There are several tribes in South Eastern Sierra Leone. They include Mende, Sherbro, Kissi, Vai, Kono, Fullahs, Mandingos, Temnes and Lokos. If I state a well documented FACT that many South Easterners willingly joined RUF rebels in order to remove the APC of Joseph Saidu Momoh in 1991, it should not be translated by any well-meaning person into meaning I said Mendes started the war. Infact, I have not used the term ‘Mende’ in any of my original writings on causes of RUF war.
This is why unless someone is a member of that clique of South-Easterners who stoke tribe to gain political power, you will not misbehave like Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai did yesterday in his donor-funds workshop which was aired over television last night. This STUPID Saffa Abdulai needs to be told that he is one of the sustainers of Hate-mongering in Sierra Leone.
Some of these Mende boys are misbehaving all over Sierra Leone and putting their Mende tribe to shame. Why have Sherbros, Kissis, Vai, Konos and Mandingos in the South-East not taken umbrage? Only Mendes? You are unwittingly putting your tribe to shame and sadly, other Mendes are not brave enough to tell them to cease.
The only mouths issuing out Hate Speech on a daily basis are those of Julius Maada Bio and his band of SLPP tribalists; they stoke all sorts of tribalism for votes. Like Temne vs. Loko/Limba or they will incite Fullahs vs. Mandingos or talk about Mandingos vs. Limba. These STUPID TRIBALISTS will never intimidate me from naming them as dangerous elements!! We should watch them; monitor them and alert the world about their propensity to stoke tribal resentments to gain political power.
Meanwhile, I will also be asking IMC to look into this allegation of Abdulai as aired by SLBC-TV. Let IMC investigate as to whether Awareness Times wrote, as alleged, about Saffa Abdulai the “Mende”.
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Newspaper in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
