19 August

Meredith Benton: Separate and Unequal: Sierra Leone’s Conflict with Tradition

17 August

Mary Magellan: Media and Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone

12 August

Ben Mitchell: Legacy of Exploitation in Sierra Leone

10 August

Heidi Zirtzlaff: An Opportunity for Real Change: Building Peace in Sierra Leone

5 August

Christine Williams: Quiet Inequalities: Voices from the Women of Sierra Leone

3 August

Deanna Tamborelli: Transitional Justice: The Need for a Multifaceted Approach

29 July

Amanda Pope:  Surviving on Hope in Sierra Leone’s Isolated Camps

27 July

Rishna Gracie:  Sierra Leone’s Memory of a Violent Past

23 July

Shauna Kelly: From War to Peacebuilding

20 July

Sughey Ramirez:  Motorbike Riders in Sierra Leone: Menace to Society or Social Indicator?

15 July:

Mawuor Dior:  Witnessing First-hand: The Crux of Sierra Leone’s Conflict

13 July

Veronica Beebe:  Sierra Leone: Will This Place Know War Again?

Dr. Pushpa Iyer:  Looking Forward: But What Does Sierra Leone’s Future Hold?

http://www.iansa.org/

http://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/ArmsTradeTreaty/html/ATTMeetings2009-11.shtml

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/13/AR2010071300190.html

Sierra Leone delegate statement points

• The issue of gender is important in considering the ATT since armed conflict is never gender neutral
• Condolences of victims of Uganda from yesterday’s bombing   Parliamentarians for Global Action has been advocating for the ATT
• Sierra Leone suffered because of a lack of this treaty and it is overdue
• Sierra Leone enacted initiatives around SALW but  8 yrs later Sierra Leone is still  struggling to recover from the conflict
• We are grateful for the $100,000 contribution to amputees from the Secretary General
• Sierra Leone, more than ever, is ready to cooperate to move forward with the ATT since they had a largest peacekeeping operation due to the 11 yr war

As I drove home from the airport I began to think about all of the things I had started to learn to live without.  It was only two weeks, but I had already started to adapt to aspects of the lifestyle, or at least I had stopped expecting certain things.  Paved roads, electricity, internet, air conditioning, phones, working bathrooms, and the list goes on.  These were some of the ‘difficulties’ we were faced with everyday.  Being back in the U.S., I’ve had a bit of time to reflect on what we saw.  In the weeks after we returned, I thought a lot about what I could live without.

I could give up my blackberry, I already leave it at home without a second thought.  Probably, if I weaned myself off of it, I deal with not having the internet.  Living without electricity and bathrooms would be hard, but not impossible.  But could I live without steady access to clean water? Doctors? Food?  There are a lot of problems that the society of Sierra Leone faces, but health, food, and water are the things that have been sticking with me.

We were asked if we returned to Sierra Leone in five years what we would like to see changed.  I think at the time I said less corruption, but my answer has changed.  I hope that every Sierra Leonean has increased food security.  I hope that there is prevalent access to clean water.  I sincerely hope that within five years the quality of life in Sierra Leone is better.  In the future, I hope that the dialogue shifts from what can the outside world do for us to what we can do for ourselves.

What are some of the causal factors of gender based violence here in Sierra Leone?

There is a societal acceptance that men beat wives because they love them.

The husband/wife relationship is culturally defined.  The women have low self esteem because the culture has forced women to fell powerless.

The wife is heavily reliant on the husband leading her to be treated like property.

Women are starting to grasp gender equality but accepting and implementing it is different.

A low rate of literacy and a lack of schooling among women, contributes to the gender based violence.

Women do not know their rights, or do not have confidence that they can successfully exercise those rights.

“The practice of female genital mutilation is embedded into society.”

What are some of the ways you work towards community development and the promotion of women’s rights and security?

policy assessment and lobbying

community theater-training 40 youth a year on drama and communication skills, street drama, puppetry and radio drama

mapping themes, problems and solutions- pictorial/visual conceptualizations

local advocacy to work with men about women’s issues as they are “secondary stakeholders”

provide a community support, mediation, counseling and resource center for women and their families

Sadly, one community-based organizations reported an increase of rape in their community.  Like much of the world, the majority of rape in Sierra Leone is within the family and extended family.  Much like some other cultures, police stay away from the issue of rape, deeming it a “family affair.”  It makes sense that after a war in which rape was used as a weapon, rape remained prevalent following the end of the war before much progress had been made for ex-combatants to reintegrate into society.  I was told that ex-combatants carried on raping women because they were accustomed to lawlessness, violence and destruction.

Huge strides in gender equality are needed to make progress in the on-going peacebuilding process.

I admit that in writing the above description I had to constantly withdraw my grim choice of words.  I had to retract my harsh dramatization of what it was like for the woman captured by the rebels and replace it with softer words.  But I do not think it is a topic that should be made more manageable for the reader.  Nicolas Christoph and Sheryl WuDunn’s book, “Half the Sky,” does not spare the reader any details in the stories of women around the world who suffered through unimaginable abuses.  The stories are not told for shock value; they are the reality of the women’s lives, and the truth should be known.

12 hours on the bus

11 tons of dust

10 cold showers

9 wives for Rob

8 million bugs

7 broken shower heads

6 bottles of Palm wine

5 went to Kenya

4 lost bags

3 african hens

2 hours of sleep

and 1 bed for 3 people.

I’m not sure people realize this, but Africa is huge.  There are 54 countries in Africa.  These countries represent hundreds of different ethnic groups, types of geography, and cultures.  Sierra Leone is just one of these countries.  So when I’m asked how Africa was, my response is usually, I don’t know, but Sierra Leone was great.  But Sierra Leone is not representative of all the countries on the continent.  For starters, I never saw a desert or a real jungle while I was there (two things I associated with Africa).  And even now, I’ve fallen into this pattern of saying, “I went to Africa.”  No one ever asks for clarification.

Another question that I got a lot of, but I didn’t know how to answer, was “how does it feel to be back to civilization?”  In regards, to having a warm shower and drinking clean water, I can understand where this question is coming from, and might be interpreting it too much.  But in a lot of ways, this question seemed to be focused on the idea that the people and the culture were less civilized than western culture.  I never knew what to say to this, so I would just say something about how it was nice to have a hot shower, but I don’t feel like that addressed the issue.  So I’m going to try to.  Sierra Leone was no less civilized than it is here.  Were there certain neighborhoods that were rougher? Sure, but there are certain neighborhoods that are rough in the US.  I never felt unsafe in Sierra Leone.  I rarely felt unwelcome.  The places we stayed were nice.  I never left civilization.

Our bus ride to Tongo was long and bumpy, and when we got into town, the village chief actually halted our driver.  He was determined to stop us from entering what we’d come to know as a birthplace for the war: one of the infamous diamond mines of Sierra Lone.  Our group sweltered on the bus while Professor Iyer explained our intentions to the chief.  She returned with two Sierra Leonean police officers.  My mouth went dry as the officers squeezed into our cramped bus, insisting on accompanying us into the mines.  Needless to say, the tension was palpable.  As we slowly clambered through the dusty town, it became clear that mining is the main economic activity keeping this area going.  Stores selling mining tools and basic necessities littered the main road of Tongo, which snakes straight into the mines.

Finally we stopped and disembarked.  Vast sandpits peppered with miners and reminiscent of forced labor camps stretched out before us.  As our odd group of 16 trouped through the worksite, men waist deep in murky waters of the pits below stared up at our group as we scrambled for footing on the edges of the pits.  Shouts of “what are they doing here!?” punctuated the long hard looks we received.  We were nervous and claustrophobic as miners swarmed around us while we squished precariously around one of the pits.  Perhaps 100 men were perching on the peaks of sand mountains, digging in the ditches below and squeezing into our narrow sandy space that straddled two of the pits.  Soon a man from the local radio station appeared to broadcast our questions across the mining field and in the town.

It was so hot and the miners were so close. I remember trembling at the thought of speaking to a group that looked so hostile.  The weight of my foreign-ness crushed down on me.  We heard our voices echoing across the mines as we timidly began asking questions.  Did these men feel supported by the government or local mining union?  They answered resoundingly ‘No.’ We soon learned that 5 men had died that day of various afflictions including lassa fever, gonarrhea and malaria.  Given the huge risks these men take to mine, we asked why they chose to do such dangerous work.  Employment in Sierra Leone, they told us in so many words, is not something to choose but something to chase.  Mining pays little and diamond dealers pay the lowest prices possible to these men, most of whom haven’t seen finished diamonds and aren’t aware of their worth. Some Sierra Leoneans we met likened mining to gambling.   Men sift sand and silt each day hoping to strike diamond.   But adding to the sadness of the situation, we learned that the dusty diamond mine in Tongo is nearly baren; anything of value was found a long time ago.   Today there is no more fighting for control over these mines, many of them scraped dry, but the diamond remain hotbeds for potential conflict since many of these men are college educated, and most of them are excombattants.

From the comfort of cushy Irvine auditorium in Monterey, I still feel the hopelessness in the eyes of the men who spend each day waist deep in murky water living only on the dream of a diamond in the rough.  I can only wonder what the future holds for these men as I channel my anger, frustration, sadness, and shock into my studies since I was lucky enough not to be left behind in the mist of war.

The following is a reflection on our visit to “Peacetown,” a village outside of Makeni we visited on January 19^th.  The story was a part of our presentation at the Monterey Institute on April 6, 2010.

Our bus arrived at a community outside of Makeni that had been renamed “Peacetown” in recognition of its role as the site of a signing of a peace accord between the RUF rebels and the Sierra Leonian government.  It was apparently somewhat of a hotbed of activity in the 1990s, the site of a UN brokered peace treaty, and as the large monument in the center of town indicates, “Peace Was Born Here.”  Curious children gradually surrounded us, and we posed for pictures in front of the Peacetown monument, the children flashing the peace sign.  It was a light moment, one that was tempered by the rest of our visit in Peacetown.

Some of us lingered with the children that had surrounded us, passing out stickers and fake tatoos.  A boy gestured towards the bottle water I was carrying, I couldn’t resist and handed it over.  A younger man, the community spokesperson I assumed because he could speak English, ushered us over to some shade under a few trees.  Adults gathered around us, the children pushed to the side, though quick with a sneaky wink everytime I glanced down.

We heard from the village residents the story of Peacetown.  It was long established settlement, significant as a thoroughfare to and from a nearby barge for a river crossing.  The village had been targeted by the RUF rebels during the war.  It was attacked and burned to the ground, the surviving inhabitants forced to flee into the jungle or across the river.  We heard stories of the community members returning to their village, participating in its reconstruction, and most remarkably hosting the signing of a peace accord.

But since then Peace Town has been befallen by government neglect.  We heard from the community a great sense of impatience and distrust directed at the Sierra Leonian government.  We heard what had become a common sentiment; that this is a place that had been neglected and left isolated in the aftermath of the conflict.  That other groups and communities, most egregiously former RUF rebel fighters, had received more attention and aid from the government and the international community.  It was not such a different story than that which we had heard from the residents of the amputee and war wounded camps, and what we would later hear from the miners in Tongo.

I remember listening to their testimonies, and looking up to catch, seemingly on cue, one of the ubiquitous white NGO SUVs drive through Peacetown on its way to another community.  Its back seat was overflowing with boxes containing computers.

We listened for awhile to their testimonies of inaccessible schools and health facilities.  Poor roads, and lack of electricity and drinkable water.  Taking in our surroundings, Peace Town certainly seemed to be every bit the impoverished place that was described to us.  Not that different from any other community we would visit in Sierra Leone for that matter, but it seemed that the community’s designation as “Peace Town,” and its monument declaring that “Peace was Born Here,” had left a particularly strong set of expectations here.  And I can understand why.  There have been high profile reconciliation and peacebuilding initiatives undertaken in Sierra Leone; the TRC and the Special Court perhaps most famously.  The sentiments we heard expressed from people in Peacetown was in part frustration that interventions such as these, had brought little change to the well-being of people.

We eventually filed onto the bus and took the short drive from the center of Peace Town to the river crossing.  We got off the bus and stood on the river bank, watching the barge slowly make its way across the murky river.  Our guide pointed to the tree limbs perhaps 40 feet above us and told us during the rainy season the river swells to reach these limbs.

I walked with our guide back to the bus, I asked what he thought of the TRC process, did he feel any reconciliation?  Had it translated to village and the residents of Peace Town?  I figured him to be a likely candidate to confirm my skepticism as to the effectiveness of the TRC.  He said simply that it was a good process.  Watching him, and observing his thousand mile stare, I wasn’t convinced.

It makes sense to struggle with these issues. I do not however. I thought I might have a hard time, assumed I wouldn’t and ended up not. Before going I told myself I had been to the region and knew the conditions I would face. “I’ve done this before, I can do it again.”  For the most part, I proved myself right. I went and returned fine. It’s come to the point now where I have to reiterate to myself that I can’t go everywhere. Invincibility is not obtainable and every place presents its own challenges. The phrase “I’ve done that, so I can do anything now” doesn’t apply. Forcibly reminding myself that everywhere I travel requires proper preparation is not only desired, but necessary.  Traveling for me has come with a sense of confidence, which is good. The danger lies in the fact that traveling to places like Sierra Leone and handling it in a successful way, could lead to blind arrogance. In fact, I know it is and need to need to handle that confidence with caution. It’s good that I have found a way to adjust and readjust without any serious backlash, but Sierra Leone made me realize that the danger for me lies within the belief that I can handle anything.