Freetown Chronicles: Questions for the Nation-Womb

The womb huh? The force it is. Life producer, carrier of sacred knowledge, destroyer. The womb. The woman. Simone de Beauvoir may find a lot of my writing quite, well for a lack of better words that will lead me to use some text book academic jargon, hetero-normative. I find my own writing these days to be highly so, I won’t place blame, it simply derives from the society I find myself in. This post is going to be short. 

ah, tis all good. SERVICE. the lack of IT.

We complain, all the time about the lack of customer service in Sierra Leone. Ha! The lack of customer service can at times seem like an understatement. We can relegate this ‘attitudinal problem ‘ side note: attitudinal, a word commonly and often used in our daily vocabulary. Hell, even the President is pushing for an “attitudinal” change in our people. 

Look, we can speak about the need to strengthen the hospitality sector all we want, but until some very realistic steps are set out, I am not quite sure how else convincing people that been nice, punctual, meticulous, self motivated, patient and most importantly that pleasing their customers is off dire importance WILL uh HELP.

FREEOTWN CHRONICLES IV: BARBIEs AND WHAT IFs

Friday was ushered in with fake eye lashes, human hair which continues to irritate me and a fantastic dress by Maryzo Designs that had me emanating the “come hither” look. It was purposeful. The Barbie doll look is one I SOMETIMES aspire to, yes I use the word ASPIRE….one can have such aspirations and I believe it is quite O-KAY. However, I digress, MAJORLY.  This Easter weekend was a heap of fun, looked like the only thing I and my friends and team were up to was fun, but I/we were hard at work, and as usual, there are some moments that stuck with me, MAJORLY.

OPEN YU YI Human Rights Film Festival

Yours Truly, Moi, hosted the opening of the OPEN YU YI Human Rights Film Feastival and i absolutely enjoyed it. As a first time goer in the second year of this film festival, i was thoroughly impressed with the concept of the festival, accessibility and the right to the very basic and re-visiting the concept of human rights as it pertains to the Sierra Leonean context. The two short films, THE 30% and AN AFRICAN ELECTION both dealt with the issues of politics in Africa, the intersecton of gender, class, our Colonial histories and the turbulent relationship we have with the concept of democracy.

  The OPEN YU YI crew minus the co-founder Sabrina

Panos Karan | Founder of Keys of Change | Music should be free, accessible and must transcend race, color, gender, class, abelism | Love the concept especially from a classical pianist whose hope is to ensure that classical music moves beyond the Carnegie Hall and into other more global spaces + places


















   |  At the Opening of OPEN YU YI Human Rights Film Festival| Freetown, Sierra Leone.
It is the community film showings that are a fantastic component of this festival, more information about viewing times of the festival can be found on thefatoublog.

Fambul dem this is how we do....

Renovating My Space | Gifts from Around Freetown

I am welcoming march with renovations. my apartment, my mindset, reviewing dreams and priorities, choices and desires all with music and art on my mind.

This is a Francis Sesay Classic. He brought this for me this morning. Oh the joy of surprises. 

Fambul dem this is how we do...  

March 1st | The Inauguaration of Me| thefatoublog

Pot Of Gold| FatouWurie

Photography:

Is the personal self in expression, the value I choose to place on it is within the realm of art. It’s a reflection of how I see the world via space, objects, people and places. To monetize it is to reduce its process, which at times is painstakingly long, over thought, under thought, instinctual, raw, to a material plain that requires I working within a given time frame. Recognizing that this process does to fullfill my soul particularly because I earn my bread and butter in another sector, the blessing are abundant with the flexibility to CHOOSE to engage with photography, the utilization of my third eye, how, when and where at my own choosing. Recognition is important. I am learning.

Website:

It is okay for things to not work out. Compromising is not an option, in time my vision will manifest. I have poured that desire into the universe.

Love:

Liberates your fears for better or worse, your fears are liberated how you choose to interact with them comes to define the ethos and the energy of the relationship. Gratitude, love seeping into my veins, liberating fears. Learning to face these fears. Ya digg?

Strength:

In the knowledge that I am a growing woman. I am woman. That is enough. That is all I know.

On my journey seeking, exploring, understanding, faithful….i will find my pot of GOLD.

LOVE RAIN ON US

FatouWurie Photography

FREE TOWN, FREETOWN, TOWNFREE, FREE/TOWN

Anusa Pisanec www.anusafantahawa.tumblr.com

from a rooftop view somewhere in Freetown Sierra-Leone

i took these photographs a couple of weeks ago when i went to visit a friend at her apartment. The view from her home is stunning, her space minimal with a very heritage apartment feel which reminded me of my previous apartment in Vancouver, minus the view. As i blog from Country Lodge, i can't help but wonder what the week ahead with bring. All i know for sure is that i need to start walking the walk and put the talking to a screeching halt. God cannot continue to teach me lessons i should have learned the first time around. So for thefatoublog readers out their somewhere in cyber space and beyond, i bid you a week of embracing gratitude and momentous living  (meaning, living only for and in the moment) and thank you....for visiting  yet another blog in the wild wild world of the world.wide.web.

enjoy the photographs from a rooftop view somewhere in Freetown Sierra-Leone.

 ...fambul dem this is how we do

Freetown Chronicles II: Lust & Love.

A friend gave me an advice when I first arrived to Freetown. His deep set eyes looked into mine as he quite sternly said, “don’t date for at least 6 months, trust me, you need that time to see who is who and what is what.” Of course as it often goes with advice that we know stems from wisdom unbeknown to us, it went right out the window. What that meant was, 6 months later found me in the folds of my cousin’s arms, sobbing or been rather dramatic about some man who had ever so dramatically broken my “heart”. “I really thought we connected,” I relayed to my cousin in a matter of fact manner. My cousin sympathetic but rather unmoved if not bored altogether, simple patted my back and said, “na so den tan na ya”. I have heard this phrase one to often “na so den tan na ya”, this is how they are. One, according to many women I speak with, cannot trust any (been the men of Sierra-Leone) of them; therefore go in protecting yourself, fully. I am still attempting to grapple with that ideology, because what on earth is the point of it all then?  Is the deceit, misrepresentation, gross and continuous dishonesty simply a Sierra-Leonean Phenomenon? Is it an African thing? or is it a universal pandemic only manifested differently based on context. Do African men truly operate differently?

Photoshoot: Manuella Shallop

for bookings e-mail me at: wurief@gmail.com

a day

a day under the sun- willingly-

the afternoon was relaxing.

remaining amused.

water

sun

laughter

....sans great food.

otherwise

much needed.

May Sunshine

fambul dem this is how we do....