Hope in 2009?

This blog started on the back of a trip to Sierra Leone as part of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) - and earlier this year I went back to West Africa to The Gambia.

It's a part of the world I find myself fascinated by - geography, climate, history - and the people I've met are just stunning, optimistic and charming in the extreme...

So the closing of 2008 and the opening of 2009 brings for me the chance to hope and pray for better living standards - Africa remains one of the great issues facing any developed nation, this year will be no different.

Just popping to the corner shop for some grain?

Preparing the corn and grain in The Gambia was really hard work - but this gathering of women, sort of singing and extensively chatting was a ritual gathering by the shore in Bintang Bilong.

I joined in and it was easy to see how it was exhausting, intense and highly necessary - it wasn't long after that the vultures gathered to hoover up the remnants.

But it's this sort of activity that is so taken for granted - in an age when I can just go and buy virtually any food, pre-prepared and eat immediately or microwave it to completion, I can't help but sense that this manual preparation is far more sustainable and healthier...

The Gambia and the wonders of west africa

The west african bug is back and it feels like a deep hold...

A trip to The Gambia was as magical as could be expected - great weather, stunning scenery and just wonderful people.

We managed to get off of the beaten track and go up-river. the costs is strongly touristed so it was good to use to the local bus-taxi's (bus's to us) as that gave a much more real flavour of the country and the people - they were also great places to chat to people.

Our visit co-incided with the visit of President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone and with a time when President Jammeh is trying to establish himself and is entertaining visits from all of his West African neighbours.

It is always easy to say the people are great - it's actually true of most places i've been - but in west africa there is a joy and a charm that is infectious and really quite special.... sigh! When to return?

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/12/yep-ive-fallen-in-love.html

Pciture: Ed Fordham in Bintang Bolon with a gaggle of local children

What is it about West Africa?

When this site first started I had not long got back from an amazing trip to Sierra Leone - well the pause in service this last week has been a trip to The Gambia.

It's very similar to Sierra Leone, both climatically and culturally, and I find the mix of relaxation and intense hustle and bustle totally intoxicating.

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/12/yep-ive-fallen-in-love.html

I'll post more over the next few days but here is one picture that sums up the trip for me...

Yep, I've fallen in love...

Sierra Leone is perhaps the most amazing place I have ever been to. Friendly, warm, positive... And yet it is racked by the most endemic poverty, corruption and lowest wage levels I have seen.

In terms of all international indices and assessments Sierra Leone is near the bottom of the chart and yet when you are there it doesn't feel like that.

Don't get me wrong - the poverty is highly visible - and indeed I went down the back streets, into the slums and it is truly upsetting and stark. But people are positive, engaging and amazingly positive.

I was first there before the election had really started, but then returned to see the country during the election - few places are so political, seeing politics as a solution, engaging with the process.

Of course, Sierra Leone has a positive relationship with the UK massively enhanced by our role during the war and in particular in taking on the West Side Boys in 2001, but I can honestly say that in our own small way, we as a delegation felt useful.

The work was coordinated by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and we appear to be the only group working directly with the political parties.

There are essentially three large parties now - SLPP (Sierra Leone People's Party), APC (All People's Congress) and the PMDC (Peoples Movement for Democratic Change). The latter - the PMDC - are a new party led by Charles Margai and they eventually led the campaign for change - SLPP have been in power - and amazingly Sierra Leone has voted for change. There is now a coalition of APC and PMDC and the transition of power has been largely peaceful.

The new president Ernest Bai Koroma has a huge responsibility driving forwards change, but he seems to be up for the task and a great advocate for the country to enable them to move forward.

Quite what happens next precisely however is the unknown bit - can the new government tackle the endemic corruption, can living standards increase, can the tax and administrative mechanisms be embedded..? All is possible and there is great optimism, I just hope that it works.

Of course, the other (often unspoken) element is that there is a vast diaspora from Sierra Leone, especially here in London and so much hinges on their reactions and impressions.

The potential for international investment is huge, and I noticed China the other week formalising links with the new Government.

It's a country I want to keep in touch with and am planning a holiday trip sometime in the New Year... Having been around the major population centres (Freetown, Bo, Makeni and Kenema) I now want to see something of the rural areas especially in the deep south and the islands around Bonthe if possible.

For an introduction to Sierra Leone I started on Ismail Beah's memoirs of a boy soldier - it's tough and in places harrowing, but probably the best all round view of what the country has gone through - and yet still retains it's optimism.