By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
Thunderous voices in the nearby bushes of Fourah Bay College(FBC),one of the constituent colleges of the University of Sierra Leone, always send a strong message that something worrying is taking place. The voices break the silence of the college premises, especially in the evening hours, when the heat of the day is silenced and the college almost empty of its people; save for the junior staff. These are the voices of FBC students indulged in merriment that is most times characterised by alcoholism and smoking of marijuana or ‘Indianhemp’. They bear the looks of hooligans or thugs.
Usually the voices are those of ‘cult clubs’ and are most times apparent during the initiation ceremonies of students by their senior fellows. The practice, old as the college itself, has become a cherished custom sometimes hailed by a great majority of students. Every fresh student in the college has expressed some ambition to belong to these student factions where they hope to enjoy the ‘goodies’ of being a college student.Old initiates lure fresh students into the game by exposing the positive sides of their clubs. Onceinitiated, members are seen as one as they are under oath to see the ‘house’ as a revered unit.
Sacred rules and ties exist in the ‘house’ that binds them all as one family. Everyone is his brother’s keeper. They eat, sing, dance and celebrate at various sites on campus, generating feelings of belonging and togetherness. They greet themselves with the titles each holds in the house as way of strictly adhering to the rules they have established for themselves. Many students who have passed through the corridors of FBC gained prominence through these clubs. Student presidents, ministers and a host of others are highly indebted to these clubs for having occupied the ‘Honour Roll’ of the University of Sierra Leone. Apart from all other sentiments, the unity displayed by these ‘cult’ students within the campus is admirable and is enough to attract every student’s attention to be part and parcel of the ‘house.’
THE DARK SIDE
Student clubs are highly relevant to any academic institution because they serve as agents of socialization. The positive role they are supposed to play in the all-roundedness of the students gets marred when members of these clubs revert to obnoxious practices that have alarmed authorities within the university and outside the university, especially in the last decade. At FBC, cultism takes the form of two big entities referred to as the ‘The Black Camp’ and the ‘White Camp.’ The latter is an offshoot of the former.
Before this time both were one. Today they are different entities with different ideologies. Both camps have the highest political units within which a candidate for the FBC presidency is selected to be elected. The ‘Black Camp’ has ‘Auradicals’ and the ‘White Camp’ has the ‘Liberals’ as their highest political units.The ‘Auradicals’ is headed by a ‘dictator’ and the liberals is headed by a ‘liberator’. Both authorities wield enormous power within the camps in general and their decisions are not subject to debate within and outside the ‘house’.
An insider source, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, explains that the ‘initiation rites’ are definitely periods of ordeals and they last for a year. During the struggle to gain full fledge membership, he adds, potential initiates have to attend sessions in which they learn the ‘sacred rules’ and the ideology of the camp. The torture they endure during such sessions can amount to a whole book if it is to be recorded. Abundant evidence of these beatings exists as most students who joined the clubs sustained injuries on various parts of their bodies, especially their backs.
During riotous situations, students target the colleges’ infrastructure for destruction and even public property. Nowonder FBC has suffered the highest infrastructural devastation in the hands of these cult vandals. Such a reckless behaviour on the part of those who are being prepared to take over the reins of state command has compelled the university to raise eye-brows on their actions. This could be the main motive for the FBC authorities to ask students out of the hostels, hiding behind the cloak of renovation project.
Indoctrination is rife as members are not allowed to have a thinking of their own. Their lives are conditioned by drink and drugs especially during occasions they call ‘chilling.’ Immorality is a way of life to the same degree as violence. The women folk, being members of these clubs are not spared for repeated sexual harassment and exploitation as the men folks have an insatiable taste for them. Refusal for sexual request is strictly forbidden within the club as it is seen as a ‘taboo’.
Prior to its ban, the ‘good governance programme’ called Monologue, and hosted by journalist David Tam Bayoh, had aired a programme in which he interviewed top members of the liberals camp about nude photos of their members out in the public. According to them it is a way of vetting those who want to occupy the FBC presidency, as well as a way of checks against autocratic tendencies on the part of any president. Such photos could be brought in public domain if there was any attempt by a president to be autocratic, they argued.
The key doctrine in these clubs, which has remained unchallenged on to this moment, is that every initiate must undergo thorough beatings and subscription to the ‘oath of secrecy.’ The oath is binding on all and it forbids members revealing to non-initiates what takes place within the clubs. During the beatings, club members are uncontrollable and they are determined to unleash violence of various sorts to their peers as a way of terrible retribution because they too went through the same rigorous process. Some five years back, a student of FBC was brutally murdered during initiation rite. Some of those responsible for the murder melted into thin air but police arrested a few others and investigated them. The murder suspects were arraigned before a magistrate court in Freetown for preliminary investigations. This indoctrination that they receive from senior members is cascaded to the various tertiary institutions within the nation’s capital and in the provinces. This has definitely become the main cause of student violence in various campuses of academic institutions, especially during student union elections. As these cultic practices may have a spill over effect, most people fear that secondary schools may myopically follow the footsteps of their seniors in colleges. This cult practice is the legacy of a generation of cult students who have left the shores of FBC for a considerable period.
THE NEED FOR MODIFICATION
Clubs on campuses have come under fire in recent years as various sectors of society now question their activities in this twenty-first century. Most people see these clubs as a ‘mosaic of medievalism.’ As such authorities have condemned them and even fought for their abolition. Ata convocation which took place at the Coronation Field in the southern city of Bo a few years back, President Ernest Bai Koroma drew the attention of the country to the activities of such clubs. He called on university authorities to adopt measures that would stem the tide of these clubs.
“My government would support any measure university authorities take to end cultism in our colleges,” the President said. As if adhering to the call, college authorities of the various campuses in the country have since placed a ban on all cult activities. Professor Ekundayo Thompson, Vice Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone(USL),had placed a ban on all student union elections in the college because of the violence associated with it. The professor stated that even when the ban was lifted, students would no longer have ‘presidents’ but chairmen. I hope that the change of nomenclature or titles of student leaders will begin a positive move to curtailing their powers. All things being equal, and going strictly by this means, violence and impunity amongst students would be dealt a severe blow.
Taking cognizance of the different opinions expressed by so many right thinking members of society, these clubs are contracultures and subcultures. They would have been a subculture of the national culture if they are in line with the moral standards of society. This, therefore, calls for an adjustment of their practices. These ‘cult clubs’ must be replaced with ‘academic clubs’ so that they can attract the best brains in the colleges. With this change our universities would earn a respectful place in society as they will subscribe to the time honoured notion that there can be no place so crucial for a change of attitude than a university. These are places where ideologies are initiated for the consumption of national and international community.
Politico 10/06/15
