When I arrived in Kailahun for a consulting work, I knew there was something else I needed to do for me and my younger colleague, JoJo, before I left this ancient town, named in honor of a Kissi warrior chief, Kai Londo. Kailahun means Kai's town.

"JoJo, let's go to the Slaughter House." I said.

This was a test. I wanted to know if JoJo knew about the Slaughter House. She is younger and a witness only to the end battles of our decade-long civil war.

"Where is that and why?" She asked.

In her ques...

There is nothing special about bondo bush. It is a place where old people fidget with little girls vaginas. If you want to teach girls culture send them to school. Again, we don't need any bush cultural barracks. FMG is harmful to little girls and an anachronistic cultural practice. Our inability to accept that and change is indicative of a general developmental stagnation and unprogressiveness in our society. 

You should stop senzationalising bondo bush. There is no cultural ...

Photo: Umaru Fofana

In Sierra Leone, victim always languish in their victimization. From our civil war victims to ebola survivors and orphans, the Freetown mudslide victims should have known that in this country their suffering is purely their burden. When the funds are raised and the immediate tragedy ends, our government is not in the habit of caring for those for whom its coffer is filled by those who care.

The response of the Government of Sierra Leone through its Attorney General to the ECOWAS Court has always been an adamant adherence to the incompetent position that the court had no jurisdiction in the case of the petitioner, former Vice President Sam Sumana, against his former administration. In order to understand the ruling against the Government of Sierra Leone, I begin by dismissing the position, as the court earlier did, that a court established by the Economic Community of West Africa...

In the past week, I have witnessed with horror and outrage as individuals, businesses, NGOs, Plenipotentiaries, foreign heads of state, and even our own local government ministries make direct donations of cash, cheques, and supplies to the president and vice president for victims of the recent flood and mudslide in Freetown. These donations, amounting to millions of dollars, are made under no concrete instruments of accountability. C’est a dire, these donations are not for t...

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...

Sierra Leone has endured an unfair existence since the death of Sir. Milton Margai, the only post-independence Sierra Leonean leader who governed with an unwavering commitment to the rule of law and the welfare of his people. Sir Milton insisted on establishing a post-independence political foundation based on a government of the people, for the people, and in service for the people. Sir Milton died without completing his vision for our new nation and thereafter it survived at ...

The U.S. Presidential Election matters to Africa because, whether we like it or not, when America sneezes the continent catches a cold.  America loves to sneeze on the theater of global politics, which is why Africa prays it doesn’t allow itself to acquire a communicable disease.  When young African democracies seek political inspiration, they look to America not because they condone everything this nation does, but because on a good day, America inspires the world with truth...

When Alexander Falconbridge, agent of the Sierra Leone Company (SLC), a business venture established to facilitate commerce between Britain and Sierra Leone, renegotiated a land contract for the reconstruction of Freetown, which had been recently burnt down by Chief Jimmy, the presiding sovereign, King Naimbana of Robana, added to the new land grant a request for Falconbridge to take his son, Prince John Frederic, to London to receive Western education under the guardianship of the British ab...

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...

Whenever religious leaders in Sierra Leone unite on a political issue, the people, especially women, are bound to be on the losing side. The new cause célèbre of these sultans and deacons is their objection to the Safe Abortion Bill, which will allow a pregnancy of up to twelve weeks to be terminated without reason. It is curious that these sacred apostles (mostly men), do not come out in their cassocks and turbans against the extreme poverty, human rights violations, and ina...

To Move The World
Joseph Kaifala

One more step along the world I have come
Along pavements that seem to lead beyond
From familiar stories a few years done
To a new page almost unknown
Landing on shores that may not bemoan
A philosophy that is not my own 

From the lands of the Bambara
Where yemani trees stretch afar
I have swum across the Mano River
Uniting fallen tribes of separate lands
Bearing once more and now
The humble peace my forefathers spread 

If these whirly winds be ...

Social media platforms have made it possible for individuals to share and participate in the lives of others. In spite of the negative aspects of sharing, the world has generally benefited from these globalized platforms. However, like in real life, outcry or support for some issues sometimes outweighs others. The Icebucket challenge came and superseded various other equally serious issues in social media fundraising, Americans spread their rainbow love by coloring their profil...

Photo: WHO

On November 6, 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Sierra Leone ebola free, joining Liberia in the free zone and leaving Guinea with one case. The emergency in Sierra Leone and Liberia has ended, but the ebola crisis is not yet over.  As long as one country is carrying the disease and a vaccine has not yet been found, all countries are at risk.  I have written before that ebola, like all other diseases perpetually killing people in that region, will con...

Good Evening:

It is a wonderful opportunity for me to here with you tonight.  I am delighted by the efforts of institutions such as Skidmore College and the World Awareness Children’s Museum for granting you this privilege to participate in constructive conversations about the militarization of boys, a situation affecting thousands of your peers around the world, some of whom are child soldiers in rag-tag militias and vigilante forces.  According to Child Soldiers Internatio...

Photo: Wikipedia

Over the years military coups have gradually declined in Africa. The military has accepted the reality that overthrowing a democratically elected government is no longer acceptable. Citizens in multiple African countries have rejected attempts by their military to seize power—a recent rejection demonstrated in Burkina Faso. The International Community, including the African Union and ECOWAS, has also adopted a no-tolerance approach to juntas. Many African countries have embr...

Watching and listening to my Syrian brothers and sisters on the news, I cried the tears I should have shed many years ago on the Guinean border. Like my late father, I wake up every morning to BBC news, and the headline for the past couple of weeks have been about the Syrians running away from their country and seeking refuge in Europe. Every morning I listen to the interviews, the pain in their voices, and the hopelessness of their situation. Behi...

Lion Mountains

By Joseph Kaifala

In the Lion Mountains I was conceived
In her absence I have redefined myself
I was compelled to leave you Romarong
But I am strengthened by your blood
The blood of free blacks mixed with natives
On the western side of a continent
A home for Africa’s abandoned children

How I long to coil in your black belly again
And smell the aroma of foufou and tola
Cooked with hog-foot and canya pepe
And the tang of Mama Jeneba’s pemahun
Dispersed by the smell of ken...

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...

When the first bullet was fired at Bomaru on March 23, 1991, I had just gotten out of prison with my father and walked back to Sierra Leone from Liberia. We had been arrested by Charles Ganghay Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebels and incarcerated on the outskirts of Voinjama. I was only about eight or nine years old and as a child I had no idea why we were in jail. Years later I would come to learn that Ganghay Taylor was retaliating for Sierra Leone’...

According to the BBC, a recent audit report from Sierra Leone has revealed that 30% of internal ebola funds has not been properly accounted for by authorities. According to the report, $5.7 million dollars worth of spending has no supporting documentation showing where or how the money was expended. The government has not yet responded to these outrageous revelations in a time of unprecedented health emergency in the country. That, too, is evidence of their utte...

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
≈...

There probably will be no grand wisdom for many of us in the New Year that might not have existed last year. Therefore, in lieu of novel resolutions, we should attempt introspection. It appears many of us are annually resolving to do or not to do certain things without much self-examination. When we make resolutions merely because they are traditionally expected as we leap from an old year into a new one, we often fail to engage in meaningful Socratic examination of life as has...

In a region of extreme poverty and underdevelopment, religious occasions such as Ramadan and Christmas are usually the only times that most people enjoy the joy of life rightly embedded in these festivities. Christmas and Ramadan in Sierra Leone are not only about the religious meanings of these events; they are also a social opportunity for the haves to share with the have-nots, for families to reconcile their differences, and for neighbours to entertain each other through parties an...

There are those who believe in you from the very first meeting. Mikie was not a professor and never had me as a regular student at Skidmore, but the man had such confidence in me that often made me wonder. He would sometimes text to encourage me to stay on the good path, and every now and then I quietly received a few bucks in the mail as donation to the Jeneba Project Inc., with an accompanying apology that it wasn’t a lot more. As a technician at Skidmore Media Services, he...

The ebola emergency in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia has led these countries to temporarily close schools in order to manage the spread of the disease. It has been estimated that the closure of schools affects estimably five million children in the region, and fears that some of these children might not return to school after the emergency have caused some NGOs to call for the reopening of schools in the region. As founder of the Jeneba Project Inc. and someone who has provi...

One of the greatest pleasures of traveling around the U.S. on public transportation to give presentations and attend fundraisers for the Jeneba Project Inc., a nonprofit I founded to provide educational opportunities to the children of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea after more than a decade of civil war in that region, is the privilege of talking to ordinary Americans about these countries and the work we do. In my experience, when Americans are interested in an issue, they a...

Experts are stating that while there is considerable progress towards some form of ebola vaccine, a cure may not be available until sometime next year. What this means is that the fight against the deadly disease must proceed as if there was no vaccine in order to halt its projected exponential spread.

Now that many of the myths have been dispelled and the lackadaisical attitudes of Western countries and international organizations have been checked, it is time to provide conc...

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has plagued mostly Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia. The most recent estimate is that the disease has killed nearly 5,000 people and continues to spread exponentially. In fact, the New England Journal of Medicine has found that at current rate of infestation, the toll could reach 20, 000 by November, if more robust actions are not taken to curb the disease. The question people are asking is why has it been so difficult to contain a disease that is no...

Social Media has recently been swamped with videos of ice-bucket challenges to raise awareness and fundraise for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research. Indeed it is one of the most creative and captivating fundraising ideas in recent times; but no matter what one does, haters are going to hate! Many people are aggravated by videos of challenges with participants ranging from kids to the wealthiest and most influential personalities of the world. Simply put, the thing is ...

Lungi International Airport in Sierra Leone is separated from Freetown, the capital, by sea. Travelers often have to take a local and usually overcrowded ferry to reach Freetown. In addition to international travelers, the ferry is usually full of traders and hawkers of all sorts. This is a video of the ferry transit between Lungi and Freetown.

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]...

Sierra Leoneans love nicknames. The fun of defining people by character traits and unique personalities is part of our endearing nature. Though some nicknames may not be particularly appealing to the bearer, individuals are usually christened out of charm not malice. Our friends are usually cognizant of the individual idiosyncrasies that characterized our behaviors and are often more adept at placing labels on them. Some people are instantly remembered by their nicknames rather...

Germain Katanga, former commander of the Patriotic Resistance Force of Ituri (FRPI) has been found guilty by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of four counts of war crimes and one count of crimes against humanity under article 25(3)(d) of the Rome Statute. He was however acquitted on charges of Rape and Sexual Slavery and the use of child soldiers. His conviction was mostly based on crimes committed by the Ngiti militia on February 24, 2003 in the town of Bogoro in the Itu...

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...

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 Cub...

I recently spoke to a gathering of young people determined to lead and make the world a better place. Among other things, I offered them six bullets that have governed my young life so far. There is more to life, but it begins with understanding that each of us has a meaningful role to play in the process of straightening this rough garment that is the world we live in.

1. We are young and that is our advantage in making the world a better place

2. We cannot allow cynicism to...

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...

Another year has come to an end and a new one is beginning. Traditionally, many of us will make New Year Resolutions, setting expectations and standards for ourselves in the New Year. As the champagne pops tonight, some of us will celebrate wonderful achievements in the past year and toast to the New Year with brand new goals to work towards. Then there are those of us who will be recycling last year’s resolutions, feeling somewhat bad that a whole twelve months has come and ...

Some of you are not Christians, many are of other religions, some are agnostic, and others are straightforward atheist, but in the absence of religious entanglement and in the spirit of what the birthday boy calls the greatest commandment of all: love, I wish you all a Merry Christmas.

We must together share what little opportunities there are to love and spread peace in this turbulent world. We may be of diverse backgrounds and beliefs, but peace and love are a universal lang...

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...