Date: Sunday, 29-Dec-96 04:59 PM
From: Kelfala M. Kallon \ Internet: (kmkallo@bentley.univnorthco.edu)
Subject: Re: Tegoma Org ......Response

 In as much as I agree with some of the views expressed about the above-mentioned debate, I think it is ABSOLUTELY wrong to depict Sheikh Umar Kamarah as anti-Mende or any other ethnic group. I do not think he was making a statement about any particular group. The thrust of his argument was the need for unfettered inclusion as he decried exclusionary tendencies of any nature. Associating him with "ethnic cleansing" and other ugly epitaph runs counter to his legacy at FBC as a progressive elder who tirelessly worked to make the Philosophical Society an all-student organization irrespective of ethnic origin. As a mandingo boy from Koindu, he never wavered in his support and encouragement whenever I turned to him for help. We both worked on the same committee to elect Mr Kamara as president of the student union. He did not reject the call of duty because the candidate was not a Freetownian.

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Alie, it is clear that the thrust of Dr. Kamarah’s posting was aimed at the Tegloma folks. I am sure he knows that there are many ethnically- based organizations on the East Coast, each of which is predominated by an ethnic group. In fact, in his posting, he praised the Kono Union for helping its members. He made no mention of the Fullah Progressive Union, which a mostly

Fullah organization. Neither did he make any mention of Sakorma, which is mostly Temne dominated; nor did he mention KDDA, which is also northern based. (What formulae do these organizations use that makes their membership as dominated by one ethnic group as they currently are?)

Now contrast this with his treatment of Tegloma. He incorrectly stated that Tegloma insists on the Mende purity, pontificating later that "The danger with this kind of conception of an ethnic group is the tendency to move along the lines of ETHNIC CLEANSING. The other danger is that such groups become hegemonic." None of the material assistance Tegloma has provided to the war-displaced people of Salone is mentioned. Thus, my own reading of Dr. Kamarah’s piece led me to the conclusion that, in his opinion, Tegloma is the lone bad wolf in the bunch, the one that practising ethnic purity. (At least, Vidal seemed to come to the same conclusion, given the thrust of his response to Dr. Kamarah.)

A quick reading of our recent history would suggests that Dr. Kamarah’s piece falls into the genre of analysis that would hold the Mende to one standard and hold everyone else to a different standard. For instance, the noise about Albert Margai’s intention to create a "Mendecracy" was deafening in the ‘60s just because he appointed Peter Tucker and the late John Kallon Secretary to the Prime Minister and Establishment Secretary respectively. This was notwithstanding the fact that if one took the ethnic representation of Albert Margai’s cabinet and Heads of Government Departments as a proportion of their representation in the national population, Albert (and his late brother) would have been guilty of creating a Kriocracy, not the Mendecracy that was alleged. Under APC (mis)rule, even when the President and his two Vice- Presidents and the bulk of the cabinet were mostly northern and Freetown dominated, we did not hear the cries of a Limba/Temne/Krio hegemony, not even during the short-lived period

of EKUTAY buffoonery. (In fact, for a very long stretch during the APC’s period of misrule, Kenema District had no cabinet member, in spite of its economic importance to the country.)

Even as the APC took thugs from Freetown and the North to kill, maim, and beat up people in the Southern and Eastern Provinces, we did not hear about tendencies for such wanton state-sponsored violence to lead to ethnic cleansing. Not even the Ginger Hall bombings of the early APC period evoked any such protests against the possiblity of such acts creating a tendency

for ethnic cleansing. Also, when the war started, many an influential non-Mende claimed that it was a"Mende War" in order to forcibly remove the APC from power. To make this claim

credible, it was necessary to claim that Foday Sankoh did not exist. And when the APC was eventually removed from office, the imbecilic Momoh had the unmitigated gall to blame his ouster not on his incompetence but on "power-hungry Mendes and Krios" who wanted power for its own sake. And at election time, we heard other rubbish about the Mende being power hungry, even when a Mandingo (not a Mende) was the standard bearer of the party that pundits erroneously called a "Mende" party.

(And, he defeated a venerable Mende politician, Charles Margai, for the party’s nomination.) Contrast this with the ethnicity of the other presidential candidates and their respective party’s ethnic representation and the big lie would be revealed for all to see. Thus, if one peels the rhetoric off Dr. Kamarah’s piece, one would find that it fits squarely in this national predisposition to blame the Mendes for all of the country’s ills.

Finally, with all due respect, Alie, if Dr. Kamarah had merely wished to state "the need for unfettered inclusion" in Sierra Leonean organizations, he could have done so without resorting to the use of inaccurate evidence in order to paint one group as having the tendency toward ethnic cleansing. His piece would not have been offensive to anyone, although I think that folks should be free to associate with whom ever they choose as long as such association does not exclude

others from enjoying all rights and privileges guaranteed them under the Constitution of Sierra Leone.

As one who was associated with Tegloma, I found Dr. Kamarah’s unwarranted attack, using incorrect evidence, absolutely insulting to those who labored to bring the organization to life and to the younger folks who have kept it going. Thus, the least I expected from him after my and Mr. Mansaray’s responses suggesting that his evidence is incorrect was a rebuttal giving names of people who have been denied membership into Tegloma because their parents were both not "PURE" Mendes. (I am sure that you would not object to such evidence since it is the standard

you have set for IB—that he should give names and dates in order to make his claims in "Bushpaths" credible.) If such evidence is not available, then one would have expected Dr. Kamarah to offer a retraction and/or an appology to the Tegloma membership. (I am still waiting for one of the above.)

Like you, I do not believe in personal attacks. We have a lot of serious issues to discuss to waste our time attacking the personae of people we have not even met. However, I think that Dr. Kamarah owes this group a little more than attempts by his friends to use his kindness as evidence that what he wrote was not what it seems to suggest. Finally, I must state that to accept my reading of his piece is not to associate Dr. Kamarah with ethnic cleansing. A charge of that magnitude is much too serious to level against any individual or group on the basis of flimsy, inaccurate evidence. Regards. I hope that Chicago is not too cold.

Kelfala Kallon