By Tilly Barrie
When we were kids growing up we were not allowed to go out and watch lantern parade because our parents told us it was for grownups. So we would ask our older cousins to explain to us what had gone on during the parade and which lantern had come tops.
The other thing we did was to go to the iconic Congo Town to watch the lantern under construction by a man called Ade, now of blessed memory. And we were quite satisfied with that.
Now it would seem the orderliness that accompanied the lantern parade died with Ade. What I saw during last weekend’s event was a disgrace to Sierra Leone and to our kids.
In the evening there were police officers in and around law courts building in central Freetown where the parade organisers were putting up the stage for the judges and invited guests. The police set up barricades and diverted traffic away from Siaka Stevens Streets while they embarked on foot patrols up and down the area. But that was for the central part of Freetown because it seemed as if the East End of Freetown was not part of this security network.
Walking along Sani Abacha Street, by ECOWAS street junction, people were running in all directions because there were about seven or eight heavily-built thieves carrying whips, moving towards Siaka Stevens Street. There were no policemen to stop them or confiscate their whips and end the confusion and prevent terror to the already terrified people.
The thieves and pickpockets were having a field day harassing innocent passers-by.
At east end police station, the station nearest to the madness, there were about five policemen and when you matched them with the huge number of people outside, they had no chance.
Those who were lucky were able to get either a taxi car or a motorcycle and they charged exorbitantly as business was brisk.
At Shell Junction, further east, it was criminality at its highest. With the lantern parade using the other end of the road, men were busy trying to open vehicle doors and steal. And bags and mobile phones were snatched away.
One of the thieves attacked the taxi I was driving in but failed to open the doors as they were firmly shut. He managed to find a small space as the glass window wasn't fully up and through that he poured water on my head as if he were a priest performing baptism on me; or taking a revenge on me for failing to steal from the car.
The police were nowhere to be seen. It was a day for thieves. This is not what lantern parade should be about.
I saw kids as young as six years in the middle of streets dancing. And I asked myself where this country was heading because I could not image myself allowing my kid to join a lantern dance. As for the women, should I say girls, it was indecency perfected. Some were almost stark naked. Their choice of song was vulgar. And they partied on as if it was all normal.
Lantern parade is part of our culture but what I witnessed at this year’s independence lantern parade left me with the conclusion that people are putting the wrong meaning into that celebration.
Government and the organizers need to sensitize people on what the celebration is about. Kids should not be allowed to join in the parade. They should stay at home to read their books or sleep. Our women should be taught to respect their womanhood on such occasions and the inappropriateness of singing offensive and derogatory songs.
Cleanliness should also be part of the sensitization because the streets were littered with filth and on Independence Day no clean up was done. The city had been thoroughly thrashed with filth of all descriptions.
And to our police force: there is nothing wrong with guarding the center of town because the president is there. But there is everything wrong in abandoning the rest of the city centre. Let's try and have a very decent lantern parade that Sierra Leoneans will be proud of. We are not the only people organising such parades on planet earth. But we are certainly among the worst-behaved of all of them.
