women & mothers & more women

The OWNERS WOMEN

THE EVENTS

At the OWNERS event by AFFORD Sierra Leone, it was a celebration of female entrepreneurs in Sierra Leone, the ones we could access really. The first lady of Sierra Leone was present as was Mr. Kandeh Yumkella (UNIDO Director General) as was Cherie Blaire herself and many other high ranking dignitaries both locally and internationally. It was a blend of our traditional singers and ways of hosting an event bound with the momentum of 'modernity', the now now, the policy makers, the activists, the entrepreneurs and the socialites. 

International Women's Day is often more less about about women, our struggles (political, economic, social), our successes and our dreams/desires for the future. On this day however my mind was consumed with womanhood in relation to her body and love, her body and economic freedom, her body and her sexual freedom from a non-policy yet interactive policy perspective. I was more interested in young women in particular, where are our voices amidst the general women's day celebrations, the acknowledgment of strife, struggles, success and dreams....where was my voice and the voices of other young women in "Women's Day" in Sierra Leone? You may think i am focused on the gaps, perhaps so, because i and many other women fit into that 'gap' often expressing and sharing our experiences in the privacy of our rooms, corridors, over the phone, in restaurants, or other spaces for socializing anywhere and everywhere sans policy, sans high table panelist events, sans at decision making spaces and places. 

GIRL TO WOMAN -  HOODq
in the myriad of sacrifices, braving a smile
all is fine
baby in that short skirt
baby in those red bottom heels rocking that silk hair doo
baby in those boy shorts
baby in those tight tights
baby dead give away in those brown blue eyes
girl,
choices charred stained on these lips
baby whole
baby sacred
baby girl
lonely
seeking and kissing crossed palms
holding slaps that now feel like warmth
baby boisterous
voice cut-
short
other words mummering off
put the volume up
baby girl.  
I am interested in the voices of those girls, i want to hear these stories, i want to hear them loud loud loud impact-filled , injecting and influencing policy for other young young girls...for ME.

To our mothers, our sisters, our girlfriends, our female lovers, our women, our young young girls...to this feminine energy so potent it self destructs, destructs, dies a billion deaths to only sometimes survive, and if we are really lucky, bloom BloOm again.

fambul dem this is how we do....

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....

A Blog I Like

Do not know this brother, however i enjoy his blog. Its simple. Its clear. Its focused. I get inspired.
Funfere KoroYe. I Like.

"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, while vanity is what we would have others think of us- F.K

SNAP SHOT OF MOMENTS. THIS IS THE COUNTRY I LOVE, SIERRA LEONE

these are my images. love them. give credit. enjoy.
fambul dem this is how we do

RE-DO AT COUNTRY LODGE

yes, it is known that i spend quite a bit of time at Country Lodge.  The internet to be honest is quite fast in a country where internet connection is snail pace - slow. This is the fuel behind my loyalty to the hotel. That and the beautiful picturesque view that sprawls itself, you cannot help but loose yourself, if even for a minute, in the beauty that is freetown. Some days, the view creates an 'aha' moment, the internet allows you to feel connected to the rest of the world and the staff are always friendly, slightly cheeky, but overall, friendly. 

 I was surprised when i walked in about a week ago to see that a major renovation on the patio restaurant had been done. Its feels like a mixture between Moroccan chic and faux chinese chinois and that's my limited interior designing know how talking here. The black and white tiles juxtaposed with middle eastern/oriental accents (the lamps, mirrors, lights,) all make for a pretty, but slightly overbearing experience. 

The internet continues to be fast, the management lovely, the staff good natured and my apple crumble pie always available when i need it. 

check it,

fambul dem this is how we do..

WAR, DIAMONDS & 51 YEARS

As i drove from Roberts International Aiport to WFP i became increasingly excited, the significance of the next few days, 26th & 27th of April for Liberia and Sierra-Leone in particular had me in all kinds of spaces. Writing a poem entitled BEAR WITH ME which dealt with the 11 years of war, Charles Taylor, the failure of the international community and modes of peaces, it all felt surreal that i would be spending the next couple of days in Liberia visiting my father, conducting interviews for an NGO, going to a Timaya concert and spending time with my dear cousin.

I'M COOL. I'M GREEN.

 see my elation as i parked my car next to the once mounting pile of garbage that the inhabitants of Cuckuil Bay in freetown complacently live beside. Men were standing around, some sitting and watching into a non-existent far distance and some were bending down cleaning the remnants of a very large and i assure you, very large pile of "doty" that once served as a landmark for the area. I begin to take pictures, and the man sitting down asks me to introduce myself and my reasons for snapping the scene, he the self-proclaimed leader of this initiative must know my intentions. The man must be out of his mind, the fact that i was even standing their with some form of glee should be enough. Ha! i explained that i was happy that the community was finally cleaning the space up. He said the government gave them some money to do so. My smile disappears, it would have taken the government for me to want to get rid of that pile of pure and undiluted rubbish that was lazily sitting there for months on end. I leave the scene after some displays of vanity (see photos below) disappointed.

Post-Elation | Cukuil Bay, Freetown

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