"We had an instant liking for each other the very first moment our paths crossed - and stuck together ever since. I greatly admired him as a good and genuine human being, but above all as an ideologically principled brother who was passionately devoted to the struggle for the liberation of our people. News of his untimely passing stuck a dagger through my heart."
By J.C.Howard,Indianapolis, USA.
Only a few days ago I had spared myself some precious moments to think about my brother Christo - how he was faring on, especially with his Salone Times newspaper, and wondered how consistently he was still holding on to those advanced and progressive ideas that have always been the cornerstone of our friendship. Tall, handsome, friendly and funny and graced with a distinctive baritone voice Christo had a rollicking personality that swept all before it.
We had an instant liking for each other the very first moment our paths crossed - and stuck together ever since. I greatly admired him as a good and genuine human being, but above all as an ideologically principled brother who was passionately devoted to the struggle for the liberation of our people. News of his untimely passing stuck a dagger through my heart.
Some people discover their sense of agency very early in life - either through divine inspiration or through association with other superior minds, or perhaps both. I am highly inclined to believe that Christo’s ideological formative years were largely influenced by the 19th century American writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau, on whose principle of “Non-violent Civil Disobedience”, Christo wrote his final philosophy papers.
That was nearly twenty years ago but I still remember very well we both discussed the paper as the research progressed. Christo remained a devoted student to this principle of non-violent civil disobedience as a vehicle for social change for the rest of his life. The Salone Times newspaper which he established was as much evidence to this as it was a fulfillment to the exercise of the rights and responsibilities of the individual in relation to government. Those spine-chilling truths from his newspaper continued to quake authorities in their boots. Such a dangerously chosen path requires someone with courage, sincerity and sacrifice - and Christo had a fair measure of each.
One of the most brilliant and analytical intellectuals of our generation, Christo had the capacity to combine solid imagination with objectivity to make sure that all the angles of the argument fall into perspective. Sometimes he deliberately played the devil’s advocate to provoke his friends into looking at the other side of the argument. The last time I had a dose of his antidote was one morning in early 2005 when I heard his cool, calculated and confident voice over radio UNAMSIL. Emerson’s legendary album “Boboh Belleh” had just hit headlines and was on every lip - even the bad guys. Speakers on the radio program that morning including Christo, were addressing the role musicians play in the democratic process of Sierra Leone.
Christo submitted that “while intellectuals of Sierra Leone had abandoned their vocation to speak the truth Emerson and other musicians have found it incumbent to fill the vacuum”. That indeed made my cup of tea for the morning. “His analysis always satisfies my soul”, I said to myself. It was the last time I heard the lion growling in the wilderness - and those words are still thundering in my ears.
But there was a higher self to this man’s nature. With his relentless attacks on corruption and injustice in society, Christo found his own deep inner center. It was while operating from such a center that he discovered that the quest for self-realization and personal fulfillment necessitated a deep aversion to material encumbrances - which usually lure men into compromising their principles. Here was a man who never worried about tomorrow - but lived simply yet fully - by stripping his existence to the bare necessities of food, shelter and clothing. With this anti-materialist disposition he lived a non-conformist existence throughout his short life - in the face of powerful discouragements and pressures to conform. This gave him freedom to dedicate himself to the crusade, remain consistent to his principles and in the end found his own liberation.
It is quite a big loss to his family - my deepest condolences to Andrew, Joe, Langumba and the rest. And to those of us who still believe in the struggle for a decent future for our impoverished country Christo’s premature departure leaves us with a gap in the crusade - especially at a time when he just began to make an impact. Yet it is part of the mystery of life - that we live in a no-man’s land that is timelessly buried in the innermost recesses of an unapproachable fastness. Hence our journey comes to an end sometimes suddenly, sullenly, or even solemnly. It were well if everyone does his or her best while the heart is still beating - either in thought or in deed or even both - and leave this world better than was met. But when all is said and done, and our time in this place is up, the Salone Times newspaper which he published and the gems of truth he has left behind will continue to bear his footprints upon the sands of time. As his mentor, Henry David Thoreau once said,
“In dealing with the truth we are immortal and neither change nor accident can affect us.”
Photo: The late Christian Keili.
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