Sierra Leoneans look at 60th Independence Anniversary

Opinion

By Paul Duwai-Sowa (PDS), Toronto, Canada

April 27, 2021

In the 1950s and 60s Africa was spreading the message of nationalism and the end of colonial rule. As the years went by, the circle of an independent Africa got bigger and bigger with Ghana gaining independence in 1957, Nigeria in 1960, Senegal in 1960, Algeria in 1962, Kenya in 1963, Zambia in 1964 and so on.

Sierra Leone too triumphantly joined the circle on 27th April,1961 as we achieved independence from Britain. It has been 60 years since that historic victory for self-determination. A self-determination that called for the people of Africa to freely choose their systems of governance and pursue their economic dreams. Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah and Bob Marley could not have asked for a better time for the African liberation.

Today, 27th April 2021, Sierra Leoneans look back six decades later. What happened to this promised land - home of the Limba, Mende, Loko, Temne, Yalunka, Koranko, Kissi, Krim, Kono, Sherbro, Vai, Susu, Mandingo, Fullah and a land of dreams of our brothers and sisters who arrived from Britain in 1787, from Nova Scotia (Canada) in 1792 and from captured slave ships at high seas in the 1800s? Our history is profound.

We are in a new age of online platforms and so this 60th Independence Anniversary is no ordinary as it has garnered a great deal of attention with myriad responses. Sixty years since the proclamation by the father of independence, Sir Milton Margai, that Sierra Leone was a sovereign country, some Sierra Leoneans have been questioning what, exactly, is being celebrated.

Those citizens frustrated by a narrative of the past dysfunctional Sierra Leonean leadership, the reputational damage to what was once the Athens of West Africa, and broken promises have sought to highlight what the past 60 years have meant to Sierra Leoneans. Some of the postings on social media plastering the country with everything under the sun and opinions by academics like the eminent engineer and author, Andrew Keili, and Sierra Leonean scientist resident in the United States, Alhaji N’jai, have not been so gracious.

Others say, granted we have had a fair share of misery in the country’s collective memory – mismanagement, corruption and war, but those should not define us as a nation, and they ask that we mark this 60th anniversary with drumrolls that can be heard all over the globe. We are good people bonded together in chance and culture, and when we crack, we heal.

That if you have the right to live in your village and work on your land without fear of being uprooted, if you are proud of the foundation of your education or skills and the right to choose what kind of career path you want to follow, if you have the right to vote and to change government, and if you can publicly criticize the government without fear of jail time, then we must celebrate this 60th anniversary because our people across Africa before the independence wave didn’t have the luxury of living that way.

Our history has not always been kind, but we have the opportunity to leave behind those ugly torments of generations now that we are in the land of the free. Sierra Leonean academic and author, Clifford Nelson Fyle known for writing the lyrics to the Sierra Leone National Anthem understood this clearly: "Show forth the good that is ever in thee. We pledge our devotion, our strength and our might,", he wrote, " All that we have be ever thine own, land that we love, our Sierra Leone".

Through these turbulent and challenging times of COVID-19 we are still counting the human cost, social and economic toll. It will likely rob Sierra Leonean towns, villages and the Sierra Leonean diaspora of any major celebrations and events appropriate to mark this kind of milestone as we usually do. But we must not be warily silent as there is every reason to celebrate.

Remarkably, as heads of state in Africa join the Government and people of Sierra Leone today in the nation’s capital of Freetown from Ghana, the Gambia, Nigeria, there is as good a reason as any to reflect on our past, to cheer each other, and to recommit ourselves to the future of Sierra Leone our home and native land.

High we exalt thee, realm of the free;
Great is the love we have for thee;
Firmly united ever we stand,
Singing thy praise, O native land.