Sierra Leone I 1968 - 1970: June 2010

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Freetown today - an environmental disaster ?

in July and early August in 1968 we lived in Freetown at #77 Pademba Rd. We lived with the Nelson-Williams family there. Although Freetown in those days was crowded, and there were issues - all of them have been magnified by the 10 year war that drove people to Freetown. The population there has increased by 6 times since we lived there. This link is discouraging.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Su Gande

Su Gande carves Bundu masks - Kenema note: the masks have yet to be colored

Su Gande was known throughout the Kenema area for his carving. Years before I got to know him he had come from a small village near Panguma and had moved to Kenema where he lived simply. He had learned to carve on his own and in the area he created beautiful Bondo Mask carvings. I remember his first name as Bockarie but most people knew him as Su Gande. Soweis from all over the area - also known as women leaders of the Bundu - would come to Su Gande - and have him make masks for them. These helmet masks - wellknown to the Mende in our area - were worn as the covering to the raffia clothed Bondo Devil pictured in so many of my prior postings. He would return to the Panguma area to get wood for his masks and then spend weeks doing the carving. The wood was soft for a hard wood and easily carved. After carving he would use either black shoe polish or indigo dye to blacken the mask. Manytimes he would use so called "European" paint to finish them. At times he would embellish them with earrings. The hair was carved intricately, there was often a covering such as can be seen in this picture. Su Gande did his carvings on his back veranda of his house. Over the two years that I lived in the area he and I became good friends and on occasion we traveled to his small village which was a 26 mile walk from the end of the road where public transport would leave us. On one of these trips and while on the bush portion of the road - an overly officious soldier arrested me and had me detained in a small cell with about 10 other "cell-mates". I remember how very upset Su Gande was at this - but after several hours in this hot, crowded facility - the soldiers boss was heard to ask, "wetin do dat whiteman dey na cell," and when the soldier gave some lame response I was ordered released and we went on our way. Our delay meant that we had missed our transport back to Kenema and thus we sat by the side of the road for hours waiting fr the next tranpsort to pass by. I remember arriving back to Kenema late that night. [one of his finished masks can be seen in my March 30 posting]

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Bonya

In this photo taken in our neighborhood at 55 Dama Rd in Kenema - Bonya carries her baby (named Hokey). Taken on the veranda in the front - Hokey "kpokpoi" is the little girl to Bonya's right. Bonya was a beautiful Mende traditional singer. I spent many a night - sitting either on this veranda or sitting on the one in the back of the house, listening to her sing wonderful Bondu songs. She would be the leader in the sings and the women who took part would respond to her leadership with beautiful harmony. Although I did understand some Mende - most times the words had to be translated for me - although this was not something that I often requested. For me it was the mesmerizing sound, the beautiful harmony, and since nights were dark (only at times lit by the moon) it was the romance of the environment - being so far from home. On occasion there would be rain coming down on the tin roof that would add to the patina. My neighbors knew of my love of their music and their culture. They knew how much I enjoyed listening to their singing - and as a result we were often called to come and be with them during the "sings." These sings (as they called them) came with little planning - as best as I could tell. There was always a background hum of music that permeated the West African day. There was always a background rhythm that made the day that much more tolerable. Days were hot and often wet (dry season was hot and as it progressed - days became increasingly humid; rainseason was incredibly wet) and the climate thus was harsh. Brushing a farm was hard work when it was all done by hand from the clearing with your machete to the planting of the rice seed which not only included broadcasting the seed but also scratching it into the upland soil (in those days the Mende did not like growing rice in the swamps). But with it all there was a beat - a rhythm - even when rice had been harvested and was being readied for dinner in the mortar and pestle. I was always aware of this undercurrent of cadence. And when song came it came with beautiful sound - a beautiful and wondrous harmony - and was something that I awlays looked forward to.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Palm Oil

©by Chad Finer

The making of palm oil was quite labor intensive - but almost everything in Sierra Leone required hard work. I came across these folks near the River Moa and near the small village of Vaama Nongowa while on one of my many visits to this area. Here the palm koernel has been "husked" and the oil extracted from it - the woman here is skimming the oil from the top of the water in final preparation. The oil was a rich orange color - and colored the wonderful upland rice that we ate this rich orange color. And it did add an additional rich flavor to our meals. The inner portion of the palm koernels that the Mende had no use for can be seen as dark "nuts" in the baskets on the ground to the right in the photo. These would be bagged and sent off to middlemen who would sell this to the Europeans (overseas) for extraction of another type of oil.