By Andrew Keili
This is the season of advent for us Christians. The word “Advent” is derived from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming”. We look forward to the coming of Jesus Christ at Christmas. In Sierra Leone, however advent is for everyone. I overheard a discussion between a Christian and Muslim a week ago in which the Muslim asserted: “Yes, our Muslim holidays are for Muslims only but Christmas is for everybody-so we have a right to also enjoy our Christmas!”. Come to think of it, Christians should be pleased that unwittingly, the gospel of Christ is being spread to many in unexpected ways.
I have a Muslim friend who often sends me refreshing Christian inspirational quotes and Bible verses over social media. We often hear Muslims reciting Bible verses in blessing us- “No weapon fashioned against you shall prosper”. “You shall be the head and not the tail”. We should not be surprised at such in this religiously tolerant country. Indeed,Christmas has always been for everybody. Christmas is a time for shopping till you drop dead (if you have the money!), and revelingand December is the most event-filled month. Wedding and party invitations come thick and fast and the 24-hour day is never enough. There are those who just want to enjoy themselves as if there is no tomorrow. Their normal refrain is: “Die day?- no, die nor day!” and thanking God for sparing their lives they would sing, “Happy Christmas we nor die oh”.
The great majority of people want someone else to help them make their Christmas pleasant and harass others to “pull their Christmas”. Pull Christmas?-Yes. I recall when working with an American colleague at Rutile, an annoying worker in my Department used to harass him incessantly-“Rick, this year, you will pull my Christmas, mah!”. Rick, not understanding the concept reported him to me for making threatening remarks. I had to explain to him that “pull my Christmas” was a colloquial expression for helping him out with something to engage in his Christmas reverie.
But let us come to the actual advent issue and the role played by the prophets. The prophet Isaiah who appealed to people some eight hundred years before the birth of Christ spoke thus: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined…….. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace…..”.
John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea telling people of the coming of Christ and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near”. He referred to the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing “You brood of vipers!-John is the worst marketing man I have heard of-calling your potential converts “brood of vipers”? People asked John “What then should we do?” John told them to repent of their sins and be baptized.
Isaiah was speaking to the despondent people of Judah. John the Baptist like Isaiah preached in the wilderness, a place where one may get lost, a barren place that seems to have no life or hope.
We can also say metaphorically that we are also in the wilderness today in the world and in Sierra Leone. We are in a world bombarded by media-social media-no peace in the world, natural disasters. Hope is dwindling. We don’t however need the prophets of old but need prophets within our communities to speak to us. We need modern day prophets to bring us back on track:
- Because horrors run non-stop through our news feeds, fanning our fear.
- Because merchandise is offered to make us feel better, but really only increases that fear.
- Because we fill up our lives with mostly meaningless activities, because it somehow is less frightening to keep busy.
Who needs a prophet in Sierra Leone anyway? We need prophets. The people who sit in darkness, in deep despair, they need prophets. The people who have little food to eat this Christmas, they need prophets. The people who have no voice, no rights, no hope—they need prophets, because prophets proclaim a new and better way. Prophets are truth-tellers to a world and a Sierra Leone longing and praying and looking for glimpses of hope. Someone wrote-“Biblically speaking, a prophet isn’t a fortune-teller or soothsayer who predicts the future, but rather a truth-teller who sees things as they really are—past, present, and future—and who challenges their community to both accept that reality and imagine a better one”.
This Christmas season let us look at some of the glaring things happening in our society that force us to ask –“what shall we do?” and not “die day?.
Well, we can do a lot on the Gender based violence (GBV) front. Women and girls continue to be subjected to sexual and gender-based violence with alarming regularity. A total of 10,544 cases were reported in 2017 alone: from physical abuse (wife beating and torture); sexual abuse, rape of young girls, sexual harassment and intimidation at work and school, economic abuse such as denial of property, educational and employment opportunities and other forms of emotional or psychological violence. According to Rainbow Centre, from January to October 2018 about two thousand, three hundred and fifty five (2,355) sexual assault cases were reported at their centers in Kenema, Kono and Freetown. 2017 data from the FSU reveal that about 2,482 Sexual penetration cases were reported.
The story of the five (5)year old girl who has been badly damaged and can’t walk because a 28-year-old man who is a relation raped her through anal sex, leaving her spine damaged has left many people stupefied. Just yesterday we heard another story of a seven-month-old baby who has been sexually tampered with. There have been similar stories over the past year of child rape by depraved people. What kind of society have we become? These incidents and the lack of any concerted action to put paid to them have led to protests by women’s groups including LAWYERS and people like Radio Democracy’s Asma James who has set us a foundation to fight this scourge. Sierra Leoneans -both men and women are heeding the call and forcing the government into action. The Attorney General, Minister of Social Welfare and First Lady are all making hopeful action-oriented statements on these issues.
Well, we can also collectively do a lot on the political front. There is little doubt that the political atmosphere is poisoned.Our politics has always been one of exclusion and the factthat it is dividedroughly along tribal and regional lines creates considerable discord amongst various groups. We generally do not regard governance as a continuous process and it is always about point scoring with one side making the other side look bad and ineffectual. Social media has not helped the situation. You can tell from the various politically motivated social media groups whose objectives are largely to spread doom and gloom about the opposing groups. We now have famous social media commentators who broadcast their messages of hate as if they are gospel truth. These are revered or hated characters, depending on one’s point of view. Love them or hate them, their messages are rebroadcast to thousands of gullible Sierra Leoneans.
You also have pure social media psychopaths that never spread good news. One relative who never sends me good news about Sierra Leone features prominently in this category. He would often be the first to tell me about what is happening at the city center or even my backyard. Fire disasters, floods, political blunders, case of thieving etc. are all packaged into his messaging. I have learnt not to read them, so I don’t get depressed. Sensing I may not be reading his messages he often phones to make sure I received them. Hapless me!-I have started opening them but not reading.
Well, we can also do a lot on the community violence front. Sierra Leone has been changed by the war, the decline of family life, and the exposure of our young people to different lifestyles. All over the country it is easy to notice that hundreds of thousands of young people basically have nothing to do. Meeting places for young people have now become places of violence.A whole host of reasons may be responsible for community violence. These include the parlous state of the educational system, unemployment, the economic situation and lack of community cohesion which lead to problems of indiscipline and immorality.
Several groups should have a role to play to address this issue-religious and community organisations and government. These groups may not be talking to each other on some of these problems, and youths who are the main perpetrators are often left on their own.I expressed my admiration a few years ago in this column for the Imams, the Alkadi, the elders, the Jammats of the Fourah Bay Community and the Fourah Bay Community Foundation who condemned in the strongest possible terms the spate of indiscipline, the lawlessness and the violence beings perpetrated in and around their community and also taking robust remedial actions in their community. Martin Luther King talked about “making our neighbourhood into a brotherhood” How many of us modern day prophets are doing this?
We may say many of these problems should be left to government. Yes, but we can also take action ourselves and also sometimes by our robust collective advocacy force the government into action. We should ask the question: “What should we do?”
This Christmas let us remember we are living in a country in whichthe gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” is increasing in society. Are we willing to share with those with less? Or are we to continue taking more from others who are already struggling to fill their pockets? Are we to continue to benefit ourselves? Are we to elevate our status at the expense of hurting others? Are we to offer false accusations by telling half-truths or even totally lying?
This is a season of goodwill for all of us and we should not only pray but take action to ensure that we have a season of advent that truly welcomes the coming of the “Wonderful Counsellor and Prince of Peace.
Our prayer for this advent is:
God of hope, who brought love into this world,
be the love that dwells between us.
God of hope, who brought peace into this world,
be the peace that dwells between us.
God of hope, who brought joy into this world,
be the joy that dwells between us.
God of hope, the rock we stand upon,
be the centre, the focus of our lives
always, and particularly this Advent time.
Ponder my thoughts