By Kabs Kanu
Talking about teachers and professors not getting the honor they deserve and being left out of the annual Independence Anniversary national awards, my mind goes today to my primary school English Literature teacher, Mr. Morie Sannoh at the Sierra Leone Church School ( SLC ), Bo.
He was the architect of whatever some of us became in life—-Love for reading books and newspapers, writing, debating public issues, award-winning journalist etc. . He was an outstanding teacher.
.Mr. Sannoh did not have a degree. He was just a schooleaver. A good teacher does not need a fantastic degree. If he has, it is a bonus. What a good teacher needs is good, general education, knowledge of his subject, gift to teach it. love and passion for his job and students and an ability to motivate and stir up something in his students. Mr Sannoh had all these qualities in abundance.
Mr. Sannoh bin very local, in the sense that we used the word in those days—Unsophisticated, unpolished, a rustic. He used to come from the village called MATTRU ON THE RAILS. But local though he was, when he opened his mouth to teach, you did not want him to stop. The guy was incomparable. He was excellent .
On Saturdays, he sold cassava at the Bo Market. The big and lazy girls who were not doing well in his subject used to go to the market to mock him for selling cassava . They would come to us excitedly to tell us that Mr. Sannoh was at the market selling cassava. We would ask , “SO WHAT ? Did he commit a crime ? ” We loved him so much that we used to go to the market to help him sell his cassava. He made his living that way because primary school teachers without TC or TEC were not paid enough to live.
Mr. Sannoh stirred up in us love of English Lierature. He taught us the early classics we met in life :
TOM BROWN’S SCHOOLDAYS
TREASURE ISLAND
KING SOLOMON’S MINES
THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN
Mr. Sannoh was not only good at delivery ; he was excellent at dramatizing events and dialogue in the books. He would keep us at the edge of our seats.
He motivated us to love going to the Bo Library nearby to read and borrow books. I wonder what became of Mr. Sannoh.
We had other outstanding teachers in the school —-Mr. Monrovia, Mrs. Paris, Mrs. Keili, the mother of political icon Andrew Keili, who also attended the school ; Mr. Kpukumu, Mrs. Lansana, Mr. Beah and the headmaster was the legendary Mr. C.L. Bendu.
If I have power in Sierra Leone, it is people like Mr. Sannoh that I would have given a national award. He richly deserves it, if he is still alive.
