ThinkTank

By Umaru Fofana

Samuel Pessima stands still – looking lost in something. He is surrounded by poverty emanating from long years of neglect for John Thorpe village, some six miles from Freetown. 3,000 people live in a community with virtually no toilet – unless of course if you count the dumpsite as one.

By Umaru Fofana

May the year 2014 never return! May those who died rest in peace! May those of us still alive be saved! Sooner rather than later, may our leaders who would have responded more honestly and dutifully to our predicament but failed to do so get the fortitude to admit their wrongdoing which led to the letdown.

Ernest Bai Koroma

By Umaru Fofana

The second half of 2014 was to have been the time when real politicking would have kicked off ahead of local council elections in 2016 and presidential and legislative elections to hold not before December 2017 or later than February of 2018.

By Umaru Fofana

Like he was being led to the gallows by men who were disguised head down, an Egyptian national who had been infected with Ebola in Kenema and fled to Freetown was discovered inside an Arab health facility at Kissy Road in Freetown. The men in hezmat suits were acting on a tip-off when they raid the hospital premises which were later shut down.

By Umaru Fofana

“Hello!” A little girl screams on the other end of the phone. Her voice is panic-stricken. She stutters and stammers and struggles to utter what she has telephoned to say. Finally she manages to let it out.

By Umaru Fofana

My office is situated almost opposite the Sacred Heart Cathedral which is the seat of the Freetown archdiocese. This cathedral is strategically situated right in the heart of this mundane – some would say irreligious part – of the city called Freetown.

By Umaru Fofana

A Chinese version of a US-designed Hummer jeep parked along Lumley in the west of the Sierra Leonean capital. On it was inscribed – again modelled on something American – “Centre for Disease Control”.

Some Chinese health workers had stopped at a shop to grab a few bottles of water. They looked well dressed, Western-style, so that you had the impression they were educated in the America or Europe. They were apparently heading out to the east of Freetown where the Chinese-run hospital is situated at Jui.