Author
By Asmieu Bah
Kumba Musa is a class six pupil of the Methodist Primary School in Lalehun, a village in Penguya Chiefdom, Kailahun District. Aged around 12 years she is so smart you would wonder if she had lived all her years in a village where they see a vehicle maybe once in four months.
Perched on one of the crossing points in the east of Sierra Leone neighbouring Guinea, Lalehun is strategic. It was my first visit to this very remote part of the country where, I am told, the presence of its Member of Parliament is a luxury, even during the recent campaign season let alone afterward. And they have many concerns bedevilling them.
The Court Barry and a community health post are the only social amenities the inhabitants can boast of. You should see what is in that health post. Lalehun has no pipe-borne water not to talk of electricity. No mobile phone coverage let alone internet access. No radio station coverage let alone public information and education. They rely on the town crier to convey whatever message or information they want. At night the place is like a ghost town. The people, after a day’s toiling of tilling the land on their farms, have no option but to retire to their humble domiciles. The one night I spent at Lalehun taught me how Kumba and others routinely spend their nights amidst the poverty and deprivation they grapple with daily.
At least on that night the whole town went agog. There was joy and jubilation. Reason: a brand new musical set had just been unveiled to entertain the villagers with Sierra Leonean music for the rest of the night. The set and a Yamaha generator were a personal donation to the youths by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works, Augustine Sheku who hails from the neighbouring Kono district. His intention is for the youths to use the proceeds to ameliorate their people from the stack of poverty they are living in. At least for that night, people from all age brackets, excepting the sick, had a feel of happiness. Through his selection of Sierra Leonean music, the disc jockey kept the village alive that night.
Just outside the village is a small river which separates Sierra Leone from Guinea with another village on the other side. Both border villages are inhabited by the Kissi people who, like Mandingos, Susus and Fullahs, can be found in both countries. Some Kissis from Guinea crossed over to attend a meeting on the Sierra Leonean side, where I had the opportunity to speak to many of them who told me about the historical ties between them and their kith and kin in Sierra Leone; ties that date back hundreds of years.
After the meeting in Lalehun I was among those who went to bid them farewell. At the mouth of the river we met a canoe anchored to a big tree standing outside the river, and owned by Guineans. According to my investigations Sierra Leoneans are not allowed to own canoes in the area. A reason nobody could explain.
It was during this farewell to the Guineans that I came across a Sierra Leonean Police officer who prefers anonymity. The nice looking man told me he had been stationed in this border town for one year now. There were three of them but, according to him, his other two colleagues had abandoned their posts for the district headquarters. The policeman is an embodiment of a loyal, disciplined and well mannered security officer who prefers country to self, who prefers to guard the whole village whiles every other mortal is asleep.
Then morning came. I was preparing to leave. The policeman took me to his mud house where apart from his bed, the only asset or chattel he could boast of was a locally made chair that stood in the very small parlour with an unpaved mud floor without even a floor mat to give it a nice look. The entire sitting room was full of dust and insects. He had a small Chinese lantern which he used at night to patrol the village.
He has no hand set, no mobility and no mobile phone. How does he receive messages? He either goes to some far away distance where, if he is lucky, he will get a mobile phone signal to put through a telephone call, or by word of mouth by sending traders who go to the chiefdom headquarter town to buy merchandise. This is the condition under which a police officer lives and works as if protecting our border with bare hands.
Rather stunningly, on the Guinean side one can see armed military men manning their territory. Such deployment in such a rough terrain is like punishing the police officer as he weathers the storm amidst all the challenges he faces on a daily bases.
I made a snap shot visit to the community health post where I met Peter Bakudu, the State Enrolled Community Health Nurse (SECHN) who took me on a conducted tour. One can see that even though the atmosphere is unfit for the needs of the people, Mr Bakudu and his two nurse colleagues are doing everything humanly possible to save the lives of their people. According to him they have drugs but proper storage is a key challenge.
The health post has been without any source of water for more than a year now. The only bore hole they normally use to fetch water from has collapsed and the district council is yet to either dig another water well or mend the dilapidated one for the health post. Their only water source now is from the stream which is quite a distance.
How do they do safe delivery in this kind of despicable atmosphere where Chinese lamps and candles are the only source of light at night? I wondered.
The few beds I saw are not fit for human beings to lie on. The bedding is tattered and torn, and do not befit a health centre where a patient expects to be healed.
Few miles outside Lalehun is a village called Kono Bendu where illegal and unregulated gold mining is threatening the environment. The miners are now doing their illegal activity right in the heart of the village felling trees and destroying plantations. The miners smuggle billions of Leones worth of gold to either Liberia or Guinea leaving the locals in poverty, penury and deprivation. The registered mining company in the area told me that illegal mining is having the backing of the local authorities. In my brief encounter with the councillor she also confirmed the illegal mining but denied local authorities’ knowledge of it.
In Kono Bendu Village there is destitution written on the faces of people.
Kumba Musa and many other children have the potential to become successful citizens like any other child in a big city if the terrain is smooth, equal and level. If they are left in that total despair it will be safe to say that their future hangs in the balance. Kumba’s precociousness may just peter out and she may lose her potential to become a successful woman.
