a sunday at lakka and a friday at wilberforce

it is a sleepy sunday evening. the hum of the generator is going. i type from the balcony of the hostel where i’m staying. i feel a relaxed sleepy sort of satisfaction, the sort you get after a day of swimming in the sea and lounging in the sun. myself and six friends went to lakka on the recommendation of an american who has spent a lot of time in freetown (although she did seem most enthralled with the cute puppies at pierre’s beach resort, that you can actually play with).

perhaps it is because of the rain, but the road to lakka was 4WD material. our taxi driver seemed a bit upset at the number of rocks scraping the bottom of his car as we bumped in and over potholes.. he also wasn’t too happy about having a mud sprayed car by the end of the day. today lakka was a quiet pleasant beach. i expected far more people and beach boys. the sea was beautiful and the beach was lined with palm trees. we walked to a small island just off shore when the tide was low, they had a hard rock ‘cafe’. i bought a coconut from a kid who was eating his way through a mountain of coconuts with his friends. i don’t like the water too much, so he artfully demonstrated how to ‘skull’ a coconut in one gulp. i walked along the beach with my head in a coconut, trying to scrape the flesh off with my teeth. as the day wore on, our quiet beach hideaway was infiltrated with SLPP supporters in green, all going to pierre’s beach resort because solomon berewa (presidential candidate) and his running mate were due to arrive. we ate lunch there and watched proceedings, but i never saw solo b. or maybe i did and i just didn’t recognise him. although i would think he’d have a crowd around him. the resort’s sound system played quite a lot of songs critical of sierra leone politicians (a lot of emmerson songs) which i thought was quite funny as emmerson is discreetly criticising the SLPP. i also saw one guy who looked like he was dressed as a tree. he had green fronds all over him. he was dancing around and kids were following him and banging drums. i asked why he was dressed like a tree and dancing around and apparently it had something to do with the SLPP coming. but i think there was something more interesting going on that i didn’t pick up on.

on friday i went back to my favourite spot to hang out, the slum behind the wilberforce barracks. i saw my friends juliette, mehsa, khady, tala, mahawa and all their children (who came and hung on to me so tightly i struggled to maintain my balance as i was making my way about the sewers and rocky pathways). i talked with four low level soldiers who have a shack next to moses’ sisters’ place. they were drinking palm wine and smoking ganja but keen to speak with me as they’d seen me about the place. samuel wasn’t born in freetown, but became a rebel fighter during the war, which brought him to freetown. after the war, he was integrated into the national military and trained as a driver. he still thinks that change in sierra leone will only come at the end of a gun, which i found a bit scary. he said he’s not going to vote because he is confused about the different parties. daniel said he isn’t going to vote because all the parties are saying the same thing (they will provide electricity, piped water, roads and jobs), and he thinks none will deliver, so there is no point. all the soldiers i talked to said that their monthly income is 64,000 leones, that is approx 11 pounds per month. all said their standard of living had dropped since before the war. they don’t get issued boots anymore. samuel said he often eats just garri (dried ground cassava), sometimes with water and sometimes plain and he drinks palm wine to dull the feeling of hunger. interestingly, mohammed had been to china for military training but said that he would still prefer to live in sierra leone than china. must have been grim in china. we spoke chinese to each other which seemed a bit surreal. an australian and a sierra leonean speaking chinese in a slum in freetown. their views on women was also interesting. daniel said he wouldn’t marry a woman who worked as a radio broadcaster because she must sleep around to get such a position. she would be the lover of a politician while her husband is at home. most were adamant that while it is OK for a woman to earn money, she must submit to her husband in the home. she must be humble. only babakar greatly admired strong women and said he’d marry a strong educated woman in a flash, if only he would be so fortunate to have such a woman attracted to him, a poor uneducated man. when he said he admired ellen sirleaf-johnson (liberian president), the other men laughed and said she’s sleeping with pa kabbah (sierra leone president).

after sitting with the men for about three hours, i caught up with marian, who showed me where she sleeps. we get along well as we are close in age. she has worked hard selling ice lollies and fishballs at the market to put herself through university (in conjunction with a donation from her uncle). she’s hoping to one day travel abroad for postgraduate studies (LSE is her number one wish). go girl. she pulled out some of her good clothes (for church) and i tried them on. she wrapped my head as well. and we ate some rice with groundnut stew and fishballs (home made of course). to be honest, i don’t like the fishballs much because i’ve watched the women making them and they use all the scrap parts of fish, the heads, the tails, the spine. they pound it is the mortar and pestle. so marian ate the fishballs while i had rice and sauce.

i rounded off my day in wilberforce by attending the SLPP youth group meeting at the wilberforce barracks, out of curiosity. i got there a bit late so caused a bit of a stir when i came in. the guy at the front (they were calling him mr chairman) asked me to sit with him, facing all the young people. i was embarrassed and said i’d rather sit at the back. for the first few minutes, a few were twisting in their seats to look at me, but then they forgot about me. i noticed immediately that it was all young men in there. i asked if it was a men’s only youth group but apparently it is open to women as well. i’m not sure why there were no women, but intend to ask around. the meeting was pretty boring, they were talking about mundane things like venue locations, prices, times, and schedules for some upcoming events. many of the young men were keen to speak with me after the meeting. unfortunately, i had to leave so i didn’t get home too late but i promised i would go back and speak with some of them. i’m interested in their views of the upcoming elections and what motivated these young men to be politically active.

we went to paddy’s nightclub on friday night. on friends’ advice, we didn’t bother heading off until 12.30am or so. we got there at 1am and as we were told, no one was dancing. in fact no one really started jiving until 2.30am. i liked people watching though. there was one prostitute in a low slung blue dress (very mini) with gold heels and a blonde wig. the bouncers wouldn’t let her in because ‘your skirt is too short’, but after money changed hands, she was in, along with us. while there were many prostitutes in the place, i kept my eye on her as i was curious to see how quickly she could ply her trade. after getting some drinks from a few foreign men, she headed off with one white guy to the car park at the back. from where i was sitting (in the outdoor area by the water), i could see negotiations going on between some sierra leonean guys, the white guy and the prostitute. it looked like a heated debate was going on and before i knew it, one of the sierra leonean guys punched the prostitute so hard she fell over. she staggered away and i didn’t see her again. the white guy stood there awkwardly and slowly inched himself away from the situation and back into the throbbing heart of paddy’s. hitting the dance floor was fun, apart from a few leery men. my favourite moment was when a song was played on the dance floor which is by two guys from the youth group i go. it is called o’salone, by d’mark and lamza t, two young fellows i like very much. they only recorded it a few weeks ago and mixed it last week at studio j (i was with them). i was sad that they weren’t there to hear their song played in front of a crowd. when i saw them on saturday they were so happy to hear their song had been played and lots of people danced to it. i was also pretty happy to hear ‘di pa dae pack for go’ because that is one of the few salone songs i know all the lyrics to. they also played ‘mama africa’ by akon, which i’ve been hearing everywhere. as well as the ganja farmer/planter song. i wanted to leave by about 4.30 but moses said the cab drivers are dangerous at night and was reluctant to leave until the muezzin sings in the morning (for the muslim prayers). so we hung around till 5. it wasn’t nice feeling trapped at the nightclub. for a second i envied the rich foreigners who have their own cars and drivers. even when we left, we got another sierra leonean friend to ride with us to make us safer.