Sierra Leoneans are very great story tellers, only that they may not want to write books because their compatriots may have had long stopped reading. Those who read do it willy-nilly because they are teachers or NGO workers or just to prove that they went to some school or so. Yes, in a country almost crippled by illiteracy, even those who left school some ten years ago and have no business with words and figures perforce slump into illiteracy by default. Is it not true that even those who carry their degrees hanging on their necks for all to see can listen to the BBC and do not understand the news read there. Sometimes, in my quiet moments I wonder what type of English they will be speaking in our Parliament, say in 2045! I say so because the kinds of liberty people take with the English language these days are too negatively creative to be productive for anyone.
Part of the resistance to early efforts to fight Ebola was because of illiteracy, ignorance and poverty. These are manifested in so many ways even by our child compatriots attending school. Otherwise what business have the girl child got to get pregnant? Yes, we all know that our country, as a very open society, has sexual laxity as one of its social hallmarks. So the preachers of abstinence have an uphill task. You may visit the teenage pregnancy at their stadium hostel office and they will tell you more. The other day I read on the UNFPA website that adolescent pregnancy remains a major health concern. Rural girls are twice as likely to become pregnant. Pregnancy can endanger girls’ lives: pregnancy related complications are the second leading causes of death among girls 15 to 19 years old. The children of adolescents are also at significantly higher risk of dying.
This life we are living is complex and at the same time simple, all depends on your optical illusions, the way you see it and how you position yourself in it. It’s like the caterpillar which just when it thought the world was over, it turned into a butterfly. I am sure you admire them beautifully flapping their wings and flying gracefully and wonder why you can’t fly.
I have been thinking a lot and doing some analysis about the effects of poor roads and terrible terrains to the general development of communities? Come on, do not tell me that everything about ebola may have been bad. We are not going to ague but I will turn the issue the other way round: bad roads in actual effect saved so many communities from having the ebola infections. Check all the remote and perhaps the most under developed areas in the country. These have fewer infections and even fewer deaths. Take a close look at the districts where the lowest deaths occurred. Bonthe had the lowest deaths of around 5, Pujehun 16 and Koinadugu 57 and Moyamba 78. Pujehun is so remote that when you go to Bo waterside, you speak the Liberian English and use the Liberian dollar. For Koinadugu, if you want to go to some very remote areas, you may advise yourself to make the trip through Kono District because it is easier and shorter. Of course, you can analyse for yourself the infection and death rate for Bonthe, that is, our beautiful disappearing world.
You will not believe it that ebola did well because it did not transform itself into either water borne or air-borne, astafulai! Now, let me tell you when the ebola map of Sierra Leone is drawn, which I know will be done, you will see very interesting revelations. Take Kailahun district. The infections never reached the north western part where yours truly hails from. This is not because the people there were not knee deep in culture or are so literate that they understood the ways to check the virus. No, not at all; the main reason I can advance is that the chiefdoms there had long been forgotten, ever since the Massingbi Kono road was made in the days of Pop sheikh in the 70s or so. Let me tell you the road through Kpeje West and Yawei Chiefdoms in the Kailahun District was the only road from Freetown to Kono district, I mean the only road! When you get to my town, it is no more a village since the former towns were upgraded to cities. When you get to Moimandu Kotaaya you will actually see pieces of tar on the road. You see my town was so important in those remote days that it had a mile of tar mark from the center of the town to both ends. This was the way you could distinguish an important town from others. There the rest of the road remained dust powdered.
Talking about roads, when the roads in Kono District are done, it will be that great for that eastern diamond city. Like I say, the population of the whole of Kono district is about 300, 000 but I bet you the potholes in Koidu city alone virtually are more than the population. Like someone once said about Kampala City in Uganda, in Koidu city if you see anybody riding or driving straight all the way, be sure that that person is either drunk or mad. In Koidu city the latest driving or riding skill is negotiation round potholes. But wait a minute: something very interesting and commendable happened just about a week ago. A combined team of journalists and civil society members made a surprised trip to the Koinadugu capital of good old Kabala to see the work that Guicoprez, a road making company is doing there. You see, this is the same company contracted to do the roads in Koidu town. Is this not remarkable? The team went back to Koidu and were full of praises for the company in terms of the quality of work and the equipment they are using. Thanks guys, but there could still be another side of that story. Sometimes the butterfly can indeed feel itself a bird. I have a small story.
There were two cousins preparing for the Selective Exams in the early 70s or so. One was brilliant and the other was not. On the day of the examination they happened to have sat at the same desk. The not brilliant had arranged with his cousin to show him the correct answers. What the brilliant one did was to pass on all the wrong answers which his colleague copiously wrote on his answer sheet. When the results were out the brilliant one was told he had passed. Then almost immediately the not brilliant one also started jubilating, saying they wrote the same answers. No, not at all, he failed miserably. Do you see that lesson here? To be frank when the roads are done in Kono, Koidu will be one of the finest diamond cities in the whole wild world. One more thing, Kono district is unofficially now placed under the North on some official documents and not the Eastern region….why? If we are facing the right direction, all we have to do is keep moving.
By Beny Sam
Wednesday November 25, 2015
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