; there is a consideration for the viewer, the wearer, and handling of artifacts. This association of welcoming artistically with dance, texture, food and colors was for me African arts functionality.

Although very impressive, I did not know at the time; those two wooden sculptures will represent the culmination of my African artistic impression.

Leaving the airport, we see a sign with our names. Our host Chernor, we call him Cherry, arrange to have Lamin greet us and arrange the bus tickets that will take us to the beach and the ferry to Freetown. Lamin works for a company that assists travelers to Sierra Leonne. Having someone on the ground that speaks, Krio was calming. Krio is a better bargaining language; exchanging money is aggressive, some notes have preferences. So there’s room for saving if you can bargain in Krio.

 

Outside, they’re young men selling bus tickets along with Sim Cards. They’re competitive, but not pushy. There’s lots of cash in sight continuously exchanging hands. We wait for the air condition mini buses to fill with passengers. The ferry is not far away, about a mile. But it takes about ten minutes drive to get there. The road is wrong; I thought that this being the way to the airport it might be in better care, but no. It was just the begging of the many examples of neglect and corruption that the people of Sierra Leone live with day to day.

THE BEACH at LUNGI

The beach is big and clean; I notice this because everywhere else seems to be litter with debris. I see some modest hastily constructed shanties. I was looking for colorful fishing boats but did not see any. They’re small children, playing with torn and dirty western clothes. They paid us no mind. At this time the little wharf was full of the passenger from the plane, waiting for the ferry; luggage and people under a wooden hut, with an armed guard. We waited for several hours. It will be sundown before they called our numbered tickets, the small ferry made several trips transporting us safely to Freetown.

FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE

The boat ride takes less than an hour to cross the sea estuary arriving in Freetown at night. The view was dark with no identifying features to see. Inside, our host Cherry and his driver Mohamed are there waiting. They picked us out of the crowd immediately before anyone offers to assist. Lamin had sent photos. Cherry made sure that Mohamed gets our luggage. Cherry greeted us with a big smile, sparkling eyes, on a bright round friendly face. He immediately asked us about the flight and are we hungry. He said he has cook food home, “it might be too spicy for us,” he said. So if we like, we can go out to get some food. We opt for the spicy food; it was very late for our jetlag bodies to go out. The streets in Freetown, at nighttime, are jammed packed with vendors selling everything. None of it looks appealing to me. Freetown just doesn’t look clean. And this is a surprise. A Big surprise!

We left the wharf on a two-lane paved road lit with occasional street lamps. Mohamed is focused on his task while Cherry does the talking. I’m glad he is. The road keeps getting crowded the closer you get to town. They’re lots of small children out selling stuff, anything. I see lots of bake good and fruits. Everything looks rent. Things feel strange, anachronistic, a bit out of place, like if I’ve traveled back in time. The people don’t seem worried about the traffic. The street is abuzz with African music. And the people are just moving with purpose in what seems like a chaotic order.

GODRICH

We travel on paved roads all the way up to College Road in Godrich. Then we turn right. And Mohamed slows to a crawl; the road now unpaved becomes a series of hills and gullies slowly leading up to the next turns, like the bus ride from Lungi to the beach. There will be more moment like this. Mohamed is trying not to have the bottom of the car drag on a hill, patiently he turns. Like if he has done this lots of time.

CHERNOR’S HOME

The car came to a stop at a large metal door, about 10 feet high. Surrounded by fencing just as high with broken bottles cemented on the top. We’re three turns off the main road, some of the houses have this barrier. A lot don’t; some houses are just boxes of corrugated scraps metal wood and cardboard put together. There is a sense that Freetown was not always like this. These dwellings bare the scars and the remains of political corruption and a vicious, inhumane civil war.

At Cherries home, he introduces us to his uncle Mohamed, his sister Mimona and his “House Boys.” Cherry has two “House Boys” and a “House Girl.” At first, I thought he was talking about his children, but no, that’s what they call the servants or help. Although they’re more than servants, they have to be recommended by a family member. They call you “Sa” like yessa. Like I said, It feels like you’re back in time.

krain krain

Mimona placed a large bowl of “krain krain,” on the table. Cassava leaf pounded and shredded with hot peppers added to the pot of fish and boiled Jazmine rice on the side. It was hot; they had a good laugh watching our faces get bright. Although very spicy, it was delicious. The rice was helpful calming the krain krain’s heat. We needed something to drink. Small bags litter Sierra Leone. This night while eating hot Krain Krain we’ve introduced these ubiquitous waterbags. According to the water project

“Infections and parasites, most found in contaminated water, lead to the largest cause of death in Sierra Leone.”

SLEEP

After a very long journey, the mellow dance of Mosquito Smoke Coils, I was feeling tired. I needed a bath. Reacquainting myself with these norms of the Caribbean and Latin America: The open shower and cold water. Making sure not to drink the water from the pipes during my shower. I went to sleep in Africa.

SCHOOL CHILDREN

The next day I saw lots of children some in uniform. The schools are out early for the little ones. Education in Sierra Leone is legally required. But a shortage of schools and teachers has made implementation impossible the by-product of corrupt institutions plaguing this nation. I saw a group of three walking on the road with a basket on their heads. They look five or six, too small to be walking in a busy city by themselves.

BIKE TAXI

I saw a person on the back of a motorbike balancing a door. They’re, always men, riding a little reckless swishing in and out of traffic on bikes with unstrapped helmets. Some carry more than two passengers; I’ve seen four and five including babies. They’re lots of bikes; people use them as taxis. Taxis have routes like buses. The DDR had a brilliant idea for the young combatants to turned in their AK 47 for Honda trail bike taxi. Although many of their raped victims, and amputees, would not think so. Freetown is a courageous place coping with a difficult peace.

HARMATTAN WINDS

That Night the dark room started to move. The curtains move like a ghost entering the room with a moaning sound that got louder. The wind began to intensify, roaring and moving the curtains vigorously. It was the annual dry Harmattan winds of the Sahara, making their seasonal journeys over West Africa. I was looking forward to them since I read about it in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘s book “Half of a Yellow Sun.” I wondered how all those corrugated shanties were bearing. The winds were as intense as a category one hurricane; I was settling for a long night of wind and noise. But it finished as quickly as it started. The next morning, I got up to what will be the familiar power outage. Outside, on the porch, the view reminded me of my childhood in Bluefields, Nicaragua‘ Caribbean coast, with big lush, blue-green mango trees. That shades the blue sky relaxing the sun’s heat like the sunset after a long day. I was surprised. Nothing seemed out of place from the Harmattan winds. Trees were standing, and branches did not litter the ground.

ELECTRICITY  WATER and POLITICS

With the electricity and water always going out. We use rainwater from tanks. Everyone drinks water from the plastic sachet, for sale everywhere. Gas generators serenade the neighborhood along with the smell of cooking smoke.

Our conversations with Cherry and uncle Mohamed centered on the politics of Sierra Leone and the devastating civil war. They say that most of the people from the country are in the city looking for work.

Many women now in Freetown saw a different, more emancipated lifestyle, where unwilling to go back to the country.

“Country life is hard,” said Cherry.

Corruption, the decade-long war are some of the reasons for the collapse. The economic policies that make the importation of foodstuffs cheaper devastated the local farming and young men who would be farming are looking for diamonds and trapped in a vicious circle, making import products necessary and poverty inevitable.

 

SYRIANS

Most the big grocery stores in Freetown seems to be own by Syrians or Lebanese looking people (me stereotyping). In one of the grocery store. In every Isle, a Syrian person was looking watchful down the Isle. And another Syrian person sitting vigilantly behind the cashier, a young black girl. During the war, the Syrians were a target of elimination.

JAMMED PACKED STREETS

It takes a long time to drive through the jammed packed streets of Freetown. Lots of people are selling something, anything. You can find anything for sale on the streets of Freetown; it seems like everyone is on the street: Men, women with babies tied to their backs, children. And at times, many times, it looks sorrowful, like surviving is their only concern. It made me feel grateful for where I live. Folks here are struggling; it’s somewhat strange because everything they need is for sale on the streets. And their mineral wealthy country capable of providing for all their needs. Conversely, I saw the same dark complexion one after the other! Block after block, mile after mile, hour after hours, day after day, working, the same dark skin; this made feel grateful to visit Africa.

HOW I GOT HERE

Just a couple of day before, I was finishing the stage set for Bermudian Director Patricia Nesbitt. My best friend entrepreneur Biko Sankofa of The Sankofa Wellness Group called and told me he was going to Africa and could use some support. He said Africa is emerging and the opportunities are vast. He has family contacts in Sierra Leone and the possibility of making a good business contact. Biko said we’d have to spend some time there so that they get to know and trust us and that he had a meeting with a Chief. Biko along with his wife are generating business to support the Sankofa Wellness Group.

They share an intense desire and mission to help people revive optimal wellness within and live life abundantly.

This trip to Sierra Leone is a branch that will make this happen. I thought this a great opportunity. It was not disappointing. For me, it was life-changing. The reality on the ground in Africa exacerbated a quest for understanding.

KONO

The next day we travel to the province of Kono to meet the Chief. It’s a long drive. Along the way I see Chinese men building a new road. Paramount Chiefs, because of divine right, owns all the land in a particular region; they are many chiefdoms. The Chiefs decides who gets what. If you’re not from the same tribe, you will probably won’t get land from the Chief. But for the most part, Chief will let you use the property. Chief Morsay was kind. Along with his African-American daughter Sia, an honest businesswoman with a kind streak. Sia donates her time and resources to correct injustices regardless of the social norms. Her front door often full of neighborhood children playing with her children’s toys. They know that Sia will feed them. We witness a group of high school girls asking for sponsorship. Because of her charitable reputation, Sia gets many of these. The Chief explains that this creates confusion. Things have their place in Africa. But Sia is making changes, and her father is listening. They share a mutual respect.

 

We got to Kono in the evening. After some friendly chat and introductions. The Chief took us around to see his town. Kono is far from Freetown but looked just as depressing. It was dark, with no streetlights and many diamond dealers. However, even in darkness, Kono is friendly, the people spoke and were excited to see the Chief. His personality is friendly. But, you couldn’t see, like a power outage. Did I wonder why, why so much poverty? Why doesn’t the government take care of essential services?

SOME HISTORY

Since the day of colonial rule, marketing boards excessive tax on farmers. From the time of The Hut Tax Rebellion with Kono’s Paramount Chief Suluku. Sierra Leone is caught up in a circle of corruption extracting resources from the land and its people; using fraud, the dispensing of patronage and government contracts.

Early leaders like The first Prime Minister Sir Milton Margai of the (SLPP) mainly supported by the Mende in the South and staunch anticolonial Siaka Stevens (APC) backed by the ethnic Temne in Sierra Leone’s Northwest; they led Sierra Leone to independence.
Siaka Stevens (APC) will go on to win the election of 1976. Soon after the (NRC) will coup. Siaka Stevens will regain power, ousting the (NRC).

Siaka Stevens

Siaka Stevens will repeat and intensify to biblical proportion the worst corruptions of colonial rule. Stevens’s government extracted 90 percent of the income of the farmers, not to provide public services, such as roads or education, but to enrich himself and his cronies and to buy political support. His time as president known as the “17-year plague of locusts.”

Joseph Momoh

His successor, Joseph Momoh will go on to make the “17-year plague of locusts” look like a holiday; his rot was so rampant the people called him Dandogo, “fool” in his Limba language.
Joseph Momoh intensified the destruction of Sierra Leone to the point where the roads disappeared. Civil servants went unpaid; gas shortages were the norm, and water supplies often dried up. Central Government collapse.

 

WHY NATIONS FAIL

With no check on the balance of power. Sierra Leone complete demises came like a deathly disease by rules like Siaka Stevens and Joseph Momoh. But even if Siaka Stevens and Joseph Momoh were gone, the corrupt system that caused the death of Sierra Leone was alive. It will continue to give birth. Collapsing into civil war and state failure elsewhere in Africa; for example, in Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda.

POPULIST

These countries do not have a system of check and balance for countering the mandate of populist leaders like FDR did.

“We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”
(Louis Dembitz Brandeis associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States)

 

“Though Brandeis sympathized with much of Roosevelt’s legislation, he spoke against the president’s attempts to erode the power of the Supreme Court…”

(Why Nations Fail, p 369)

Foday Sankoh’s small army invaded Sierra Leone with a combination of child army of Liberians and Burkinabe and his pretentious manifesto “Footpath to Democracy.”

What Are We Fighting For?
We continue to fight because we are tired of being perpetual victims of state sponsored poverty and human degradation visited on us by years of autocratic rule and militarism. But, we shall exercise restraint and continue to wait patiently at the rendezvous of peace – where we shall all be winners. We are committed to peace, by any means necessary, but what we are not committed to is becoming victims of peace. We know our cause to be just, and God/Allah will never abandon us in our struggle to reconstruct a new Sierra Leone. (Foday Saybana Sankoh)

President Joseph Momoh dispatched the (RSLMF) along with (ULIMO) a Liberian group opposing Charle Taylor’s (NPFL) to confront Foday Sankoh. After a year’s combat, They will repel the invaders.

 

Soon after, on April 29, 1992, led by young officers a fractious, impoverished army rode into the presidential palace in Freetown protesting poor support and unpaid salaries from President Momoh.
They found themselves taking over the presidential palace and the government with surprising ease. Unprepared they chose a leader who’s primary quality was his English was good enough to read the junta’s declaration on the radio. He was 25 years old Valentine Strasser at 25 the leader of the (NPRC) and new head of state of Sierra Leone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sierra Leoneans joked that NPRC acronym, stood for “Na Pikin Run Countri” (Children Are Running the Country).

 

The acronym would be funny, if not for the complete breakdown that comes when the young men with AK-47 are in charge. Full with ideology, they manage to act like boys with guns, taking whatever they wanted, property and-and other men’s wife’s mother, daughters, and sisters.

SOBELS

Meanwhile, Foday Sankoh and Charles Taylor regrouped. Valentine Strasser will send ill-trained (RSLMF) forcibly recruited troops to the front. Awash with drugs and alcohol, and living on plunder, engaging in atrocities against civilians and diamond smuggling. They became known as “sobels” Soldiers by day rebels by night. They did not put up a fight against the (RUF). In fact, the (RSLMF) colluded with the (RUF).

(RUF) ORGY OF VIOLENCE

The (RUF) victoriously pushed forward, hacking off hands and feet by the thousands, this became something of a trademark for their campaign of terror. Tens of thousands of women raped, tens of thousands of youths kidnapped and forced into the rebel army, and more than half the population displaced or exiled. 120,000 refugees will flee to Guinea. Up to this day, you can see amputated Sierra Leoneans begging for alms in the streets of their equality injured country.

(RUF) OUTSIDE of FREETOWN

Charles Taylor gained ground and diamond mines for his war in Liberia. He will use these blood diamonds to buy weapons. By 1995 the (RUF) was on the outside of Freetown.

SIERRA LEONE NEEDS HELP

Valentine Strasser (NPRC), Sierra Leone government had no money. With decades of corruption, the economy was in ruins; The only revenue was coming from economic rent.

His ill train now swelled (RSLAF) is collaborating with the (RUF) invaders. Strasser’s government was increasingly dependent upon Nigerian troops just outside Freetown. Strasser contracted the British security firm GSG (Gurkha Security Guards). With a force of only 60 men. They will lose badly in an (RUF) ambush. Meanwhile, international news started to notice the war after (RUF) kill a group of Italian nuns, hostages.

EXECUTIVE OUTCOMES, MAKES A DEAL

RUF overran diamond areas, bauxite, and titanium mines; they turned out to be a major problem for the economy bankrupting the big mining companies who paid economic rent and low taxes to the corrupt politicians. Some businesses left the country leaving bargains for others who saw a great opportunity to invest. With a rebels army closing in and prices plummeting they made a deal with Strasser.

The British company Branch Energy formed a joint venture with Strasser for diamond mining, receiving large mining concessions in the Kono region. One of its shareholders was the founders of Executive Outcomes.

In 1995, with the (RUF) 20 miles from Freetown, Strasser invited the South African private security force, Executive Outcomes.

The EO leader was Eeben Barlow, formerly of the South African Special Forces. EO’s operations in Sierra Leone were highly controversial. Many thought that because of their South African connections they were – in effect – sent by Nelson Mandela, the Dimond Shill. Nonetheless, EO will prove very efficient against the rebel (RUF).

1996 EO took the war to the RUF, Sankoh’s forces were badly defeated and quickly initiated peace negotiations with Strasser. Elections were scheduled, after British and American pressure, for 25 February 1996.
January 1996, in another palace coup, Strasser will be bundle by his second-in-command, 32 years old Julius Maada Bio.

ELECTIONS 1996

March 1996, elections marred by RUF violence are reported to be otherwise free and fair by international observers; ECOMOG will intervene securing the election, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah becomes President. Under Kabbah, EO’s training program for the Kamajors intensified. Kabbah appointed former Kamajor leader, Hinga Norman, as Deputy Minister of Defence.

 

 

 

August 1996: Nigerian troops and EO took the war to the RUF. Sankoh’s forces badly defeated.
September 1996: A public row erupted about the cost of the EO contract to the Kabbah government. EO was charging US$ 1.8 mn a month for the services of less than a hundred personnel.
October 1996: Reports of its substantial fees and activities in the diamond fields turned public opinion against EO.
November 1996: A peace agreement signed in Abidjan between the Kabbah government and the RUF. An important provision of the accord was that EO would leave Sierra Leone by January 1997
January 1997. Kabbah was increasingly reliant on the Kamajor militias for his security and ever more distant from the SLA. The Nigerian Army maintained two battalions of troops in Freetown.

 

 

 

25 May l997: Major Johnny Paul Koroma,33, led a successful coup d’etat against the Kabbah government.
1 June 1997: Maj. Koroma invited the rebel RUF to join his junta, and the feared RUF fighters came to town to misrule in an orgy of violence in the name of the merged ‘People’s Army.’ Dead bodies littered Freetown.
August 1997: Some business approached Kabbah with offers to finance an operation to reinstate his civilian government.
ECOMOG alongside Sierra Leone’s arm forces will reinstall President Ahmed Kabbah.

 

After capture, Foday Sankoh will find faith in God; then was offered a place in a coalition government – with control of the diamond mines. A perverse reward for the murder and mayhem. Urging for peace, He received a personal visit from the secretary of state Madeleine Albright and a telephone call from President Clinton.

Foday Sankoh manages to do what all the other oligarchs did before. Replace a corrupt group with another even more vicious. Stealing Sierra Leone’s alluvial diamonds with the blood of many.

Diamonds, the element endowed to Sierra Leone also marked its destruction, this was, paradoxically its primary source of wealth.

The war will continue to spiral into a circle of death until 2002. That same year Kabbah will win in a landslide election. Many fractions will intervene to find peace. What they all have in common are the self-interest and another elite minority rule.

The people of Sierra Leon will not have a say in the development of their country up to this day. The coups, war, and the election did not change anything because those who mounted the revolutions took over the reins from those they’d deposed and re-created a similar system. It’s difficult for ordinary citizens to acquire real political power and change the way their society works.

The point of the war may not have been to win it, but to engage in profitable crime under cover of warfare.

BACK IN KONO

In front of Chief Morsay unpaved home, bikes pass loaded with 3 to 4 peoples; sometimes with bundles of long grass for bedding. The blue smoke hangs in the warm air, morning, noon and night. Africans are cooking with charcoal furnaces, I see them for sale on the side of the road.
The Chinese are getting ready to lay down asphalt in this part of Kono; It’s dusty, a mixture of brown and gray dust and loose gravel. Outside everything is covered with dust. People walk up and down most of the time transporting water. I see lots of goats, geese, ducks, and chickens walking like members of the village.

No one pays the animals any attention. Cars are mindful not to hit them. They’re no traffic cops or crossing guards. There is a constant honking of horns; drivers honk people they’re about to pass. No one is in a rush. Teenagers walk holding each other’s hands.
Now and then a big lumbering truck will go by with muddy wheels. Some roads are like little lakes, with people washing clothes and taking a bath.
In the village, they use mud bricks to build homes. People are outside doing chores. Men are standing around guarding motorcycles waiting for a fare.

LEGACY

Sia and the Chief took us to a village where they are planning to build a hospital. They tell us the mortality rate is high. It’s a dangerous to get sick here. Driving into this area is difficult. The village chief praises Sia and gives her a blessing.

Sierra Leone has the highest rate of maternal death on the planet. Una Mullally reports from the Bonthe District in the rural south-west, where teen pregnancy rates are high and basic necessities are scarce.

The Chief and Sia will take us to see the mining of alluvial diamonds and coltan. The sight is so spectacular it’s hard to describe. Perhaps hundreds of people, men, and women mining individual plots on top of a hill; with hand tools. Workers moving up and town like and an ant colony. You can hear many languages spoken. The work looks hard.

ALLUVIAL GOLD

I was amazed to see two ladies panning for gold in the brown river. They were happy to demonstrate. I was entertaining the idea that I’ll see gold, but not really. But after a couple of swirls, just like that the pan had specks of shining gold. I looked around, and all I saw is a forest. The ladies with gold in their hands have nothing to show for it. Over the years they most’ave generate thousands of dollars.

HELPFUL

The people of Sierra Leone are kind. The SUV we drove has a battery problem; it will not start overnight. The men who come to help arrived with a wire. Not a jumper cable but with a wire peeled at the ends. I thought this was very dangerous. And why there’s no jumper cable and why this process is the alternative. Recycled water bottles filled with gasoline are for sale on the side of the road. They bump for gas with an antique hand-crank so old that I never even have seen it in the movies.

BACK to FREETOWN

We drove back to Freetown; it looks a lot dirtier that the country. I don’t think they pick up trash here. Although they most dispose of the garbage somewhere. I saw a burning heap of garbage. I couldn’t be sure. But I think it was the dump. It didn’t look that different than the other blocks. Except for the smoke. But I kid you not; Sierra Leone is full of trash and people shouting at each other, not in a rude way. If you’re soft spoken, nobody will hear you in Sierra Leone.

HOUSE BOY

I was talking to the “boy” Muhammad, he is not a “boy,” that’s a cultural norm. Muhammad will turn 27 this month. He is a nice person who treats people with respect. I asked him “how much he gets paid?” He does a lot around the house, as well as drives everywhere. To my surprise, he told me that, “this is not a paying job,” he said it was his duty to be respectful to his elder, and that’s what he is doing. He said his uncle recommend him to come here. He said he hopes to be in the position to do the same for others.

We made a stop at Mohammad village; he was happy to drive pass every farm, waving at his neighbors. We went to his uncle’s farm to get a goat for supper. Mohammed was exhausted, although he wouldn’t say it. He’s been driving for hours. The chief negotiated for us a good rate with a colleague for an overnight lodge. He did not extend this to Mohammad. He told him that the place has a secure compound that he can sleep in the car. Or he can stay in the workers quarters. I thought for sure he was going to take the quarters, but to my surprise, he slept in the car. Although strange to us, Mohammed like the Chief understands that everyone has a place in Africa. Mohammed said that in Africa all you have to do is be respectful and pray.

Some of the root causes of the conflict lay in the marginalization of young people by the attitudes of elders and traditional leaders.

Traditional institutions, controlled by the village elite and court chairmen “paying themselves” through arbitrary and excessive fines.

Exploitation of the labor of youth through customary law is a long-standing practice in Sierra Leone and the wider region. Jim Crow was not just a racist institution. It was a system that exploited labor.

 

THE END

My thoughts, however, was for tomorrow’s supper. Cherry will bring someone to slaughter and butcher the goat for dinner. Goats are everywhere in the country. Cherry said that they always go back to their pen and people never steal them.

DARKNESS

That night Biko and I went out to see if we could jog on the beach. It was a full moon, but Sierra Leone looked real dark. You could see the wet puddles on the ground, but you couldn’t tell if it’s a puddle or a hill. People are still out selling their products. They are no streetlights. Some folks have solar light. In this darkness, you can’t see the person coming towards you, until the last second. I walked with extreme caution. The ground looked alive with trash moving with the breeze.

THE TRASH

It’s sad how dirty this place is. I saw a man sweeping the sidewalk. He had a couple of piles of trash. It looked like he took it upon himself to keep his little corner of the road clean. But the trash was just to the side. And the people were already stepping on it.
The people are very friendly. Despite all the stuff they have to sell. No one is chasing you to buy something. But if you choose to buy something, they come rushing with a competing bargain. I thought walking at night might give me a new perspective on Sierra Leone, it did. It made me feel more depressed how sad the majority of the people are living.

BLACK ECONOMY

You do see a few expensive cars. Here they rent an SUV for $100 US a day. You see expensive suits for sale on the sidewalk. They are so many people selling that you can’t see the buildings. All, a black economy. No one pays taxes. The country is broke.
Some people even have a police escort an officer walking with a machine gun. I have to remind myself that this place just got true a brutal civil war. Lots of the young men could’ve been child soldiers.
The people with amputated arms and legs look worst off. 1$US here is about 7,500.00 Leones on the streets. Cherry tells me that neighboring Liberia is worst and that the people from Liberian and Guinea to Sierra Leone to work because it’s a lot better.

FINANCIAL SECTOR

They are signs reminding civil servant that taking bribes is a crime. By now, I couldn’t blame them. They just don’t get paid enough. And the devaluation of their currency is no help. When the Government can’t pay its debt, they print money. By Law, The Central Bank is responsible for regulating the financial sector. If, the Governor of The Central Bank would be brave enough to criticize spendings.

He should remember that his successor in 1980 Sam Bangura, criticized Siaka Stevens’s policies for being profligate.

Sam Bangura body was thrown from the top floor of the central bank building onto Siaka Stevens Street.

KAKROCH Nכ GεT PAWA NA FכL KכNTRI.

The brutal civil war in Sierra Leone did not bring about institutional changes. A minority elite still controls the country and is intensifying their political power. The state all but remains absent. The democratic election 2007 return to power the APC, the party of Siaka Stevens.

Although Ernest Bai Koroma didn’t have an association with Siaka Stevens, other members in his party did. Two of Siaka Stevens sons Bockari K Stevens Ambassador to the United States and, Jengo Stevens special advisor to the president and Ambassador to Germany.

Lack of political centralisation, the people interest, makes this election just as volatile as the democratic election of 1971.

KAKROCH Nכ GεT PAWA NA FכL KכNTRI.
(The cockroach has no power in the in the chicken country.) Sierra Leone Proverb in Krio

UDAT TAI כKPכLכ NA IN FUT, NA-IN SNEK GO FALA.
If you tie a frog to your leg, a snake will follow you.

NO AFRICAN SOUVENIR

I like the food in Sierra Leone, especially mixed with the hot peppers. But my stomach was starting to flip. The weather is beautiful not too hot. However, Freetown is a city that I was ready to leave. By now even the noise pollution was bothersome. I tried desperately to buy a souvenir. But everything for sale was an import. I was looking for a handmade doll. There were none to see. All dolls are the plastic MATTEL type. Cherry took us around to find authentic African souvenir. I saw some beautiful African fabric. They’re all imported from China. The textile industry in Africa is all but gone. The cheap Chinese import makes it difficult to compete.

At first, it was easy to identify fake African fabric made in China.

But their technology has improved. The batik and Kente cloth look beautiful. It’s challenging and more expensive to get hand-dyed cotton batiks from Ghana and The Gambia. With an endless donation of clothes to Africa, they too are struggling to survive.

BARGAINING

The bargaining was intense. When a vendor quoted me a price, another vendor would beat it. If I look at a particular color or style, another will show me similar. Soon they’ll get a feel for what you’re looking. Once Cherry came on the seen speaking Krio, the prices drop even more. His eyes will bulge in shock as he sucks his teeth and shouts Eh! I ask for and African doll. The vendor said he would get one. He came back with brown MATTEL. I told him I wanted one made in Africa. He said he has one, but I will have to come by tomorrow. I’m sure he would have created one over the night.

LUNGI DEPARTURE

We got ready to leave. Lamin met us at Lungi Airport again. I was surprised; Chery told him to check on us. By now we were accustomed to the sound of Krio. But I was glad for his assistance again. He advised to check in and get our tickets stamped later. The plane will not leave for a while. He took us to a place across the road to wait and get a drink. It was a good time to relax in a courtyard under a tree. I asked about the number of children on the street. He said that some family from the country would send their child to another family in the city for an education. But lots of people exploit this or are too poor. So the send the child out to earn money.

THINGS CAN GET BETTER

Can things get better? Sure they can. Corruption will not change with governing. But at least The government can provide for clean water, electricity, education, telephone, a sewage system, public health and clear roads.
Expecting a reduction in the size of the Government sector, flexible exchange rates, privatization, improvements in the efficiency of public service provision might be too much to ask.
But if we’re asking, why not add a road network linking them to other cities in the area and the rest of Africa, and improving the functioning of the state anticorruption measures and, last but not least, how about some law and order for the government.