Krio Descendants Union Passes Resolutions

Six separate and far-reaching resolutions were approved at a meeting of the Krio Descendants Union held on Saturday 27^th October. The meeting was convened in the grounds of Lacs Guest House, Brookfields, and was called to order by the president, Mrs Cassandra Garber. In her remarks after opening prayers, she recalled the Krio meeting of August 4 and affirmed that the main business of the day was to take decisions on resolutions that had emanated from that meeting and from consultations with Krio Descendants Union (KDU) branches overseas. She introduced the chairman for the meeting, Mr Sam Leigh, managing director of Eddie Davis Consultants and an eminent and widely practiced road engineer. In his opening remarks Mr Leigh said that Krios were rightly proud of their heritage, but needed to interact and could not live in isolation. “We have survived and will continue to survive,” he affirmed.

Mr Leigh introduced the various speakers on behalf of the six resolutions. Speaking in support of the first resolution, Mrs Garber revealed that the Krio Descendants Union had long advocated against the dual land tenure system and viewed the system as a violation of fundamental human rights. Mr Leigh recounted how he had once bought 20 acres of land outside Songo and set up a farm, only to eventually lose the land to a sub-chief without receiving a cent in compensation. He said he knew of many other people who had suffered a similar experience. Speaking on resolution 3, dealing with street trading, litter and illegal construction, the reverend Ajai-Nicol, Dean of St George’s Cathedral, observed that the problem is not that there are not laws in place but that the laws are deliberately not being enforced by the authorities. Mr Femi Barnes, independent parliamentary candidate in the Mountain district, spoke in support of resolution 5, which decries government appropriation of private lands without proper compensation. He recounted his experience in his home village of Bathurst, where land that had been owned by the local church for almost two hundred years was arbitrarily appropriated by government for a road project. Speaking on resolution 6 dealing with the issue of traditional courts, Mr Paul Conton said that the traditional court system was introduced into the Western Area many years ago, in the colonial era, when people from the provinces newly arrived in Freetown found themselves in a strange environment, unfamiliar with the laws, customs and even language of their new surroundings. It was felt then that these new arrivals needed a period of acclimatization among their own tribespeople and the system of tribal heads and traditional courts was instituted. With the Western Area now a multicultural society including large numbers of all the tribes of Sierra Leone, this system was no longer necessary, Mr Conton opined, and there should be one set of laws and courts for the entire country.

Contributors from the floor included the reverend Llewellyn Rogers-Wright, Stanella Beckley, Kojo Carew, Brian Conton and Winston Ojukutu-Macauley. Brief statements were allowed from Krio contestants in the pending general elections, and the reverend Sesay-Jones, SLPP candidate for the mayor of Freetown, made an impassioned appeal for support.

After extensive and lively discussions all six draft resolutions were approved in a show of hands by an overwhelming majority.(To see a copy of the resolutions approved, click here) An implementing committee was appointed to finalize the wording and distribution of the resolutions.