APC LEADER TO COME BACK TO THE U.S.
The Leader of the opposition All People’s Congress ( APC), Mr. Ernest Koroma, is returning to the United States in February.
According to Mr. Koroma himself during an exclusve interview with COCORIOKO before he left for Sierra Leone recently, he will be returning to the U.S. to meet with international stakeholders .
Ernest Koroma
Next Year’s General Elections in Sierra Leone are so important and opposition politicians are so determined to ensure that they are not rigged that they plan to meet with international stakeholders to determine what measures will be put in place to make sure that the elections are free and fair.
The leader of the People’s Movement For Democratic Change ( PMDC) , Mr. Charles Margai , when questioned during his town meeting in New Jersey what the other parties were planning to make sure that the elections are not rigged, also promised to meet with certain stakeholders to discuss the importance of the elections.
Mr. Koroma visited the U.S. before Christmas , his second trip to America in one year , and held sensitization meetings with Sierra Leoneans in many cities in the MidWest .He won plaudits for many Sierra Leoneans for the eloquent and masterly manner he answered questions on his plans for Sierra Leone.
BLOOD DIAMOND?
A Review
By Karamoh Kabba, Sidie Yahya Tunis, Ibrahim Conteh and Maria GutierrezBlood Diamond, despite its intended hyperbole for a thriller effect, at face value, is good cinematographic depiction of a real danse macabre that prevailed in a small West African nation of Sierra Leone between 1991 and 2002 when the Revolutionary United Front (R.U.F.) rebels, led by Foday Sankoh and supported by Charles Taylor of Liberia, waged a senseless war that has been characterized by some of the most egregious war crimes against humanity in recent years. The rebel war in Sierra Leone was particularly unique in the sense that its third and fourth angles [foreign mercenaries and local Civil Defense Forces (CDF)] rendered it a woven web that was difficult to unravel. Evidently, not until the largest United Nations forces [17,000 men and women] assembled to keep the peace.
Diamond is, in Hans Biedermann’s Dictionary of Symbolism, “the most precious of precious stones that has the symbolic signature of perfection, purity, and imperviousness.” It is the symbol of Christ in early Christian era. But not so fast in the Kono land and people of Sierra Leone amongst whom the phrase; Blood Diamond, was coined during the rebel war.
“God left this land a long time ago”, says Leonardo DiCaprio (Danny Archer), the Soldier of Fortune (SOF) fictional character. In the prelude to Robert T. Parsons’ 1964 book, Religion in an African Society, on the Kono people, he writes; “To the Kono people among whom God has not left himself without a witness.” The Kono land is one of the homes to the most precious of precious stones including the world’s third and sixth largest ones [968.80 and 770.00 carats in their rough, found in 1972 and 1945 respectively]. Indeed not only in the person of Parsons did God live a witness, but also in the fictional work of Ian Fleming’s Diamonds are Forever, 1971, in which Roger Moore acted as James Bond and now, in the persons of Djimon Hounsou (Fisherman Solomon Vandi) and Dicaprio.
It suffices to agree that God left the Kono land a long time ago with the advent of foreign Manichaeism that conveniently combines religion and imperialism to which God gave way. Yes, God gave way: He gives humanity the two choices of good and evil and thus the “Wages of sin is death.” And, without doubt, we saw the death field crammed with the dead, between 1991 and 2002 when God looked the other way to humanity’s choice of evil over good against its own kind in Sierra Leone, especially in the Kono land.
Franz Fanon writes; “The look that the native [commoners] turns on the settler’s [aristocrats] town is a look of lust, a look of envy; it expresses his dreams of possession—all manner of possession: to sit in the settler’s [aristocrat] table, to sleep in the settler’s [aristocrat] bed….” And in Sierra Leone, the pool of idle youths that formed pockets of ponds, crammed with fury across the country because of such Aristotelian logic surely exploded against the aristocrats that would become not the cause of the rebel war that can only be compared to King Leopold’s Congo Free State for hacking off of human limbs, but the fuel that sets the killing fields of warlords ablaze.
But in telling the stories of the Kono land and Blood Diamond: Parsons states that the Kono people worship many Gods, contradicting himself when in the introduction to the same work he writes; “For example, in this study of Kono religion, relation of priest and worshipers, the ancestors and the family, ‘Yataa’ (the Supreme Being) and the common man cannot be observed except in the religious activities in which these relations are functioning”. The movie, Blood Diamond, did little justice in showing that diamond is the most precious of precious stones, that the large corporations behind the diamond trade in Sierra Leone were the Blood Executives not the diamond. Parson becomes forgetful that he states that the Kono people have a Supreme Being called ‘Yataa’, just as Blood Diamond has now pockmarked the source of living for millions of African people who depend on it. In fact, no African language or tribe we know has a plural word for God.
History shall bear witness that oftentimes products that enhance the economic life of people in Africa are met with activism in the fiercest manner without offering other alternatives. Whence there was a concern about the extinction of elephants because of ivory trade in the past, no one thought of embarking on domestication of elephants, rather, the international organizations rendered the entire ivory trade unlawful. Yet, animals are domesticated in large farms, for fur to cover the back of people in sub temperate regions rendering the animals furless. Cows and chickens would never be at risk of extinction; instead, these animals are made ready for the frying pan in weeks in billions for consumption without fear of extinction.
The good cinematography that we see in Blood Diamond that portrays gruesome acts of violence against humanity, especially against women and children, cannot justify the labeling of diamonds as Blood Diamond. Diamonds were discovered in Sierra Leone in 1930 and whence attracted Blood Diamond Executives not in the magnitude we have witnessed in recent years. To this, Karamoh Kabba, one of the authors of this work, who grew up close to the kimberlite dikes in the Kono district during the Serra Leone Diamond Mining Company era writes in an article for World Press magazine; “The constant blasting of granite for diamonds at two kimberlite dikes not too far down the road is a constant menace. We will run for our lives three miles, three times a day sometimes, as the dynamite from the twin dikes are set off in open-air blasting. We cannot afford to take chances any more since a rock killed our neighbor’s daughter three years ago.” But what about Botswana, whose Diamond industry is free of rebel, mercenary and CDF activities—are Botswana diamonds Blood Diamonds?
“Once the Diamonds get to India, the dirty once get mixed with the good ones and they all become the same.” In fact, diamonds need not get that far to become unidentifiable. People are so fascinated by diamonds that only the poor miners and the countries of origin suffer from devaluation—and in the outside world; they are the most precious rocks.
If God has not really left Africa, He did leave the Kono land a long time ago. But we know He surely did not leave without a witness.
It is unfortunate that the cultural—language and setting of the Sierra Leoneans, their country and the Kono people are absurdly represented in Blood Diamond. Yet, we encourage you, especially Africans, to see Blood Diamond—there is much to learn from it. And one such lesson would be; diamonds are not Blood Diamond, and we wish the producers had called it Blood Diamond Executives instead.
Contact:
7805 Scotland Drive
Potomac, Maryland 20854
(301) 270-2994
Karamoh Kabba
************************************************
With our hurricane lamps, who says we cannot light asphalt jungles despite the high winds? “Then right opinion is nothing inferior to knowledge.” (Socrates)
Contact:7805 Scotland DrivePotomac, Maryland 20854(301) 270-2994Karamoh Kabba************************************************With our hurricane lamps, who says we cannot light asphalt jungles despite the high winds? “Then right opinion is nothing inferior to knowledge.” (Socrates)Africans Go Home!!!
By Jacob Sax Conteh in Virginia
It was a cold wet afternoon in the town of Akersberga near Stockholm, Sweden in 1983. My friend Steven from Ghana and I were in Sweden for three months selling books from door to door to raise funds for our college fees in Nigeria. A man thoroughly inebriated staggered from a house and yelled at us in thick Swedish accents “Africans go home.” At first we ignored him, but he kept following us so we went back to the house where he came from and explained to them the situation. The family apologized to us and called the man back inside. While the Swedish drunk did not understand what he was saying to us, there is a cry in many parts of the world for Africans to return to Africa to help develop their countries. Though this is a noble idea, it is beset with challenges that we need to address. Before Africans can return home to work, there are many misconceptions and myths that both they and their home governments need to clear from their minds.
Many African governments erroneously believe that their sons and daughter who have studied abroad are not as good as the “expatriates” who they are willing to pay top dollars for certain positions. What they fail to realize is that we sat in many classes with these “expatriates” and made better grades than them. We therefore need to receive similar treated if we return home to work. As civil unrest plague Africa in the past decade, we have watched foreign governments send rescue teams to rescue their citizens. If an African country depends on foreigners alone to run its core economy, that country is bound to suffer when expatriates leave. With nationals, they can stay and continue to serve even in times of crisis. That was the case in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda and Congo where many nationals sacrificed their lives to save humanity.
For the thousands of Africans abroad who talk of returning home, the biggest misconception they have is that once they return home, they will strike gold lead their countries without opposition. This is not the spirit that will help Africa. The fact that we have lived in Europe, North America or elsewhere does not make us better than our compatriots who have toiled day and night to help our people . What Africa needs is a crop of Africans who are willing to abandon their comfortable lives abroad and return home to help without attaching conditions. We should be willing to go live in remote areas just like the Peace Corps who worked as teachers, health workers and rural community development officers.
Another angle that we need to explore in this is that we do not all have to be back home to help Africa. Some of us can continue to hide behind our computer screens and still help the Continent by raising funds to develop our countries. A word of caution here is to ensure that any help we give, we give it directly to the people who need the help. This will cut off the middle man and lead to transparency.
Africa needs us and we need Africa. Unless we take an active part to help develop the Africa, criticizing the people who sacrifice their time to make the live of our people better is wrong.
It was a cold wet afternoon in the town of Akersberga near Stockholm, Sweden in 1983. My friend Steven from Ghana and I were in Sweden for three months selling books from door to door to raise funds for our college fees in Nigeria. A man thoroughly inebriated staggered from a house and yelled at us in thick Swedish accents “Africans go home.” At first we ignored him, but he kept following us so we went back to the house where he came from and explained to them the situation. The family apologized to us and called the man back inside. While the Swedish drunk did not understand what he was saying to us, there is a cry in many parts of the world for Africans to return to Africa to help develop their countries. Though this is a noble idea, it is beset with challenges that we need to address. Before Africans can return home to work, there are many misconceptions and myths that both they and their home governments need to clear from their minds.Many African governments erroneously believe that their sons and daughter who have studied abroad are not as good as the “expatriates” who they are willing to pay top dollars for certain positions. What they fail to realize is that we sat in many classes with these “expatriates” and made better grades than them. We therefore need to receive similar treated if we return home to work. As civil unrest plague Africa in the past decade, we have watched foreign governments send rescue teams to rescue their citizens. If an African country depends on foreigners alone to run its core economy, that country is bound to suffer when expatriates leave. With nationals, they can stay and continue to serve even in times of crisis. That was the case in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda and Congo where many nationals sacrificed their lives to save humanity. For the thousands of Africans abroad who talk of returning home, the biggest misconception they have is that once they return home, they will strike gold lead their countries without opposition. This is not the spirit that will help Africa. The fact that we have lived in Europe, North America or elsewhere does not make us better than our compatriots who have toiled day and night to help our people . What Africa needs is a crop of Africans who are willing to abandon their comfortable lives abroad and return home to help without attaching conditions. We should be willing to go live in remote areas just like the Peace Corps who worked as teachers, health workers and rural community development officers.Another angle that we need to explore in this is that we do not all have to be back home to help Africa. Some of us can continue to hide behind our computer screens and still help the Continent by raising funds to develop our countries. A word of caution here is to ensure that any help we give, we give it directly to the people who need the help. This will cut off the middle man and lead to transparency.Africa needs us and we need Africa. Unless we take an active part to help develop the Africa, criticizing the people who sacrifice their time to make the live of our people better is wrong.The OSWALD HANCILES Column
Are We Mature Enough for “Freedom”….?
“Are we mature enough for a Freedom of Information Act?”: that was one of the questions put to me by Koloneh Koroma in a 30 minute interview on Radio Mount Aureol on Friday, December 15, 2006. My answer was a counter punch: “Are we mature enough to escape from the abyss of poverty we are in now – one of the poorest people on earth; paradoxically, people living in a country laden with highly marketable mineral resources: one of the best jewelry diamonds on earth; one of the best grades of rutile in the world….?”
My interviewer pressed home his point: “In Africa, a Freedom of Information law is only in South Africa…FOI laws are found mainly in Europe…”. I hit again: “Maybe, the other African countries can joke about the need for good governance, transparency and accountability which will result from FOI; but we in Sierra Leone can hardly afford such luxury. We have lived in a country that imploded in the 1980’s – where people had to ‘toe-line’ for staples of rice, petrol…; and some people have savings bank accounts which they could not be cashed because there was no ‘paper money’. Then, our country exploded in the 1990’s – in one of the nastiest civil wars ever experienced by man…”.And corruption is still festering – with potentially volatile youths lurking, with pent-up anger, goggling at the scandalous wealth of a tiny minority, as they are enshackled by ignominious poverty. A FOIA will reverse this collectively suicidal drive of Sierra Leoneans, and enhance collective survival. Sure enough, the benefits of a Freedom of Information Law are obvious.
Before Independence in Sierra Leone, the British colonialists had ‘secrecy laws’. After Independence, these laws were not changed. They are still there in 2006. This has created a culture of secrecy in Sierra Leone. Secrecy loves Corruption. They have even ‘married’, and ‘given birth to children’. The ‘children’ of Secrecy and Corruption are Economic Stagnation, Poverty, Social and Political Instability and, Civil War. ‘Bad Children’!!
With Secrecy, contracts are inflated, or given to relatives and cronies who don’t deserve to get such contracts. This kills real competition. Without competition in the market place, it is difficult for the economy to grow. People are discouraged from working. Poor products and services go into the marketplace. . When Parliament ensures we have FOI Law in Sierra Leone, ‘Secrecy’ will be ‘killed’. Without its main partner, Corruption will die a ‘natural death’. People will have more confidence in the system, and work harder, knowing that they will get their just rewards. Rapid economic growth. Poverty eliminated. Prosperity!! Wait!! What is the precedence of FOI? Where has it worked, or, is working, especially in the developing countries?
“India may be the world’s largest democracy, but its citizens have been reeling under malevolent governance for decades….Getting any information from the government is virtually impossible. But India is changing, and in October last year Parliament passed a law to defang the bureaucracy by lifting its veil of secrecy. Called the Right to Information Act and widely known as RTI…(RTI) gives Indians the right to obtain sensitive information from government – and some ordinary citizens have already used it with striking success. Says author and sociologist Dipankar Gupta: ‘The act could be a catalyst to transform Indian society into a real democracy featuring transparency, accountability and the rule of law – all attributes still largely missing from that country…India’s paper pushers are doing what they do best – trying to ignore the new law in the hope that it will go away…” -“The Paper Chase”, by Sudip Mazumdar, NEWSWEEK, December 18, 2006.
“India may be the world’s largest democracy, but its citizens have been reeling under malevolent governance for decades….Getting any information from the government is virtually impossible. But India is changing, and in October last year Parliament passed a law to defang the bureaucracy by lifting its veil of secrecy. Called the Right to Information Act and widely known as RTI…(RTI) gives Indians the right to obtain sensitive information from government – and some ordinary citizens have already used it with striking success. Says author and sociologist Dipankar Gupta: ‘The act could be a catalyst to transform Indian society into a real democracy featuring transparency, accountability and the rule of law – all attributes still largely missing from that country…India’s paper pushers are doing what they do best – trying to ignore the new law in the hope that it will go away…” -“The Paper Chase”, by Sudip Mazumdar, NEWSWEEK, December 18, 2006. That piece from NEWSWEEK is a promotional for a FOI law in Sierra Leone. But, wait! Though I am the Secretary General of the Freedom of Information Coalition-Sierra Leone (FoIC-SL), and in the epicenter of activities to collect one million signatures/thumbprints for the FOI Bill before Parliament to be made into a FOI law, my journalistic sense of objectivity compels me to raise such issues: without a Freedom of Information Act, India over the past twenty years has experienced meteoric development on nearly all facets of human development: in science, technology, economics, the arts; and with the enviable position of being the largest democracy in the world. Can it be argued that, like with the Indian experience, Sierra Leone needs to become a productive nation first…before becoming a ‘free nation’ in the mode of a Freedom of Information Act?
On D.J. Base’s Nightline programme on UN Radio a month ago, a phone-in caller asked about the “disadvantages” of FOI. I again invoked my keen sense of journalistic impartiality by bringing out the probable disadvantages of FOI law in Sierra Leone.
Over the past forty years, most of the governing elite in Sierra Leone working in the public sector –as bureaucrats, doctors, engineers, etc. – have acquiesced to earning a salary that averages $200 a month. But, they have lifestyles that gets them to spend $200 in ‘half a week’!! How do they manage then? Put starkly: corruption. A FOI law will enable journalists especially to go into the records – and their could be scary exposes!! So much so that some of the venal elite would run away from the country. The country would then be forced to bring expatriates who would have to be paid ten or twenty times what we would pay indigenous Sierra Leoneans. A lot of those indigenous governing elite may flee the country, or, would have to work with the specter of expose looming. This would be a significant psychological blow. Probably, there would be a dramatic dip in our economic fortunes. “We could thus end up defeating one of the prime purpose of the proposed FOI law: to stimulate rapid economic growth”, I pointed out on UN Radio. So What….now?
I have always been disdainful of Sierra Leone’s, and generally, Africa’s, governing elite who blindly would accept any ‘vogue idea’ of the West: ‘human rights’…’child trafficking’….’money laundering’….’Special Court’ – and seek to superimpose such ideas on the African situation. Before a FOI Law comes into force in Sierra Leone, we need to do a lot of deep thinking and re-tinkering of our society. This Parliament, and the governing elite generally in Sierra Leone, would certainly not show their maturity by even hallucinating that they can stand in the way of the ‘hurricane wind which the FOI concept’ is today – with its ‘people’s power’ ethos; and, invincible international support. I am hopeful that with Sierra Leonean maturity we can do configuring of the FOI to suit the peculiar stage of Sierra Leone’s socio-economic and political development.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and
Sallay Sankoh of Sierra Leone
Sallay Sankoh, originally from Ronollah and Magboraka and a graduate of Mathora Secondary School, was together with former U.S. President Bill Clinton at a small charity event in Washington, D.C. The charity supports the arts and education for high school students. Since leaving the White House, President Clinton is also heavily involved in activities that are particularly helpful to the people on the continent of Africa.
Ms. Sankoh’s mother, Fatu Kanu, and father Momoh Sankoh, still live in Sierra Leone. Ms. Sankoh left Sierra Leone in 1972 to spend ten years in Washington, D.C. and returned again to that part of the United States 1997, where she continues to live. She last visited Sierra Leone in 2003.
All four of the children of Ms. Sankoh and her husband Amadu Kuyatah were born in the United States – Abu Karra, Fatmatta, Adama and Nana. Ms. Sankoh and Mr. Kuyatah are grandparents of Tiana and Hamad. Her niece, who is like a daughter to her, is Isatu Karama who is married to Yankay Sesay and has two children Salmus and Abdul.
Ms. Sankoh stays connected to her homeland through her large family that remains in Ronollah and elsewhere in Sierra Leone. She is pleased to be able to help support the education of her nephews and nieces.
Like President Clinton with whom she is pictured, Ms. Sankoh is focused on doing what she can to help her homeland. She devotes hundreds of hours to compiling goods to fill a railroad car size container that she ships twice a year to Sierra Leone.
AND THE EDITOR FIRED HIS REPORTER …A JOKE WITH JOE KAMANDA AT CHRISTMAS
By Leeroy Wilfred Kabs-Kanu
One of the very interesting jokes my Journalism teacher told in class one day became real in my life yesterday . And Professor John O’Connor predicted that those of us who set up newspapers would experience it with young reporters.
A teacher who always laced his lectures with humour, like the great Prof. Newman Smart during my Dip.Ed class at FBC , Prof O’Connor was teaching on the topic–A NOSE FOR THE NEWS . He taught that a journalist can find news in any situation and any place if he has a nose for the news , because after all, journalists create the news .
In typical humorous fashion , he told us a story of a yung reporter who was once fired by his Editor because he did not have a nose for the news. The reporter was sent on a thrilling mission to cover a church picnic which was to have been held at an Island. After the Editorial briefing for the day, the reporter skipped out of the office excitedly with his camera and notepad.He got at the terminal where the picnickers were embarking on the boat that would take them to the picnic. There was so much excitement around , with church members singing, beating drums and praising the name of the Lord.
Soon it was time for the boat to take off. It had not gone even 100 yards before it got into trouble, tailspinned and capsized. Merriment quickly turned to chaos as panic-stricken church members who had been thrown into the water struggled with the waves to save their lives. Our reporter friend , who luckily could swim, managed to wade through the waves and escaped death. He then rushed to the office to report that he had no news .”Why , What happened ? ” The Editor queried. The young man blurted : “The boat sank on the way to the picnic and there is no picnic ”
Prof O’Connor said the Editor fired the reporter on the spot, telling him that he was not journalism material . The boat accident was news ! ! ! ! And it was more newsworthy than the picnic ! ! ! journalist with a nose for the news could have carved out many different news stories from that one accident. Though it was learnt later that the pastor and his congregation were rescued , it could have made front page banner headline because the reporter was part of the incident and he could have written different interesting stories from the event.
Joe Kamanda, our reporter in Freetown , is a great guy. There is no doubt that he is a young, budding and promising reporter .He has often found news where even veterans would have come out flat. I admire his coverage of seminars and workshops along with the statements by participants. Joe has been doing a great job .
However , it seems that even brilliant reporters cannot avoid falling into the trap of the young reporter in the story. COCORIOKO had actually announced that it was going on Christmas vacation and would not be back until January 3, 2007. Therefore, Good, old Joe was enjoying his deserved Xmas. But our commitment to serve the people compelled us to return this week .Not receiving any news from Joe on Wednesday and yesterday, I wrote to find out why he had not sent anything. This was Joe’s response : “YOU DONT BLAME ME, SIR. THE PROBLEM IS THAT ALL THE NEWS MAKERS ARE PRESENTLY ON HOLIDAYS SO WHERE DO I HAVE TO GET NEWS ? ”
I have been bursting my sides with laughter . So Professor O’Connor’s prediction came true after all ? Even the best of them make the same mistake.When I have time to talk to Joe again, I will tell him that even the act of newsmakers being on holidays is news. Where is Kabbah ? Where is Berewa ? Where is Ernest ? Where is Charlie Boy ? It is newsworthy for readers to know where they are cooling off from the political pressure this Christmas . Did Charlie go to Gbangbatoke as his dad used to do ? NEWS–It is Journalists who create it and they can find it anywhere .
