Lecture delivered Monday Jan. 30th at the Pre. Lunching of
Transformation and development Conference at Miatta Conference hall
How do we structure all of this into our development strategy, as we march towards a transformative future?
History, as we all know, is a sequence of major events. Depending on various circumstances, there are people who make history, while there are those, mostly in the majority, who are affected by it. Invariably, conquerors tend to write history from their own point of view; we see this everywhere: one example being the British referring to what happened in Kenya in the 1950’s as the Mau Mau rebellion and calling the patriots terrorists, whereas the Kenyans saw themselves as freedom fighters. Recently, an American academic and historian at Harvard University, Caroline Elkins carried out a major research into that conflict and published a book entitled Imperial Reckoning: the British Gulag in Kenya.
In her book, she documents the thousands of Kenyans sent to concentration camps; the killings, beatings, castrations and rape of many others. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in history for this splendid work.
Clearly, how Sierra Leoneans see themselves, once they begin to write their own history is crucial to what other people will think of them. One thing we can all agree on is that the history of modern Sierra Leone has been a mized bag. Prior to our independence, it was, by and large, a steady and peaceful one. Although we did not have the fervent burst of nationalism that happened in Guinea, Algeria or Ghana, we did have things to be proud of: significantly, our educational system.
For a small country, the foundations of a solid educational system that began in the early nineteenth century meant that we were able to share a wealth of learning with others. We sent teachers, nurses, engineers and even doctors down the coast, as we used to refer to the old Gold Coast, Togo, and Nigeria in those days.
I remember the reaction of the distinguished professor and fine poet, Lemuel Johnson, when I told him, in 1978, that I was going to teach at the University in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.
‘I was born there’. He said.
His father, he was proud to inform me, had been the colonial surveyor there.
Yet it might seem to me that whereas other West African nations were prepared for the great changes in their societies: the rise of a pre-independence, fervent nationalism in Ghana, the explosion of a national literature in Nigeria, or the all too embracing vigour of a dynamic cinema culture of serious merit in Burkina Faso, and other manifestations of indigenous art forms, Sierra Leone, it might be argued, was locked in a time warp. Which brings me back to the age of colonial realism: to the time when Freetown was called THE ATHENS of West Africa.
It was a glorious period: the flourishing of Western ideas in tropical Africa: we read about some of the great transitions in Western history; its people, their biases and military conquests. But we were not in that history; it was not about our ancestors. No one told us about the exploits of the great West African patriots Alpha Yaya, Samory Toure, Bai Bureh, Kailondo etc. We were ignorant of the great Nok civilization that flourished four thousand years ago in what is today the area of the Plateau State in Nigeria. We knew nothing about the Sudanic empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai, or the great Bantu migration from West to Southern Africa. Strictly speaking, our souls as Africans did not exist in that writing of history.
So, tonight, Mr. President, esteemed ladies and gentlemen, may I propose the following: that as we take Sierra Leone towards a new horizon, as we begin the march towards our modernization, we take control of not just our mining and other developmental policies, but of our history. The ATHENS OF WEST AFRICA was great; it was the gateway to another world, another perspective; but it was not in our DNA. What is in our DNA is the SPIRIT OF SANKORE. That is who we are, ladies and gentlemen.
As some of us will recall, the University of Sankore was the great center of learning that flourished between the 12th 14th centuries in the city of Timbuctoo. At the height of its fame, during the reign of the emperor Askia Mohamed, or Askia the great, as he was known, the university had a library of some seven hundred thousand books.
It was to that center that scientists, astronomers, writers, theologians and philosophers from around the world came to study and discuss great ideas not yet known in Medieval Europe.
Timbuctoo was our own Athens; our glorious heritage. So, as we rethink our development, let us redefine ourselves in that spirit; let us dream of a Sierra Leone where people could come, once again, for great ideas; to a place where law and order is respected; let us create a milieu in which we can once again be called a noble and gentle people.
There is a lot we can be proud of, and the future has never been brighter for us. Anyone taking a walk around the city of Freetown can feel the energy, drive and confidence of the majority of people. Granted, the city is very, very congested, ugly in some areas, and its facilities are stretched to the limits. But I have been told that the same sense of new found optimism is everywhere: in Bo, Kenema, Makeni, Marampa, Port Loko and Moyamba. Whereas we were once written off as a basket case, we are now attracting some attention from all kinds of investors, speculators, well-wishers, and even some tricksters to our agricultural and mining sectors. Even more important, some of our young people, many of them professionals and highly-skilled, are returning home from abroad, to contribute to the next stage of our development. More and more, the country is being opened up: roads are being built; there is an improvement in our health system so that our women are no longer condemned to an unnecessary death in child birth. Increasingly, more Sierra Leoneans are to be found in businesses that were once the preserve of foreigners; and i have observed with great interest and bewilderment, that banks are everywhere, although, of course, i wonder where all the money is coming from.
And for me as a writer, always prepared to say the unsayable, the days when our Human Rights can be trampled upon seemed to be an imagination of the past, although, if recent events are anything to go by, it is quite obvious, and very troubling, that some Sierra Leoneans feel it is their right to violate the basic Human Rights of their fellow citizens.
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