Visit to Fourah Bay College

Monday June 20th 2011

Today Jordan and I went to Fourah Bay College (my dad’s alma mater) to meet up with students and discuss the possibility of having electronic student government elections. My Aunty Lola works there as the career guidance counselor and explained to us how dangerous these elections potentially were. It seemed as though there was always a claim of cheating and a lot of outside influence from the two national political parties on the elections. There are two main parties in Salone: the All Peoples Congress (APC) and the Sierra Leonean People’s Party (SLPP). There is also myth that whatever the political affiliation of the Fourah Bay College student government winner, that the same party would win the national election. As such, there is a history of both the APC and the SLPP having serious involvement with the elections increasing tension that often results in violence on campus. The university has to spend millions of Leones in order to hire security and police officers to keep the peace. Apparently, the girl who lost last year claimed to have been cheated from it and dropped out of school in her senior year.

When we met with the students they were enthusiastic about the possibility of having electronic elections. It would insure security and would be a transparent form of counting the votes as the results would be updated in real time. Students would be the only ones able to vote and would have to register beforehand with their new voter ID. They would also only be able to vote once but more importantly would be able to do so from anywhere that had internet access. This hopefully would both reduce the tension and allow for more honest voter participation (If you know anything about creating something like this, contact me because I’d love to have input from other people as well).

While we were discussing all this though, there was a woman in the room that was silently shaking her head just dying to give her opinion. When she finally could not stand it anymore, she interrupted us (multiple times) explaining how the administration wouldn’t buy into it and that it wasn’t going to happen. She went on to say that we would be portrayed as attempting to bring ‘white man technology’ on campus which would not fly with the older generations.

Forget the administration and the ‘older generations’. It’s this kind of rubbish that comes from the seemingly educated that has this country in a chokehold. Every time a comment like that is made, every time progress is viewed as ‘white man technology’, that grip tightens. The poor and uneducated listen to views like this and go along with it; it is views like this that cause the country to move backwards. I can’t send an email to your typewriter, get a computer. Same thing for the guy who comes to work still riding a horse when the automobile came out. If we have to duel and you whip out a sword while I have my newly bought pistol, then I’m calling the wife to tell her I’ll be home early for dinner. 

 However, I was extremely pleased when the students shut her down time after time. They explained that any such change would only profit the University and would hopefully be an example to the rest of the country.   If change had to start somewhere it should start at the University – I’m hopeful that other students share such views and have a vision of change in Sierra Leone. I’m also hoping that these students grow up to be the politicians, lawyers, doctors and professionals of the country so as to direct this change first hand.

Some Random Thoughts

1. I don’t know why Africans put so much damn pepper on their food here; the country is hot enough as it is. Now I can’t eat breakfast, lunch and dinner without breaking a sweat.

2. Soccer is the most versatile sport. Period. I’ve seen kids here play in the street, play in the fields, play in front of shops, on hills, in ditches. I’ve seen soccer balls made of rubber bands – I’ve seen stones substituted for balls – pretty much anything that will roll (no matter how unevenly) can be used for sport. These kids here are also pretty damn good at soccer; I wish I could recruit them and build a soccer team in the U.S.

3.People say don’t take things for granted. i.e. regular food, running water, electricity. I’m going to add one more thing to that list – the ability to use the bathroom wherever/ whenever you want. One evening I went to see my grandmother, uncles, and aunts. Saw a ton of family and as such I drank a lot. It wasn’t till we were knee deep in traffic that the 4 beers, 2 sodas, and cup of water all came back with a vengeance. I’ve never had to pee so badly in my life. Wanted to pee so badly that I had to ask my Aunt to pull over as soon as possible so I could take care of business. Had to pee so badly that I could barely walk to the toilet when we finally stopped the car. Were this America, I could stop at any gas station or restaurant I wanted. Sierra Leone doesn’t have that luxury- heck; most of the houses don’t have toilets that flush. It’s just the reality of the situation, but it’s one that I won’t soon forget.