Africa is coming to terms with democratic governance and free market economy. The continent possesses significant deposits of natural resources, but it is mostly limited by bad governance and poor financial systems. In spite of these limitations, however, opportunities exist all over the continent for economic growth and development. There has been a decline in the civil wars and political insurrections that marred the continent’s development throughout the eighties and early...

Woman of Africa
---------
Joseph Kaifala


African woman
Woman of the north
Woman of the south
Woman of the east and west
Woman of the Makona river
How beautiful you are

I look at you without blinking
Your black braided hair
A beauty I cannot resist
Like an alignment of the stars
Your smooth dark skin
Complements your fierce white eyes

I could stare at you forever
As you do your majestic walk
Feet and hips in rhythm
To the beat of your internal djembe
With the attitude of a goddess
You flirt wit...

There Was A Meeting in Heaven Last Night
By Joseph Kaifala

≈
Hear ye, Hear ye!
Did the town crier not pass through your town tonight?
There was a meeting in Heaven last night
What meeting do you speak of, Eyes of the Dead?
Chief Albert Luthuli was there
I said what meeting do you speak of, Messenger of our Ancestors!
Oliver Tambo was in attendance and he sat with Mandela
Chris Hani was there, too, and he sat at the feet of Old Luthuli
Ruth First and Joe Slovo were there!
Then the child...

Hold My Hand
A Poem by Joseph Kaifala

Hold my hand
And lead me down the path
Where our love endures forever
And wash away my cowardly fears
As we gaze at the setting sun
≈    
Hold my hand
And be my unwavering strength
When waves of life attempt to sway me
For your love holds firmer than levees
Even on quicksand that slides beneath
≈    
Hold my hand
My stunning angel of dusk
And dilute my untamed anxieties
As the sun dissolves into sea
And the sky overshadows their embrace
≈...

Could Armed Groups be Held Accountable under International Law?

International law remains unclear about its direct application to armed groups. Even international laws that unequivocally apply to non-state actors fail to specifically mention armed groups.

Increased violations of international law by armed groups has led a few scholars to speculate the idea of including armed groups in treaty-making.

According to Sophie Rondeau, Legal Adviser at the Canadian Red Cross, “[i]...

March 5, 2014 marks the closure of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL) and a transition to a standard UN presence through a Country Office. But as we celebrate almost fifteen years of UN commitment to lasting peace in Sierra Leone, it is important to note that many lives could have been saved and perhaps a decade of carnage prevented in the country had the UN intervened earlier. Sierra Leoneans, like we are currently witnessing in Syria,...

Lanpedusa My Brother’s Grave

 I

Lampedusa my brother’s grave

From rickety slums and human misery

My brothers and sisters have come

Bundled in the bond of awful memories

Tightened by the confines of their wretched vessels

Huddling and cuddling in their wooded graves

The hope of a better life their only lighthouse

Where they perish others will follow

II

Lampedusa my brother’s grave

Where tombstones flow upon salty liquid

Numbering not in single files

But in hundreds of mass liq...

The question of limited girls’ education in Sierra Leone is not an issue of misogyny as experienced in other parts of the world; it is mostly about pragmatic investment in a poor and underdeveloped country. Like every shrewd investment, poverty often forces parents to make hard choices concerning their children’s education. Most Sierra Leonean parents understand the value of education and would like both their boys and girls to go to school; however, the economic realities many parents fa...

As the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, prepares a week-long visit to Africa, the BBC is reporting that he intends to pledge more that $14 billion in aid and trade deals. It seems Japan knows that if it is to compete with other world powers scrambling for and partitioning Africa’s resources, especially its main rival China, it has to go beyond the efforts of Yasuhiro Murotatsu, the so called bare foot diplomat who achieved some wonderful diplomatic gains by competing in t...

January 2014 marks twelve years since the end of the Sierra Leonean civil war and reparation for victims remains an unfinished business of our reconciliation process. In addition to the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which was established to try those who bear the greatest responsibilities for violations of International Humanitarian Law and Sierra Leone Law committed between 1996-2002, the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission was also setup to “to create an impa...

John Garang fought for many years for South Sudanese to have their own republic, but he died just before that dream came through two years ago, and the taste of independence has only just acquired savor before Africa’s newest republic joined the company of comrades in the power struggles that continue to keep Africa on the low ends of all major sociopolitical indices. As Christmas Eve celebrations ensure around the world, there are talks of mass murders and displacement in So...