By Umaru Fofana
It has become one of those where-were-you moments. The day on which Sierra Leone woke up to instructions - phoney or real - from nowhere, calling on people to bathe in hot salt water to cure or prevent themselves from the deadly Ebola sickness.
I say sickness because, as if it is not deadly enough, Ebola has gripped the psyche of everyone. Easily sickened by it. Its virulence is ruthless on those infected with it, while the depression it causes those who are simply just frightened by thoughts of it, is indescribable. The latter are in the majority.
That should explain why last weekend was when hopelessness took over the best of the majority of Sierra Leoneans. And you begin to understand why America would further increase its already high standing in the eyes of Sierra Leoneans if the wider use of the experimental Ebola drug, ZMapp, was approved. As I write it has just emerged that President Barrack Obama has approved the use of the drugs on two Liberian doctors infected with the virus following the intervention of the government in Monrovia.
Fear - sometimes paranoia - is eating into the vast majority of the people of this Ebola-ravaged part of the world. You can understand therefore why the entire nation of Sierra Leone - rather strangely - woke up at dawn on Saturday 9 August - to bathe.
It was a show of desperation at its highest, among a people who are petrified by the deadly disease. Text and Whatsapp messages, telephone calls and even town criers were announcing ubiquitously, incessantly. Yes, town criers! Honestly I cannot recall when last I had seen or heard one of that.
They all urged all to wake up and bathe in hot salt water to ward off the deadly Ebola disease. The clattering sounds of pots and pans in pantries in my surrounding that early morning had to wake me up. That was quickly followed by telephone calls from my parents in the north, relatives and friends in the southeast and in Freetown. While some called to know if the rumours about the hot salt water bathing was true, others were entreating me to pay heed and do the wash myself.
One text message said that a pastor had advised all to bathe. Another lady said an imam had told them to. And many heeded the call. You need look no further to see a clear sign and manifestation of a people who have lost confidence and trust in their leaders many of whom also took the hot salt water bath. Yes, senior government officials did take the bath too.
While Christians performed the lord's prayer Muslims read out the Al Fatiha - as if to cleanse the salt water. That was followed by the gulping of the liquid by some, before it became the bathwater. Shower of healing. Shower of prevention.
It may have taken away the fear of Ebola from many - albeit temporarily - because the rest of the weekend chats were dominated by the hot salt water bath than the ravage being caused by Ebola. A healing of some sort, you may think. But not quite.
The grim figures keep coming. 13 of the country's 14 districts all now have recorded Ebola. If only hot salt water bath could heal or prevent Ebola. In case you are wondering whether I bathed myself - Yes I did. Because I felt had to. For a disease without a vaccine or a cure, and a fight that was left for when things had got out of hand, who cannot understand the recourse to unorthodox search for healing or prevention. A drowning man, they say, will cling even onto a serpent.
(C) Politico 12/08/14
