Speech
by Sierra Leone's Chernoh Alpha M. Bah in London, England
Published
in Awareness Times newspaper in Freetown, Sierra
Leone
By
Chernoh Alpha M. Bah
Oct 27, 2005
I must express my appreciation to all of you for facilitating
my arrival here and for giving me the opportunity to stand
before you to give a testimony of the harsh conditions
facing our people in Africa. Before this time, we members
of the Africanist Movement were of the feeling that we
are alone in the struggle to liberate our people from
the numerous contradictions we are facing.
It
is nothing strange that African people all over the world
are suffering be it in Africa or outside here in the imperialist
countries themselves. And it is nothing hidden that there
is equally a libratory desire evaporating amongst all
the oppressed masses of African people wherever we happen
to find ourselves. But what has become missing over the
years following the retreat of the various imperial powers
is the non-appearance of a genuine liberation force whose
sole aim would be directed to our unconditional emancipation
from the exploitative clutches of the neo-colonial puppets
forced upon us by the very imperialist countries during
the period of their retreat.
Since
then we have been forced from one crisis situation to
another which consequences have remained the same throughout
the continent. Today, we the oppressed masses of African
people have been rendered powerless by these circumstances
and we have been forced to become spectators of the vicious
loot of our resources. We are being pushed to the corner
to become onlookers of how a handful of a corrupt politicians
acting under the directives of imperialist agents transfer
our resources for the benefit of the various capitalist
countries who created our own misery.
But the sad thing that has also happened within this vicious
era of our existence is the unprecedented emergence of
individuals who took advantage of these contradictions
falsely posing as liberators or freedom fighters to canvass
support from we the oppressed masses but whose interests
are in no way in consonance with that of our people whose
desire has always been our collective emancipation from
neo-colonial exploitation and imperialist machination.
Since our so-called independence, several revolutionary
movements have emerged in Africa each seeking to combat
corruption, political oppression and other negative elements
affecting Africans whilst at the same time seeking to
change the conditions of the states in which their activities
are organized.
These
so-called liberation forces can be found everywhere in
Africa starting from Uganda to Congo, and Liberia to Ivory
Coast, and Senegal to Ethiopia but they have all failed
to live up to the desires of we the oppressed masses simply
because the leadership of most or all of these movements
have no genuine desires to uplift us from the current
dehumanizing conditions forced upon us by western machinations.
For instance, a month before our so-called 30th independence
anniversary in Sierra Leone, a group calling itself the
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) fired its first shot
against the All Peoples Congress (APC) that has been ruling
the country for the last twenty-three years after independence.
The RUF was headed by a disgruntled member of the Sierra
Leone Army who claimed to be fighting against political
dictatorship, exploitation of the country’s resources,
corruption and deprivation of the masses.
That was in March of 1991; a period when the entire mass
of the country desired change and liberation from the
harsh conditions we were faced with under the APC. Many
of us were in school when news of the new revolution became
an issue of public debate. There were mixed opinions regarding
this campaign but one thing was surely certain that the
revolution came at the right moment when the wind of change
was blowing across the country and in the minds of majority
of the African masses in the country. Of course years
before that the idea of a so-called leftist alternative
as a solution to the malaise that engulfed the country
following the retreat of the British was popular amongst
university students and the working class. This was when
the Pan-African Union (PANAFU) and other student union
organizations were organizing against the system. The
popular story is that the Revolutionary United Front was
an offshoot of PANAFU. It was PANAFU that allegedly recruited
and trained Foday Sankoh, and it was because of this;
we initially looked upon this group as one that came to
salvage us from our suffering. But contrary to our expectations,
the RUF became the real enemy of the people. No revolutionary
movement in recent times has equaled the RUF in vicious
violence in the history of the continent. Mass amputations
and destruction of properties coupled with mass killings
of the innocent masses they claimed to liberate became
the strategy of the RUF. We lived through violence, grew
in it and tasted it painful fruits. We are witnesses and
victims of the diabolic activities of insincere individuals
who have manipulated our appalling conditions to fulfill
their opportunistic desires whilst at the same time satisfying
the needs of the imperialist countries who commissioned
them. We were left in the middle of this uncertainty and
death threatening condition for over ten years. We are
victims of a naked struggle for the selfish control and
exploitation of our own resources. Our people in Kono
and other diamond ferrous areas of the country were chased
out of their homes and their houses burnt down by mercenary
forces who created a convenient environment for imperialist
agents to loot and transfer our resources. I wish I had
time enough to relate to you the magnitude of this international
conspiracy hatched to implant and facilitate direct imperialist
control of our diamonds, gold, bauxite, coffee and other
resources.
Comrades, Sierra Leone is blessed with resources that
are more than sufficient for its own development; resources
which if used rationally are more than enough to free
us from poverty and other caustic conditions militating
against our existence. But as I speak to you, majority
of us in Sierra Leone are living without the basic conditions
of existence. There is currently no electricity supply,
no good roads, no pure water, no better health facilities,
no quality education; virtually all social services are
absent in the country. Most parts of the country lay impoverished
and even isolated from the rest of the world. For three
consecutive periods during the last three years, Sierra
Leone was ranked last in the United Nations Development
Index. Ironically, while this is happening, a handful
of corrupt kleptomaniacs who have succeeded in metamorphosing
themselves into the rogue political class are growing
extremely rich by expropriating our resources for their
own selfish ends and for the interests of their imperialist
godfathers who continuously protect their stay in power.
It is hard to believe that thirty years after the retreat
of the British, we would be at war with ourselves and
create a convenient room for the return of the very imperialist
countries our flag-bearers fought so hard to overthrow.
Our so-called revolution in Sierra Leone only ended when
the British landed troops in Freetown to protect the current
Sierra Leone People’s Party government headed by
Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.
Today,
as I speak to you, the British are having a military base
in Freetown and they, the British, are holding all senior
defense positions in the country including that of the
senior defense adviser to the president. So-called British
experts helped formulate the defense policy of the country
and the British, through the International Military Advisory
Training Team (IMATT) and Commonwealth Police Advisory
Team, are equally in charge of training both our police
and military. So forty-four years of the so-called independence,
the British are now actively in Sierra Leone personally
deciding the running of affairs in the country. The British
Department for International Development (DFID), European
Commission and USAID are among the numerous imperialist
agencies currently running our economy. They are doing
whatever they want in the country. The United States is
even working on plans to establish an FBI outpost in Freetown
by next year. All these are but fractions of the contradictions
we are faced with in Sierra Leone. We are under perfect
colonialism! And this is common with most countries that
I have visited in Africa.
These
contradictions therefore require us to come together under
the umbrella of a mass movement to seek a genuine alternative
that would redeem us from this dangerous stagnating system.
We have to come together and form a single, indivisible
organization whose sole aim would be to urgently organize
the masses of oppressed African people for a genuine and
uncompromising liberation and unification of the continent.
And if we are firmly committed to the belief in a free,
united Africa, we have to strive to identify with many
of our comrades in struggle in a bid to adopt a solid
approach for the speedy liberation of our territories.
Africa should be free; we must take control of our lands
and decide for ourselves how our resources are to be used.
No amount of pressure should force us to cease our struggle
to unite and free ourselves from the death threatening
conditions that have been forced upon us by the class
contradictions of neo-colonialism and imperialism.
Once again, let me take this opportunity to register on
behalf of the Africanist Movement our appreciation to
you for making it possible for me to be here. I am quite
sure that this is the beginning of a new era in our struggle
for freedom and unity for the oppressed masses of African
people. Today, I am fully optimistic that the day has
come for we the oppressed and exploited masses. As I stand
here, I am beginning to see a free, united Africa; united
not only on the basis of what unity connotes but united
in our common desire to live and move forward together
and collectively decide what our destiny should be. So
to all of you, I say Uhuru! And Aluta Continua!
Editor's
note: Chernoh Alpha M. Bah is Director of the Africanist
Movement and now works with the African People's Socialist
Party to build the African Socialist International.
© Copyright 2005, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
|
