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.
A. From the hands of Yeabu and Semptu
Yeabu and Semptu are sisters. Yeabu, the eldest, is fifteen years old. She is almost double the size of the small Semptu, who is about seven or eight. Both of them form a daily part of the mission of the Augustinian Recollects in Kamabai (Biriwa Chiefdom, Bombali District, Sierra Leone).
They are almost unnoticed to the eyes. The first time you see them you believe that they form part of the landscape, until they seem hidden in it. This is always because, at about six in the morning, they pass together in the road which goes with the mission with a load of some twenty-five kilograms of firewood on their heads: like the camouflage on the helmets of the films of Vietnam, but even more so.
They live in Kaware, a small poor village of some hundred inhabitants composed of seven “baffas” or huts made of wood and palm leaves. Another twenty-five families live less than a mile away, close to the fields which they cultivate.
Every day, Monday to Sunday, at the same time, Yeabu and Semptu pass in front of the mission to sell the firewood in Kamabai. This has made them become merchants of the title, I´m not sure if it´s honory, of “providers of firewood for the mission”. This fifty kilogram’s of firewood bring them 4,000 leones (at an exchange rate of some 75 cents of a euro).
Every religious, volunteer or foreign visitor which comes up to the mission of Kamabai is introduced to the world of child labour through the figures of Yeabu and Semptu. It has been my wish that it would be them who would start this report.
Why? For their personal history. Theirs are lives that attack the consciences of those who still believe in human beings, in an image drawn without ambiguities or mercy, in the daily life of this country.
It is difficult to say it, more so when they are people who you see every day, but the truth is that Yeabu and Semptu are slaves. No, obviously, no-one is going to admit it, because slavery seems to be a thing of the past. It is better to say that it doesn´t exist. But I would say more. They are slaves of work in the fields, for the selling of wood, and also Yeabu is a sex slave to someone unknown. Someone I had wanted to put a name and a face to before he left the country. No to greet him, but rather to denounce him.
This story is not uncommon. It has ingredients and tastes of “Sierra Leone” that could well form part of almost any history. The mother of the young girls lives in Kakéndema, some fifteen kilometres away. Father unknown. As she could not look after them, she sent them to Kaware with an acquaintance, who “accepted look after them”. The adopted mother tells us with all conviction, almost so that you thank her.
Since they arrived in Kaware at a young age, Yeabu and Semptu have only known one thing: work in the fields. From sunrise to sunset. In unending days that start at five o´clock, when they collect firewood, then afterwards walking two and a half miles which separates them from Kamabai to sell it. Then they still have a long day of inhuman work in the fields and at home.
As is this was not enough, one day are unknown “friend” appeared in the life of Yeabu. He lives in some city in the south unknown to me. He bought the young girl two years ago, when Yeabu was thirteen. Well, no, let´s talk politically correctly. He asked her to be his wife. He paid the adoptive family so that when he came by Kaware, apparently every two months, Yeabu would “sleep” by his side. This here is “matrimony”, so forgive my confusion of concepts. Although Yeabu never could say neither no or yes to this proposal. She could only accept it or face maltreatment. So it is that she has to accept this man on the nights that he appears.
Also, the “husband” left an order: that Yeabu would not go to school. I have to admit that when I heard this any fame of “Buddha” or “Gandhi” which I had gained amongst the Recollects ended in a stroke. To be a volunteer that asked why the young girls weren´t at school I passed to being a fanatic giving shouts, threatening the police, and indicating that if Yeabu and Semptu weren´t at the Catholic school in Kamabai the following Monday, I would personally return to collect everyone: the two young girls to take them to school and the adoptive mother to take her to the police station.
Finally, one day, I paid for the uniform, they put on some shoes from the container (thank you, Valladolid!) and my eyes filled with tears when, in the middle of January, I saw Yeabu with her small chalkboard writing her first scribbles at the age of fifteen.
Yeabu and Semptu still sell wood. But now they carry under their arms, always well covered as if it were more valuable than a Gucci bag, their blue school uniform. Both of them have started to greet us in Kiro, a language which could allow them to open the back door of English that they will learn at school and that would allow them to communicate with whichever Sierra Leonean. Because up until now they only speak limba.
B. But what´s going on in this world?
The story of Yeabu and Semptu stirs up the emotions. Like the death of babies; or the lack of attention of adults to young children; or hunger; or the stories of witches to scare people; or the contempt towards women; or the abusive and exploitative relationships to others; or the death of preventative or curable diseases. What´s happening in this world so that this can happen only six hours away in a plane from Madrid?
On the 9th of January 2011, thirty-five people were brought together in the Pastoral Centre of Kamabai, in a meeting organized by the Sub-commission of Justice and Peace in the Diocese of Makeni. The vice-president and secretary of this Sub-commission, both of them teachers in Kamabai (signs of hope and pride? you bet!), had brought together the most distinguished members of society: elders, youth leaders, the Imam of the mosque, the “speaker” (one of the local responsibilities), student representatives and teachers from all the schools (Catholic, Wesleyan and Muslim), the Police, housewives, the “chief” of Masaramankay (the district of Kamabai where the Mission is), the parish priest (the Augustinian Recollect Manuel Lipardo)…
The sub-commission presented the most important points in social inequality that requires attention on the behalf of everyone. In order of importance, they were:
- Inequality and domestic violence: the situation of women.
- Child labour and physical punishment in the family and at school.
- Child marriages.
- The charging of illegal fees in some colleges (obviously, not Catholic ones).
- Bondo society and female genital mutilation.
- Adolescent pregnancies and the expulsion of girls from schools.
- Politics: the lack of transparency and the problem of corruption.
- Tribalism: fights for power, and tension between Limbas and Mandingos.
- Sexual abuse: the lack of defence for women and the lack of punishment for men.
- Human trafficking: the selling on young children for work in the fields.
- Exam failure rates: the effort of students in the official exams,
This is a simple picture of what happens here, outside, a few meters from me whilst I write this. One of the challenges that one faces immediately if you want to give back some dignity to those who live here.
To cure this problem it is necessary to make a diagnosis, which in itself requires knowledge. For this reason we present ten keys that attempt to give a general and realistic image of what happens here. In order to make a first diagnosis which will serve later for concrete actions.
The teachers in the Catholic schools in Kamabai fighting for the rights of all, or Yeabu and Semptu printing their first letters at school, are signs that living here for a year is worthwhile. Despite the heart aches, the rise and fall of emotions, the weight of loneliness and the fight against the elements as is overcome and then some.
NEXT PAGE: 1. Political and civil power
