Sewa News Stream

Almost a week after the controversial incident between Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) President Isha Johansen, and former Sierra Leone captain, Mohamed Kallon, the SLFA Executive Committee released a terse statement on Tuesday, March 11. It reads:   With reference to the incident which occurred on the 6th March 2014 at the Sierra Leone Football Association Academy in Kingtom, the Executive Committee of the FA in a meeting on Tuesday 11th March, has considered the severity of the matter and has referred it to the Disciplinary Committee of the FA to investigate and make recommendations. In view of the above, the football family is advised to remain calm, pending investigations and recommendations by the Disciplinary Committee. Furthermore, members of the Executive will not discuss the matter with the media as it is sub judice since it has been referred to the Disciplinary Committee of the FA. Last week, however, BBC Sport's Mohamed Fajah Barrie re...

  Rachel Horner is a poster child for Sierra Leone's now 30-something war generation--shaped by the events, developments and trends of her time. Sewa News caught up with her on Facebook and over a series of inbox messages and  e-mails, Rachel reflected on progress made since she graduated from high school in 2000. She also called for change . This International Women's Day,  Sewa News celebrates Rachel's determination and the extraordinary role she has played in the history of her country and her community. When young Rachel Horner started school in Freetown in 1989, her nation was on the brink of war. But few knew, in March 1991, that it'd be eleven long years before the government would declare the war officially ended .  After the first shots were fired in the east of the country near the border with Liberia, the conflict soon spread to various parts of Sierra Leone, leaving the capital city in uneasy calm. By 1994,  Rachel moved from her local...

"Let us all join forces to promote linguistic diversity and multilingualism as a key element in our efforts to build a better world and a life of dignity for all." --Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (Message for International Mother Language Day 2014) Sorie Ibrahim Kanu, managing director, Let's Learn Our Languages  Today is International Mother Language Day. International Mother Language Day has been observed every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national languages of the then Pakistan, were shot and killed by police in Dhaka, the capital of what is now Bangladesh. Today, the BBC reports that a debate is raging in Kenya over the use of mother languages in the east African nation's schools. A new government policy requires children under eight years of age be instructed in their m...

Monday, February 17 is Presidents Day 2014 in the United States.   So as a small celebration of all American presidents I decided to read probably one of the best books on U.S. presidents past and present.   But before I bought Michael Beschloss’s “ The Presidents of the United States of America ” I made sure to read the “Most Helpful Customer Reviews” on Amazon. One of them, posted February 1, 2014, caught my eye. The writer said he’d been a tourist in Washington, D.C. some years ago (which I was many moons back). He also wrote that one of the reasons he’d been driven to buy the book for himself was because he’s a history major, which I am. Like the writer, I find Beschloss’s book attractive for its “portrait illustrations,” and for its “one page write ups” that are “non-partisan.” I also found his quote below insightful:   “The dignity of the Presidential Office is preserved by giving each President a sympathetic account starting with their birth, family ...

Sometime in the middle of 2013, an independent expert appointed by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council spent six days in Sierra Leone at the invitation of the government.  During the visit, which ran from June 30 to July 5, the UN expert met with government officials and agencies, as well as representatives of religious or belief communities and civil society organizations. At the end of the 6-day visit, perhaps one of the most memorable reports to come out of Sierra Leone was shared by German philosopher, historian and Catholic theologian, Heiner Bielefeldt. “What I have experienced here by far exceeds expectation,” Bielefeldt told reporters in Freetown as the UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief wrapped up his visit. “All interlocutors agree that religious communities, in particular Muslims and Christians, live peacefully and harmoniously side-by-side,” he said.  Bielefeldt added that while ethnic, regional and other differences –real or ...

As debate over cash at a State House summit mounts amid unrelenting criticism, transparency is proving to be one of the main challenges. On Thursday, January 23, 2014, Awareness Times reported Sierra Leone government and State House officials contacted the newspaper to say they were not aware President Koroma paid out 20,000 American dollars (Le 88Million) at the summit with ten party leaders. The Awareness Times report comes more than two weeks after the political scandal broke revolving around the payment by the Koroma administration of US$20,000 to political leaders, including Somano Kapen, chairman and secretary general of the Sierra Leone People's Party; Charles F. Margai of the People's Movement for Democratic Change; Peace and Liberation Party leader, Kandeh Baba Conteh, and Mohamed Bangura of the United Democratic Movement.   Information and Communication Minister Alhaji Alpha Kanu, Sierra Leone's official spokesman, reportedly told Awareness Times Thurs...

It's almost a year since the Political Parties Registration Commission met with representatives of all 10 registered political parties to set the stage for "better organized presidential and parliamentary elections" in 2017. This week, Justice Tola Thompson, chair of the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC), presented the PPRC's 2012-2013 report to President Koroma at State House. "The report is very much timely," said State House aide Jarrah Kawusu-Konteh on Facebook. "It is being presented at a time when the president is about to have a working lunch with leaders of all political parties in the country." At the lunch, a State House press release said the president thanked the leaders of the political parties for coming and especially for their response to issues of national concern like law and order and management of the country's resources. The president is said to have noted that he has no intention to be "Mac...