Ngor Kallon:

Thanks for your cogent re-statement of your position on the issue under discussion here. Once we take out the personal stuff, which you and I agree is unncessary in an objective analysis, there is a common ground we do share.

Yes, there are many ethnically-defined organizations and the over-whelming majority engage in positive and constructive work to further their stated goals. In the absence of a national/umbrellla organization to cater to the multiple needs of those of us in the West, micro-level identities offer a functional purpose in linking us together. How we choose to direct the activit ies of such organizations make them either consistent with the healthy goal of fostering a sense of community or inconsistent with our determination to see ourselves as members of a nation-state.

My response to Sheikh did highlight the need to go beyond the perceived provincial hegemony of student union politics at FBC and view exclusionary politics in a historical manner. There were times when it was much easier for Africans from other colonies to be admitted at FBC than "natives" from the hinterland. Cultural imperialism of the colonizer filtered down to the emerging Freetown-based elites who in turn reinforced the old hierarchy of exclusionary politics often associated with colonialism. As we know, independence shifted the equation in favor of a majority. But this majority was an artificial construct beyond its "provincial" character vis-a- vis the

Freetown-based elites....

Despite all the shortcomings of ethnic organizations, their efforts to keep the communal spirit alive in a western society in which the individual is the center of life should be applauded. We must, at the same time, ensure that any deviation from the goal of an all-inclusive identity should be condemned without favor or malice.

The weather is, thank God, still merciful to us in Chicago. But General Winter is certain to descend on us like Idi Amin’s army!!!