By Saio Marrah
Minister of Defence, Retired Brigadier General Kellie Hassan Conteh has described the recognition of Sierra Leonean fighters in World War 1 by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) in a book titled “book of remembrance” as correcting moral wrongs.
The book contains the names of over 900 Sierra Leonean soldiers who fought and died in World War 1 over one hundred years ago.
The minister was speaking at the launch and handing over of the book to the government of Sierra Leone through the Chairman of the National Council of Paramount Chiefs (NCPC), Sheku Amadu Tejan Fasuluku at the Sierra Leone National Museum in Freetown on Wednesday 22nd June 2022.
The nearly 5,000 Sierra Leoneans served alongside British and Imperial forces in East Africa (Togoland- Cameroon and Mesopotamia now Iraq), as fighting soldiers, transporters and labourers such as the Sierra Leone Carrier Corps, 900 of them never returned home and history had since forgotten them.
He said the CWGC was founded in 1917 to commemorate those who lost their lives in First World War and later the Second World War, and to preserve the memories of all those commonwealth citizens, who paid the ultimate sacrifices in those struggles regardless of their race, or rank in social or military life.
However he said the cardinal principle of equality of treatment for those who struggled was unequally implemented, disfavouring most of the coloured people who took part in those wars.
According to him, a one-hour video documentary entitled “the unremembered” aired in November 2019, explored the CWGC’s treatment of African soldiers who died in the World Wars which in turn led to the appointment of the special committee to probe the early history of CWGC.
The committee’s report revealed unfair treatment of non-British soldiers saying: “That in the 1920s, across Africa, the Middle East and India, imperial ideology influenced the operations of the imperial war graves commission in a way that it did not in Europe”.
It added: “The rules that were sacred in there were not always upheld elsewhere. As a result, a contemporary attitude towards none European faith and different funerary rights in an individual and groups perceives states of civilizations influence their commemorative treatment in them”.
He however expressed excitement that the submissions of the committee were reviewed and accepted.
Educationist Professor Joe A D Alie talked about a documentary titled “the West Africans and the Great War” that portrayed the role of the West Africans but which was sadly a neglected area of history despite the critical contributions they made to the British campaign. He said there are World War memorials in many of the capital cities of former British West African colonies.
He however said that the services of those great men are largely forgotten in African and west African history, which he conceded blame for.
Prof. Alie described the presentation of the book of remembrance by the CWGV to Sierra Leone and to the current Chairman of the NCPC as remarkable. According to him, Paramount Chiefs during WW1 played a pivotal role by mobilising their citizens as well as material resources for the British war effort.
He said a paramount chief of Nongowah Chiefdom donated one hundred bushels of rice and 14 bulls for the use by the British troops. He noted that the name changed from “the great war” to world war one because another war broke up in 1939. He said the Great War occurred when the relationship between the British and the Creoles in the Freetown colony was having some challenges, but the creoles in the colony made effort and even volunteered to provide a regiment called “the king’s old creole boys who would fight and die for our gracious king and good old friend,” he read the document.
He said the Sierra Leone quay later called the Queen Elizabeth the Second Quay, had always been instrumental in the British Maritime effort in West Africa and beyond.
He said due to the significant role the port played in WWII, Fourah Bay College which was close to the harbour was relocated to Magbang.
The well -known historian noted that the port was also instrumental in the war between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands in 1982.
He said Sierra Leoneans formed an integral part of the West African Regiment that directly took part in the British campaign against German-Togo land and in Cameroon.
The Director-General Operations, CWGC, Barry Murphy said the book of remembrance provides a temporary place for tributes of more than 900 men of the Sierra Leone Carrier Corps who lost their lives during WW1.
He said the book will hold their names until a suitable site is identified for their commemoration. The form of the commemoration he said will be guided by the government and the people of Sierra Leone. H
“Today, we take tangible steps in honouring those Sierra Leoneans who for far too long, have been overlooked. They were causalities, not just because of the WW1, but of contemporary indifference to their services and suffering. That was wrong then and now, and we, at the CWGC, intend to right that wrong,” Prof. Alie stated.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (24/06/22)
