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Issues at Large 10-14-2009

Author: Tatafway Tumoe - SEM

How Diamonds Are Underdeveloped Kono District

Kono District is one of the most marginalized regions in the country and in a nation where development has been piecemeal, the development of this part of the country has occupied the bottom rung under various government since Independence.

Replacing T. S. M’briwa

Tamba Songu M’briwa, the charismatic Kono leader who formed the Sierra Leone People’s Independence Movement, later renamed the Kono People’s Union, wanted to see a Kono moving along development wise with other districts in the country. Alas, he died under mysterious circumstances in 1968, a few days after winning the bye elections as Paramount Chief Member for Kono District in the Parliament of Sierra Leone.

With the death of Tamba Songu M’briwa, the hopes and aspirations of Kono were buried with him. In his passing, T.S. M’briwa left a vacuum which was not easy to fill. During the 1966 campaigning, Songu M’briwa had contributed to a large extent in the success of the APC over the SLPP in the 1967 elections, and thus when Siaka Stevens was reinstated as Prime Minister, it was decided that Konos should be properly represented so that they will be given the benefits of the new government.

Corrupt Kono cabal

In choosing other individuals who might represent Konos, the choice fell on a cabal of corrupt and inefficient individuals who were more of social misfits rather than politically minded people. Thus diamond diggers and people who only have an interest in diamond mining started representing the people.

Gandi-Capio, S.R. Kasebgama, Tamba Kaimondo, Sahr Gandi Farnia, Bobor Kissy, T.Y. Gbondo, were chosen to represent the APC. These new representatives unfit for the job, were soon to be at logger heads with their own people, threatening and using the powers of the state apparatus to cower their imagined enemies. They failed in bringing any positive benefit to Kono, and even failed to develop their own constituencies.

Kono became backward, and the little chance for development was shadowed by the political threats, the killings of opponents and the total nemesis and chaos released on the people.

The A.A. Koroma factor

Siaka Stevens as Prime Minister and later as President of Sierra Leone had a healthy respect for Kono people and he showed this by appointing them to high level positions both in governance and in companies. That is how, Abu Aiah Koroma, (father of First Lady Sia Nyama Koroma) a young lawyer from Tombodu in Kamaa District, Kono District was appointed to the prestigious position of Managing Director of the Sierra Leone Diamond Mining Company.

Abu Aiah Koroma was supposed to help in ensuring that the NDMC fulfills its corporate social responsibilities to the district. But instead of engaging in development projects, A.A. Koroma as he was known was more happy initiating young Kono kids into the Poro Society and footing the bills for their feeding and other needs while in the shrine. Education was not his priority. Apart from sending his own kids to high standard institutes of learning in England and the United States, Koroma did not even build a primary school in Tombodu, his own home town, and where his company discovered the third biggest diamond in the world, (the star of Sierra Leone).

Of diamonds forever?

Long before Aiah Abu Koroma came to the scene, the Sierra Leone Selection Trust had been established, and which later was renamed as the NDMC. This company exploited Sierra Leone and at a time when the country should have gained, infrastructure wise, it was basically a free for all venture.

Neither schools, not institutions of learning, not hospitals nor roads or water supply facilities were built for the Kono community. It goes without saying that the British did not make any symbolic, not to talk of a practical means of helping the Kono people.

This was the situation that Abu Koroma met and this was the same system he maintained, and this was the situation he left.

Now we used to be told that diamonds are forever, but now we know otherwise. If diamonds are forever, why is it that all the great diamond mining companies have turned their backs on the land. Why is it that the road to Kono is in a terrible state as usual and that since the day S.M. Gborie and his nephew destroyed the Koidu Water Works, nothing has been done to correct this ugly situation.

Killing off education

Apart from the schools set up by Christians and Islamic missionaries, there has not been any institution of learning set up either by government or the mining company.

While diamonds were being mined, development was stagnating.

Education became a privilege with the rich sending their kids to the Bo School and other schools in the country, and because of few schools, a lot of potentials ended up in the diamond mines, where the ‘get rich’ theory became the order of the day.

The local authorities like Chief S.M. Gborie, (Uncle of Vice President Sahr Sam-Sumana) connived to destroy the public utility, the Koidu Water Works, built through the efforts of the Kono District Council.

With Kono chiefs like S.G.M. Fania and S.M. Gborie actively collaborating with Lebanese diamond merchants, Kono became underdeveloped as a result of diamonds, when it should have been the other way round.

The rebel towns..

The outbreak of a rebel war in 1991 and the subsequent invasion of Kono in October of 1992 spelled doom for the whole of Kono. While the rebels had a field day, some Kono youths working with chiefs like S.M. Gborie connived with the rebels to mine for diamonds in areas where they had not been able to penetrate. These places included residential areas including the center of Koidu Town.

All the evidences are there including reports of the activities of people like Councillor Fomba who actively participated in breaking into the Separator House of the National Diamond Mining Company, as well as the destruction of houses while mining under rebel control.

In January 1993, I was with the combined troops of Guinean, Sierra Leonean and Nigerian forces when Kono was recaptured, and the work of Fomba and others, aiding and abetting the rebels in mining was discovered. Fomba was lucky to flee with the departing rebels while the others were caught in the fire fight and were killed.

..& willing chiefs

Kono chiefs, who always have the habit of supporting the government of the day actively worked with the rebels, taking them as the government of the day. Chiefs like Teteh Bangai of Yengema was involved in the destruction and mining of the Airfield Road in Yengema and these are the ones now working with Vice President Sam-Sumana. The days of blood diamonds might have to a large extent become possible because of the participation of these people in mining for diamonds under rebel control.

These were the ones who helped fuel the war and made it difficult for government to prosecute the war because they showed how diamonds are mined, where they can be located and their importance to the rebels.

Then there is also the actions of Chief A.M. Kamander, who acted as the personal assistance to the Lebanese in helping them exploit our resources with no tangible benefit for the community.

Chief A.M. Kamanda is also one of the advisers of Vice President Sam-Sumana. What good therefore can you expect from either Vice President Sam Sumana or the chiefs of Kono in changing Kono from the past days of uncontrolled diamond mining to the present days as envisioned by President Ernest Bai Koroma?

Return of politics

We have now seen a change in which a Kono man has been appointed to the position of Vice President of Sierra Leone, even though he has not been able to even secure a seat in his own constituency in Koidu Central. This shows that the Vice President to a large extent won his political position not because of his popularity but due to an appointment.

This means he is not in essence the choice of the people though selected by the president.

In the present political dispensation, it seems the same practice undertaken by the late Alhaji S.H.O. Gborie in harassing and threatening the lives of the people is again being replayed.

To most Kono politicians, as soon as they are appointed to authority, their next move is to harass their own people, in the style of F.M. Minah and the people of Pujehun.

Flabby appointments

We want President Ernest Bai Koroma to realise that appointing a Kono man to the position of Vice President is not enough. The question is, is he or she fit to fully carry out the works laid for him or her.

Then there is also the question of political preparedness and social commitment. Some people are catapulted into power when they have never contributed a cent, or made a representation to the betterment of their communities.

In most cases, such people do not have the leadership quality in listening to the people and instead expect the people to listen to them notwithstanding the nonsense they might be propagating.

In the present political dispensation, the modern aspect of communication has made it easier for the media personality and the activist to keep in touch with his sources and the reality on the ground. One does not need to be in New York to know that the Twin Towers have collapsed as a result of a terrorist act. In the same manner, you do not need to be in Yengema to know what is going on in Yengema.

There is therefore a need for Vice President Sahr Sam-Sumana to wake up and realise that this is not a government of benevolent sleepers but a nation of active wide eyed participators.

We are all watching.

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Issues at Large 10-14-2009

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