Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces with National Flag and Standards
April 27th… to Sierra Leoneans and Togolese – Independence Day; for South Africans -Freedom Day.
Twenty years ago today, the queuing started as South Africans in the first elections with universal adult suffrage came out to influence their destiny. Out of those elections came the Presidency of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Africa’s most widely acclaimed man of his people. As the queues formed at one end of the continent celebrations of thirty-three years of independence were being led by a dark-shades flaunting junta of twenty-something year olds. It can be said that the thirty years of bad leadership that followed the death of the country’s first Prime Minister had left all sorts thinking they were fit to run the show. Sir Milton Margai’s demise in 1964 opened the way for the mad, the bad and the clueless to step in and mess things up.
Today, three years after the hullaballoo of the fiftieth anniversary of taking over the reins, whether or not Sierra Leone should celebrate Independence Day is a question getting asked by many and stirring even more into discussion about the issue. That the idea of celebrating a country’s national day is seen as not quite the thing to do by many suggests there needs to be some reflection on this matter.
I have witnessed with interest and even indignation discussions and disagreements between Sierra Leoneans on social media about what to do with Independence Day. Maybe we should start by trying to understand what is meant by independence when applied to a nation state and where better to seek a definition that good old Wikipedia.
“Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over the territory. The opposite of independence is a dependent territory. Independence does not necessarily mean freedom”.
What immediately grabbed my attention was “the opposite of independence is a dependent territory”. Reading on, I found myself furiously nodding agreement with the notion that “Independence does not necessarily mean freedom”. My mind then went to reality mode and I could almost hear the noise of those who would rather throw gloss on everything and ask we all live the pretense of everything is OK and everybody is happy. Well, here is what I have to say to all that – “if the map doesn’t agree with the ground, the map is wrong”. Like it or not, fact is that independence for Sierra Leone has been not a lot more than a wasted opportunity and, as a people, there must be a shared responsibility for this very sad truth.
Shared responsibility for the sorry state of affairs that is Sierra Leone comes principally from the complacence, cowardice and excessive application of humour the people have engaged in. As I grew up, it was obvious that decisions to engage or not engage were almost entirely products of the fears of regime or poverty or a combination of both. The need to be safe prevailed, and I get that. The fear of poverty? That I get too. What I have never been able to get is the willingness to treat the tragedy or poor leadership and perverse corruption like a joke. The worse the leadership and the thievery, the more the jokes and the louder the laughter. In the process, rigged elections had fashion trends recognizing them; the execution of very good men resulted in hair styles with names that were utterly disrespectful and insensitive; actions of shameless kleptocracy were marked by nothing more than nicknames that suggested all knew what the leaders were up to but no one was prepared to shout stop; very weak leaders got nicknames to mock their weaknesses; and even mutinous army officers who kicked out a directionless tribalistic cabal had the acronym they chose for themselves translated into a joke. The trivialising carried on into the re-democratisation of the country with no escape from this tendency for those who interrupted that process with a most unwelcome attempt to kick the will of the people in to touch. Today, as I look at the what prevails, I find myself devoid of the warm fuzzy feeling I associate with optimism. Having a laugh remains the main effort: that is if you exclude the energies needed to impersonate the ostrich.
What irks me so much? Well, forays into social media will tell you that those who should be engaged with either taking the country forward or supporting those carrying that formidable burden would rather return to the sort of behavior that made school playgrounds a source of worry for many parents. Meantime, doing the rounds on smartphone applications and social media are profanity tinged laughs which I am told are the response to the succession planning or plotting for the top office in the land. Finally, as if to confirm there is nothing or no one safe from the absolute determination to not be serious, narratives about the affairs of the state are littered with nicknames for the members of the executive and legislature that make it all sound like a commentary on the national team of this year’s host of football’s (soccer’s) world cup.
So, here is my sign off for us all. The first Independence Day after the monumental shock to Sierra Leone’s economy that came with hosting the 1980 Organisation of African Unity gathering of heads of state was 27th April 1981. That happens to be the day that Xerox PARC introduced the computer mouse to the world. As we all know, the computer mouse is all about taking control, deciding what you want to do, and then taking the appropriate actions.
On this Independence Day, I have opted for reflection rather than celebration. I have wondered whether the people of Sierra Leone really do “exercise self-government, and … sovereignty”, and find myself rereading and trying to understand whether the statement that “the opposite of independence is a dependent territory” should mean more than just a definition to me. Having stated in my ‘It’s Christmas Time’ posting that “there is more to freedom than being able to vote”, I wish all South African’s a Freedom Day that is hopeful and also send greetings to our Togolese brothers and sisters. Finally, I ask all who believe things should be better to join hands, get deliberate in the search for a “mouse”, and then start the business of getting what needs to be done to be done.
Othame (27/04/2014)