This is a journey through the reality of Sierra Leone, a country in which the Augustinian Recollects have left their mark. The author, with his soul in pain but in love with Sierra Leone after a year in the country, tells us the story sometimes in the first person, other times from the point of view of the objective observer, with traces of humor and dreams for the future of this country.
When a person relates more to his surroundings, he has more opportunities to progress. Also when he finds himself more isolated, it is when he can least participate in the social, economic, and cultural life and he becomes impoverished on all levels.
Biriwa has only one tarmacked road, from North to South. The state of the road surface is defective. It is the backbone of all that goes East and West on the roads for the different villages. In the whole country, only 8% of the roads are tarmacked.
The isolation is characteristic of the region. There are more than 200 villages. In them about thirty are accessible only by foot. Another thirty are accessible with a four by four during the dry season. Almost all of the roads have river fords and paddy fields without bridges. The journeys are slow and require a lot of petrol for the continuous use of lower gears.
Sierra Leone is one of the countries with the lowest level of vehicles per person. There are eleven vehicles for every 1,000 people, giving them No. 116 in a list of 143 countries. Spain has 479 (No. 20) Mexico 209 (No.52) and Brazil 156 (No.65). The country which heads the list is the United States with 842.
Nonetheless, the security on these visits is reflected in other figures: in Sierra Leone 28.3 people die every year in traffic accidents for every 100,000 inhabitants, in Mexico 20.7, in Brazil 18.3 and in Spain 6.9. The vehicles used are old cars from Europe coming to be worn out in Africa after a long life, many owners and no maintenance.
A familiar image: an old Renault 21 from the beginning of the 90´s, with nine passengers inside and loaded on top of the roof more than twice its height in luggage. It is not uncommon that the driver would share his seat with someone, that there would be a passenger or two in the boot, and even that there would be people on the roof or on the front bonnet, holding on to the windscreen wipers.
These vehicles do not reach the inner populations, for they cannot use these roads and are only used by those with tarmacked roads between provincial capitals.
Public transport is the “poda poda”, medium size vans in which up to twenty-five people travel in five rows. The passengers travel with their chins on their knees and there is no space inside for even a fly.
In reality, nine out of every ten journeys in the region of Kamabai are made on foot. There are not a significant number of bicycles or motorbikes. Loads are carried on the head, and small children are carried on the backs of people.
One of the curious scenes is seen between seven and eight o´clock in the morning, with all the highways and roads filled with schoolchildren in uniform walking towards the education centres side by side with children and women with firewood and agricultural goods to be sold in markets and villages.
These difficulties highlight the consequences of isolation. The distance from the few public services (health centres and schools) complicates everything. There are no official organizations and government offices, which means that many people are practically non-existent for the State, especially smaller children.
It is also noticeable the cultural isolation. In the most isolated villages the population only speaks Limba. With that they are left out of the social life of the country, given that they do not know Kiro, the common language. This denies them de facto possibilities of study and social progress in working environments outside of the local rural zones.
In a world without electricity to think about any other type of communications is pointless. In Sierra Leone only 0.3% of the population have Interne. Since 2008, along the main trunk road there are antennas that give mobile phone coverage to 40% of the of the Biriwa territory. The Chinese are making money by renting mobile units at a low price and poor quality, which has eased a little communications.
The access to mobile phones in undeveloped countries has seen a wild increase in the last five years. It is now normal that in developed countries there are now more mobiles than people. For example, in Spain there were in August 2010 a total of 55,482,993 lines for mobile phones, 114 lines for every 100 inhabitants. Sierra Leone occupies number 157 in this list, with nineteen mobiles for every 100 inhabitants.
Some blogs remind us that many people go without food or public transport in order to buy prepays credits for their mobiles. All the terminals are sold openly, without exclusion of companies, at relatively cheap prices. A SIM card for whichever company only costs $1 (4,000 leones). To charge the battery for the mobile costs 1,000 leones (there is no electricity in the homes).
The mobile has also changed the organization of time. The most popular company in Kamabai, Airtel, has a promotion in which calls between Airtel phones are free between two and five in the morning. The result is that everyone phones at these hours, which were previously used for sleeping.
One of the most difficult moments I has helping the students was explaining what a fax was. One of the questions in the official exam said “Indicate the means of communication which businesses have”. The official response was: “mail, telephone, fax and Internet”. Apart from the telephone, now commonplace because of mobiles, in Kamabai there are no other means: there is no post, fixed telephone lines, computers of Internet.
Therefore, questions are put: “What is a fax?” Explaining to these children how a sheet of paper with letters on it can be sent by cable to any part of the world was a difficult experience in my inability to explain. It is closer to magic than reality. But young boys of their age in Spain, however, would not know how to live without Twenty. One of the paradoxes of the world.
I believe that until electricity arrives it will be impossible to change things a bit; in the same way that until clean water arrives it will be impossible to teach them about hygiene. But the social, cultural, economic and ideological isolation is at present an unmistakable characteristic in general of the region.
NEXT PAGE: 5. Education
