By Kabs Kanu
When we were growing up in Sierra Leone in the 60s , we loved Congolese music, never so much as during the 1967 General Elections when the SLPP ordered the SLBS to stop the announcements of results after realizing that they were losing and all the SLBS did whole day and night was play Congolese music.
We don did see things nar SLPP den hand. No to today SLPP begin den paopa en for tiff election .
If you also think that it is now that that SLPP started stealing elections in Sierra Leone, you are not serious. We started suffering from the SLPP criminality at elections from the 1960s.
1967 was the most typical case.
In one of the most dramatic General polls ever , SLPP went into the elections on March 17, 1967 leading APC 6-0 already, because the Prime Minister , Sir Albert Margai , his brother Sam Margai and 4 other candidates were declared unopposed on Nomination Day. SLPP starts everything in Sierra Leone. They begun unopposed candidates. However, despite protesting , APC still decided to take on the SLPP at the elections.They were confident of winning, though Sir Albert had prevented them from campaigning in many parts of the country , threatening Paramount Chiefs, who allowed them, with banishment.
Elections were by parliamentary seats in those days and there were 64 seats to be contested.
On that elections day on March 17, when the SLBS started announcing the results at night, the SLPP won the first slew of 5 results and they went to 11-0 against the APC , which was led by Mr. Siaka Stevens.
SLPP started rejoicing that they were on the way to winning again as they did in 1962.
Sir Albert had tried to impose a one – party state in 1966 but the APC of those days was different from the weak and hard- to – understand APC of today. APC said no way. There will be no One Party State in Sierra Leone. Shaki, S.I. Koroma, C.A Camara – Taylor, Bangalie Mansaray, Kawusu Konteh. D.F . Shears, Ibrahim Taqi, Mohamed Bash- Taqi, Solomon Pratt, Borbor Kamara, Nancy Steele, Mammy Kainday Bangura and other APC Trojans, unlike the compromisers of today, said “Over our dead bodies. ” They said, ” Sir Albert, nar over we dead body dem you go pass declare one party state nar dis country. ”
Sir Albert told confidantes that he will wait after the elections . After the SLPP won the elections, he will declare the one – party state. So, that was why the whole of the Southeast had gone loco with jubilation. But the people of Sierra Leone had a surprise in store for SLPP.
By night, the next day, things started turning. As they started announcing the results from Kono, Tonkolili , Western Area and Bombali, SLPP started losing seats and the results SLBS was announcing were being won by the APC. By morning the next day, APC had wiped out the SLPP lead. The nation went berserk with joy because they hated the SLPP and urgently wanted the APC to win.
But big drama was coming. Unar sabbie SLPP. Suddenly , the SLBS stopped announcing the results to everybody’s dismay and all the radio played was Congolese music. Whole day and night, it was Congolese music. As kids, we were enjoying the music so much because it was the first time that the radio had played continuous music for such extended time without even adverts to interrupt. In those days, there was no internet or social media. All we depended on were the radio ( SLBS ) and newspapers. And in those days, SLBS was superb. Their record library was stacked. So, it was Congolese record after the other.
It was the heydays of Congolese musicians like Franco and the OK Jazz, Rosherou and the African Fiesta and Le Grand Kalle and the African Jazz . There were no reggae , soca, calypso or rap music . There was soul music by artists like the Beatles , Elvis Presley , James Brown, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding , Wilson Pickett, Dusty Springfield , the Monkees etc ; the local bands included Geraldo Pino and the Heartbeats, Dr. Dynamite and the Jazz Leone Nationale , the Ticklers Band, Akpata Jazz ( Owned by Sir Albert ) the Golden Strings , the Silhouttes but for some reason we loved Congolese music better , as kids. And that was mostly what the SLBS decided to play.
But while the SLBS was playing these continuous Congolese music , tension was building in the nation. Why were no more results being announced ? Why had the SLPP stopped announcing the results ? Soon, tension gripped the whole nation. The rumor mills kicked in. News was that the reason the SLBS had stopped announcing the results was that APC had not only wiped out the lead but had in fact gone into the lead.
The SLPP government was no longer talking. We did not know where Sir Albert and government officials were and everybody was getting worried. No news program was even being read over the SLBS. It was continuous Congolese music. That was the year some of us the kids learnt to sing the famous Congolese music of those days.
Politics took over the country. At lorry parks, bus stations, street corners , everywhere people flocked over radio sets waiting for resumption of announcement of the elections. Even in school, our teachers took their transistor radios because serious learning was not going on. When the teachers came to class, all they talked about was politics and the speculations over the elections.
Elections news began coming out finally when rumors started that the Governor General, Sir Henry Lightfoot Boston was about to consult Queen Elizabeth 11 of England who was really the Head of State , because Sierra Leone was not yet a Republic. Some of the rumors were that the Governor General was considering inviting the APC leader, Siaka Stevens to State House and swearing him in as Prime Minister because from the results in his possession, APC had won the elections.
Crowds of jubilant APC supporters had started gathering around Cotton Tree and the front of State House , led by the powerful women Nancy Steele , Regina James, Daisy Bona and Kainday Bangura , holding placards , urging the Elections Commission to announce the remainder of the results and making.black power fists that the APC had won.
What had actually happened dramatically while the SLBS was just playing congolese music whole day and night was this : SLPP and APC were deadlocked at 32 -32, but only because SLPP were including in their tally the 4 seats won by independent candidates who had resigned from the SLPP before the elections because Sir Albert had denied them symbols :
Kutubu Kaisamba of Kenema Central
L.A.M Brewah of Moyamba North
Frank Anthony of Pujehun South
Prince Williams of Bo Town II
They were also thinking of cashing in on the results of the elections of the 12 paramount chiefs , also pending. In reality, the paramount chiefs results were never part of the tally. They rather declared for the winning party after the final results had been announced . So, the real results in the hands of the Governor General –personally got from the Elections Commission – was SLPP 32 ( with the 4 independent candidates added ) , APC 32.
What SLPP did not know later , HOWEVER, was that the 4 independent candidates had on the morning of March 21, 1967 written a letter to the Governor General dissociating themselves from the SLPP and asserting that they were going to remain Independent ( I have a copy of that letter in my archives ). That changed the results immediately to SLPP 28, APC 32. With this letter from the 4 Independents in hand, the Governor General invited Siaka Stevens to State House and swore him in as Prime Minister.
The rest was history. The Force Commander of the Army, Brig. David Lansana ( A relative of Sir Albert ) disagreed with the decision by the Governor General, saying all the results were not out yet ( Reference to the Paramount Chiefs elections, an error on his part because those results were never added to the parliamentary results ). He heard that Stevens had been called to State House to be sworn in and he immediately ordered heavily armed troops, led by Lt. Hinga Norman and Lt. James Foyah to go to State House and arrest the Governor General, the declated winner of the elections, Siaka Stevens, and everybody at the swearing in ceremony.
Norman went in with a machine gun and arrested the Governor General, Shaki and others without resistance while Foyah and other soldiers closed the gates, surrounded State House and according to instructions allowed nobody to enter or leave. Soon, Brig. Lansana came on the air, interrupted the music, declared Martial Law and cancelled the elections results. It was the first time in history that the army had ever intervened in politics in Sierra Leone. Brig. Lansana had staged the first coup ever in Sierra Lrone.
That night, there was a big clash at Cotton Tree and Krutown Road between the army and angry APC supporters, who did not take the coup lying down. About 40 people were repiryedly killed and hundreds of people arrested. SLPP had started spilling innocent blood for politics.
Another tense two days followed with the SLBS once again playing congolese and martial music whole day and night, and periodically re-broadcasting the speech by Brig. Lansana.
But on March 23, the nation was shocked again as junior officers of the army, led by Majors Charles Blake, Bockarie Jumu and B.S. Kai-Samba arrested Brig. Lansana and formed the National Reformation Council ( NRC ). The army also arrested Sir Albert and Siaka Stevens and took them to Pademba Road Prisons.
Those were some of the most memorable days in the lives of some of us. If you ask many men of our generation when they came to love Congolese music , they will point to 1967, a year we will never forget. It was the year that defined what was to be the feature of Sierra Leone politics for decades to come.
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