Dear WB,
You never give up do you? I deduct from all that you’ve written so far that
As far as you’re concerned only the leader of Botswana deserves to be invited - if at all
All of Brother Obama’s past visits/ destinations in Africa - starting with his first visit to Ghana were mistakes, that he should have only visited Botswana and then back home on Air Force One to the White House
The Temne warrior never gives up does he? (We reserve the spelling “Themne” for the Themne language, but not for the Temne people.) About being a Tonkolili man - my cousin Marianna Rogers- Wright is/ was the daughter of Mr. C. B. Rogers –Wright – and Mr. C.B. Rogers-Wright (my uncle Cyril) was the son of my maternal (Yoruba) grandmother’s younger sister. (Check it out.) Marianne and I worked at Mathura ( during which period I shared a flat with Amadu Jalloh I last met him in Cairo - at which time he was Sierra Leone’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia) and during which period ( at Mathura) Ibrahim Taqi visited us ( Marianne & me) regularly – I sometimes accompanied Ibrahim to Makeni. Marianne was the first to tell me that Ibrahim and she and I are cousins - and there you have it. Which reminds me, before we got married – My Better Half and I were at a dance in Makeni in 1969 and there the MP for Makeni ( APC brother) mistaking me for a Negro from America told me that he was going to have me deported, because my Better Half did not want to dance with him... – one last little thing : In 1972 I invited Hamid Taqi to dinner when he was in Sweden.
WB, I will never forget the day of the first coup d’état in Sierra Leone – I remember driving a red triumph at the breakneck speed, all the way to the state house and blowing the horn all the way - stopping the car to have a word with Shaineh (Ibrahim Taqi’s wife) who was going uphill - and dictating a congratulatory telegram to Pa Shaki a few hours later....
Leo Spitzer speaks highly of my hero the great Chief Bai Bureh, in his seminal “The Creoles of Sierra Leone “ . Although you say that your former colonials master Great Britain will never forgive you, the Temnes or the late great chief, you should not forget that it was not only Chief Bai Bureh and his network of warriors that resisted the hut tax - Bai Bureh was the main (fish-) bone in the throat but there were also Mende chiefs who stoutly resisted the imposition which is still somewhat reminiscent of the American War of Independence and their motto “No Taxation without representation!”
Just now I’m in a peaceful mood and listening to Torsten Goods’ You wind me up from their album “Love Comes to Town “
You ended your latest epistle with these words: “But if it is written by the Lord Our God, I will be greater than all the “rulers” combined that have led Sierra Leone.” – in which case I should ask you two questions:
1. To which category of greatness would you then belong? I ask, because in one of your earlier epistles you quoted your colonial master Shakespeare’s Malvolio, that “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them” and then added that “Almost all of the past and present "leaders" of sub-Saharan Africa had 'greatness thrust upon them” So, Chief William Bangura would you be the great leader that was born great, the one that would “take up arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them” – and thus go down in the annals of Sierra Leone history as greater than all the previous Sierra Leone leaders combined – or do you pray that greatness will be conferred on you by the Almighty or that the Almighty will cause the people to confer greatness upon you?
To continue with the rest of what Malvolio says after” Some are born great, others achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them “ perhaps words that you should take to heart: “Thy Fates open their hands. Let thy blood and spirit embrace them. And, to inure thyself to what thou art like to be, cast thy humble slough and appear fresh. Be opposite with a kinsman, surly with servants.”
2. With your self-definition as “a proud Yoni Themne from Yonibana Chiefdom, Tonkolili District”, and given the statements that you have made about both the APC and the SLPP how on earth do you hope or propose to be a great leader of Sierra Leone? Who is going to vote for you if not the people of the APC and the SLPP ? Surely, a great leader of the people of Sierra Leone should be the leader of all the people of Sierra Leone . Surely the APC and the SLPP people are not going to vote for you overwhelmingly?
My only shortcoming in this regard is that in the very short time that I lived in Sierra Leone, I never had time to visit or live in the south of the country; but I do believe that the Mendes of the South are as hospitable as the Temnes and Limbas of the North
You have said the following “I HATE the APC and the SLPP” and that “Sir Albert Margai, the SLPP then and now and majority of Mendes, Siaka Stevens and his APC then, Ernest Koroma, the current APC, almost all Limbas and most Creoles do HATE Themnes from Tonkolili.” – so, assuming that your allegations are true, then who is going to vote for you – only the Temnes and some of the minor tribes?
You say that C. P Foray (another dear, in his later days as Sierra Leone High Commissioner to the Court of St. James) that “C.P. Foray an APC candidate won in Bo, the capital of the South and a pro SLPP bastion.” This only shows that C.P. Foray a Mende (and a former teacher at St. Edwards) – was of course still popular in BO, even waving an APC flag. Prior to your epistles to me, I had always cherished the idea that the Temnes are more flexible than the Mendes but you have laid such a cherished illusion to rest, as one ohporto professor recently put it “in the dustbin of popular illusions”
All this talk about tribes! Sometimes I think that you guys should all just shut up and return (migrate to where you originally came from, and leave the country to the management of the original inhabitants of Sierra Leone: The LIMBAS!
You’ve given yourself too much rope by which to hang you, my brother. As you said, previously, in 1967 the Temnes voted overwhelming for the APC - your words: “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 “
You still haven’t explained why (tribalistic?) Great Britain (under Harold Wilson) would not like to see democracy and majority rule in Sierra Leone flourish or why Mr. Wilson’s Labour government or Her Majesty the Queen should be disconcerted by the then APC under the leadership of Oxford trade unionist Siaka Stevens, winning an election – even if Sir Milton Margai, Sierra Leone’s first prime Minister happened to have been married to an Englishwoman.
I’m now listening to Rogie
You keep on saying that I am contradicting myself. You should stick to your Bible. It looks like you are looking for contradictions when none exist. How can I be contradicting myself when I am only telling the truth and nothing but the truth?
I’ll return to the rest of your epistles shortly – right now we have some visitors (females, Swedes)
Sincerely,
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