St. Joseph Secondary School Speech

To those who doubted our resilience and to those who had very little faith in a few determined US college students, and also to those who were resolved to undermine the efforts of a few honest people, we prove that this land was once referred to as the Athens of West Africa. We present here today a testament to our resilience and determination to re-brand Sierra Leone a fountain of education in Africa! Let us rejoice as we unveil the newly constructed St. Joseph’s Senior Secondary School!

A few weeks ago we were faced with the dilemma of whether to continue the construction or whether to terminate the project altogether. Some of us were disappointed by the behaviour of a few dishonest people, and others among us were disgruntled by the mentality and attitudes of many of our fellow citizens. There were sufficient reasons to discontinue what we have just completed, but as a Christian and a fervent believer in the power of education, I could not let a dishonest few become an obstacle to the future of our children. Everyday I pray for the Lord to forgive my sins as I forgive those who trespass against me. What kind of a believer would I be if I cannot do for my brothers and sisters what I constantly call on the Lord to do for me? As we render our supplications unto the Lord, so too must we be willing to render unto our brothers and sisters what we require of our God.

There is a beautiful dialogue between Abraham and the Lord in the book of Genesis, chapter 19:1-16, when Abraham becomes aware of God’s intention to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. After hearing God’s plan, Abraham approached the Lord and said: “Lord, will you sweep away both the righteous and the wicked?” “Suppose you find fifty righteous people living there in the city, will you still sweep it away and not spare it for their sake?” “Surely you won’t do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked. Why, you will be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same! Surely you won’t do that!” And the Lord replied, “If I find fifty righteous people in Sodom, I will spare the entire city for their sake.” Abraham said: “but Lord, what if there are only forty-five righteous folks?” And the Lord assured Abraham that he would surely not do such a thing. Abraham went down in fives until he came down to ten righteous folks, and the Lord continued to assure him likewise. I am no reverend, but what I intend to illustrate is that just as none among us will neglect his farm because of a few troublesome weeds, we shall never abandon our children’s education simply because a few people among us would rather selfishly squander what we toil so hard to achieve. We are gathered here today to show the detractors that nothing can stand in the way of even a small group of people determined to work for the common good!

A few weeks ago, President Barack Obama of the United States of America, himself of African descent, spoke to his African brothers and sisters from Accra, Ghana. Apart from the symbolic choice of Ghana as a beacon of Africa’s freedom, the country is also serving as an exemplary of what our aspirations for the government of the people, by the people, and for the people can become. While the sound of democracy may transmit shivers into the hearts of Africa’s despots and totalitarians, it is in fact our only hope for progress and development. The West can render us every possible service we deem necessary, but the only way we can transcend the current shades of extreme poverty, disease, and general underdevelopment is to embrace the good governance that is the stepchild of democracy, and to commit ourselves to a culture of self-reliance, good neighbourliness and community service. It is out of such keen observations that President Obama recently committed the future of Africa into the hands of Africans. In similar spirit then, I call on all young Sierra Leoneans to share the responsibilities of our nation’s future. For in your hands, not with presidents or cabinet ministers, lies the obligation to fulfil the responsibilities of our freedom papers and to face the challenges of our shared destiny.

A few weeks ago I served as a Tom Lantos US Congressional Fellow. I was very fortunate to be a frontline observer of President Obama’s first six months in office. President Obama made several remarkable appearances during my tenure as a Lantos Fellow in Washington DC, but it was his first address to the joint houses of Congress that left an indelible mark on my life. The address was a reaffirmation of his beliefs and devotion to the promise of change in America. But the most important message for me was his admonition to American students never to quit. I wish I had a President, when I was growing up, to remind me of my duties as a young democratic citizen; a president that could buttress my juvenile ambitions with unwavering moral guidance. However, I was lucky to have a father who taught me never to quit, albeit not in those words. My father taught me that education is the only legacy that cannot be taken away from an individual. To quit, therefore, is an abandonment of one’s duty to self, to family and to society at large. Even though a commitment never to quit can be a difficult decision in a country like Sierra Leone, the alternative is worst for the individual, the family, the community and the country at large. Democracy is a worthless ideal if the vast majority of our country remains uneducated and divided against each other on regional and tribal markers.

I have enjoyed working with you over the past few months, but I will not relent to say that I was disappointed in those of you who, even in good faith, queried me about choosing to build this school in Northern Sierra Leone instead of in the South-East, my own region of origin. I will never forget Pendembu, my hometown, but the education of Sierra Leone transcends all regional, religious, ethnic or fraternal lines; it is a matter of shared national obligation and social duty. Just as our common nationality was the sole agenda of our founding fathers, so too should our development be a matter of from each according to his ability and to each according to his needs. Sir Milton Margai’s militancy was not for Mendeland or Krioland neither was Pademba’s generosity limited to an especial group of Sierra Leoneans. From the province of Freedom to the Lion Mountains, Sierra Leoneans have always been their brothers’ keeper.

I have made several contributions to the reconstruction of this country since the end of the civil war, but I am particularly excited about the course of education. There is nothing more important to the development of a nation than education. Like Nelson Mandela, I believe that “education is the greatest engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mine worker can become the head of the mine, that the child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation.” To the future students of St. Joseph’s Secondary School, I admonish you to take your education seriously. The onus is with you now. I grew up in Sierra Leone and Liberia during two of the most brutal civil wars of contemporary history. Children like you were conscripted to fight and kill even before they knew how to spell their names, women and their daughters were raped, many men were compelled by circumstances to commit some of the most heinous atrocities of our history, and children as young as six months old had their hands chopped off by rebels using machetes. At a very young age, I was arrested with my father by Charles Taylor`s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebels and incarcerated on the outskirt of Voinjama, Liberia. It was the first time I came face to face with torture, starvation and death. That experience instantly transformed my young heart into the heart of a man determined to live through each dark day with fervent hope. I never had the luxury of quitting!

To the parents, I will not disregard the difficulties of educating your children in a country like ours, but you must never quit simply because the child could generate more immediate cash by selling mangoes and cold water. While an extra cash of two thousand Leones could save a family for a day, imagine that your child could be the next teacher, Lawyer, doctor or Agricultural researcher that saved a nation. Silver and Gold I do not have, but education is the testimony of my successes. And to those parents who think that support for a child’s education ends with paying the school fees, I say please do more. School fees only secure your child a space in the classroom; keeping him/her there is your parental duty. Let us make this thought a part of our decisions to bear children, for education is no less a fundamental human right.

Finally, let me extend my thanks and appreciation to my mother Tewa Kaifala—a woman who gave her all to guarantee my education. Even as a single parent living in a refugee camp with four children, she made sure we all got as much education as she could afford. I thank the Assistant Directors of the Jeneba Project: Liat Krawczyk and Peter S. Brock; without their indefatigable work this school would not have been possible. I also thank my friends Anthony Mancilla, David Gettens and Andrew Mancilla who have been very vital to the realization of this dream. My gratitude goes to my family for their enormous sacrifices and patience. I thank my uncle Mr. Sahr J. Tolno, my brother Francis, my sisters Hawa, Amie and Watta.

Let me also take this opportunity to thank members of the Jeneba Project, especially Professors Michael and Catherine Golden-Marx—the two have not only been fervent supporters of the Jeneba Project since its inception , they have also treated me like a son ever since we met. My appreciation also goes to Jesse and Emmet Golden-Marx—two young Americans who heard the story of Sierra Leone and devoted extraordinary time and energy to making sure education becomes a fundamental human right for children here. My appreciation also goes to Professor Kate Graney of Skidmore College, who has also offered extraordinary moral and financial backing to me personally and to the Jeneba Project.

To all those who have rendered extraordinary services to make this project a success, I say thank you. My heartfelt gratitude goes to the Small Scripture Group of the Church of St. Peter in Saratoga Springs, the Congregation as a whole, Humanity in Action, Seventh Generation Inc, Sierra Leone Now, the United World Colleges, Susan E. Wagner High School, Irvington High School, Sierra Leone Now, Skidmore College and the Staff and students of St. Joseph Secondary School, Masoila. Let me also extend my appreciation to all the contractors, especially Joseph Penikin. A special thank you to Fr. Edwin, Mr. Sesay, Ms. Kotio, Mr. Atto, Mr. Bendu and the Krawczyk family. To all those whose names have not been mentioned, I say thank you to you, too.

To the young generation of Sierra Leoneans, Let me leave you with the words of Sir Milton Margai on the occasion of our independence. Work hard, for you are the future leaders of your country. We endeavour to lay traditions of which you must be proud. It will be for you to unhold them and to build upon them in the future.

I Thank you!

Manifesto #1: Female Circumcision Must Go

History helps human societies maintain the things of the past, which they can cling to for the future, and those they can safely cast into the bottomless ditches of obsolete traditions. The confidence of societies in determining the things they can keep, improve, or delete altogether is called progress. Progress or more appropriately ‘learning from history,’ is necessary for societies for the casual fact that we are prone to mistakes, prejudices, biases or uncontrolled changes in society. Sometimes the factors that led to a certain truth simply disappear. Nowadays, incessant improvements in technology, globalization and affordable education grant us the opportunity to do things in more facile manners, identify our individual errors, or merely jump on the bandwagon of globally accepted norms; why not?

It is with such ideas of progress that I declare the practice of female circumcision obsolete and unnecessary in Sierra Leone in particular and Africa especially. This is not a question of denigrating Sierra Leonean traditions and the long social services that the institution of circumcision rendered to our people; it is a matter of progress and human rights as required by our participation in the global community, especially the United Nations. The use of culture and tradition in the twenty-first century to rationalize the unnecessary removal of the female clitoris is a sign of our refusal to embrace the teachings of history and to accept the progress our country clearly needs. Apart from the usual blind cultural nonsense we use to defend our unwillingness to change, no one in Sierra Leone can truly explain the contemporary necessity of clitoridetomy.

Some even argue without the slightest hesitation that female circumcision is intended to prevent promiscuity in women. While this is a good intension, promiscuity is however not some exclusive female syndrome. In fact we all know that women are not the most promiscuous in Sierra Leone. But to prove this further, it is arguable that among all the ethnic groups of Sierra Leone, the Krios are less promiscuous, and they don’t even practice female circumcision. In a behavioral sense, there is nothing that an uncircumcised Creole girl does in the streets of Freetown today that is not done by a circumcised Temne or Mende girl. One sex cannot be blamed for the debauchery of society. As a Nigerian comedian puts it, ‘there are two things involved.’ Or as the good lord himself says, ‘let he who is without sin cast the first stone.’

Another argument that sounds credible, if it was made in the middle ages, is that female circumcision is hygienic and prevents stench in women. Well, wouldn’t the simplest solution be bathing! We do not scrape the skin off our armpit or heinously cut off our arms simply because our armpits sometimes produce odor. There are other unpleasant analogies of secreting body parts we could remove, but I’ll leave that to our individual imaginations. The rational truth is that there is nothing female circumcision can do for the clitoris that cannot be done in modern hospitals, if need be. Globalization has granted me the opportunity to move around a little, and having lived among both the circumcised and uncircumcised of the earth, I cannot attest to any pungent stench in one that is not in the other, depending on their sanitation routine. If religion, which is more fundamental than culture, recommends ablution to deal with our bodily impurities, why can’t our common sense catapult us beyond the laziness of cultural excuses?

My dilemma with this issue had always been the admirable fact that before the advent of colonialism, and with it Western institutions, the bondo, Sande, Poro etc. served as our educational institutions where the elders of our societies as carriers of the goods of our past transmitted vital elements of savior-vivre to adolescents. Our elders, as trustees of our societies, scrutinized the elements of their time and transmitted the things that were absolutely necessary for the preservation of their kind. The variables of these teachings change from generation to generation, and it becomes imperative for the current generation to lay conscious foundations for the next. But if you don’t, I hope you would have better explanations for your daughters than the defeatist haven of culture and tradition.

I am aware of the fact that there are those among my people who would quickly taunt me for being brainwashed by Western ideas and ideologies. By all means I accept, but if you are reading this, so are you. If we accept Western education, Western-styled parliaments, Christian names, Western suits other than pihuin, some even reject their languages, and so on and so forth, then we have to use them to better our societies not damage them further. It is my patriotic duty to condemn the decadent aspects of my country while promoting the good. It is not enough, as the national anthem compels us, to pray that ‘no harm on thy children may fall.’ We must always employ the entirety of our devotion, strength and might to stand for her rights. Only then shall we be truthful to the ‘land that we love, our Sierra Leone.’

Special Court of Sierra Leone Delivers!

There is a popular saying in Sierra Leone that there are ninety-nine days for a thief and one day for the master. Three former leaders of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group, Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon and Augustine Gbao, have outlived their ninety-nine days glory and landed in the master’s court. The Special Court of Sierra Leone, a United Nations mandated court, has sentenced the trio to a total of nearly 120 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 1996-2001 period of the decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone. Issa Sesay was sentenced to 52 years, Morris Kallon to 40 years and Augustine Gbao to 25 years. Even though the war lasted from 1991-2001, the Special Court of Sierra Leone was only mandated to try those who bear the greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law committed in the territory of Sierra Leone since November 30, 1996.

The conviction of the trio may not seem extraordinary seven years after the end of the war, but for most Sierra Leoneans, it serves as a milestone in the process of reconciliation and rehabilitation. Reconciliation has been very successful among ordinary Sierra Leoneans; those who were merely executing orders from their commanders and those who were victims of that macabre moment in our national history. Although most Sierra Leoneans would agree that we were all victims, one way or another, there was need for a human face responsible for the horrors of our past. The sentence serves as justice for our victimization and as lesson for other African leaders that the days of impunity are coming to a close.

The fact that the civil war descended into a summary blood bath in which we were all spilling each other’s blood made it difficult to recognize individual perpetuators beyond Foday Saybana Sankoh of the RUF, Sam Hinga Norman of the Civil Defense Force (CDF), and Charles Taylor of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL). The death or disappearance of RUF’s Sam Bockarie, a.k.a Mosquito, Johnny Paul Koroma of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Front (AFRC), and the subsequent deaths of Foday Sankor and Hinga Norman during the Special Court trials made it seem like justice for war crimes in Sierra Leone was a futile endeavor. Many Sierra Leoneans lost expectations and patience for the slow pace of the process, especially because they needed to proceed with their normal lives in a shattered country.

Apart from Charles Taylor who is now facing eleven charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity at The Hague, where he is accused of backing rebels responsible for widespread atrocities in Sierra Leone, Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon and Augustine Gbao are the three most responsible people for the decade of rape, amputation and summary killings in Sierra Leone. The conviction comes at a time when community reconciliation among ordinary Sierra Leoneans is almost complete, and past atrocities can now be written into the memorial scrolls of our dark days. Justice can never be attained for the thousands of people who lost their lives, victims of rape and torture, and those who got their limbs hacked off. However, we must accept the price of our collective failures and proceed with the process of reconstruction for a better future.

The conviction does not only guarantee that our suffering was not entirely in vain, it also serves as a warning to other African leaders that it is no longer acceptable to ignore human rights and International Law in the name of meaningless revolutions. We hope the International Criminal Court will expedite the Taylor case and allow us to move on altogether. Sierra Leoneans are tired of constant reminders of their victimization by the everlasting process of trying those responsible for the massacre, rape, and amputation of thousands of innocent civilians.

Sierra Leoneans Reflect on War

On January 6th, 2009, Sierra Leoneans commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Revolutionary United Front rebel invasion of Freetown, the capital. The invasion which attracted a long overdue international intervention in the civil war was one of the bloodiest and most destructive battles. For over a month, RUF rebels, ECOMOG peacekeepers and militia loyal to the government of Tijan Kabbah fought for the control of Freetown. Thousands of people were killed, amputated or raped. Residential houses and public buildings were burned down or destroyed by rebels and ECOMOG aerial bombardment.

On October 22nd, 1999, the United Nations Security Council established the United Nations Armed Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) to cooperate with the government of Tijan Kabbah and the Revolutionary United Front in implementing the Lome Peace Agreement and to assist in the implementation of the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration program. By May 2000, the authorized strength of UNAMSIL comprised 17,500 military personnel, including 260 military observers. The kidnapping of almost 500 UNAMSIL military personnel by RUF rebels, however, called for the involvement of a stronger international force. The British responded by deploying the 1st. Battalion Parachute Regiment in May 2000. The operation was code-named Palliser.

Skirmishes between rebels and peacekeepers continued until the disarmament process was completed at the end of 2001. The decade long civil war was declared over on January 18th, 2002. Sierra Leoneans who survived the war still live with tremendous scars in what is viewed as the poorest country in the world. But as Sierra Leoneans reflect on the progress of their country a decade after the massacre of January 1999, we are reminded of a Sierra Leonean proverb that states that ‘a man who wages war in his living room and breaks his furniture must learn to squat on bare ground.’ We fought each other for a decade and destroyed every fabric of our country without achieving any productive outcome. A look at the country today reveals that we killed each other in vain. There are no significant socio-political changes and the country remains a replica of past failures.

Sierra Leone has secured a permanent position at the bottom of the United Nations Human Development Indices. According to a recent Time Magazine report, Sierra Leone currently has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. There are only sixty-four government doctors in a country of more than six million people. Most Sierra Leoneans would readily argue that political corruption is one of the reasons we went to war. But recent accountability indices illustrate that we have learned nothing from the consequences of past prebendary and clientelist institutions of governance. Sierra Leone is still at the low end of Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. The mentality of public service in Sierra Leone remains what former President Siaka Steven poignantly instituted as usai you tie goat nah dae e dae eat—a goat grazes where it is tied.

What is heart-wrecking about the situation in Sierra Leone is that the common people remain victims whether during war or peace time. The reality is that most of the poor socio-economic conditions that culminated into civil war are reemerging in society. While it is no longer likely that Sierra Leoneans would take up arms anytime soon, it is also not advisable to test their patience. If the poverty is not revealing enough, local musicians continue to remind people of the socio-economic deprivation and systemic failure of political leadership. Emmerson, in his popular song Swegbe, declares that Sierra Leoneans are tired of listening to long political speeches. It is time for action!

As the nation reflects on the horrors of the past, it must make serious commitments to improving the future. Sierra Leoneans must work together to tackle the cankerous corruption that is constantly undermining the fabric of national aspirations. Political leaders must apply total transparency in governance and public affairs. Sierra Leone has most of the resources it needs to survive; what it needs now is better management and leaders who put the interest of the people first.