Commentary
By Alpha Lebbie, Lowell, USA.
On Saturday May 1st 2010, in celebration of Sierra Leone’s 49th independence anniversary Sierra Leoneans here in Lowell and the Merrimack valley raised our flag at the Lowell City Hall.
This occasion was graced by the Mayor of Lowell and other city and state dignitaries. Speeches by dignitaries dilated on the concept of FREEDOM . That Sierra Leone was founded as a settlement for freed slaves.The U.S.A was as well founded by the pilgrims running away from religious persecution from the same British colonialists in search of FREEDOM.
CULTURAL DISPLAY
This year’s celebration was marked by a cultural display of Paddle One Earing. This debul entertained all and sundry, whites and blacks at both the city hall and at a party that was celebrated on May 8th, 2010.The city’s mayor ,dignitaries ,Africans and all and sundry danced to this masquerade.
Inspite of what Sierra Leone has gone through and efforts at rebuilding our country after the civil war, we out here are hopeful that brighter days await our country on the shores of history. That’s the reason for the cultural masquerade.
"Debul" builders brother Mo and brother Mansa Musa with Paddle One Earring.
But like Sierra Leonean poet, writer and business man, Oumar Farouk Sesay states in one of his poems titled INDEPENDENCE:
She came drenched in a bloody placenta
With uncut cord
Gasping midwives who performed
The liberation Caesarean without
Anaesthetic in an open theatre
Gazed at the enigma:
The dumb lumps named
The free but chained
The independent but dependent.
This voice fully states the current facts of our independence. But as and when dedicated leaders emerge in Sierra Leone there is hope yet!
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