Africa 24
Our beaches are now, almost no-go areas; our play grounds are dusty with neither soil-growing grasses nor artificial turfs; our cultural shows are now being listened to on Bluetooth speakers.
In the upcountry, the old, young, adult would glue to their Chinese audio set devices to hear Themene music sung by local artiste, Marie V. Marie. Veronica a.k.a Marie V is known by most Themenes these days. The tribe is the second largest in Sierra Leone. But her songs don’t sell to make her money but are transferred from one phone or Bluetooth set to another.
She only gets to make some little money as compared to her compatriots’ singers in Nigeria like Tiwa Savage. Tiwa Savage is a Nigeria afrobeats, R&b, afropop, pop and hip-pop singer.
Despite she earns nothing from her albums as her songs are pirated, her local fans talk of Marie V as a rich woman out of her local musics she is invited to perform in most villages in north of Sierra Leone.
“She has built about two houses,” a passionate follower of Marie V said in a commercial poda poda at Wellington.
Such admiration and praise of her laconic voice Marie V is getting in Sierra Leone just like in those days of some Malian, South African, Congo musicians The Kanda Bongo man.
We truly have lost our culture on village square with local singers performing in presence of an audience of elderly men and women, young children, young boys and girls.
Now songs are listened to and danced to through Bluetooth small sets. The artistes don’t get invited or admired hugely like the Kanda Bongo man of those days. And because people may have known their songs or have heard them already, the likes of Marie V and other cultural singers don’t always get invited by villages and villages around.
The beaches for those in urban places are being affected with dirt and sores of bars and restaurants around. The presence of these swarming ugly-looking like structures don’t attract tourists and could not make a place fit for sand-bathing for the citizens alike.
Our children don’t have fine play fields to play football, volley ball, basket ball.
The only national stadium, Siaka Stevens stadium, is still going under delays of repairs. People are not allowed to parade the streets to enjoy their cultural festivals.
The government must be blamed for this as it has banned all cultural shows from happening in the country to the extent that April 27 Independence celebration by Sierra Leone people has been put on hold by the government since 2018.
What we do love is what we have been deprived of.