A letter to my imprisoned colleagues

Dear Jonathan Leigh and Bai Bai Sesay, Today is fourteen days since you were snatched away from us. Unlike death, you are alive and are sure to return to us however long they detain you for. I hope you are coping with the appalling conditions we all know exist at the maximum security Pademba Road Prison. A facility that crams far more people than a penholder or even a cage can accommodate even three rats. Yes we know. That is how bad it is out there. Yet our leaders and their trumpeters serenade all over planet earth that ours is a country that respects the basic and fundamental human rights of citizens. But that is for another day, just so I do not make you bemoan your predicament and pulverise a flaky substance in a mortar.  I know you are familiar with the saying “the shit hits the fan”. Please pardon my French but the shit may just hit the fan because even odyssey is sometimes not adventurous, it can be onerous however odorous. But never mind… I was really impressed that despite having been in detention under such crippling conditions for almost two weeks, you looked very much in high spirit when you were brought before the court again this week – for the second time after your initial detention without charge for six days. I salute you guys for not having been broken down by it all. Unless this whole detention is about prosecution, but if it is about persecution, I assure you it has failed as was epitomised by your spirit. I know you must be feeling weak – you both seemed to have lost a few pounds when I saw you and shook your hands on Tuesday. But, as I say, you were still solid. Boy, Bai Bai, you astounded me! Hahahaha. I know this is no laughing matter but seriocomedy helps somewhat, somehow, sometimes, you know. It’s your baptism of fire but you looked so strong even when your fiancée was drenched in tears. But she is coping. As for you Jonathan, Isata is a wonderful lady. Very strong-willed too. No tears. If she was pretending then you have an Oscar-winning actress as a partner. Her frantic running-around and dedication to and love for you swept me off my feet. Reminiscent of the AFRC military junta days when we used to be being chased around, isn’t it. You remember when you were locked inside that shipping container for simply agitating for what was good for society? And the following week I was shot in the right leg for just reporting. I am sure you still do remember especially with some of the perpetrators in higher and better positions today. Such things are never forgotten even if allowed to lie dormant in the memory. It can never be that bad under a democratically-elected government. Or so we hope. After all you were never locked up for this number of days under a junta. But that, as they say, is life. I am feeling some discomfiture as I write. But before that, if the strategy for what you guys are going through now is to KILL DOG BEFO DOG YAI MAKE DOG KNOW SAY DIE HART, it will never be achieved. We cannot be cowed. It is the nature of our chosen profession. The situation of a journalist and clampdown in parts of the developing world is like a soldier being on the receiving end of a bullet. Ours can be worse because we are helpless. Not like the soldier who has a gun to fire back. So even before we joined up, we knew that lay ahead of us. The discomfiture I feel is about the society generally. Like things were before you were picked up, everything is given a political slant. The space is being narrowed down to the extent freedoms are foolishly curtailed or even denied outright. Not many stand up anymore for what their conscience tells them is right, so they expect all else to behave as such. I know you understand and appreciate the efforts SLAJ has been making for you, guys. The president, Kelvin Lewis almost broke down when you were denied bail for the second time. Addressing journalists, his voice cracked and his eyes became pregnant. SLAJ members have been overwhelmingly praying and standing up for you two. We are solidly behind you through the association which is one of very few pressure groups left uncompromised in our country. Many others have been eaten up either due to the desire for earthly wealth or authority, or the love of treachery, or perhaps under duress. Anyone who knows our association will not be surprised. SLAJ has weathered stormier weathers in the past and always will. By the way the media shutdown on Tuesday 29 October in solidarity with you and in protest at your continued detention was an overwhelming success. It left me even prouder to be a journalist. Do not ever be broken. Please continue to stay strong. You remember when the Publisher of the Standard Times newspaper, Philip Neville was arrested for publishing an article on the shipment of the Ghadafi rice the Tejan Kabbah government did not like? I am sure you do. It all looks like yesterday when we went to the Central Police station in Freetown in solidarity with our colleague? We even pleaded that he be not put inside the smelly lockup. Strangely, someone who was very vociferous then that Neville must be locked up, and pulled all the strings to ensure that happened, but failed, is now making those same phone calls to ensure you guys rot in jail. We know times change. But never knew people changed so much and so fast and so markedly. But never mind, guys. You will come out stronger than you were when you got in. This, like Michael Echereo says, is temporary and will pass away. The list is long. But if I can quickly remind you, take the case of Edison Yongai and Solomon Berewa who was so powerful that he could turn a woman into a man. By the way you remember Solomon Anthony James Musa aka SAJ Musa and the heartless beating of the hapless journalist, Chernor Ojuku Sesay? Well, we all know the history that followed? Or IB Kargbo and his trial and subsequent conviction for treason? He has not retrogressed. He has served his country better and more and has prospered himself too. So do not feel any sense of self-pity, guys. However different the circumstances may be, they all boil down to a clampdown and a crackdown on journalists and journalism. There have been suggestions for you to retract the offending article and apologise for having published it. That is entirely your decision to make. I say it is yours to make because there has been this suggestion that SLAJ should condemn your newspaper. The overwhelming view among journalists, including me, and progressives and liberals in town, is that SLAJ will go under should it do that. And it will open a floodgate which would mean that every time a journalist breaches the rules, SLAJ must condemn. I know you can guess what that means: those advocating for condemnation today would just fall foul and if SLAJ were to condemn them they would come after the association's jugular. Undoable! Unachievable! Unnecessary! That is up to the Independent Media Commission to determine and do. Not SLAJ. Anyway before I leave you, just so you entertain the possibility of it. We are mooting the idea of organising a beach outing for you guys when you eventually come out, to celebrate your freedom. However offensive anyone deems the offending article to be, we will die in defence of freedom of expression. Politicians cannot and must not be allowed to tell us what they know nothing about or are implacably intolerant of. We shall overcome, sooner than later. If not for any reason, because of what the former US Ambassador to Sierra Leone Thomas N. Hull said some nine years ago in Freetown: “The civil libel laws of Sierra Leone have not functioned as they should, and consequently the government has resorted to criminal libel law…They are anachronistic relics of another era, and are viewed by most of the world as oppressive.  While a government may gain some immediate satisfaction from a criminal libel conviction, the plain reality is that anyone convicted under a criminal libel law will be regarded internationally as a martyr for freedom of the press and the convicting government will be viewed negatively regardless of the circumstances of the case...” Endure your stay in prison as much as you will enjoy your freedom out here. Your colleague, Umaru Fofana (C) Politico 31/10/13