Lecture
discusses problems in Africa
By Monica Levette Clark
On-line Forty-Niner
Diamond
wars in Sierra Leone and other parts of
Africa have ravished the countries since
1991, leaving men, women and children with
missing limbs, Isitoo Rashid told gatherers
during a lecture at the 23rd annual Black
Consciousness Conference Saturday.
Rashid, a member of the Pan African Women’s
Association and resident of Sierra Leone,
said many members of her family were killed
during the wars, which went on for 11 years.
“People say America is the richest country
in the world, but if you put your glasses
on, you will see that there is blood on
the diamonds we buy and the oil we use,”
Mzuri Pambeli said during her lecture.
Pambeli is a member of the international
organization, All African Women’s Revolutionary
Union, which orchestrated the transportation
of Rashid from Africa to America for the
lecture held in the Student Union.
“People suffered tremendously for the [profit]
and distribution of those resources,” Pambeli
said. “Diamonds feed no one in Sierra Leone,
but they hack off hundreds and thousands
of people’s arms and legs. Our love for
these trinkets of so-called status are killing
people, and we need to become conscious
about our choices in what we wear.”
Located off the west coast of Africa, Sierra
Leone has an agricultural economy, full
of natural resources and minerals, Rashid
said.
A brief history of the country was given
to support the claim that colonialism and
neo-colonialism worked to separate and control
the African people living in that country,
as well as other parts of Africa.
There are high incidents of illiteracy among
the women of Sierra Leone, she said, and
because of this, women are unable to improve
the quality of their lives, properly care
for their families, or actively participate
in the government.
Rashid said that during the period of the
war, the Revolutionary United Front, which
is made up mostly of disgruntled youth and
corrupt officials, fought brutally with
three national governments.
“They claim that they were fighting because
they wanted to free the people from government
inquisition and corruption. They claim that
they were fighting for the masses,” she
said, “but we knew that they were not, because
it was a war over diamonds.”
In October of 2000, the biannual meeting
of the World Diamond Congress, was held
in Antwerp Belgium, where representatives
of the international diamond industry accused
of helping finance these wars through the
sale of ‘blood diamonds,’ defended that
accusation.
The guns and weapons used by the rebels
of the front, Rashid said, came from America
and Europe. They were bought with the money
the diamond industry made from the sale
of the ‘blood diamonds.’
That year, Sierra Leone’s government and
the U.N. Security Council put a ban on the
sale of all diamonds from that country that
were not certified, in order to make it
harder to smuggle illegal gems.
But the diamond traders in Freetown, Sierra
Leone, said that the ban would not be very
effective because there were many corrupt
officials who were put in power and would
still help the rebels to smuggle them throughout
Africa. The rebels were reported to control
more than 90 percent of the diamond mines
in that country, and in May of 2000, the
fighting resumed once again.
“My house was attacked twice and I fled
half-naked for my life,” Rashid told over
50 listeners at the lecture, prompting emotional
sighs.
Today Sierra Leone is left only with the
legacy of the war that destroyed the country.
“It is very discouraging to see youth with
potential without arms and legs to walk;
young ladies have taken into prostitution;
children are left in the streets,” she said.
The war left her with valuable lessons.
She encouraged those who attended the lecture
and all African people from all over the
world to unite and support each other.
In September of 2001, the Pan Africa Union’s
women’s association founded the Early Childhood
Education Mawina Kouyate Center in Freetown.
The center was established to provide education,
clothing and toys to children who survived
the war.
Named after Kouyate, a long time Pan-African
activist who lives in America, the center
developed a scholarship program to pay for
the tuition fees for each of the 38 children
who are currently enrolled in the school.
About $35 in U.S. currency cover the tuition
of one child for a whole year, providing
them with a uniform and school supplies.
For more information about the education
center and the organizations in Sierra Leone,
contact (313) 506-9207.
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