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BBC News [online]'Freetown return after 30 years'
She recently visited Sierra Leone for the first time since her childhood to make the BBC Radio 4 programme "Imaginary Homeland" and writes about her visit. Outside the weather was hot, but a cool breeze came over the Atlantic Ocean, as I grabbed a quick breakfast of mango chunks and cornflakes. My first day in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 30 years marked the beginning of an wonderful adventure. I was not born in Freetown. I had visited as a child and so it is perhaps not surprising that it was Freetown's children that touched me most this time. Their needs are apparent: a sweet 17-year-old pupil who confides: "We would like more books". At Rosbans Preparatory School a rough yard serves as a playground where a teacher builds a pyramid using tin cans. At the Milton Margai School for the Blind, a little boy called Abu comes to hold hands and tells me his potato leaf supper was sweet; his teacher explains that the school was totally ransacked during the war. Orphans Freetown is dominated by young people, and country-wide more than 60% of the population are minors. I often saw children walking around on their own. There are many orphans and separated children. The city suffered like the whole of Sierra Leone during a decade of civil war. It was twice captured by the rebels. In the rich afternoon sun, I stand at the end of Howe Street, surrounded by about 50 young men, members of the long-established self-help organisation, Sweissy Jewellers. The group's Secretary-General Jubati A Wai, a final year political science student at Fourbah College, is rightly proud of the support available to registered members "facing life's emergencies... birth death, marriage" and the scholarships and adult literacy classes for those who cannot go to university. The organisation has become a rallying point for the kind of disaffected young men who would have been involved in the recent conflict. Although they are now at work they look to the government to respond to their call: "We say we should be the leaders now. So why say tomorrow? When we are here now. We have the energy. We have the charisma. The potential. So engage us. Now." Anything possible There is disillusion with the government but optimism about the upcoming elections. They have seen Liberia elect a new government led by a woman. Here in Freetown, they believe anything is possible. Although some say the peace is fragile, these young men are optimistic about the future. I am impressed too by the fortitude of my own family, some of whom stayed in Freetown throughout the conflict. My cousin Ned says he was glad he stayed, he would have worried more if he had fled. But he tells me how terrible it was, seeing the rebels burning houses. He recalls: "One boy came here saying President Kabbah should watch out.. if he doesn't Freetown will run red." My family are all from Freetown - yet during the war and the suffering some like me were safe in Britain. My own novel was about a family and how it been affected in the aftermath of war. I wasn't able to reach my family during the conflict. It was terribly important for me to see them. And now I know they are well and thriving, I feel as if I have put something to rest. Confident city If I hadn't been making the radio documentary, I might never have come back to Sierra Leone. But I'm glad I did and with the contact with family restored and with new friends, I know I will return. Back in Britain, hearing about the war on the radio, you would
get the impression of something rather depressing. And
of course, Freetown itself has changed since my childhood. But
to me, coming from London, the city was so vibrant and confident.
The city's art seems convivial, energetic and witty. There
are sketched signs about wearing sunglasses, diet and health issues,
as well as reminders of the war times. Delia Jarrett-Macauley's programme Imaginary Homeland was on BBC Radio 4 on Friday 31 March at 1100BST. |
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home | biography | books | news | press | links | contacts Created by Donna Carr. Updated 25-Apr-2010. Copyright © Delia Jarrett-Macauley. |