Reflections on the Immense Needs of Sierra Leone

November 25th

This trip to Freetown is a change in our plans. We had hoped to travel today to Makeni, but I will wait for our Xaverian superior to come today and return with him to Makeni tomorrow. The name of the game is flexibility. This change affords me the opportunity to sit down with Emmanuel who has travelled with me for these first two legs of my Sierra Leone journey and do some reflecting together on what we have found. From my perspective, if restoration is to come to Sierra Leone, the following things need to be attended to by both Government as well as civil society.

1. Unemployment is staggeringly high. Youth are everywhere and milling around. There is a lot that needs to be done to improve the infrastructure of the country – construction, road building, schools and teaching, etc., but there is not a strategy that can capture these workers. Some say they do not want to farm or work. Some say there is laziness. I do not believe that. But for me the creation of jobs to respond to the very visible needs of the country and its people must happen now.
2. The second area of concern is health. The quality of health care is very low. The sanitary conditions in most of the neighbourhoods are dreadful. Sickness holds people down.
3. Corruption is my next concern. Many say that corruption is worse now than before. As I look at it all, with the gravity of the poverty that blocks so many from having access to any financial gain, engaging in corrupt activities offers the only access in the face of depressingly unfair wages that have stymied progress in Sierra Leone for decades.
4. Poverty seems to be the result of all the above… a poverty that every one says is far worse than in the past. How to improve the situation is beyond me.
5. There seems to be a rise in the presence and power of the traditional societies of the various tribes. It seems to me that because of all of the above, the only power that many people have is that of the traditional societies, and they are active now more than ever, holding their sway over any discussion that may threaten the support that corruption and underground economies may offer. It could very well be a defense mechanism of simple societies, but it does not help those on the ground to move into a wider sense of civic society. As I see it, it only stirs deeper distrust of the “other”.
6. Trust… that is my last reflection. Trust is the real challenge. It has been the challenge from years of exploitation of human resources (slavery), colonization, poor resource management by newly independent governments, etc. People find it hard to trust themselves, never mind the other who may either be friend or government. And if trust is not established, we cannot move into a future in any shape or form.

Emmanuel’s reflections take the above challenges a different direction.
1. He sees education as the way forward for restoration. Sixty percent of the population in Sierra Leone are unable to read and write. The drop out rates in Secondary School is on the rise since many students now realize that there is no future in meaningful work and income, despite the investment of time and money. Emmanuel encourages the polytechnical schools that have come up recently. These offer very practical skills training and he believes that even if only 25% of the population have such training, there would be a marked improvement in society. He hopes that the Sierra Leonean Government and the international donors will see this as a priority.
2. His second way forward would be to guarantee just wages. Unjust wages have hampered development for decades. The very low salaries hardly cover food expenses, much less housing, schooling, and health. There is no minimum wage law here. Establishing that, grounding it on a fair wage, would go a long way to building up the economy of this country.
3. His last concern is my first concern: Unemployment. There needs to be a system to encourage people and institutions to get people working. Motivation needs to be stirred.

The last thing that Emmanuel and I spoke of in reflection was the need for a new strategy that focused on community based civic education, starting where the masses of people are. Whether in the markets, or in the gathering places where ordinary people meet often, it must happen at a community level. It seems that any and all attempts to "educate" or "animate" people is always done in places that remove them from where they naturally gather, and often what is shared is not understood nor implemented. So, civic education needs to be done at community level in community gathering places so that it impacts their normal lives and thought processes. We ended with a wonderful motto: "No matter where people are, there is always a barri." Dialogue and coming together as we are is what will move us forward. What better strategy for restorative justice is there than that?

In the afternoon I was able to meet with the young man named Francis who lives just outside our compound who had been with the RUF for 12 years. He shared how he was pressured to join the forces from his town of Waterloo, some 15 miles outside of Freetown and near an army base. If the young men of Waterloo wanted protection, the only way to get was to join the forces. So reluctantly, as young as he was (he must have been only about 10), he joined. And from there as the war began, he moved around the country, from the Koinadugu District to the Kailahun District, and back to the Bo District where there was a large camp near Okra Hill, a very popular place for road ambushes. I got the sense that there was firm discipline and clear ideology that fed the enthusiasm and focus of these young soldiers.

I was aware that some of the leaders of the group that he spoke of were from our Catholic Schools… What did we teach them, or what didn’t we teach them!!? How easily they were manipulated. He spoke of very quick and strategic battles. He was a field commander at the age of 16. As he spoke I could perceive a confidence in who he was. But he himself realized that by 2003 the only option was to disarm and accept the offer of demobilization. They were directed to a very large camp where interviews were made, promises were offered, and very little was given in the end. And now he is a neighbour of ours, scrapping together a living while going to technical school in the hope of a better job and life.

Ibrahim and Alimamy from the previous evening dialogue joined us. As the four of us reflected on their stories and the plight that they are now experiencing, I discovered something that I had not seen the last time. Ibrahim’s eyes looked as if they have cataracts. He shared with me that he is almost blind in one eye and finds it challenging to see in the other. I hope to find a way to have him checked at the eye hospital nearby to see what can be done. He shared with me that his eyes were affected by the flashes of the guns that he fired for all those years. Another unnecessary outcome of children with guns. I visited Ibrahim’s tailor shop and gave him an order for some clothes to be sewn. In any way I can, I hope to encourage this fine young man who is trying to improve his situation.