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