When old John Quincy
Adams undertook the defense of the Sierra Leonean Amistad mutineers, he had
been a diplomat, lawyer, lawmaker, and president (In other words, he knew the
heck he was talking about, especially as to the international law arguments).
He accused the government of discrimination against the Africans in favour of
the Spanish and also what he referred to as "Lilliputian trickery," after exposing the
government’s plan to clandestinely deport the Africans to Cuba if the lower
court hearing had gone in the government’s favour, thereby curtailing an
opportunity for appeal.
The old man ended his
two-day oral argument, which was also interrupted by the sudden death of
justice Barbour of Virginia, with the following paragraph which is worth a
ponder by young professionals:
“In taking, then, my
final leave of this Bar, and of this Honorable Court, I can only ejaculate a
fervent petition to Heaven, that every member of it may go to his final account
with as little of earthly frailty to answer for as those illustrious dead, and
that you may, every one, after the close of a long and virtuous career in this
world, be received at the portals of the next with the approving
sentence--"Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy
of thy Lord.”
KATEHUN (pronounced Ka-te-hun)-is a Mende word for a symposium or community center where disputes are settled. Everyone is permitted to make his/her case before a presiding chief in an open forum.
On this forum, I write primarily for those who stand committed to the Rule of Law in Africa and to the value that our future is better determined by the government of the people, by the people, and in service for the people. To advance the African value of Ubuntu through International Law and the Principles of a United Nations, which propels us towards Life in Larger Freedom.
