Sewa News Stream

On June 16, 1976, children in Soweto took to the streets in protest to add to the outcry started by Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Thambo Mbeki, and others in South Africa. Frustrated with segregation, the students demanded  equal rights. Sadly, the demonstration resulted in the death of some 23 students. More than a hundred were injured. Recognizing the gross violations, and the role played by these children in ending Apartheid, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now known as the African Union, ratified the AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS AND WELFARE OF THE CHILD. They also called for a global observance of the day, marking the horrendous attack on peaceful school pupils demonstrating against the injustice of Apartheid in South Africa. Also recognizing the day, the United Nations (UN) declared 1979 as the "International Year of the Child," which set in motion the working group that drafted the CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF a CHILD (CRC) in order to give a new...

T he Smile With Us Primary School has named a house after Dr. Sylvia. O. Blyden, Sierra Leone’s minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children Affairs. The new house, launched in time for sports day, is a sub-unit of the school, where each student is allocated to one house as a group or a team. The house is also using the moniker “Sia Kissi” and will be identified by its symbol color, pink. Sia Kissi house celebrates Dr. Blyden’s “exceptional work and contribution towards the empowerment and development of the entire Kissi kingdom, most especially for Kissi women,” the school authorities said. T he Smile With Us School is attached to an orphanage run by Mary Sesay, founder of the charity called Smile With Us Sierra Leone. The Smile With Us Orphanage is mainly for children who lost their parents during the Ebola virus epidemic in Sierra Leone in 2014, and other vulnerable children in the Koindu community of Kissi. Koindu is a town in Kailahun District in the Eastern Provi...

S ierra Leone is one of more than thirty countries at the bottom of the Human Development Index released in March.  Along with neighboring Guinea and Liberia, Sierra Leone trailed in many components of the 2016 index such as life expectancy at birth, expected years of schooling, mean years of schooling, Gross National Income, and GNI per capita rank minus HDI rank.  L ife expectancy at birth is based on the number of years a newborn infant could expect to live if prevailing patterns of age-specific mortality rates at the time of birth stay the same throughout the infant’s life. Expected years of schooling refers to the number of years of schooling that a child of school entrance age can expect to receive if prevailing patterns of age-specific enrolment rates persist throughout the child’s life. Mean years of schooling is the average number of years of education received by people ages 25 and older, converted from education attainment levels using official dura...

L ast week, Amnesty International West Africa suggested the bloodshed at recent student protests in Sierra Leone was caused by a  "heavy-handed response” by security forces. Students of Njala University reportedly started protesting against a lecturers' strike, which has left the college closed since October last year. Reports also said lecturers have been on strike due to non-payment of salaries by the government. Police said that the students did not obtain a permit for the protest and were burning tires and blocking roads. While Amnesty International has called for an investigation and accountability through fair trials, a social commentaor in Sierra Leone looks at the issues through the prism of a failing educational system. Andrew Keili writes the weekly column, Ponder My Thoughts   Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence pl...

Freetown covers about 35 square miles and approximately 1.1 million people live within its land area.  There are huge challenges with the transport system, solid waste management and sewage management. Andrew Keili, author of Ponder My Thoughts Volume 1 , a collection of news analysis, opinion, and essays on the most talked-about topics in Sierra Leone, looks at what the city and the national government should do to ease the problems.  The city of Freetown celebrated her 225th birthday on Saturday March 11 amidst much pomp at pageantry outside the Law Courts Building. The City Authorities and the celebration committee had collaborated well to put up a good show.  Freetown Players did a good skit on the founding of the city, attributing the founding to Thomas Peters and his band of Nova Scotians who arrived in 1792. In various speeches by Mrs Cassandra Gerber (Matriarch of the Krio Descendants Union) representing the settlers/descendants, the Mayor and Vice Preside...

Archive photo of Amadu Massally (left) and Joe Opala at Bunce Island Mohamed Gibril Sesay’s op-ed ‘Freetown: The Story You Never Knew’ has gotten a lot of feedback from Sierra Leoneans online.   In this wrap-up,  Sewa New s brings you excerpted comments posted by Amadu Massally, who has travelled to sister communities in South Carolina, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Grenada; and Patrick Muana, who has taught rhetoric, literature, and Africana studies at colleges in Sierra Leone and in the United States. Amadu is currently working on a John Kizell documentary with Joseph Opala — the historian most famous for the "Gullah Connection," which recognized the historical links between the people of Sierra Leone and the Gullah people of the Low Country region of South Carolina and Georgia in the United States — and Kevin Lowther, author of The African-American Odyssey of John Kizell . According to Slavery and Remembrance, Kizell was born about 1760, and captured at the ag...

On March 11, Sierra Leone marked the 225th anniversary of the nation's capital.  The city's birthday story as the Province of Freedom has been told over and over again. What's not as widely known is the city in local folklore. In this powerful counter narrative that was first published in 2011, Mohamed Gibril Sesay, author, sociologist, and politician, presents the story you never knew.   Province of Freedom--The area was first settled in 1787 by 400 formerly enslaved blacks sent from London, England, under the auspices of the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor, an organization set up by Jonah Hanway and the British abolitionist, Granville Sharp. These blacks were African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, Africans, Southeast Asians, and blacks born in Britain. They established the 'Province of Freedom' and the settlement of Granville Town on land purchased from local Koya Temne sub chief King Tom and regent Naimbana. The British understood the purchase w...