By Hassan Koroma
Boie Bah has reported her husband, Muctarr Jalloh to police, allegeding he threatened to kill their 26 years old son, Abu Bakarr Jalloh.
According to Bah, Muctarr, a Fullah elderly businessman and the Chief Imam of Wellington Community mosque has repeatedly been making the threat after their son refused to marry a woman from their tribe which the father chose.
Abu Bakar reportedly refused because he believes he has the freedom to choose his partner, regardless of tribal affiliation. He did not only refuse his family’s wish to marry a Fullah woman, Bakarr went further to choose a woman from another tribe, worsening the situation that escalated into his father thinking of an option to eliminate him.
Marriage within the Fullah tribe, one of the major ethnic groups in Sierra Leone remains largely endogamous. Fullah children, often, whether underaged or not, are forced to marry within their tribe, no matter what. Any marriages outside the tribe are strongly discouraged.
This practice, while it is intended to preserve the tribe’s cultural identity, and maintain clan unity, has been criticized as one that encourages early marriages and gender based violence.
Bah said her husband being a Fullah, is a typical traditional tribe’s man who only allows his children to marry their tribe’s men and women.
Fearing for the safety of her son, she decided to report the threat to the police.
“I know my husband well, he doesn’t make empty threats and the last time they almost engaged in a physical fight and that is the reason I have reported the matter to the police,” she told this medium at her Brima Lane, Wellington residence, Freetown.
In another development, Bah explained that since that threat by her husband, she has not seen nor heard the whereabouts of her son and his Limba partner, Iye Conteh. “That was the reason I reported the matter to the police.”
“As I am speaking to you right now, my husband has asked me to leave his house on the grounds that I supported my son, which is not so,” she added.
Bah said she tried to convince her son to follow the tradition and wish of his father, but the son told her he was now a modern educated man that cannot be controlled by customs and traditions.
She further explains that she has called for the intervention of other relatives, but all of them condemn the act of Abu Bakarr going against his father’s word and their tradition.
“As I am speaking, his father is still angry and has vowed to kill my son,” she said.
Speaking to this medium in a telephone interview, Bah’s husband, Muctarr said he hates to respond to the issue because he does not want to hear anything that has to do with his son.
“I’m only waiting to see him, I know what to do. I don’t have a son that doesn’t listen to me,” he said.
The Chief Imam emphasised he considers that single act by his son to be disrespectful, and has led to his loss of respect in their community and among his fellow tribe’s men.
However Sierra Leone Police has decided to discharge the matter which Bah reported to them on the bases that it is a family and cultural issue, while her son, Abu Bakarr remains unseen, and whereabouts still unclear, leaving the mother deeply bothered.
