Don’t Burn What We’ve Built

 

 

By Alpha Amadu Jalloh | For Africa Publicity

 

There are moments in a nation’s journey when silence becomes betrayal. The recent video by Donald Roberts and Almamy Nabay is one such moment. It is not just careless commentary. It is a loaded message soaked in tribal provocation, dragging Sierra Leone dangerously close to the edge. Their reckless comparison between Sierra Leone and Guinea’s 2010 election crisis is not only misguided. It is a direct threat to the fragile peace the people of Sierra Leone have sacrificed so much to preserve.

 

In the video, they claim the Susu helped the Madingo rise to power in Guinea. And now, they boldly declare it is the Madingo’s turn to return the favour. They speak of tribal alliances as if West African nations are chessboards and our ethnic groups are pawns. Worse still, they invoke the Madingo chieftaincy in Sierra Leone. Not as a genuine cultural revival, but as bait. A calculated attempt to lure innocent Madingo people into dancing to their political drumbeats. That is manipulation, not leadership. That is deception, not patriotism.

 

What are we becoming?

 

Have we already forgotten what tribal politics has cost us across the continent?

 

Have we forgotten the pain, the bloodshed, the tears?

 

Guinea’s 2010 election was no triumph. It was a time of grief. Streets turned red. Communities broke apart. People fled. Ethnic hatred was weaponized. That is not a lesson in unity. It is a warning. And to borrow from that playbook in Sierra Leone or anywhere else in Africa is not only dangerous. It is heartbreaking.

 

But their intentions become even clearer through their pointed silence. In a video supposedly about political unity, the Fula people were not mentioned once. Not by mistake, but by design. Let us not pretend. The Fulas are the target. The message is subtle, but it screams.

 

Yet what they fail to acknowledge is this. Sierra Leone is not a tribal estate. It is a home. A fragile home, where every tribe is a brick in its foundation. Remove one and the entire structure collapses.

 

The Fulas are not outsiders. They are part of the soul of Sierra Leone and of West Africa. They are traders, clerics, educators, farmers, leaders and parents. They are the third largest ethnic group in Sierra Leone and possibly its most connected. Every major tribe has a link to the Fulas. Temne Fula, Mende Fula, Loko Fula, Krio Fula. But never the reverse. Because the Fulas are not extensions. They are anchors. They are not margins. They are the centre.

 

So when Roberts and Nabay suggest alliances that deliberately exclude the Fulas, they are not building unity. They are drawing battle lines.

 

And when they invoke the name of Dr. Kandeh Yumkella, they cross another line. If there is any community that embraced Yumkella from the start, supported him when others stayed silent, lifted him when others pushed him down, it is the Fula community. To now chase his shadow while spitting on the hands that once held him is not only cowardly. It is shameful.

 

And to Dr. Yumkella, this is your moment to show courage. Your silence is loud. If your name is being used to promote division, then your voice must be used to denounce it. You owe that to your supporters. You owe it to your legacy. You owe it to Sierra Leone.

 

This is not just about politics. This is about the soul of our country. And of our region. We must not allow tribal games to turn our streets into ashes.

 

To Donald Roberts and Almamy Nabay. If you believe in Sierra Leone, then speak like patriots. Do not flirt with the fire of tribalism and expect peace to prevail. We are not Guinea. We are not fools. And we will not be dragged back.

 

This country is not perfect. But it is ours. And we have fought too hard, buried too many and endured too much to watch a few reckless voices burn what we have built.

 

Sierra Leone does not need tribal alliances. It needs national purpose. It needs leaders who will unite, not divide. Leaders who will honour every tribe, not use some and discard others. Leaders who will call us “brothers” and mean it. Leaders who will remember our wars and divisions not just as history lessons, but as eternal warnings.

 

So to all Sierra Leoneans and to all Africans who know the cost of division. Temne, Mende, Limba, Loko, Fula, Krio, Kono, Kissi, Yalunka, Susu, Madingo, Kuranko, Vai, Gola, Sherbro and others who share this land and this region. Let us hold hands tighter. Let us talk louder. Let us rise above this. Because Sierra Leone is not theirs to divide. It is ours to protect. And Africa must not watch in silence.

 

> “Tribalism is the tool of political dwarfs who have nothing to offer but division.”

 

Professor P. L. O. Lumumba

 

> “If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.”

Nelson Mandela

 

About the author:

Alpha Amadu Jalloh is a Sierra Leonean author, human rights advocate and peacebuilder based in Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of Monopoly of Happiness: Unveiling Sierra Leone’s Social Imbalance and writes regularly on African development, governance and unity.