Sierra Leone has a challenge on its hands

Sierra Leone, unfortunately, is known abroad, for those that have heard of the country, as a war-torn little state where social cohesion and everything that goes with it has collapsed entirely. World headlines in the 1990s were filled, appropriately, with stories of the civil war raging in the country at a time when the Revolutionary United Front was trying to overthrow the military dictatorship headed by Joseph Momoh.

The practices of both sides were cruel and barbaric; the government began recruiting children into the army in an effort to hold onto power while the rebels began indiscriminately killing civilians in order to instill fear and forced compliance with their agenda. The effect was devastating for the country, 2 million people were displaced, 75,000 were killed and many more went missing.

The war destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure and although it eventually brought down the unelected government of the time, it came at a terrible cost. A cost so terrible that it is all that Sierra Leone is known for, even though a democratic government now resides in Freetown.

Through the efforts of the Nigerian-led UN peace-keeping forces and a show of force from the United Kingdom, a functioning government has been in place for eight years, and as the country begins to recover, there are some tourists who have visited the country and realized its potential goes beyond the infamy of the past.

Tribewanted is planning to establish an eco-tourism resort on John Obey beach, one of the most beautiful and pristine pieces of coastline in all Africa, they are calling for conservationists, environmentalists and others to join them in developing the low-key resort, which will charge $450 per week. A similar project by the group in Fiji has already seen over $1 million invested in the local community.

With low capitalization features, projects such as these may be the future of tourism in Sierra Leone, or at least the future of its resurgence. The country was once a popular tourist spot, but the ten year war changed all of that and its reputation with it. Because rape and mutilation became a regular tactic of the rebel and government forces, there is now a perception that rape and violence are a common occurrence in Sierra Leone.

This type of narrow focus has been seen in the coverage of the country’s Special Court for Sierra Leone trials, in which an attempt is being made to bring to task those responsible for the damage that was done to Sierra Leone’s people and infrastructure during the civil war.

Men such as Charles Taylor, the former dictator-president of Liberia are on trial for their role in the conflict, with Taylor accused of supplying rough diamonds (blood diamonds) to the rebels, a double-edged crime because it caused misery for those forced to work on his mines, and continued the destruction of Sierra Leone through the funding of rebels.

While Sierra Leone news media have been covering the trials, which are close to the hearts of the people, the international news media have lost interest with the country now that the war is over. This failure to properly follow-up on their journalism is what’s created the slanted perception of the country overseas, and it is the great challenge that Tribewanted will need to overcome.

The priorities of the international media were revealed when Naomi Klein was subpoenaed by the court and appeared to testify on her interaction with Taylor at a dinner party in South Africa. The international media gripped the story and gave it global attention, slipping it in with their selection of top news stories, but providing little context beyond the fact that her testimony was to do with the civil war, thereby continuing the narrow focus on the country.

The tourism potential of Sierra Leone is great, if these challenges can be overcome, and there’s no reason they can’t be, with hard work. It was recently reported by the BBC that Sierra Leone scored highly in a survey that mapped charitable giving in the world, although we scored low in terms of monetary contributions, our country and the wider North African region, was the second highest-rated in terms of ‘helping a stranger’ with time or personal resources.

This is a fact unknown about North Africa and countries like Sierra Leone, because it’s clouded by the linger smoke of war.