A candid response to William Bangura's latest on Sierra Leone
Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear William,
Wan Seke you!
Once again many thanks, this time for your latest elucidations about that ethnically complex country that still bears the name Sierra Leone, the country whose praises the Sierra Leoneans all hymn when they sing the same national anthem that Sierra Leoneans have been singing since Independence Day, on 27th April 1961. Somehow, the national anthem just like the Prince of Wales School Song does not discriminate or mention any differences between or among its various/ diverse people.
Sir William, I assure you that up to this day, I don’t know exactly which tribes most of my Sierra Leonean friends belong to and to tell you the truth, I don’t really care. For example, the very last person I spoke to, when I was physically in Sierra Leone was Muctarr Mustapha (the son of M.S. Mustapha) - at that time sporting a young Harry Belafonte haircut - and somehow, I had always assumed that he was Temne – only much later was I informed that he was a “Fourah Bay Creole” - which probably explains why we had such good relations with our very good friend in common, my classmate Desmond Easmon ( son of Dr. Sarif Easmon, the author of “Dear Parent and Ogre” and “The New Patriots”) and I was first intimated that Musu – (as I affectionately called Muctarr - a veritable master of the hyperbole – from him I first heard the term “ Fellaheen) on the ocassion when discussing his then recent marriage to the daughter of Ghana’s president Akufo-Addo, I told my Anglo-Creole friend, “ You see the Temnes don’t discriminate , “Africa must unite”? – Just see Sierra Leone’s Temne-man uniting with Ghana!” (Like the English poet who proposed to his girlfriend” Let me be the Gambia in your Senegal “) at which point the Anglo-Sierra Leonean retorted, “The bomboclat is not a Temne- man he is a Creole!” Really?! He then reeled off names like Tunde Abdullah, the Mahdis, etc etc
Sir William, when it comes to identity politics could it be that you are exaggerating the formal importance of matrilineality and patrilineality a wee bit, by not giving the people so narrowly defined the social and political flexibility that actually characterise their movements?
Relationships can be so complex – in the middle of a discussion with Mr. Lamin Sidique I casually told him that at the time of my blessed mother’s passing away Mr. Olu Beccles- Davies was the most senior member of that part of my family (I phoned him in Freetown on the day that my mother passed away 6th January 1998 - there were soldiers in his house looking for Johnny Paul Koroma and Uncle Olu told me that “The rascal is up in the hills”. I subsequently phoned him a few times in Freetown – after he had retired as Chief Justice of Sierra Leone and he was very adamant about not wanting to have anything to do with politics....
Well, Mr. Sidique who knew my mother in Sefadu gave me a strange look. I didn’t know that he and Beccles- Davis were not the best of friends. Lesson learned: One must be updated on what’s happening or what’s happened so that one does not tread on anyone’s corns...
There are a few glaring mistakes in Abner Cohen’s summation of the Creoles of Sierra Leone in his “The Politics of Elite Culture”
And, by the way, the Limbas don’t feel inferior to anyone. How dare you say that “The Krios could manipulate the Limbas who feel inferior to them”? Isn’t that as bad as saying that the Igbos feel inferior to the Yoruba? The sort of thing that could start another civil war...
But let me refresh you with some good news. My best friend from Sierra Leone (of Limba and Mandinka parentage) who is someone in whose judgment I have great confidence, tells me very confidentially that, “turning to ethnic groups, the most liberal and open-minded group in the Temne” and that “the character of the Temne is like that of Americans” that “they speak openly and like to show themselves” and that “ all the other tribes in Sierra Leone, the Limbas, Susus, Lokohs, Fullahs, Yalunkas etc are welcome in the Temne community” And he confesses that “ politically they have a fluctuating allegiance, whereas the Mendes and the Limbas are politically tied to their various political parties, SLPP, APC” He adds, “ Temnes are commercial people , and as such it models s them to be peaceful- cooperation and far from segregation and inward-looking attitudes.”
I will never forget that it was my dear Alim Sesay (Magburaka man) who defended me in TAMU - and – I suppose it’s all still in their archives, after I was banned there were over one hundred postings attacking me even though my Temne friend Kenday Samuel Kamara who I had cursed when in the 50th piecemeal posting of his thesis recommending the recolonisation of Sierra Leone, had accepted my apologies. I was in a bad mood when I read Kenday’s 50th instalment recommending the re-colonisation of Sierra Leone, I let him have it. Curious mind-set of those Sierra Leoneans that they don’t ban the guy who wants them recolonised, but ban the one who curses the advocate of Sierra Leone’s re-colonisation...
I will certainly EXPAND on your last request (the Mendes being like the Jews and the Temnes like the Arabs) but must qualify what I say with this one reservation: that I have interacted with the Jews and the Arabs, more than I have interacted with the Mendes and the Temnes.
I remember AKT (Abdul Karim Turay) - Temne - - he who became Vice-President - very well, as a friend, a jovial, congenial, easy-going and affable character. I first heard Bob Dylan turned electric (“Bringing It All Back Home”) in Abdul Karim Koroma’s room. Whereas, the names Bai Bai Kamara and Kandeh Bureh are of people I have never seen and never met. Among Mendes, I got to know Major Sandy Jumu in Ghana, a little better than I know any other person of that tribe in Sierra Leone...
The last time I was in Sierra Leone the population of Freetown was approximately 300,000 . Today the melting pot is rumoured to be over 1.5 million souls and I’m told that this former/ originally Temne man’s land, the Westerner Area is no longer the domain of the Creoles. If only my dear friend Akintola Wyse was alive today, I would be asking him about his perspective on these and other Sierra Leone matters.
It’s now 3 a.m. and Cornelius must in Swedish, wish you a “God natt”!
Sincerely,