MY SATURDAY IN FREETOWN

October 13, 2012  Last weekend was spent in and around my apartment, but this weekend I decide to venture out for a walk. The weather takes some getting used to as Sierra Leone is close enough to the equator to make the climate warm (read hot) and humid. 

The office of Fambul Tok is not air conditioned.  Most of my apartment is not as well. The only way to completely acclimatize is to go without the A/C in my bedroom as much as possible. At first I had the A/C on all night every night.  Now I use it to cool down the room when I return from the office and before I go to sleep.

Pademba Road

There is a welcome breeze this morning as I set out to walk to the Cotton Tree.  The National Museum is there as is the “Freedom Plaza”.  Both of which I visited last year, but wanted to spend more time. I walk down Pademba Road, one of the main roads in Freetown and one of the few with a street sign and a sunken sidewalk along one side.

The road is lined with little shops, an occasional church, businesses, and societies.  Every now and then I pass a sidewalk stand selling fruit or water or soda.  I can see the Cotton Tree in the distance.  The road ends at a circle or roundabout going around the tree where four roads converge.

I pass an entrance to the museum and go up the stairs entering the museum.  It is dark inside and appears to be closed, but the door is open.  As I begin to wander around the first floor a young man approaches informing me the museum is closed on weekends. Strange that the gates and door are open and no sign to indicate opening hours. I apologize and leave. 

Sierra Leone means Lion Mountain

Across the street and up the hill is the plaza that spoke volumes to me last year.  As I enter it another young man approaches me to let me know there is an entrance fee of 10,000 LE (about $2.40).  I gladly pay it and he ushers me into the plaza.

He asks if I have ever been here before and I reply that I was there briefly last year with a group, but didn’t get to spend much time.  He announces he is a tour guide and proceeds to take me all around the plaza explaining the history and what each exhibit represents.  

Looking up at the Cotton Tree I wonder where the fruit bats have gone.  There is not a bat in sight where last year there were hundreds. He explains they disappear to caves during the rainy season and will be coming back to the tree in the next month!

Reconciliation Wall Plaques

We spent a pleasant and informative hour together. He sang me the National Anthem and a school song about the importance of education. When he was explaining the mural on the reconciliation wall showing people with amputated limbs and a young man in supplication before them asking forgiveness, I asked him why he thought the war turned into such a violent one. 

He said it was largely due to prejudice.  Some groups of people used the war as an excuse to gain land they had been wanting, to kill and maim others who they did not like.  He also stated that the soldiers were all kept on drugs.  This I knew from a book called A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah.  It is his story about his experience as a young boy during the war where he ended up forced by the government army to be a soldier at age 11.

Importance of Education

My guide told me the story of his own mother.  She was uneducated and could not read.  One day she was tying a scarf someone had given her around her waist that had Nigeria written on it.  She was shot to death because of this. Nigeria was one of the countries who sent in soldiers during the war and the opposition, thinking she was supporting Nigeria because of her scarf, shot her. 

He told me he knows the man who killed his mother, but he has to forgive him because he knows they were all made to take drugs and were not in their right minds when they did these things. He said that all the people of Sierra Leone realize they need to be known as Sierra Leoneians first and then as someone from this tribe or that tribe or this religion or that religion.  The good of all must come before the good of groups or individuals.  The war taught them this.

His sentiments are echoed in a conversation I had on Friday with Val from the Fambul Tok organization.  Val said that the two major religions, Islam and Christianity are very welcoming of each other.  It is not unusual for Muslims and Christians to intermarry.  He is Christian with many Muslim friends and they go to Mosque and Church together once in a while.  They celebrate their holidays together respecting each others beliefs.

Even the remaining animists (the indigenous religion of old) are allowed to follow their practices in peace.  What a lesson for all of us.  Instead of fearing each others differences, they learn about them and respect them.  Why can’t we do this as a nation?  How can we say we are a free nation when so many of us are lead by prejudice and fear?

Scene Depicting Solider Helping ALL Peoples
In the background a man beating a gun into a farming tool

The last place we visit in the plaza is a small enclosed room commemorating some of the war casualties from all wars including World War II.  He points out the name of his father who died in this past war.  He was orphaned during the war, but put himself through college and is now a part of the reemerging tourism industry.

After this extremely rewarding encounter, I begin walking up another road to the Super Market.  This road, too is lined with stores, but the stores here are more modern and new. However, the street vendors are still all a part of the scene selling shoes, sunglasses, cigarettes and many other items.

Wall of My Complex

Steel Door To My Complex

The A/C feels really good after my three hour excursion through Freetown.  I am so very glad I ventured out.

Much Love To You All,

Mom/Grandma/Sara