Mohamed Asmieu Bah, a senior journalist and Deputy Director General of the country’s public broadcaster, the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), has expressed worrying concerns over the targeting of members of the Fullah community by some elements within the security forces. The said action by some state security personnel has however been condemned by government.

Below is a social media comment  by Mr. Bah on the said matter:

Yes, I am a Fullah, but I am a Sierra Leonean and so what!

Last evening, I received a distress call from a relative at Calaba Town, in the east of the city, informing me that two trucks of armed police officers with masks on their faces stormed their house, bungled up some Fullah hawkers who were selling bread in front of their residence.

My relative resisted the police and they were unable to take her along. What a dastardly act by our security forces. We have received many of those similar calls since Sunday.

I hate to discuss tribal related issues; one because I am a Muslim, my religion frowns at tribalism and the Prophet of Islam warned us against it, and he described it as something that stinks. I hate to discuss tribalism also because of my background as a journalist, I am expected to be neutral, but in a moment like this, one has to put certain records straight.

I would have written the same if what is being done to Fullahs now were done to non Fullahs, because we are patched together as one nation, irrespective of our historical backgrounds.

Why should I hate another person who doesn’t belong to my tribe, when my kids for example have a mother who is a non Fullah, and they have cousins who are from other ethnic backgrounds? Why should I worry about another person’s tribe when I was born in a society where I grew up with kids from all tribes?

I have benefitted from other tribes and my circle comprises Fullahs and non Fullahs.

I was born in Kissy in a Krio house, washed and nursed by a non Fullah woman, who showed me love and affection. Mammy Reid and Pa Reid showed me parental love, and our families maintained that bond even after their demise.

Who in Sierra Leone doesn’t have an origin, if you are a Mandingo your root is either from Guinea, Mali, Gambia or Senegal, if you are Susu you have also an origin from Guinea, if you are Kissi you either have an origin from Liberia or Guinea, so also for Yalunka or Koranko who also have their origin from Guinea and they maintain their kinship ties strongly and proudly.

Go to Fourah Bay and see Akus who still maintain their Gambian or Nigerian heritage, go to Kissy, Foulah Town and Aberdeen and see Akus or Krios who still cherish their Yoruba linage in Nigeria, even the mask devil they so love which is part of our culture as Sierra Leoneans, can be traced to the Yoruba culture.

This is just to show that our forefathers from nearly all ethnic groups came at a particular time from somewhere else.

I remember interviewing the late respected scholar Professor Eldered Jones on his 90th birthday when he narrated to me his Yoruba origin. He further revealed to me his Yoruba name Durosimi” which means live long to bury me in Yoruba. He was named so because all his other siblings before him died at a tender age, and his mother wanted him to live long.

What about SI Koroma who was a Mandingo but hid it and claimed Temne because of politics (Agony of a Nation Abdul Karim Koroma). These are facts no one can change.

We have had prominent Sierra Leoneans who have held top positions in government who are non Fullahs, but whose parents immigrated to Sierra Leone, but nobody said derogatory, insulting or question their citizenships.

Bode Gibson the former Mayor of Freetown was born in Wilberforce from parents who came from Nigeria and the Gambia, did he not become a mayor of our city, did anyone punish him because his parents came to Sierra Leone. He is just one among many Sierra Leoneans whose parents came to this country but nobody is saying thou against them.

Is it a crime to be a Fullah and being born in Sierra Leone? What can you say about my grandfather ( Cherno Asmieu)  who lived at Ginger Hall in the 1930’s, what about my father who grew up in that same Ginger Hall in the 40’s and was one of those kids who will tote stones from ‘’Ashobi Corner’’ to Magazine Cot when the Fullah Central Mosque was under construction. What about one of my maternal grandfathers Alhaji Alieu Jalloh who died few months ago in Freetown. He went to Kono in 1945. He had lived on Soldier Street as a young man fending for himself before he went to Kono to seek greener pastures.

One of the best leaders our country has ever produced, late President Kabbah had strong Guinean roots as a Madingo, when he was chased by the AFRC, he fled to Guinea, where he knows was his paternal ancestral home, did anyone question President Kabbah’s citizenship in 1996?

When the Liberian President visited Sierra Leone few weeks ago, Kissis from all over the country trooped in to the border to welcome him because they see him as one of them, was that a crime.

When Alpha Conde came to Sierra Leone in 2011, prominent Mandingoes in Sierra Leone greeted him with pump and pageantry, and were proud of him as a Guinean President. Did anyone frown at that?

These are the unique things we should celebrate as a nation, and I see them as one of our strengths.

It is not unique to Sierra Leone to have ethnic groups that are transnational, go to Kenya and Uganda, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Senegal and Gambia.

Is this how we pay the Fullahs who have toiled for this country through blood and sweat in all facets of society, from academia, politics, trade, religion, military and police? Where is our conscience? Why the hate?

What happened in Guinea last week was never done by Fullahs in that country, in fact the junta leader is a Mandingo so even if we are asking for tit for tat, which is not sensible to do anyway, is it Fullahs who should become the punch bag?

The actions by the police and the military over the last two days is very disturbing to us as a nation, for people to be ethnically labelled, profiled and targeted at this time and age in their country of birth is a sad chapter in our nation’s history, and every Sierra Leone must condemn this.

Is this the kind of country I want for my kids when their name and looks can become a threat to them?

Those who gave those orders must be investigated and brought to book, because that is a complete violation of people’s fundamental human rights to dignity.

Are we in Thomas Hobbes’ man in the state of nature, or is it a crime to be a Fullah. I’m one and I have no apology for that.

Like the respected Sierra Leonean poet Umar Faruk succinctly puts it “This raises a critical question: why are the Fulbehe constituently singled out when determining who is a Sierra Leonean?” Ethnic groups like Soso and Mandingoes share deep kinships and migration patterns across the borders of Sierra Leone, yet they seldom face such scrutiny’’.

Every other tribe that has transnational root is proudly maintaining that, but a Fullah is always a target because of his origin, why the cherry picking.

If anyone thinks what happened in the 60s and 70s can be repeated in this time and age, I think that is a strong miscalculation. The Fullahs will no longer tolerate this xenophobic attack on their lives and property.

Like any other tribe in this country, we deserve respect and fair treatment. I strongly believe this does not represent Sierra Leone and we can do better than this as a nation.

I will end with Umar Farouk Sesay ‘’we can define our identity without using our Fulbhe compatriots as a convenient contrast to what we are not’’.