By Tanu Jalloh
When the diamond mines surfaced in the 1930s the country glittered. The economy boomed. But when they almost diminished after eight decades, they left behind misery, hatred, greed and war. The hopes they had raised were razed. However, resources generated by the mines, then, were the major forces behind the country’s glosses. With the mines, there were hopes, but also was money.
By Isaac Massaquoi
Sierra Leone music has indeed come a long way. A man from humble beginnings in the west end of Freetown was destined to be the one to revolutionise the Sierra Leone music industry after more than two decades of inertia and mediocrity. I bet that Jimmy B will cringe at the sudden turn of events. As I write we have musicians before the courts after an unusual gun battle beginning with an O.J. Simpson style car chase in the usually serene Lumley beach area of western Freetown.
The Dilemma and Contradictions of Public Service Broadcasting
By James Tamba Lebbie
The object of this piece is to outline the dilemma and contradictions of public service broadcasting and to critically analyse whether the SLBC could enhance public discourse in the current circumstance. However, in this first of a four-part series of his perspective on public service broadcasting, James Tamba Lebbie has endeavoured to provide a trans-Atlantic synopsis of the historical background of the concept of public service broadcasting.
By Umaru Fofana
You don't throw the baby with the bathwater, it is said. When we are reminded about it we respond testily insisting we always remember not to. And when we are not, often times we do do it and by the time we realise it the baby is in problems.
- Predicts Africa Confidential
The latest edition of the respected British bi-monhly, Africa Confidential predicts that neither President Ernest Koroma nor Julius Maada Bio is likely to gain more than half of the ballots in the November polls; hence a run-off. See full report on page…
I have no idea where this business of making resolutions at the end of every year came from but it’s now widespread. At the start of 2010 we asked some college students what their New Year resolutions were. More than half of the forty students said they wanted to go “closer to God this year” and to “spend more time on their studies”. Well, I don’t need a sorcerer to tell me that none of them stood by those resolutions strictly. Don’t ask me why and don’t convict them before hearing them out.
Supported by: Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA)
