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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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,...

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...

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 ...

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...