Creoles, who make up around ten percent of Sierra Leone’s population, say they are being marginalised in the country’s politics. They include the Muslim wing of the Creoles otherwise known as the Akus or Fourah Bay.
At an impressive meeting at the YWCA Hall in Freetown, attended by over 500 members of ethnic group, the former Mayor of Freetown, Winstanley Bankole-Johnson said that the trend needed to be reversed. “They must not take our silence for weakness” he warned, adding that being “meek, peaceful and law-abiding” did not mean being afraid.
Mr Bankole-Johnson said “We must speak up now or we die” and went on to say that they must be politically relevant by confronting issues that “must be changed”. He said Creoles needed to evaluate the political relevance and gains over the last 15 years and reposition themselves for better and improved recognition and rewards “under any political dispensation”.
While entreating the group to remain united as one family regardless of their politically differences, he said that ahead of the post-November election they should sustain their relevance and ensure they get appointed to key positions in governance of the country.
Amid thunderous applause, he expressed concern over the “filthy state” of Freetown, “lawlessness” and the demographic disadvantage he said the group was suffering as a result of the influx of people into the city at the height of the civil war. He said such a demographic imbalance was such that it was now difficult for a Creole to run against a non-Creole for Mayor of Freetown and expect to win.
The meeting also questioned a letter written by the office of the Vice President Sam Sumana in November 2009 in which he called for the approval of the vice president of any land that is over one acre asking why the same was not extended to land owned in the provinces. “This must not be allowed to continue” they resolved.
The meeting also resolved that Creoles must not take any instructions from tribal authority in Freetown “otherwise let them reload us on to the boats and take us back to where our ancestors came from”.
“We are endangered”, Johnson said, adding that there should be a compensatory option for Creoles in elections while questioning why Paramount Chiefs are represented in Parliament while Creoles are not.
Speaker after speaker spoke especially of the country’s land tenure system which they say is unfavourable to the Creoles. They also lamented over the “eroding culture of Creoles” and called for its rescue.
The meeting agreed that ways needed to be thought out for the elimination of street trading in the city and questioned whether masked devils was necessary on religious holidays.
