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.