WB,
Just for the record – re - your words:
"CH, you are contradicting yourself my brother.
"I do not crave or require your or anyone else's affidavit for a testimony to these fact– nor was I using Tony Blair as "the character references for any leader "
And then you quote Tony Blair (TB) ""President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah who was a kindly and decent man, had just come to see me to beg for help."
How can Kabbah be both a THIEF and a decent man? "
Me, contradicting myself, about President Kabbah?
If you care to re-read the wording in Her Majesty's Language with a view to comprehension, this is what I wrote:
I do not crave or require your or anyone else's affidavit for a testimony to these fact – nor was I using Tony Blair as "the character references for any leader " – although on page 247 of his memoirs, The Journey he states that " President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah who was a kindly and decent man, had just come to see me to beg for help"
These (matters of) fact refer to the two short paragraphs that preceded that statement:
"You haven't told me anything new or anything that ´we don't already know. I could have ignored all what you've just said, you know, and that's the worst part of me. Sometimes, I don't know where the contempt comes from.
I am not not not not not not not not not not not not not "better than this" or better than "that", nor do I intend to be any better, just to please you or any of the gangsters, the prayer leaders or the priests, OK?"
So, it was not the devil but a very humble Alhaji Kabbah who went to Tony Blair "to beg for help" when he (Alhaji Kabbah) and your country (Sierra Leone) were in trouble. You must admit that that was a decent thing to do, and so was Tony Blair's response. As your colonial masters say, "A friend in need is a friend indeedh"
I also said that "there is a general consensus that Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was a decent man, and I share that sentiment about him"
"Bamboozle" is familiar salone pomposity, so, secondly, and I'm not saying that it was Alhaji Kabbah's character that was on trial, I'm only waiting for you to kindly explain or narrate how things had changed (probably "gotten" worse ?) since the disputed results of the 1996 presidential elections - and indeed if there was any doubt or even ( from your point of view) any lack of a general consensus that your Brother Alhaji Kabbah was or is a decent man, then how do you explain the results of the 2002 Presidential election in which Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, leading the SLPP captured over 70% of the votes, in the poor man's vocabulary, a landslide victory for him and his party, whilst this time around, Dr. John Karefa-Smart merely bagged exactly one per cent of the popular vote, nationwide.
Nota bene 1. : I can also explain anything that you can explain.
Nota bene 2. : An explanation is not a proof (there are some people who are still in the habit of explaining their concept of "the Holy Trinity" in the belief that their explanation is a proof, QED. It never is)
You asked me, "Who do you have contempt for? Who are the gangsters, the prayer leaders or the priests?"
The gangsters? You don't know? Well, I'm not going to be the one who is going to tell you who they are.
Please take note: I have confessed that the feeling of contempt is quality that I'm trying to overcome and that it's the worst part of me. If for example Professor Chicken Wings started boasting here or anywhere else that he has just built a new spacecraft that he will fly with his own wings to the planet Jupiter and back – well of course he could do that fuelled by the power of his own mind, could fly to Jupiter and back in his imagination, or maybe on some worthless piece of foolscap paper. Like fool's gold.
Or if he says that he is Jesus - then ask him, "Where are your twelve disciples?"
Or if the same Big Chief Alhaji Sheikh Chicken Teeth tells us that he is going to do an analysis of the Arabic Quran in the Chinese language or in hieroglyphics and quotes thousands of authorities, then once again contempt would be closer to laughter. In me they are closely allied and are often promoted by the ridiculous. On the earth plane I fear feeling contempt, especially when it's like force versus overwhelming force; but I don't mind crossing swords with or engaging even a not so weak argument which is at least better than no argument at all. May the Almighty save me from having contempt for those who challenge me with feeble arguments and that's why I prefer to ignore rather than to annihilate the opponent with "overwhelming force" of counter-arguments that can be easily summoned in a world in which we do not have to suspend common sense and in which words are supposed to mean what they usually mean - at least according to the lexicons that are available to all of us – even judgmental words like
Intellectual
Decent
Kind/ kindly
Marcus Garvey who was accused of mail fraud was later exonerated
Hopefully, the same could be applicable to some of the African leaders and some of Sierra Leone's political actors past and present who you are now throwing stones at just now and no doubt, if you had the chance, you would probably like to resurrect those that can be resurrected so that you could crucify them one more time, this time, maybe upside down?
Proud Yoni Themne from Yonibana Chiefdom, Tonkolili District, you realise that there are a few other spurious items of yours that I could take up.? I just talked to a young Mandinka man from Sierra Leone – a very knowledgeable young man, one in whom I repose great confidence and trust; he says that within the SLPP Pa Kabbah committed a couple of atrocities but that on weighed on the national level he is much closer to Sainthood. I talked to him on the phone three times today (about other matters) and the last time we only spoke for about a minute on this question of Pa Kabbah's reputation as a decent man he appeared to be faulting Pa Kabbah on Pa Kabbah not forcefully rejecting the 2007 election results in which there was some major disputes about a great number of votes that had been nullified... and some other irregularities.
With regard to what you say here: "Due to the historical and colonial friendship between the Mendes and their SLPP, and the mutual antagonism between them and the Temnes, Harold Wilson then the British Prime Minister and his Labor Party were discontented with the results of Sierra Leone's 1967 General Elections."
I should like to hear from another dear friend Professor Arthur Abraham (whose very readable doctoral thesis was on MENDE GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS UNDER COLONIAL RULE: A ... STUDY OF POLITICAL CHANGE IN SIERRA LEONE 1890-1937
(I have a lot of respect for Arthur in the run-up to the 1967 elections we were on opposite sides of the political divide. They were of course still corresponding with Kwame Nkrumah in Conakry Guinea and downing some of the poyo and the cases of Chinese beer which the Osagyefo was sending them. In this kind of mood, I could have had a sip too, but didn't, nor did I inhale (smile) - You can ask him. Here's one of his essays with a focus on the period currently within our purview: Sierra Leone: Post-Conflict Transition or Business as Usual?
It's a public forum and there's a lot but not all that is public knowledge and that's what I mean by what I told you previously "From the mid 1990s when my attention was particularly focused on Sierra Leone and throughout his presidency, I could have told you on any given day, what he had for breakfast, but that is another matter all together. As for the communications between the late Chief Hinga Norman and London, that too is another matter that you will probably not read about in any newspaper or political science history thesis for another fifty years or so, and that too is another matter"
There are mile long dossiers on some of these guys – once again, apart from the trivia, there's nothing significant about Alhaji Kabbah, Chief Hinga Norman, Abdulai Conteh or even Clare Short that you have to tell me – but as this is public forum, by all means go ahead.
Am I to expect some "overwhelming force"?
RSVP
Sincerely,
On Monday, 27 January 2014 04:20:04 UTC+1, william bangura wrote:
My analyses were to provide an accurate historical background of "your friends and heroes" Abdulai Conteh, Tejan Kabbah and Ernest Koroma. As an "intellectual" you should appreciate the history (the record of past events) of any discourse.
I am a proud Yoni Themne from Yonibana Chiefdom, Tonkolili District, and our generation compliment and rejoice with those who neither want to murder our parents in cold blood nor want to destroy Sierra Leone socio-economically and politically.
Our moaning and mourning led to the establishment of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Sankoh was from Khoilifa Mabang and he was the nephew of the Great Paramount Chief Bai Yorso Kholifa of Kholifa Chiefdom. Dr. Forna was born in Kholifa Mamunta. I hope you get the "drift".
Please illuminate on those who are " … even more concerned about Sierra Leone's future."
Who do you have contempt for? Who are the gangsters, the prayer leaders or the priests?
Please apprise me of those who characterize "the general consensus that Kabbah was a decent man"?
CH, you are contradicting yourself my brother.
"I do not crave or require your or anyone else's affidavit for a testimony to these fact– nor was I using Tony Blair as "the character references for any leader "
And then you quote Tony Blair (TB) "" President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah who was a kindly and decent man, had just come to see me to beg for help."
How can Kabbah be both a THIEF and a decent man?
Poor Sierra Leone: "Kabbah's youthful indiscretions"? Kabbah was a THIEF as a Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Trade and Industry and was also a BANDIT as president.
Is this the same Kabbah who after he had been ousted by the AFRC junta in 1997 had said I am paraphrasing here, that he wanted the ECOMOG (Nigerian troops) to bomb Sierra Leone to the Stone Ages and he would not be disconcerted if he had to be president of dogs?
"But Kabbah was an honorable man." PLEASE
Brother CH the sentiments you share about Kabbah is personal and very, very insignificant to his true character.
You prefer to bamboozle others in this forum but I am not going to let you get away with it. Kabbah was as mischievous as his mentor the late Sir Albert Margai. There is an adage, "Show me your friends and I will tell you your character."
Kabbah did not win the 1996 General Elections, but that hopeless Karefa-Smart (KS) United National People's Party and his (UNPP) did. When KS wanted to contest the validity of those elections in the courts, your colonial masters, the British High Commissioner to the country, Peter Penfold, buttressed by the Nigerian High Commissioner, and the U.S. Ambassador John Hirsch "convinced" the former against his action.
No sooner did KS acquiesce Kabbah co-opted his United National People's Party by financing Joe Conteh to establish another faction of the UNPP. Kabbah also emulated Siaka Stevens and his All People's Congress (APC) by marginalizing the Army with mass dismissals, and employing the Kamajosia—a predominantly Mende militia—as his para-military force.
He was also as tribal as Margai. Before the presidential run-off in 1996 Kabbah consented to an accord with Thaimu Bangura (not a relative) leader of the People's Democratic Party that he would be rewarded if the latter endorsed his Sierra Leone's People's Party. And if their coalition was victorious Bangura will be appointed the Minister of Finance with given some additional ministerial positions.
After the international community had stolen the election for Kabba and his SLPP, Bangura was appointed as Finance Minister, but was demoted only after three months to the Energy ministry.
Had Kabbah sought a sincere political solution with the Revolutionary United Front when he was president in 1996 he would saved the country from all the socio-economic carnage. But he would not because he was haunted by the shadow of Albert Margai and his SLPP, and the General Elections of March 1967.
It is very lucid why you revere both Kabbah and Ernest Koroma.
As for the communications between the late Chief Hinga Norman and London, that too is another matter that you will probably not read about in any newspaper or political science history thesis for another fifty years or so, and that too is another matter.)
Harold Wilson then the British Prime Minister during Sierra Leone's 1967 General Elections was troubled when Stevens and his All People's Congress (APC) won,
Due to the historical and colonial friendship between the Mendes and their SLPP, and the mutual antagonism between them and the Temnes, Harold Wilson then the British Prime Minister and his Labor Party were discontented with the results of Sierra Leone's 1967 General Elections. Stevens and his All People's Congress (APC) had won because the Temnes had overwhelming voted for him and his party.
The hatred of the British towards the Temnes dates back to the Hut Tax War of 1898, when our OrBai Bureh and his krugbas (warriors) fought tenaciously against your British colonial masters for demanding that my people pay taxes on their homes, though they were not represented in your House of Commons.
Because of time of space "your" Chief Norman orchestrated the first coup d'etat in Sierra Leone under the auspices of the then Force Commander Brigadier David Lansana who was Albert Margai's in-law. Kabbah appointed Norman as his deputy Defense Minister to perpetuate the Mende hegemony which had been derailed by the 1967 elections. Norman also had regional, ethnical, ideological and political differences with one Corporal Foday Sankoh of the Revolutionary United Front.
Kabbah, Norman and the conservative ilk of the SLPP thought they will militarily demolish the RUF. The rest they say is history.
Your APC and SLPP patron Tony Blair had "encouraged" the Sandline Affair—which violated a UN agreement that forbade the arming of any factions in the rebel war in Sierra Leone—which equipped the Kamajosia. He also financed Kabbah's government in exile which was located in neighboring Conakry, Guinea to the tunes of millions of British Pound Sterling.
Stevens and his APC wanted to eliminate Brigadier David Lansana because he had obstructed his dream of being Prime Minister of Sierra Leone with the March 23, 1967 coup.
Your dear friend Conteh had bank accounts because he was taking those boxes of money to be deposited overseas. Are you justifying thievery by your friend? I hope not.
Marcus Garvey, "A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin or culture is like a tree without roots." I am not involved in hearsay because my depictions are factual.
If we cannot solve the problems of the past Sierra Leone WILL NEVER PROGRESS. History has taught us that all the succeeding governments since Sir Milton Margai's in 1961 to the current Ernest Koroma's had neither, nor will they provide a vertical socio-economical and political living standard for my people.
On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 8:08 PM, Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:
WB,May I kindly refer you to pages 246- 247 of Tony Blair's"A Journey"I have some of what you call "the ability to reason and understand" and that's why I declare to you most categorically that President Ernest Bai Koroma is not worthless. Having said that, I should like to add – in the context of this discussion, that he could be doing more to attract some of the "qualified manpower of the African Diaspora is located in the United States" back home...
As to "when Siaka Stevens' cabinet was populated with Ph.D's" including my most respected and dear friend Dr. Abdulai Conteh - we won national scholarships at the same time (I was in touch with him when I was in Nigeria – at a time when he was Foreign Minister) - well here's what Tony Blair about Sierra Leone ( on page 246) :
"In Sierra Leone in early 2000, a further challenge presented itself. It is one of the least discussed episodes of my ten years as prime minister, but it's one of the things of which I am most proud. However the important thing is the lesson it can and should teach us.
The tale of Sierra Leone - and I hope its future chapters are brighter - is a metaphor for what happened to Africa. Fourah Bay College in Freetown has a link with Durham University, where my father taught .It used to be one of the top universities in Africa and as good as many European ones. In the 1960s may dad would go out to teach in Freetown. At that time, Sierra Leone was a country freed from colonial rule, with a strong governing infrastructure and a GDP per head around that of Portugal.
Between then and the late 1990s , the country went on a downward spiral that was as tragic as it was entirely avoidable By the time we came to power, the democratically elected government looked as if it would be toppled by a collection of gangsters, madmen and sadists known as the Revolutionary United Front ( RUF) , and the country's abundant natural resources – particularly its diamonds - were being systematically plundered.. The people were caught in the middle"
When the government tried to insist that the future should be decided by an election, its supporters were subjected to a campaign of medieval brutality...." (If you haven't read it, please get the book - I did – it's worth reading - but I guess you know the rest of the story)
I am not talking about intellectual in the Jean-Paul Sartre sense (" the ability to think without restrictions" etc.), I mean intellectual in a slightly broader sense, apart from people like Kwame Anthony Appiah and Cornel West I'm talking professional manpower, doctors, engineers, like the 15,000 Nigerian doctors you have in the US and the few thousand Ethiopian doctors you have in Philadelphia and Chicago and other great American cities - people who could satisfy some of Africa's manpower requirement needs – not the empty meaningless PhDs who can only recycle other people's thoughts, not the guy my Yoruba professor was laughing about when he phoned me this morning and talked about " The Professor of Electricity who can only produce darkness" and I asked him which professor is that ( I was thinking about another "Professor" - Professor Chicken teeth") and he told me it was the Nigerian minister under whose jurisdiction NEPA is still performing so badly.
WB, Ii's two O'clock in the morning, so I must hit the sack now.
And a good night to you over there in Washington.
Sincerely,
On Thursday, 23 January 2014 21:03:28 UTC+1, william bangura wrote:CH,You cannot debunk my premise, because you never identified a leader who is not useless." It's a very important relationship and there's no gainsaying that much of the intellectual leader-ship and qualified manpower of the African Diaspora is located in the United States."
Intellectual is an adjective I hate to utilize because the definition refers to the ability to reason and understand. In the history of my paternal country, Sierra Leone, "intellectuals" supported the idea of a one party system of government, and after it was practiced for almost two decades that model was more than disastrous.History has demonstrated that being educated or being "an intellectual" does not equate to good or great political leadership. Though Kofi Busia was more formally educated than Kwame Nkrumah, the later accomplished more in three years for Ghana than the former did in a comparable phase.Equating higher education and political leadership is one of the salient problems that has affected sub-Saharan Africa. Sierra Leone rapidly descended to the dump from 1977 when Siaka Stevens' cabinet was populated with Ph.D's.I leave you with a quote from William Shakespeare which must be applicable to all the people of African descent, "Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them."Almost all of the past and present "leaders" of sub-Saharan Africa had 'greatness thrust upon them'.
William Bangura (WB)
On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 10:24 AM, Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:
First of all, William Bangura's "I totally disagree with this idea of inviting 47 feckless African "Heads of States" to a summit in Washington" would imply that all 47 invitees – without exception – are what he would describe as "feckless" . I'm sure that even Mo Ibrahim would not agree to that sort of characterisation of Africa's best – even assuming that Africa does not get the democratically elected leaders that Africa deserves.Should none of these 47 Africans Union be invited to the summit? You would prefer that there was no such summit at all?
It's possible that if "a Caucasian Republican president" had organized such a meeting there would have been a hue and cry from some quarters, but right now that is beside the point.
It's a very important relationship and there's no gainsaying that much of the intellectual leader-ship and qualified manpower of the African Diaspora is located in the United States
In this competitive world of international relations, establishing contact and dialoguing with such leaders is one way of approach. Would William Bangura suggest the more paternalistic stick and carrot approach for the US doing business with Africa? How would you like to "redeem" the situation? Any suggestions?
The main critique of China's approach to Africa has been that China tends to ignore African leaders' Human Rights records and does not make such records a condition for doing business...
On Thursday, 23 January 2014 02:49:10 UTC+1, william bangura wrote:President Obama never ceases to amaze me. I totally disagree with this idea of inviting 47 feckless African "Heads of States" to a summit in Washington.This invitation is a testament that he supports their socio-economic and political policies. If a Caucasian Republican president had organized this meeting there will be hues and cries from the "Liberal left" and the African-American 'mercenaries' (those who PRETEND that they empathize with the subjugated sub-Saharan Africans only to host and applaud "democrats" such as Macias Obieng of Equatorial Guinea, Museveni of Uganda and Kagame of Rwanda to name a few) against such a rendezvous given the current situation of wars, corruption, maladministration and repressions.Though I am to the left of the liberals in my Democratic party, I question President Obama's foreign policy in sub-Saharan Africa.William Bangura (WB)On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 7:13 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emea...@mail.ccsu.edu> wrote:
"Brother Obama , soon to be less tied up in Afghanistan is making his move and will be paying
a lot more attention to Africa: Obama to invite 47 African heads of state."
--
Well they can learn from him a thing or two about extra-judicial assassinations
and domestic surveillance.
GE
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafric...@googlegrou
ps.com ] On Behalf Of Cornelius HamelbergTo: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2014 8:24 AM
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Great news: Brother Obama to invite 47 African heads of state to a summit on August 5th-6th , 2014
Thus far there's been so much moaning and mooning about China's progress in Africa and some groaning about Uncle Sam's increasing military presence on the African continent via Africom ; and now after Iraq, Brother Obama , soon to be less tied up in Afghanistan is making his move and will be paying a lot more attention to Africa: Obama to invite 47 African heads of state
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