By Paul Kamara (aka Salone Mandela)
Brother Konneh, you have the right to vent out your feelings when you compare where you are, to your own home country, with nothing to show for it after 64 years of native rule, ten of them under SLPP before independence in 1961.
I noted the to-fro exchanges between you and others but this can only breed more and more squabbles, that signify nothing and lead to nothing.
We all agree or rather, the majority of Saloneans; that the politicians are mainly responsible for the tragedy of this country.
But I guess you cannot be richer than all of them combine as you claim. Some are stinking rich, my brother; looted from the state treasury with impunity. You can see for yourself that even those who were not ministers before; and do not earn much; splash billions of leones in religious charity during the Muslim Ifta month of Ramadan. Where did they get all that money to distribute over 3500 bags of rice costing over Le 2bn? The public has the right to know; if not for anything; but for the sake of transparency and accountability.
The bottom line is that: Salone still lack God-fearing, sincere, honest and patriotic leaders who put country first. Just name me one ‘bukman’ or lawyer since independence; who has proven to be above-board from the days of Milton to Bio; with the rare and notable exception of ITA Wallace-Johnson, Taqi, Forna and Sam Bangura? There may be a few others; but the majority have lived for self not others and did not stand out to be counted as selfless patriots. The more reason Shaki chided that: na sens mek buk, norto buk mek sens.
But we all share the blame for this calamitous state of affairs. Some kept silent for fear of the existing culture of silence and fear. Others chant the slogan: if you can’t beat them, then join them. Others took flight to seek greener pastures abroad. Only a few: were brave enough to confront the political order; at the risk of life and limb, even death just to tell truth to power and confront their evil and tyrannical rule.
At independence, Saloneans were full of hope and expectations for the future. Britain, inspite of their share of blame at least; left us with the requisite infrastructural and other health, energy and educational facilities that we could’ve improved on; far better than Nigeria, Ghana and The Gambia. Infact, we were the epitome of development in sub-Saharan Africa. The question is: where did we go wrong?
The simple answer is that; we are not blessed with visionary, result-oriented and patriotic leaders like Nkrumah, Sankara, Kagame, Magufuli, Mandela or the young Ibrahim Traore of Mali. Worst still, our leaders are not God-fearing, and if the TRC Report is one to go by; we embrace satanic and demonical practices so to desecrate God’s own very creation; to become eaters of human flesh. Thus, the curse of Gov. Clarkson is still with us for: God to punish us in this world, but to forgive us in the world hereinafter.
So my dear Brother Mustapha Konneh, instead of finger-pointing; let us instead, find a solution to the problem of Salone. We can still collectively salvage this seemingly impossible hiatus or situation. Ask yourself, are you better than the ones who didn’t have the opportunity to go to America or London or Australia and other western countries? Could you have made it; if you were still stuck in this land of: ‘you go sober, dog eat dog?’ When would we honour the saying: it is not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country; or to the National Pledge? Or, should we continue to pay it lip-service; or, rally around this great patriotic call to arms – for God and Country!
By 1980, the hope of Saloneans that Stevens is the answer to her redemption had evaporated into thin air. Saloneans were plunged in despair and total helplessness. The hosting of the OAU conference plunged Salone into dire economic straits.
Shaki had executed the patriotic voices in his regime; heroes like Taqi, Forna and others; on trumped-up coup charges. The 77 FBC student demo; had failed to stop Shaki from becoming a tyrant and the one-party system curtailed the freedoms of Man and Citizen; by creating a culture of silence and fear. The opposition SLPP lost its voice and became cocooned into submission by Shaki. The Leone which was stronger than the US dollar plummeted in value. This economic downturn; led to high cost of living; while the people groan under unbearable hardship. All hopes were lost! Doomsday was the order of the day. Saloneans were desperate! It was all gloom and doom! And Saloneans were now living like magicians.
The attitudes of Saloneans changed for the worst and in their outlook to society. The country they once loved; turned to hate as the evil trinity of: usai den tie cow nar dae e for eat, dog eat dog, den say Bailor Barrie u say Davidson Nicol became the mantra and way of life. Bad heart, pull him down syndrome was the order of the day; and education was now a privilege and not a right; and one can get rich by whatever unholy and diabolical means.
FBC once dubbed the Athens of West Africa; became an ill-run Sparta. All sorts of roadblocks to a free, liberal and progressive varsity culture was curtailed. The varsity was now a citadel of negative mindset; as students became torn between a Blackman SLPP and a Whiteman APC. The Blacks call the Whites kolonkos; and the Whites call the Blacks kalilus- of prostitutes and looters! The negative ideology of the politicians finally took its toll on the once glorified Athens of West Africa. It was so debased that it became a shitty-shitty citadel; where students splashed shit at each other’s hostels during elections. The same trend is seen in downtown politics; where youths from political divide also relish to throw shit and piss on the opposition or dissenters; as evident at State House and the SLPP office as well as in the offices of political opponents. The judiciary became a den of thieves and a citadel of injustice. This is the prevalent shitty-shitty system that still engulfs the land.
So when all seems to be lost, Saloneans left the country by whatever means possible. And when you greet a Salonean; his reply was: how for do, God dae. Their situation was helpless as it was hapless; and party apparatchiks and the paramilitary on the ready; to silence any form of opposition. Shaki took the acronym: ‘Pass Ar Die,’ meaning, he would rule until death. The people hit back: kaka long tay e mors cut. And Shaki replied that: befoe e go cut borku baksai go cherr. And the people jeered at him: Big nose! And he in turn mocked them: Toe-Line; as people would stand in long queues for hours to buy basic items like petrol and rice. These pent-up grievances; were the harbingers of coups, ndorgborwusui, the rebel war, and the apocalyptic 6 January 96 events. But our leaders have learnt nothing from these past horrors and their woeful failures; and forgotten nothing!
By the time of Momoh who actually accepted that he failed, Saloneans were now in a semi-comatose state; and could be likened to walking corpses. Their likeness in prison were the ‘kendelehs; who were like Holocaust victims, with sunken and hollow eyes, with no jumpers; mattress; lying on cold floors with swollen feet and bodies and dehumanized. The prison: was like a silencer that whispers a soft, painful and agonizing death; far from the prying eyes of commuters that pass along Pademba prison. No wonder when the rebels entered Freetown in 96; they would ask hajas, alhajis, reverends and pastors and the rest of mankind; to sing along with them: ‘we go kendeleh…we go kendeleh we nor go die ya…..we go kendeleh tae go!
And when you greet a Salonean under Momoh rule, he would reply: ‘me na embalm body’ or, ‘we don embalm; like embalmed corpses, who have finally lost all sensitivities and resigned themselves to fate. And so when the young NPRC khaki boys exited Momoh; they had already learnt how Momoh’s regime waged a war on virginity on the Sweet 16s. The NPRC dropped the age to 13; and preferred only bleached-skinned girls they refer to as ‘wonshiworwor.’ And their skirts must be split up to the waist-line – the Kabasa Lodge. Under the AFRC-RUF rebel interregnum; the slogan was ‘jaja,’ and even kids as young as ten were not spared; including mothers, grandmothers, sisters and what have you; also fell victim to their sexual onslaughts. Even men were not spared.
By the time of the UN and Ecomog peacekeepers; the Lumley beach especially Paddy’s Night Club became the red district of Freetown. By the time they left and ‘harduptisis’ set in; their value fell and one can have sex for as little as five thousand leones. This prompted an Ecomog soldier to lament that: in all of his past peacekeeping missions, it was only in Salone that a fowl is more expensive than a woman. I can go on and on about the inexhaustive tragedy of Mama Salone, but let me stop here.
What is the point? Salone has gone thru a tragic history because of bad leaders and their political agents. In this crisis, women and children have suffered the most. We must therefore, elevate women to a status; where no violence should be suffered by them without state protection. Let us put women first in all that we done; as an atonement to the abomination that we have wrought on them and the land. Instead of wasteful bickerings that does no-one good; let us instead, come together and do the needful to liberate Salone. And it also lies on all youths across the political divide to elect a radical and impeccable leader of character and integrity; who would once again restore our status back to the Athens of West Africa; and make us an envy not only in Africa, but the rest of the world. So don’t weep for Mama Salone! By Paul Kamara (SALONE MANDELA)
