By Isaac Massaquoi
We live in very strange times in Sierra Leone these days. Not even during those 10 years of a horrendous and unnecessary war, characterised by killing and maiming was this nation so despised by the rest of the world. Tell me, how does it feel to wake up every morning to news of your country being isolated in every way possible by the rest of the world?
Foreign organisations and businesses, diplomatic and some consular staff and their dependants are scrambling on board the last flights out of this country, our sports people are being thrown out of international competitions from Beijing to Lusaka. Those who managed to reach the UK just as Ebola was exploding here, have stayed back with all the media noise accompanying that. Sierra Leone has become a very sick pariah nation that nobody would touch even with a 10-foot-long barge pole. The reality confronting us once again, like in the days of the war, is that we may have many friends from all over the world in good times, but when the chips are down, like they are now, we are well and truly on our own.
I have met many people recently who fervently believe that the Ebola attack is the direct result of this country having departed from God. Those who know the bible can give countless accounts of what happened to God's chosen people when they decided to worship other gods or spend so much time in search of the pleasures of this world, completely forgetting there was a God who made all things bright and beautiful. So while many are calling for whole areas to be quarantined or for experimental drugs to be rushed in, we have a significant number of Sierra Leoneans who say the solution is here - kneel down and pray and God would have mercy.
I was at a funeral the other day, just as the nation was coming to terms with the news that another medical doctor had gone down with Ebola. The church was packed and a good many of us could only stand in little corners in the pouring rain, pretending to be part of what was happening inside the church. Everybody kept a respectable distance from the other, scrupulously obeying the "no touch" mantra. Inevitably, the Ebola attack was the main topic of conversation.
Not far from me stood a man, I reckon in his mid 40s, who managed to get everybody's attention focused on him when he suggested that Ebola can only be defeated by prayers. In a setting like that, it was difficult to get anybody to tell him to think again. He continued, "Sierra Leoneans have failed to keep the promises they made to God when they called for His help to end the civil war and the nation is today more sinful than it was during the rebel war."
Ok, let's say he was totally correct. But when did he realise this? If any cub reporter came to the office with a story of what this man said without getting his name and credentials, he would have committed a mortal journalistic sin that could end up in a suspension. But here am I writing about him without his name or any further information on whether he was man of God. I didn't bother to ask because somehow I didn't think he met the prominence requirement journalists are taught in their lessons on news values. I now realise that I should have asked for more information about our street preacher just in case I needed it on a day like this.
For 15 minutes the man outlined this nation's sins. He was a terrific speaker. He performed like a powerful prosecutor building a water-tight case against a murderer who has managed to assemble the most brilliant criminal defence lawyers in the land.
The man's mini sermon was suddenly interrupted by the noise of a convoy of those vehicles that pick up Ebola victims all over Freetown for quarantine. As the convoy drove past the church, the crowd outside pushed back as if to urge the convoy go through quickly. Frankly, the sight of that convoy was a timely reminder of how further unpredictable life has become in Sierra Leone.
Our makeshift preacher man may well be right about our relationship with God having gone off the rails. I would however argue that with close to 300 people now dead and many more hanging on to the faintest of hopes for survival, this must surely be a very costly way by which the loving and forgiving God would choose to bring his erring people back into line.
Earlier that same Sunday, I had listened to a real priest in a proper church. He didn't address what he believed brought Ebola to Sierra Leone but he made a passing reference to Ebola, in the context of what he called "a world in turmoil".
The priest referred to the Malaysian airliner shot down over Ukraine with a heavy loss of innocent lives - ordinary people going about their normal business losing their lives in Russia's cruel geo-political war with the West. He mentioned the terrible war between Hamas in Gaza and Israel and the ravages of the Ebola virus in West Africa.
Many of the poorest people in the world who, even at the best of times have very little to eat, are the ones facing the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa. And to complete this grim catalogue, can I just throw in the escalating war in Iraq? There, we have a puritanical religious group on a bloody mission threatening the whole region and beyond - "convert to Islam or die". Those who refused to "convert" have either fled or have had their throats slit like sheep. Others have been killed by firing squad with the grim video posted on social networking sites that ordinary people like us use for recreational reasons.
This is a truly bleak picture of what's going on in our world today and the priest argued that he understood the desperation that led people to wake in the dead of night to bathe in hot salt water because they were told that a preacher man in Nigeria had said that would instantly cure Ebola. It wasn't even 12 hours before the man of God who is alleged to have prescribed the miracle cure issued a statement denying he ever made such a pronouncement. Real desperation!
So this is really a piece about mainly two preachers - one an unofficial one who took advantage of a small group of mourners outside a church in pouring rain to sanctimoniously claim that God was fed up with the sins of Sierra Leone and was therefore teaching us a lesson by afflicting us with Ebola. The second, an ordained priest who also painted a picture of a world that had strayed from under the wings of God and had turned the world upside down - blowing up planes flying more than 30,000 feet above sea level, lobbing bombs, mortars and rockets with a clear intention to kill many people.
The two people didn't know each other but they prescribed the same cure for the world's troubles - "repent and return to God". This is not a message that many Sierra Leoneans would gripe about but the second part of the street preacher's message is a very important one. In that second message I referred to earlier, he spoke about corruption in church and state matters, rape, pedophilia and all that.
In normal times that would have been the juicy bit that a journalist like me would have loved to highlight. But these are not normal times - Sierra Leone is under attack from Ebola and our brothers and sisters are dying at a time when the government is leading the fight against the disease. Drilling into the second message right now, would definitely distract the authorities from that mission. But as they say, THIS TOO SHALL PASS.
Sierra Leoneans have always turned to God in times of national crisis. At different times during the war years when it appeared as if our very existence as a nation was on the edge, the people prayed and wept, calling on God for help. We are back at square one, nearly 14 years after Pa Kabbah declared, DE WAR DON DON.
(C) Politico 19/08/14
