Freetownː Aw lɔŋ wi go wok lɜk ɜlifɑnt ɜn it lɜk yɔni? The sun never set in Freetown.

There are many cities in the world were the sun never set and Freetown city is one of them. This is because of people in these cities like Freetown work day and night, night does not either their daily activities.

I used to think that it is only the educated young people that don’t sleep at night. My friends are always online at midnight doing research, working on assignments or downloading or uploading video or files. The Internet in Sierra Leones is very poor and very expenses during the day. It’s only at night it’s a bit fast. My friends and I will also go to the party the whole night and go early to classes the next morning. My experience yesterday helped me to know that it’s not only the young educated freetwonians the sun never set for, But many women and young men.

At about 12:00 am -2:00 am people were still going about their businesses. A lot of cars, Kekes and Okadas busy were running up and down the city. These are the same transport that will run whole with the same driver but they still remained poor. Still finding it’s very hard to take care of their family and basic needs, having no assurance of the future.

Women in the central business district were still selling at 1:30 am at dofcourt market. Some were even shouting

” you don buy you cold Wata, you don buy you places”

Some children were even playing around the market with so just joy and happiness. What’s I was thinking all this while is why are these people not sleeping or tired. But if dem nr fen is, ar go gee dem?

The young men were not an exception. I saw some men working for the Freetown city council, they were painting road sign on the street at night. Thank God for electricity.

At about three junctions I saw some offloading bags of rice and other stuff from a van into a shop. This is the kind of hard work I can’t do even during the day. This men are the people when they sick they can’t give themselves good medication. Money nr de

I don’t know why I was not afraid of thieves. I saw a group of when coming and I was inquisitive about it. I made to learn that One of their comrades has stolen someone phones and they were doing the investigation themselves. When I saw them past the byv eastern police station, I thought there were going to the police station. But they didn’t. They when away with the guy, only God knows what they will do with him. I love the idea of community policing, it the safest and cheapest form of policing. Who told me this guy was doing community policing? Maybe they were just finding ways from him to space.

At this hour people were still selling cold water, rubber drink and recharged card. “Top Top Top” around Eastern police. For them, it’s always day.

At St John which is around my area, people were still selling in the street.They were selling ‘fry fry”, fry fry is a sort of local fast food in which most of the foodstuff is fried.

I can hear the voices of people praying in a church and other reading Quran in a mosque. There was one particular man in a fuel station that was reading the Quran very loud.

There were also clubs and bar that were still on.

So know I very well that the sun never set in Freetown. The only problem and question I have is.

Why do freetownians work very hard and received a little reward?

Why is there a lot of poverty in Freetown?

Aw, lɔŋ wi go wok lɜl ɜlifɑnt ɜn it lɜk ɔni?

Sierra Leone: On my 24th birthday. #Birthday speech.

I am incredibly excited to have celebrated my 24 the birthday with all of you. Whether its call, WhatsApp messages or Facebook post and messages, you all made me felt very special.

Last year was certainly a year, I can’t look back with undiluted pleasure. With all its ups and downs, it has indeed shaped my destiny and my relationship with others.

As I navigate from Youthhood to Adulthood, many things have changed in my life and the world at large. Three things have and will forever remain constant in my life: Faith, Family and FriendShip.

I am grateful for the loving -kindness and tender-mercy of the Lord Almighty. Wethers it’s in my Education, my Business or Adventure he has been with me throughout.

I am enormously thankful for my family. I have made you cried, laugh proud and…….You are the greatest team in the world and the greatest thing that ever happens to me.

You open your doors, kitchens, backyards and hearts throughot this year to me. I am proud to call you my very own friends. Indeed there are friends that stick closer than a brother.

This next year of my life will be filled with Achievements, Aspirations and Adventures. Lord Almighty, be my guide. Amen.

Sierra Leone: Too young for parenthood .

One evening, I went to one of the streams around my area to fetch water. Yes!!!, we still go to the stream to fetch in some part in freetown, Siearr Leone oo. I observed something very strange, most of the youths are parents now, many of whom were my childhood friends and playmates.

I know very well that children are a gift from the Lord and the fruit of the womb is its reward. The number of boys and girls that are becoming a parent is increasing rapidly. 2 out of 10 of my agemates are either baby’s Papa or mama. Who even invent “Baby mama???. Ar knows say to my business but it’s Sierra Leone’s business and Sierra Leones Business is my business. Most of the time these youths did not plan for the baby. Now an innocent child is in the world. Poor pikin don Kam and the world now.

The Poverty chain continues

Most boys and girls after secondary school become parents. If you are not working and you have a child to take care of you will just continue with the chain of poverty. Now you don’t only have to take yourself out of poverty but your child also. It’s will be difficult now, the child might not have all he required in life to come out of poverty because you can’t provide it for him. Born pikin when you stable na life duya.

It’s a mistake

It’s never a mistake, you can’t impregnate a lady or get pregnant and said it’s a mistake. Planning to have sex without contraceptive is planning to get pregnant. There are a lot of cheap contraceptives everywhere. I am not in any way advising someone to use a contraceptives but it’s better to use it than to to have an unwanted pregnancy. Abstance is the best, sex is for married people, not unmarried youth.

This might be the child that will me bring me out of poverty.

Sometimes na dis pikin go pul mi pan poo.

Giving birth to a child does not mean he will take you out of poverty. It’s is not the responsibility of a child to take his parents out of poverty, even the bible and the Quran can agreed to it. I know it’s a blessing for a child to help his parent and take them out of poverty. It’s is the responsible of the parent to give the child a quality life.

God go provide

God is the supreme provider of the whole Universe and everyone in it. He is also God of planning and order. He took 6 days to make the whole world, he made specific things every day. He said there is time for everything under the sun. Me brother!!!, Plan for your child. E lek na gari, we go it

I don’t know why I’m writing about this topic on my 24 birthday. I am single-single and will only have my first child after I have all the money and resources to sponsor his education from Daycare to University and give him the highest quality of life.

Sierra Leone: Some Easter culture kept by Christians in Sierra Leone. #EasterinSalone

Sierra Leone is a cultural melting pot in West African as it was considered as “Jollof of West Africa”. Most of our cultures are a mixture of Nigerian, Ghanian and many other African countries. We also have a lot of European culture in Sierra Leones and most of which were influenced by the early Christian missionary in the 19 century.

Here are 4 Amazing cultures we keep in Sierra Leones on Easter day

1: Kites Mounting

When I was a little child my uncle made a lot of money on Easter day from selling kites. He was a good artist and a Business man. Kite mounting is a culture that has been pass on by several generations in Sierra Leone. Few days before Easter young boys will make kites from plastic and paper to be sold. During Easter, children and youths will be mounting the kite in every Area. It’s a wonderful sight to see the joy these children and youths have from mounting kite and decorating our sky. This is very symbolic as Easter is about the Resurrection of our Lord and saviour Jesus.

He is not dead, he has risen

He nor die oo, he don garp

2: Dress Code.

While we wear dark clothes on Good Friday, we do the opposite on Easter day. During Easter, Christians in Sierra Leone will wear very bright clothes to attend church service. We will also wear formal attire and ladies will dress like Queen Elizabeth. Being in churches like St Georges’s Cathedral or Warren Methodist Church, you may think you are in England.

3: Food

We eat bean without fish, chicken or meat on Good Friday. On Easter, we only have European and American dishes on our menu. I love Easter, wetin na it? look am pack.

4: Beach outings.

It’s no longer a secret that the best beaches in the world are in Sierra Leone. On Easter, there will be a lot of outings to the beach by the families, organisations, business entities and communities. If you go na beach on Easter you nr go see San San sef, na mortal man nrmo you go see.

It’s not a role in Sierra Leone to practice these cultures. Some people don’t and most people practice it naturally like me.

#IloveSierraLeone

#IloveOurCulture

Sierra Leone: Some Good Friday culture in Sierra Leone. #GoodFridayinSolone

1:”Judas aaa , Judas ooo,
Wi go beat am tide.”

Anyone that have ever lived in Sierra Leone would have sing or heard this song. Every Good Friday youths and teenages will make a statue from old clothes and dress it like a man and name its Judas. This Judas made from old clothes is put in different junction to be seen by people. People usually give the youths money in appreciation .
At exactly 12 :00pm, “Judas ” is beaten, drag on the floor and throw in a dump site. We believe that this was the treatment Judas is supposed to have more than 200 years ago for seelling our saviour.

2:” Yu nr know say na Jesus in bodi you de eat so ?”

Don’t you know you are eating Jesus’ body?

In some homes bread and palm oil are not consumed on Good Friday. They are consider as the body and blood of Jesus respectively. I believe it a culture that was introduced my early Roman Catholic missionaries in Sierra Leone. Commission bread and wine are not consumed by Roman Catholic on Good Friday. This is my body breaken for you , eat it in remembrance of me.

3: Uskind bright klose so yu weer?

People are allow to wear black clothes on Good Friday to church but 90 % of the people will wear dark colours like black, blue, mauve or shijwte clothes
” And on the 7th hour Jesus died ”
Good Friday service in many churches in Sierra Leone are like funeral memorial service.

4: Aaaa look wea dem de beat Jesus?
Almost all Television station in Sierra Leone will be playing Passion of Christ, “Jesus films”. Anyplace you go na Jesus film de play oo. Even some cinemas have Jesus film as part of the list of films they will be playing on Good Friday..

5: Beans without no fish, chicken or meat.

In most Christian homes in Sierra Leones,especially Krio Christian, beans will be the only meal of the day. The beans is cooked with grandnut oil instead of palm oil and with no meat or fish as they are consider as Jesus’ blood or body. What a pretty cool way to remember Jesus and his suffering for us .

Sierra Leone was known as the cultural melting pot of West Africa in the 19 Century. We see have very cool and amazing culture in Sierra Leone which have been practice by several generations.

7 Amazing facts every foreign national that want to live or work in Sierra Leone must know about Sierra Leone Krio.

Eight things every foreign national that want to live or work in Freetown most know about Sierra Leone Krio.


1. Languages breaks barriers. As a foreign national talking Krio will help you to break language barriers and open doors in Sierra Leone. Even if you only know five Krio words use it in every of your conversation. Eg; Ar de do fayn ,work fayn, food fayn , altin fayn fayn.
2: Krio language it’s a unique language on its own. As a foreign national you will hear some very bad English sentences are prefect Krio sentence . You just need to accept and learn it’s structure like anyone other foreign language eg; Ar go call you back, when ar cross check, You need for reverse backward.
3: Krio have lot of English words, but that’s doesn’t mean you know the language. Because English words comming to Krio sometimes changes it’s meanings and it’s pronouncing . Eg; Alex get kol at ( Alex have cold heart) it’s like a translation but still two opposite sentences. Cold heart in Krio means peace while in English its means heartless.

4: Krio language have 7 vowels instead of the English 5 vowels. You might think it’s not important for you because you just want to learn to talk the language. But knowing it’s structure help you to pronounce word well and remember sentence .If you went to the market and said you want vegetable ( in a British or an American accent) they would say they don’t have it. We called it vegetable, same spelling huh but different pouncesion. Our Krio vowels are clearer and sharper than the English vowels.
5: Most Krio speaker hardly pronounce H and S in the start of a sentence. Just ask someone to pronounce ” Harold ” they would say “arol” and in many other words like house ( os), hannah(Ana) horse (us) and many more. This is the dynamic of our language and it’s beauty.
6: If your Krio speaker can speak slower , you can understand about 70 % of what he is saying. So whenever they speaks so fast just tell them ” talk slow slow “or “talk saful saful”. This is the same for any foreign language.
7: You don’t need to speaks 100 % Krio words in a sentence. Infact Krio is made up of about 50% English words. So you can talk few Krio words as you can. You only need to master your joining words like “na”, “de”, “en” and others.
8. if you talk Krio small small and someone smile at you. They are not laughing at you ( even if they might actually laugh) they are just admiring you.

It’s just like a black man talk a pure British English with a britsh accent.
If you have all this and need more.You need to take a Krio lessons with kushe Krio lessons.

http://www.Facebook.Com/kushe investment

Sierra Leone-Ghana connection, Four Amazing places everyone must visit in Ghana. #YaliNetwork

1:Elmina Slaves castle

This slave castle is in the central region of Ghana and it’s was built in 1482, during the era of the slave trade and slavery. It’s was build as a dwelling place for slave masters and a waiting and transition point for Africans to be transported into the new world. This slave castle is near the coast, which make it very easy for transportation of the slave.

As a student of History and politics in Sierra Leone, this castle gives life to what I have been studying all this while. I was able to understand and tthe mesarable condition our forefathers stay before transported tO the news world.

We also have a slave castle in Sierra Leone at bounce island but it is not in good condition as the elmina castle. I wish Sierra Leone will developed it’s historical monument and land marks.

2:Kakum National Park

This was is supper beautiful, it’s very natural and gives you the opportunity to commummine with mother earth l. We went to do the Canopy walk and it was absolute incredibly. Ghana is making lot of money from tourism . But dis canopy walk nr bin easy ooo, mi heart bin de cut. Ar feel say ar go fodong and ar bin de get for take pictures back oo

3:Coconut Grove Resort

I know there are many beaches in Ghana but I was only fortunate to visits one. It’s is absolutely wonderful although it natural beauty can’t be compired to any of our Sierra Leone beaches. The best West beaches in west African are in Sierra Leone.ome thing that was unique about this beaches it the infrastructure around the beach . This hotel, restaurant And other increational centre.

I did not wolk about in Ghana a lot because it was very expensive and I did not to interact with local a lot beacaue I was in a program. I really enjoyed and admire the infrastructural development in Ghana.

GodblessYali

Sierra Leone: Ex housemates Ishmeal Mauzi become Brand Ambassadors for Leone cigarette and Cement.

Ishmeal Mauzi, a participant of biggiest reality show in Sierra Leone is now the brand Ambassador for Leone cigarette and Cement.

In an exclusive interview with swit salone, Mauzi reveals it’s is a great pleasure for him to participate in the housemate salone. Since he was evicted from the housemate salone he have had lot of contracts and have been extremly busy. He is now the Brand Ambassador for Leone cigarette and cement. He is currently working on several Music videos with lot of Big names in the Sierra Leone music industry such as Morris “wonder boy”, Empress P and Rozzy. Apart from all this, he is working with the United States of America embassy in Sierra Leone and managing a small business with his mother and sister.

The 25 years old, Reality Television star, model and entrepreneur says if he was not famous he would still continue to work hard to be famous. As he believed he was born to be a star. Being Infront of the camera is what’s gives him great happiness and fulfilment. He is Inspired by the life of Zainab sheriff and Michael Bassay who are creating Impact in the lives of many Sierra Leoneans. Failure is one of the thing that motivate him the most, he said he is afraid to fail and always try to be better than the person he was the other day.

Mauzi says he is single and not searching. He ended his relationship last year and don’t have plan to get into any relationship especially with Sierra Leoneans. He believe many people come into his life for material gains and there are lot of opportunist out there. He prefer to send his money in charity and dream of having a charity foundation intend of giving opportunist.

The 25 years old model have plans to do his masters degree and to settle in America in other to pursue his dream of becoming the most successful Sierra Leoneans in hollywood movies.

Sierra Leone-Liberia connection. 4 Amazing things to do in Liberia.

1: Have a lecture about independents.

Liberia is the oldest African Republic and its one of the two countries that were never colonised in Africa. Most people I met agree on the part one of my sentence but not the part two. They said Liberia was colonised by United States of America. United States of America was a colony and did not colonise any country. This our argument will go on and on. They will never argee with me and I will never agree that Liberia was colonised. I’m just troublesome how can I argue with people about their on history? Liberia celebrate independent every years and have a close relationship with united of America. Most Liberia Youths dream of traveling to America, which is the same in Sierra Leone and many others countries in the world. Liberia flag is very similar to the American flag, Liberia have one star in place of the 52 stars in the American flag. They are the only west Africa country that has the United States dollars as it’s official legal tender. If you work in Liberia you would be paid in dollars oooo. Conversations between peers is term as “lecture” and I enjoyed all my Liberian lecture.

2: Speak English

It’s so amazing when you speak English in Liberia. Because of the confidence and Authority in which in speak my English when I was in Monrovia. Many people admire me, they said the guy is speaking pure British English. Aaaaa mi head bin de big. If it’s was in Sierra Leone I was speaking this kind of pure British English people will be very annoy. Dem go cuss me good fasin. I love the freedom that is in Liberia about speaking English in public.You can speak English any time and any place and you will not get insulted.

3: Talk Krio

Some Liberian living in Monrovia have connection with Sierra Leone. Some are Sierra Leoneans mostly from Bo and kenema district that are looking for greener pleasure. While others are Liberians who migrated to Sierra Leone during the civil war but return. So whenever you talk Krio they will have a complete connection with you and ready to tell you their story .

4: Networking

Liberia and Sierra Leone network is very essential. You can’t go to Liberia just for tourism. There are lot of education, business and job opportunity in Liberia. I went there purposely for Business opportunities and tourism. I had a wonderful dinner at the lunching of Young leadership Initial (Yali)- Liberia Alumni chapter. It’s was a wonderful time of networking. One day I dream of establishing a business between our countries.

Sierra Leone: Zainab sheriff lunches yet another reality Telivisionshow show

Zainab Sheriff has launched, The Zee Factor, a reality fashion and modeling competition. Zee Factor promises to be a reality show of drama, fashion, creativity and innovation. Sheriff says the show is a platform to promote local fashion. The model turned TV Stad say she will be using her skills, talents, experiences and exposure to make the program a success.

Zee Factor will feature ten designers and 10 male and female models. The selection of the participants was done on an open and competitive manner. Sheriff says her selection process was very inclusive as she was able to accommodate everyone regardless of their limitations. The show features a cross dresser and an albino model. Sierra Leone doesn’t often celebrate or include albinos in fashion and beauty.

At the launch of the show at Atlantic hotel well known faces graced the red carpet. China Nikki, winner of last year’s Big Sister was out in public for the first time in a long time.

There will be 3 winners of the Zee Factor, each taking home 20 million Leones. Aminata Bangura, Miss World Sierra Leone will host the show. The public will be required to vote for their favourite participant.

Sheriff has had quite the year. There was the huge public fall over between herself Anthony Junior Navo, AYV, and Africell. Some might have thought, that that would have dampered her prospects but nothing seems to hold her down. Sheriff have moved on to new projects and remains focused on being a key part of Sierra Leone entertainment.

Zainab Sheriff is the owner of Zedzee Multimedia and modelling company. She is an actress, singer, model. She is listed amongst the 50 Most Influential young Sierra Leoneans. Last year she produced the wildly successful Big Sister Sierra Leone reality TV Show.