Why Monkey, Mr President?
By Kabs Kanu
Instead of a local cultural relic, it is a monkey that the SLPP government of President Maada Bio has used as a national symbol in our new passports. Through their petulance, the SLPP government has set up Sierra Leoneans for international ridicule at airports in racist Europe and the U. S with their monkey passports. Didn’t they know that the monkey, chimp, or baboon (That family of primates) to racists, is a metaphor for “African ugliness,” crudeness “and “uncivilization”? When they want to ridicule us, they use monkey gestures or images. During matches in England, if you are caught on camera making monkey gestures and it is discovered that you were doing it to mock an African or black player, you could be arrested.
SIERRA LEONE PASSPORT
Consumers have had products recalled or boycotted and companies sanctioned if monkey images were crafted on them in a way that suggested that blacks were being stereotyped. Many of Maada Bio’s ministers and ambassadors have lived abroad before or studied overseas. Don’t they know these facts about monkey or chimpanzee images? What a grotesque mockery of our nationhood. The monkey has never been a national symbol in Sierra Leone; therefore, whatever representation the image on our passports was meant to portray is misplaced. Some Sierra Leoneans retch and want to throw up when they meet somebody who says he eats monkeys. They are innocent animals but they are considered dirty and carry a lot of viruses.
Monkeys are figures of ridicule because of their mischievous behavior and eccentricities. So why would a whole African nation use a monkey as a symbol on the national travel document – the passport? Are we a nation of monkeys? The government should have used a lion if only SLPP members do not always think while standing on their heads. The lion is more relevant to the history of our nation as the country was named Sierra Lyoa by Portuguese explorers, meaning a mountain of lions, after they saw the towering mountains and heard the sound of thunder, which resembled the roars of lions. Therefore, the image on the passports would have made sense if it was a lion. But a monkey? Sierra Leone is a land of diamonds. The SLPP government could have used a diamond on the passports and that would have made sense. But a monkey?
As egocentric as they are, SLPP members have an explanation for everything, even when they rape innocent women or kill people. They are always right and their victims are always wrong. They are so educated, so politically correct, they make no mistakes. Those who criticize them are just APC sycophants or terrorists or Mende-haters. But Sierra Leoneans are right to complain that a monkey on their passports does not reflect any cultural or historical significance. It was an insane mistake that should be corrected. The SLPP has grossly misrepresented our country on our passports and the documents should be withdrawn immediately, without any delay, to save our nation from international ridicule and stigma.
