{"id":64936,"date":"2014-01-30T03:04:15","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T03:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=64936"},"modified":"2014-01-30T03:04:15","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T03:04:15","slug":"the-tribal-card-not-wise-option-for-any-governing-party-in-sierra-leone-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=64936","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018tribal card\u2019: Not \u2018wise\u2019 option for any governing party in Sierra Leone (Part I)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Abubakarr H. Kargbo,<\/span><\/b> the Chairman of the National Commission on Democracy (NCD<\/span><\/b>) oozed with contempt for our political class when I interviewed him on January 20, 2014, in his office in Freetown: \u00a0\u201cWe don\u2019t have political ideologies in Sierra Leone.\u00a0 Our political psyche is tribal and primordial! Our system is patrimonial…\u201d<\/p>\n

The view of Dr. Kargbo has been given empirical credence by a study done by a Social Anthropologist, Dr. Nathaniel King<\/span><\/b>; titled, \u2018Citizens\u2019 Perception of Sierra Leone\u2019s Ethno-Political Divide and Diversity Management\u2019<\/span><\/b>; a Max Planck Research Associate; dated,\u00a0 3rd<\/sup> September, 2013; that the people of Sierra Leone surveyed arrived at this consensus that tribalism…: \u201c…is mainly caused by politicians…\u201d; \u201c…. has become entrenched in leadership and politics in the country….\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

According to Dr. King\u2019s survey, the view of ordinary Sierra Leoneans on the two main parties is sad: \u201cSierra Leone\u2019s two leading political parties, All People\u2019s Congress (APC) and Sierra Leone People\u2019s Party (SLPP), are mainly tribalistic …\u201d.<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0 Tertiary-educated mega star musician, Emmerson<\/span><\/b>, could have read Dr. King\u2019s work before coming out with his latest song or \u2018sermon\u2019, \u2018Kokobeh\u2019<\/b> \u2013 in which Emmerson\u00a0 appears to be singing or sermonizing\u00a0\u00a0 for Sierra Leoneans generally as being fed up with the intense competition between SLPP and APC, without it necessarily resulting into accelerated development in the country.<\/p>\n

If Dr. King\u2019s aforementioned study is to be given credence, it should be food for thought for our politicians of all hues.\u00a0 Sierra Leoneans make \u201ctribalism\u201d number three in their rung of most deleterious problems, or, \u201cdiversity management\u201d<\/b>.\u00a0 According to King (which is echoed in Emmerson\u2019s \u2018Kokobeh\u2019 song), \u201cthe strongest point of diversity mismanagement in Sierra Leone is mismanagement of differences between rich and poor, mismanagement of the gap between urbanity and rurality, and mismanagement of the chasm between the center of power and financial resources, which still remains in Freetown, and many parts of the interior which are marginalized…. \u201c<\/p>\n

In a jingle being aired regularly on many local broadcast on the radio by Dr. Kargbo\u2019s NCD (produced with passion by the eminent intellectual of the School of African Studies, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, Dr. Desouza George), the point is brought out that \u201ctribalism\u201d is principally responsible for the shameful paradox of Sierra Leone \u2013 a rich country, but saddled with poor people \u2013and the ignominy of \u2018those immigrants who entered Sierra Leone a few decades ago as hewers of wood and carriers of water being today the super rich people, lording over indigenous Sierra Leoneans\u2019.\u00a0 In spite of such patriotic media thrust, Dr. Kargbo\u2019s NCD is financially malnourished.\u00a0 It could be that the politicians in the executive and legislative branches may not like the fact that he could be trying to rob them of their principal \u2018winning political weapon\u2019 \u2013 \u201ctribalism\u201d.\u00a0 After all, if successive\u00a0\u00a0 generations of politicians in different political parties (or, military juntas) have successfully played the <\/b>\u2018<\/b>Tribal Card<\/b>\u2019<\/b> to win legislative and parliamentary elections or gain power in the center, why should they now be convinced that it is a bad thing?<\/b>\u00a0 Except, of course thinkers and writers like us give them the \u2018psych\u2019 electric shock\u2019 to jog them out of their selective acute amnesia (or, \u2018forget-iasis\u2019) and severe lack of foresight….<\/p>\n

Sure enough, our Sierra Leone\u2019s recent history teaches us that a political party or group can play the Tribal Card to gain power; but, to maintain itself in power, the Tribal Card is a slippery ground to skate on; or, if a party has used the Tribal Card to gain power and maintain itself in power for a decade or more, it would end up losing power with cataclysmic consequences for the party, and country.<\/p>\n

Prof. Jimmy Kandeh<\/span><\/b>\u2019<\/span><\/b>s \u2018Politicization of Ethnic Identities in Sierra Leone<\/span><\/b>\u2019<\/span><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

I now make reference to a 1992 Paper written by today\u2019s Prof. Jimmy Kandeh (a tenured professor in a top university in the US with over 25 years experience), titled, \u2018Politicization of Ethnic Identities in Sierra Leone<\/span><\/b>\u2019<\/span><\/b> (Source: African Studies Review, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Apr., 1992), pp. 81-99; published by African Studies Association; Stable URL: http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/524446<\/a>):\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThe ethnic selectivity and bias of cabinet appointments under the SLPP, especially during Albert Margai’s premiership …., was also an important contextual factor in the politicization of northern and, more specifically, Temne, identity.<\/i><\/b> Although there were more Mende than Temne ministers in his predecessor’s cabinet, Temne representation in Albert Margai’s cabinet was cut in half from four to two ministers. Notable among the ministers replaced by Albert Margai was John Karefa-Smart who, although not Temne, was supported by northern elites in his bid to succeed Milton Margai as prime minister….\u201d.<\/i><\/p>\n

I hope the educated elite and \u2018power elite\u2019 in Sierra Leone would give life to my published suggestion\u00a0\u00a0 of an \u2018Ethnic Commission\u2019<\/b> to neutralise the ulcerous tribalism in our country. (The SLPP leader and Prime Minister between 1964 and 1967\u00a0 that Prof. Jimmy Kandeh mention above\u00a0\u00a0 happens to be my biological\u00a0 maternal granduncle \u2013 Sir Albert Margai). Sir. Albert Margai was the apex of the\u00a0 leadership that\u00a0 stoked the flames of \u2018Mende Tribalism\u2019 in Sierra Leone.\u00a0 The Mende ethnic jingoism\u00a0 was buttressed by a form of\u00a0 intellectual sense of superiority by the Mendes. <\/b>\u00a0For about a hundred years right up to the time of the Independence Era in Africa, the Creoles (or Krio) were the undisputed leaders in nearly all realms of Negroid intellectualism and professionalism in Sierra Leone \u2013 the doctors, judges, engineers, etc.\u00a0 The first non-Creole medical doctor was Dr. Milton Margai, and the first Non-Creole lawyer was his paternal brother, Albert Margai \u2013 that was in the 1940s.\u00a0 The British colonialists focussed on establishing the initial, and best, secondary schools in the Mende-speaking South\/East of the country.\u00a0 By the time of independence, the Mende-speaking South\/East provided most of the educated elite, and ordinary educated people, to govern the country.\u00a0 In the civil service, the Mende-speaking peoples (the Mendes, who militarily conquered smaller tribes when they invaded this part of West Africa about 200 years ago, evolved into a civilizing influence, and\u00a0 potent \u2018colonialists\u2019, successfully assimilating all the\u00a0 minority tribes \u2013 Sherbros, Gissis, Vais, a few Creoles \u2013 in their South\/Eastern region) were a vastly disproportionate number among non-Creoles.\u00a0 That\u00a0 head start into modernity in Sierra Leone\u00a0 of the Mende-speaking peoples bred in them arrogance, which was epitomised in 1964 by the Mende-speaking Prime Minister, Sir. Albert Margai<\/b>\u00a0 (His biological root could really have made him a Kono, also assimilated by the Mendes).<\/p>\n

Within a short period of grabbing the reins of prime minister powers from his deceased elder brother in 1964, Sir. Albert Margai swiftly and recklessly put his ethnic jingoism into play \u2013 with \u2018Young Turks\u2019 like Peter Tucker being made Head of the Civil Service (where there had been established a \u2018conveyor belt\u2019 system that would only allow a civil service boss to reach that peak when way over 50 years of age) when Peter Tucker was not yet 40 years of age. That, of course, angered and alarmed both the Creole and Temne (Northern) elite!!<\/p>\n

Even with about 50% population, and military and administrative advantage….<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Let us reflect on Prof. Jimmy Kandeh\u2019s (who hails from the Mende-speaking South\/East) researched work on the period again: \u201c…. The death of Milton Margai in 1964 led to a conspicuous erosion in leadership tolerance of the political heterogeneity of society. Whereas the military maintained a semblance of autonomy under Milton Margai, it was excessively politicized by Albert Margai. By rapidly Africanizing the officer corps of the military, Albert Margai sought not only to reward his supporters but, more specifically, to create a Mende-dominated army.<\/b> At the time of Milton Margai’s death in 1964, 15 out of the 50-member officer establishment of the army were British officers. By 1967, only 3 British officers remained, with most of the outgoing officers replaced by Mende officers….\u201d.<\/i><\/p>\n

I did my graduate thesis in FBC, University of Sierra Leone (1978) on \u2018The Sierra Leone Military\u2019.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0 That informed me that by 1967, 74% of the officers, and 65% of rank and file, in the Sierra Leone Military were from the Mende-speaking South\/East.\u00a0 The 1967 parliamentary elections were a disguised form of \u2018tribal war\u2019\u00a0 – pitting the Temne-speaking and Creole-dominated North\/West (in which the APC won ALL the parliamentary seats) against the Mende-speaking South\/East (in which the SLPP won about 98% of parliamentary seats).<\/b>\u00a0 The Governor General (representing the Queen of England) recognized the APC Leader, Siaka Stevens, as the winner of the 1967 elections, and had him sworn as Prime Minister.\u00a0 The Mende head of military then, Brigadier David Lansana, arrested the Siaka Stevens and his key supporters, and declared Martial Law. The largely Temne-speaking crowd outside State House refused to capitulate to Brigadier Lansana \u2013 and went wild in anger. When it\u00a0 appeared as if the country was descending into anarchy, Mende-speaking military officers \u2013 Majors Jumu,\u00a0 Kai-Samba, and Blake \u2013 arrested Brig. Lansana; and, to pacify the Temne-North, brought in a Creole from England, Col. Andrew Juxon-Smith, to head the first military government in Sierra Leone.\u00a0 After a military coup against Juxon-Smith\u2019s NRC junta, the APC\u2019s Siaka Stevens was sworn in as Prime Minister in 1968.<\/p>\n

From 1967 when the SLPP lost power, they didn\u2019t get it back until 1996 \u2013 29 years after!!! The lessons to be learned there are: the Tribal Card, tribal jingoism, tribal extremism, tribal arrogance of the Mende-speaking\u00a0 people led by Sir. Albert Margai (SLPP)\u00a0 united the Creoles and Temne-speaking people of the North, and was countered by their own Tribal Extremism.\u00a0 (To be continued)<\/p>\n

By Oswald Hanciles<\/i><\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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