Singing and Shouts for starters!

In the dry season living, working and leisure in Freetown is as far as is possible an open air activity. So if you’re cooking, washing, selling or buying, plaiting hair or just sitting listening to the radio, you try and do it out of doors. Likewise with travel, be it in a poda poda mini-bus or a taxi you ensure that all windows are open. The vehicle may not have a suspension worthy of the name, or tyres with visible tread but a full sound system is a requirement of both forms of transport. So as we approached Christmas, the reggae, rap and bee bop rhythms invariably include the words of carols or well known songs and the occupants unite in a sing along journey that can heard by all those who are stuck in traffic or walking by.

To date all services of Methodist worship have been inside buildings, where the multifarious sounds of the adjacent street are an ever-present accompaniment to the liturgy. In the order of service, which is occasionally printed the presence of shouts and the development of Singspiration is apparently a recent phenomena. Shouts are repetitive choruses which are introduced by worship leaders. So following the formal act of confessional prayers which are recited from memory, the congregation is invited to stand. Then, with the support of competent drummers and even more skilled organists and pianists, there follows a melody of shouts that evokes, rhythmic clapping and in pew dancing from young, very young and the not so young. The infectious delight of the congregation is clearly evident, even if it is difficult to determine the words which may be in Krio, Mende or English. Then after a period of ten to fifteen minutes, the attentive ear of the congregation receive the cue that the singspiration is coming to a close, as the worship leader guides the congregation into a pattern of silence, followed by open prayer.

Charismatic, independent churches has influenced the introduction of Singspiration, which many people, among them life-long committed Methodists, have been hoping to see present in their own churches, which were regarded by outsiders as being spirit-less, cold and overly traditional. For many people, worship in the Independent, Charismatic and Pentecostal churches fed their souls in a manner not found in Methodist or Anglican worship.

Methodist minister Dr Leslie Shyllon, wrote that whilst the churches in Salone had “endeavoured to Africanise their ministry and organization (and to a large extent succeeded) but they have failed to Africanize either the liturgy and forms of worship or the theology of the church.” * Just as we were preparing to meet him, as a colleague whose long teaching ministry had taken him into retirement, we received news that he had died shortly after being admitted to a local hospital. Dr Shillon identifies that on arriving in Freetown from the Provinces, adherents of indigenous religions have found a proliferation of mosques and churches, but also a Christianity that is inaccessible to both their academic and emotional sensibilities. His analysis of the historical African churches concludes that the needs of the followers of Indigenous Traditional Religion (many of whom are illiterate) require a greater consideration than is currently been given.

Being an atheist, an agnostic or being indifferent to religion is not an option that many people find desirable in Freetown, or if they do, would not want to shout about it!

*“Two Centuries of Christianity in an African Province of Freedom” L.E.T.Shyllon 2008

For additional photos please see the following:
http://picasaweb.google.com/clark.janice/WelcomeToSalone

Illusions of Babylon and Bethlehem!

Illusions of Babylon and Bethlehem!

Time spent studying in the United Kingdom led Karim Bah to make a documentary film, “Babylon Illusion”, as his response the expectation of many young Salonies, who leave Freetown for the illusion of the good life in London. In turn the reactions of the audience at the film’s premiere at the British Council earlier this week, indicates that the young writer-director’s perceptions are shared by many of his peers. Bleak images of Africans living in opposition to the harshness of a British winter and working long hours at menial tasks, are easy to contrast with the razamataz of a Freetown street market, where socialising is as important as the trade itself. However the frustrations of a Salone musician whose potential is not being realised in the midst of London, creates a more detailed narrative of the living illusion of ‘west being best’ for those desperate to make the exodus.
Many, in the largely male audience at the British Council were but a few years younger than the men who flocked to Aberdeen Health Clinic this week to undergo medicals tests. Dressed in civilian clothes, they described themselves as trained soldiers and perhaps many were ex-combatants, but each of them expressed their ambition to serve in Afghanistan. Some acknowledged that desert warfare was a long way from the tropical rain forests of West Africa, but they insisted confidently, “soldiering is soldiering”.
Only a few minutes earlier at a point a little further down the iridescent Aberdeen – Lumley beach, (which stretches for three miles and faces west into the open Atlantic) Janice and I had been watching another group of young men. They were fishing. Under a scorching sun, they had laid a kilometre long net in a huge arc from a rowing boat and working in two teams they were proceeding to haul the net ashore. The entire process takes approximately 2-3 hours and when the catch has been landed and the women have carried it away in large plastic bowls, the task is repeated once again. And no doubt they would do it again the following day.
Later in the week another group of men and women were gathered, for the purpose of listening to readings associated with birth of Christ, and singing carols as part of the theological college’s end of semester’s service of worship. In the college’s main hall, with the fans working overtime against the heat, we were spared “in the bleak mid winter”, which was helpful, but there was still no contextualising of what the birth at the centre of our reflection means in a country where maternal mortality places Salone women at a greater risk than their sisters in 166 other countries. Then having greeted each other in a fulsome manner, we all left for the streets of the city, where being Friday, Muslims are more likely to be wearing traditional north and west African dress.
Seasonal visitors from near and far have increased the city’s congestion but slow moving traffic makes the task of street vendors who selling to customers through open mini-bus and taxi windows all the easier, especially if they spot you gazing at their wares. I cannot recall my thoughts as I turned my head in response to a voice close to my face and met the sight of a young man’s two severed forearms extended towards me. As our taxi pulled away, in an instant he was gone but the piercing image was a stark reminder of the reality for many, who lost limbs to opposing sobels, (soldiers/rebels) that the war that ended a decade ago, will never be over.

Postscript: In an earlier posting I wrote of the instability in neighbouring Guinea and the following may offer a broader consideration of the continuing problem and the threat it poses.
WHY GUINEA MATTERS -Jeggan Grey-Johnson
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/61075

Human Rights Day 2009

Human Rights Day 10 December 2009
Focus on Africa, a BBC World Service programme, keeps us in touch with the situation in the neighbouring countries, such as Guinea, but also other African countries. The programme is broadcasted at regular intervals throughout the day, and having turned on the radio, just after 7pm on Human Rights Day, we heard that Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) had been declared unlawful in Uganda, and that anyone found practising it, would be imprisoned for 10 years, and if a person dies as a result of the act, then it is life imprisonment for the practitioner. FGM is seen as a violent, inhumane act practised on young girls, and therefore is a violation of human rights.
The World Health Organisation estimates that 130 million girls and women in Africa alone suffer the physical and psychological effects of some form of FGM. It is estimated that 2 million girls are circumcised every year, equivalent to 6,000 genital mutilations per day and 250 mutilations per hour.
There are various campaigning groups, both inside the countries where FGM is practised and also elsewhere. For those of us who come from countries where such a practice has never been part of our traditions, it is hard to understand how such violence can be inflicted on young girls.
FGM is practised in Sierra Leone, and it is estimated that 94% of females have gone through this initiation ceremony and become part of the “Bondo Society”. There are a number of reasons given for the important of the practice – that it is a social event, bringing women and girls together, that it ensures that young girls are marriageable and therefore it has financial implications if you have daughters. It is also argued necessary to reduce sexual arousal and therefore limits promiscuity, and is even deemed to give more pleasure to men during intercourse.
The marriage of one’s daughter is an economic affair, and therefore fathers will want to negotiate the agreement being made between two families for a good “dowry”. The status of a father in society will be dependent on such issues and therefore a non-circumcised young woman will bring disgrace to a father. Men are therefore socially indoctrinated into believing that their bride needs to be mutilated in order to protect her virginity and honour.
The Bondo Society is said to be a cohesive force within a community, and after the war, a return to its practices indicated restored, social stability and the continued maintenance of tradition. Family heads save a whole year proceeds from farming activities to spend lavishly on ‘Bondo' ceremonies.
It is difficult to stop FGM from being practised when it continues to remain popular with many of the women in Sierra Leone, and men too, and is seen as a vote winner at elections time. Candidates for the Nation’s Parliament have been known to condone FGM as they go around campaigning prior to elections, and gain votes as a result.
The front page of Premier News, 9 December edition had the headline PAY ME MY MONEY? A 17- year old girl had been forcibly initiated into the Bondo Society during the process of childbirth, resulting in both physical and psychological pain. Who gave the orders for the procedure to be carried out is under question, and the nurse responsible delivered the baby, and performed the initiation on credit, hence the headline. A local human rights group and Amnesty International condemned the act.
The Ministry of Gender, Social Welfare and Children's Affairs has drafted a bill aimed at protecting children's welfare. Knowing that the banning of FGM will not bring votes, there may be little incentive to pass the bill, even though lip service is paid in certain social settings condemning the practice.
Worldwide attention that has been paid to the issue has increased gradually over the last 30 years so that it now appears on the agenda of many UN agencies. FGM is considered as a health issue, a torture issue, a children’s issue, a women’s issue, an economic issue. It is a faith issue too, if one considers that all religions affirm the Golden Rule “Do to others as you would have others do to you.”
For local anti-FGM campaigners, life is very difficult. Speaking publically about the practice is considered a taboo, and therefore other means have to be devised to educate girls about the practice, eg. training girls in income generating skills, such as sewing, and hairdressing and in the process talk about avoidance of having their bodies abused. Alternative positive rituals for social cohesion would need to be devised to fill the vacuum that the removal of the practice would leave. An overnight decision to ban it would force it undercover, but sensitive collaboration of representatives from the whole community, looking at the practice from many different perspectives, might bring about new ways of being for countless girls and women around the world.
12 December 2009

Climate Change – Harmattan style

Climate Change – Harmattan style
It’s here, the Harmattan has arrived! The Harmattan is a dry and dusty West African trade wind, which blows south from the Sahara into the Gulf of Guinea for what constitutes the dry season for Salone.
The word Harmattan may be from the Arabic ḥarām, evil thing, but, given that it arrived within a two day period, we are no longer sweating profusely when doing physical activities, despite it being hotter (30C), it’s not all bad news. It also marks a significant shift in food production and agriculture that requires respect and reflection, after all, this is the time to talk “climate change” seasonal or otherwise, especially when you are not in Copenhagen.
With the exception of the Freetown peninsula, the whole of Salone’s coastal area and also that of it neighbours Guinea and Liberia, are low lying and subject to the impact of the change in sea levels. The worst example of this is in Liberia, where the majority of the population live in coastal cities including the capital city of Monrovia where 200,000 people (one fifth of the population) live less than a metre above a sea level that has been rising significantly in recent years. Some districts have seen the loss of land, previously a kilometre from the Atlantic Ocean. A study commissioned by the Liberian government suggests it could cost up to $175m (£106m) to build sea defences at Liberia's five major cities. Such an amount is about half the national budget and therefore the government has submitted a request to help protect Monrovia, to a fund set up by the United Nations, after the Kyoto Protocol, agreed by the majority of the world's countries a decade ago.

A position paper on Climate Change, written for the delegation from Sierra Leone to Copenhagen, indicates a dramatic change in recent years with Salone’s dry season being reduced from six months to three months per year. This drastic change had provided many critical issues for the government of Sierra Leone. The prolonged humid season has increased the prevalence of mosquitoes and malaria has become a nationwide epidemic. This in turn threatens the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by United Nations to reduce extreme poverty, reduce child mortality rates, fight disease epidemics such as AIDS, and develop a global partnership for development by 2015.
In Guinea, the nation’s attention may well be on the current political climate and not that of the climate change summit in Denmark. Since the death of Guinea’s President late in 2008, the country has been governed by a military junta under the leadership of Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara , who was only a child when the late president took power 24 years previously. Dadis, as he is known by Guineans, promised to establish a multi-party democracy and announced that he had no intention to become the nation’s president. In September 2009, when rumours of his new presidential aspirations began to circulate, a mass rally of opposition was held in by a political party in a football stadium of Conakry, the nation’s capital. This peaceful and well attended event concluded with un-precedent episode of rape and tortured and the death of over 150 people, for which the military appear to entirely responsible for.
Condemnation by the African Union and the global community, of the atrocities, led to a United Nation’s team being sent to conduct a full investigation and whilst the enquiry was taking place last week, Captain Dadis Camara was said to have been shot in the head and flown to Morocco, where he continues to undergo treatment. Whilst the soldier suspected of the shooting, Lt. Toumba Diakite, is still on the run in Guinea, scores of military personnel have been arrested. Meanwhile Capt. Camara's deputies have tried to squash rumours of a power vacuum and confusion over who is in charge. The interim leader, Gen. Sekouba Konate recently appeared on television, for the first time since the shooting, to urge unity and military discipline, whilst further announcements suggest a protracted delay in the return of Capt. Dadis Camara.
The talks in Copenhagen addressing our fragile eco-system are of paramount importance to the whole of humanity and yet it is clear that some nations are under greater threat from the effects of climate change than others. The term ‘fragile state’ is a composite, multi-dimensional description that depicts life in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in numerous ways, including sharing the same eco-geo-political climate.
11 December 2009

Tengbeh Town: its road-railside reality.

Tengbeh Town: its road-railside reality.
Where we live, 19a Old Railway Line, places us not just on what was until the early 1960s a narrow gauge rail line that climbed to the summit of the hills above Freetown, but also on the edge of Tengbeh Town. It sounds as if it should be a slumbering middle-England football club but in fact is a very vibrant community that clings to the precipitous incline on the side of a mountain and hugs the road which has a more manageable gradient.
Janice and I regularly walk down the hill for 10 minutes to where taxis have their terminus in the centre of the community. “Taxis” operate like a bus service which has no fixed route and the driver negotiates how many people he can cram in and how much each passenger can be coerced to pay. When I state our destination, the response of the young driver is not about whether he intends to go in that direction but is instead, “oh mohs yugimme?” And as in all trade negotiations, nothing has a fixed price in Freetown, there is “white price”.
In reaching the terminus we pass the high walled premises said to belong to the Minister of Finance, the headquarters of World Food Programme, a mosque of a very fragile construction, the sign boards to two independent churches, the Lutheran Bible Translator’s Offices, three schools for varying ages. Amongst all these is a myriad of commercial enterprises from football cinemas, car repairs, tailoring and clothing repairs, bread makers and sellers, fruit stalls and invariably they are all within or attached to a family home or the grounds of the home. So that the events of cooking , washing laundry and personal ablutions, are all within view of those who pass by. Be it day or night, there is constant stream of activity for which the idea of lunch time or afternoon/evening closing time would be totally alien to the rhythm of day by day survival.
Just how compelling and demanding life is on the margins of the road-railway line, was made even more graphic on a recent visit to the Conteh family, to see their home, to eat a little food and experience his mini enterprise which included the chance to view some premiership football in the ‘cinema’ he owns. Sam Conteh, a native Sierra Leonean, gives a clear account of how hard he has found it to legally defend the boundaries of the plot of land he inherited from his Krio stepfather. And Kortor his wife, is equally graphic about the physical confrontations that have occurred with intruders, land grabbers and corrupt police officers who appear on the pretence of having the power to evict. The Conteh’s home is a few metres from the old railway line, a humble timber framed structure that was constructed within a four day-night period, in order to assert their rightful claim and ensure their continuity as owners.
Their land is also adjacent to a thoroughfare, which clearly determined the positioning of a corrugated zinc sheeted shed which can seat 200 people in front of two TV sets positioned less than a metre apart and the sole reason for young men paying 8p each, to see two English Premier football matches simultaneously, with the commentary being switched from one to the other at half time. The sound system, a loud hailer, is located outside to advertise the location and broadcast the events being shown via a satellite dish, attached to the roof of a lean-to kitchen. In this microcosm of urban living, where a tenant of the Conteh’s, a middle aged woman who suffered a stroke eight months ago lives in two small rooms with her six daughters and various children , where a welding workshop functions with the aid of near deafening diesel generator and the lounge of the family home serves as retail outlet for cold water, major questions are raised about how the social context shapes the understanding of personhood, of being an individual and being human. In this the communal concept of being African – a person is a person because of people, is instrumental in appreciating how the community of Tengbeh Town functions.
Our limited travel across Freetown confirms the widespread urban poverty which is reported as being ‘multi-faceted, infectious and compounded by high levels of inward migration and produces poor sanitation, uncollected garbage, an erratic water supply and intermittent power cuts’. As two new arrivals to a city, which may have close on two million people, we are part of the problem. It is therefore imperative that Janice and I, two Europeans, take seriously all that we encounter, whether they be individuals, communities, churches or educational institutions, and all of them African. In doing so, what and how we discover where we live and who we live alongside, is shaped by the events of recent history and that walk is both longer and more painful than the stroll we take down the old railway line.

World AIDS Day 2009

World AIDS Day 2009 – The growing challenge of providing HIV treatment.
Tuesday 1 December 2009 – Freetown , Sierra Leone.
As Jenova and Sentu, two women health workers, took the details of the 190th person willing to have a rapid HIV test, a young street trader arrived at the steps to the veranda with her wares carefully arranged on a large round enamel tray and balanced on her. We were in a suburb known as the Low Cost Housing in the East of Freetown, and were observing the testing of residents and passers-by at the invitation of Ernest Jusu, the leader of the HIV/AIDS team from Kissy United Methodist Church Hospital. The team should have been operating from the local Methodist church but had discovered that its premises were not available, which led to local residents offering their own homes for such purposes. On one side of the narrow, pot-holed and muddy street people were being registered before walking a few steps across the road for testing and counselling.
By the time we reached Low Cost Housing, it was well past lunchtime having spent a long and very humid morning in Victoria Park for the commemoration of World AIDS Day with hundreds of T shirts wearing HIV activists, school children, teachers, police officers, women’s groups and street traders, waving their banners and posters, being led into the park behind a military band. At the opening ceremony, attended by numerous civic and national dignitaries, Dr Brima Kargbo, the Director of the National HIV/AIDS Secretariat had stated that 48,000 people were living with HIV/AIDS in Sierra Leone and that the prevalence rate of 1.5% represented one of the lowest in Sub Saharan Africa. A statistic which should, he said, not be allowed to rise any higher and in time decrease. He also indicated that during the year, the statistics for tested pregnant women had shown that almost 10% were positive which underlined the slogan of the day, “Protect your baby, get tested for HIV!”.
Feeling somewhat hungry, I discovered that the enamel tray of the street trader offered bread buns with a fish ball filling, and onions and chilli if desired. No sooner had she given me the change for two 10p buns, than she was being asked her name and encouraged to take the HIV test. A very softly spoken and diffident Amainda*, gave her full name, followed by her address, age: 22, marital status: married ,occupation: street trader, religion: Muslim and number of children: two. And then with her number on a slip of paper, she crossed the road with carrying her goods, to give a blood sample to the technician who was occupying a cramped space on the veranda of a simple brick-walled home. Built to wall height level by the government in 1979, it had then been and completed by the father of William Saifa, its present owner ,who with his wife,Sally had opened up their home for testing purposes
Inside the house, Ernest explained that the testing was being conducted in confidence, and the possibility of people guessing one another’s status was minimised by the amount of time taken in the post-test counselling. A positive result would be quickly verified, and followed us by another form of testing, and the time given to indicate the two results would be brief and approximate to the time given for a negative result. Ernest called the number of the next client to receive their result and Amainda entered to be told that the two tests had confirmed that she was HIV positive and would she please attend the Kissy hospital the next day or soon thereafter. After a brief pause she had gone as quietly as she had entered.
After completing 213 tests , 15 of them with pregnant women, results showed 3 people had tested positive. We returned Kissy Hospital a few miles away where I raised the question of what the new WHO guidelines would mean for the hospital. There has been universal satisfaction in seeing the annual global rate for new HIV infections decreasing yet again and with it a renewal of commitment to see them fall even faster. However, with only just half of the 20 million people needing Anti Retro Viral medication actually receiving it, the news from the WHO, that commencement of treatment should begin at an earlier stage when the CD4 count is 350 or below, rather than the current practice of 200 or below, has been received by many governments with less enthusiasm. As the number of people continues to rise, starting treatment earlier will only increase the pressure on health budgets with Kenya and South Africa being swift to announce their financial problems.
Ernest explained that Kissy Hospital had pre-empted the WHO recommendation and had been treating people with the higher CD4 count for sometime. Thankfully for Amainda, and perhaps her children and many more women and men in Sierra Leone too, treatment is available at no cost to the individual. Nevertheless I doubt that Amainda would have regarded that as good news on the afternoon of December 1st 2009 but it may well prove significant in what hopefully will be each and every year for many decades to come.
*Not her real name.