February 4, 2021
By: Sulaiman Stom Koroma
We must never allow what happened in 1991 in Sierra Leone to ever resurface. Some of us suffered- lost loved ones and property.
In retrospect, the 11 years civil war decimated our population. Thousands of civilians were killed, maimed, raped, or forced to become child soldiers. Half a million were displaced. Mineral resources and properties were looted. No doubt-our civil war will be remembered as one of the bloodiest in Africa.
To date, we can still feel and see scars of the 11-years civil. By now we should have learnt our lessons, and pray that we do not take part in or allow anything that will further divide our country. Alas, it is like there are those ready to wake-up the ghost of the past.
After the first round election results of 2018 were announced by the National Returning Officer, declaring a runoff, I started seeing messages of hate and tribalism all over social media.
If you cannot appreciate the weight of these hate speeches then reflect on the genesis of the Rwanda genocide.
It was sparked by the death of the Rwandan Habyarimana, a Hutu. His plane was shot down above Kigali airport on 6 April 1994. In Kigali, the presidential guard immediately initiated a campaign of retribution. Leaders of the political opposition were murdered, and almost immediately, the slaughter of Tutsis and moderate Hutus began.
Organized gangs of government soldiers and militants hacked their way through the Tutsi population with machetes or blew them up in churches where they had taken refuge. From April to July 1994, members of the Hutu ethnic majority murdered over 800,000 people, mostly of the Tutsi minority. The genocide spread throughout the country with feverish rage and inordinate brutality. Ordinary citizens were incited by local and government officials to take up arms against their neighbors.
In just one day, there were over 8,000 people killed, and for the period of 100 days, which the genocide lasted for, about one million people were killed. Come to think the casualty figure surpassed what the two leading political parties had secured in previous elections. An estimated 2,000,000 Rwandans, mostly Hutus were displaced and became refugees.
It is important to note the media played a significant role in the Rwandan genocide. Prior to the genocide, radio stations and newspapers were carefully used by the conspirators to dehumanize their potential victims. During the genocide, radio was used by the Hutus extremist conspirators to mobilize the Hutu majority, to coordinate the killings and to ensure that the plans for exterminations were faithfully executed.
Today, it is hard to see the mainstream media orchestrating hate speech. But with the advent of social media, nothing is impossible. It is now true that incidents have been reported on nearly every continent. Much of the world now communicates on social media, with nearly a third of the world’s population active on Facebook alone. As more and more people have moved online, experts say, individuals inclinations toward racism, misogyny, or homophobia are heightening. Social media platforms also offer violent actors the opportunity to publicize their acts.
According to the Council of Foreign Relations, “Violence attributed to online hate speech has increased worldwide. Societies confronting the trend must deal with questions of free speech and censorship on widely used tech platforms”
Unfortunately, Sierra Leone has not passed any law prohibiting content sharing or taking legal action against the reckless use of social media. In 2017 the government almost started the process of what they say was a process of ensuring the responsible use of social media, but this idea came under serious contention, as many believed that, it was a plan by the government to censor and apparently clamp down on social media in the country.
In April 2020, the government of President Bio says they are contemplating a crackdown on fake news on social media. But that threat has not been translated into restraining actions; it suffered the same fate as that of the then ruling APC government.
Recent audios and videos that are making rounds on social media have raised an alarm, creating panic in the minds and hearts of people who know and understand very well the history of the brutal war and killings the country has gone through. Where are our leaders? Where are our religious leaders? Where are the elders of this land? Where are the heads of our different political parties? Where are our Civil Society Organizations? Where are our Paramount Chiefs and Traditional Leaders? Are we waiting until things get bad before we make a statement to condemn what you are all seeing now on social media? Are we not dissociating ourselves from it because we haven’t seen the calamity behind it?
It doesn’t matter where you come from or who you support, hate speech has the tendency to reverse the gains we have made as a country. The hard won peace souls died for, the future we are building for our children cannot be squandered by bigots. We cannot allow an “idiot” or group of “idiots” drag us to the path where a photographer dragged us some 29 years ago.
I hope we will learn from this ugly past and immediately stop the hate speech in Sierra Leone We cannot entertain any cataclysmic fate; never again Sierra Leone!
