05/20/2002 Archived Entry: "Salone, Democracy, and W. Africa"

Kabbah won decisively, with about 70% of the vote. This is a good turn of events in the country, which has been war-torn for over a decade. I doubt all is peaceful throughout the country though, as there are still rebels fighting in Liberia. While I was in Sierra Leone, in the early 1990's as a Peace Corps Volunteer, the Civil War was right on the edge of occurring and eventually, I had to be evacuated from my post, and was then re-located to a vacation spot in Costa Rica. Nowadays, the Peace Corp is in neither of these countries. Sierra Leone, because it is too unstable, and Costa Rica, because all the PCV's did was take away jobs from the locals who were able to fill the positions that the country hosts were filling with PCV's instead.

I would imagine that PCV's will be heading into Sierra Leone again in the near future. Providing that the organization is well-funded. Elections, PCV's, these are the small things that make a difference for a few, but don't address the structural deficiencies of Sierra Leone, and probably for 95% of Africa. Here in the US, you see the pinnacle of living the easy life, adopted by the great majority. 7% of the worlds population getting 70% of the worlds wealth and resources makes this possible.

Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world, coming in near the bottom of the per capita income scale each year. They do have diamonds, and that is what the fighting has been all about this past decade. They also have the worlds 3rd deepest port, a stockpile of Rutile, and the largest Peacekeeping Unit in the world, consisting mostly of ECOMOG. The latter is the only reason why there is peace currently in Sierra Leone. It helps that Kabbah has a UN connection. A large part of the success in implementing peace was the gun buyback program (mostly US and Chinese-made weapons).

Sierra Leone has traveled through Hell and back. Where do they go now? There needs to be some type of United States of Africa, but before that, regional alliances will need to advance. And this is occurring. Nigeria was the driving force behind ECOMOG. Hopefully other electoral reforms occur in the W. Africa region. Sierra Leone's having an election is probably more cathartic than anything, and will just be a small step along their destiny, but this at least gives the people hope of reform in the future.