First Update

I began work on the 20th, after having a day to settle in and visit old friends in Freetown. The city has changed somewhat, new buildings have sprouted up, there are more street vendors about and the cotton tree is barren in leaves, but full of giant fruit bats. It took a full day or so to get my bearings, I even wandered about for an hour or so looking for the FOC office on Fort St by Circular Road. Downtown Freetown is bustling, and can get a bit confusing, particularly during rush hours.

The next day we left for Kailahun, which is in the far east of Sierra Leone. Kailahun is bordered by both Guinea and Liberia to the east, and Kono and Kenema districts to the west. It is remote, disaffected; resource scarce, and its roads are notoriously bad. This is the district where the war started, and the Revolutionary Armed Front held their main base throughout the war. It is a blighted place, the roads are in disarray and the scars of the war are visible in most standing structures. It is now harmattan, seasonal winds blow south of the Sahara and cover the leaves and the corrugated tin roofs with a brick-colored layer of dust. John Caulker was emphatic that Kailahun should be the focal point of Fambul Tok’s pilot projects because of its long history of neglect, and the lack of reconciliation.

We had prepared a consultation, or a Fambul Tok (Family Talk) on Monday afternoon in Kailahun. The consultation was held under the canopy of a giant palm. A circle of wooden chairs was formed for the fifty or so participants, one representative from each chiefdom in Kailahun district. Men, women and youth where amply represented and all contributed to the debate. John presented the program, fielded questions, then engaged the community in a fambul tok. Fambul Tok is theirs, the ownership is theirs, FOC is only here to help facilitate the space for reconciliation. The response was incredible, people spoke of the need take up local practices that have been neglected since the war. They spoke of unproductive fields, restless spirits and accidents on the roads and attributed them to the lack of reconciliation. Several ex-combatants spoke about their desire to seek forgiveness and reconcile with their communities.

Introduction

Hello, My name is Mario Patiño and I am a fourth year International Studies major at the The City College of New York. In two days time, I will fly to London, Gatwick, and then I’m off to Freetown Sierra Leone. It’s been a few months since my last visit, and clearly I couldn’t stay away. Last summer I interned with the Center for Coordination of Youth Activities in Freetown, where we organized around the upcoming elections, and worked towards ensuring a successful and nonviolent outcome. From July-August 07, CCYA held voter education programs, focus groups and a National Youth Dialogue Conference to promote nonviolence during the electoral process. The elections were a remarkable success, and my experiences in this amazing country were incredibly fulfilling.

Over the spring I will be interning with Forum of Conscience, a grassroots organization that is implementing a local reconciliation initiative called “Fambul Tok”, krio for family talk. I will be based in Makeni, but most of the work will be conducted in rural areas across various districts. This blog is to document my experiences in Salone. I will mainly speak to the research and work I will be undertaking, but also expect to be peppered with a few anecdotes.

More to come soon.