By Cassandra Garber
This is an Open Letter to the Environment Authority Unit of the Freetown City Council.
I congratulate the present administration of the Freetown Municipality for addressing a very salient aspect of the city’s heritage: the final resting place of all citizens. For archaeologists, demographers and researchers, invaluable information is derived from graves and the texts on tombstones.
A concerned citizen and in my role as the current president of the organisation of the offspring of the SETTLERS the millions by whose endurance, industry, resourcefulness and perseverance over the period from the later years of the 18th century to the 20th century this location was assessed as “ATHENS OF AFRICA” by First world assessors I address this letter for your serious consideration and positive reaction.
The thousands of Sierra Leone nationals especially those living abroad in foreign territories are perturbed by the statement on the official registration form you designed. The statement is “Ownership of Grave will be determined by PAYMENT OF RETENTION FEE effective 2014”. The interpretation is open to much ambiguity. Therefore in the interest of equity on all fronts your Administration owes it to the general public to throw light on the ramifications consequent upon the implementation process of “OWNERSHIP”.
It is globally accepted that the conditions of cemeteries and graves contribute immensely to the written history of ancient times. The history of any community, any City any Country impacts tremendously on the life of future generations of inhabitants. History is not only important, its influence on the present is incalculable. The PYRAMIDS of Egypt and the TAJ MAHAL are examples of physical legacies to justify the benefits of caring for the resting sites of ancestral generations.
What has been happening in Independent Sierra Leone shows a lamentable disregard of History. The Fourah Bay College buildings, the Mabang College Building, the De Ruyster Stone, the Portuguese Steps are sites that the National Commission on Monuments and Relics should tag as priceless.
Alas our sense of History can be rated at zero. BUT ALL IS NOT LOST. There is hope in saving valuable evidence of the sacrifice made by many who left the comfort of their familiar location to give service in the area historically described as the “WHITE MAN'S GRAVE” during the nineteenth century. The present inhabitants of the Settlement - the CREOLES - owe it to the memories of those valiant heroes who lost their lives through the ravages of malaria. It is interesting to know what plans the ENVIRONMENT AUTHORITY/ENFORCEMENT UNIT of the Freetown Municipality has for the preservation of those tombs in Circular Road Cemetery, Kissy Road Cemetery and other such areas. It is very obvious that by the interpretation of the statement on the Registration form where any direct line of those valiant souls cannot appear to make the legitimate claims to ownership, the Municipality will claim ownership.
I remember fully well that the first Archbishop of the Province of West Africa Archbishop Gordon Vinning who died on board one of the M.V vessels close to our shores was buried here in Freetown in 1955. By deduction his gravesite - an historic legacy - could be sold to any atheist applicant. Borrowing the concept contained in the line from the familiar hymn “Now praise we great and famous men” if we pursue these actions the results will be having the memories of those great men being “LOST IN THE HAZE OF LONG AGO”.
On the other hand we should take pride in perpetuating their memories and “IN SILENT LOVE CHERISH” the sacrifices they made to develop the Early Settlement. To refresh our minds I am obliged to reiterate a few lines from an article I wrote on the issue of the Circular Road cemetery some nine years ago. “Prominent in the foreground are the tombstones they were the tombs of the Rtd. Revd. Brown, third Bishop of Sierra Leone and his wife, the daughter of a Dean of Peterborough, England. The Bishop died in May 1895 and his wife eight months earlier of childbirth. To the right of the enclosure was buried the Rev. John Milliard who was Principal of the CMS Grammar School from 1855 to 1859 and who with his wife died two months after the Bishop in 1859. In front of the tombstone of the Bishop and his wife was the tombstone of the Revd. Christian Ehemam a German missionary who died in January 1860 after 14 years in the Country serving mainly in villages of York and Regent”.
By international practice, it is accepted for protection to be automatically provided by the Resident Embassy or Consular unit of one Country to its nationals in that alien location whenever such protection is necessary. Our heroes of the Early Settlement of the Colony of Freetown served their generation. We would like by this open letter to make the request to the relevant Diplomatic Bodies – the British High Commission as well as the German Embassy for deserving protection albeit posthumous of the resting places of their respective eminent deceased nationals. The registration of gravesites policy of the Freetown City Council can progress as planned but we must insist on the preservation of the graves of those non-nationals who lost their lives in serving mankind and in laying the foundation of a future key Colonial Administrative Centre of the British Empire that has become today our pride.
No one can envisage why, when, where or by whom some sort of scholastic interest by biographers and or researchers into the lives and times of any of the historic personalities whose bones are resting in one or other of the cemeteries in Freetown. It will be cheating history if an important source of information has been obliterated all in the name of Registration of Gravesites. “History gives us a record of perspective, context and consequences that can help us make wise choices as we learn from both the successes and failures of those who gone before us”
- Canon Cassandra Garber J.P
(C) Politico 11/06/14
