By Foday Moriba Conteh
In the field of journalism sometimes one thing leads to another thing or issue and that was exactly what transpired when this news medium honoured an invitation to cover the commissioning of a school that was constructed by a philanthropist in one of the deprived communities in the rural setting of Sierra Leone.
One of our ace reporters, who was designated to cover the event, also decided, in addition, to file in a story which we, the Editorial Team, deemed is newsworthy within the category of human interest stories.
The issue bothers around an attempted violation of the Freedom of Association of one Nathaniel Abubakarr Savage, who, three days ago, to be precise in June of 2017 was forced by his father, Sanusi Savage, to become a member of a highly secret society for young boys and men, the dreaded Poro Secret Society as a rite of passage into adulthood.
Sanusi Savage, father of Nathaniel Abubakarr Savage is a senior member of the society, occupying the position of “Gbanabom”, which is a powerful position or rank in the society. Because the father was advancing in age it was traditionally recommended, as the custom demands, for Nathaniel to be groomed as a “Gbanabom” in order to smoothly succeed his father. However, when the son learnt about the plan and what he knows about the things that his father does during initiation ceremonies he made up his mind not to associate himself with the secret society.
To translate the laid down plan into reality the father decided to bring the Poro Society members to his house in order to take Nathaniel by force against his will but luckily Nathaniel saw them coming from afar. He quickly decided to hide and ran away from the house. However, he returned in the evening hours and was chastised by the old man for leaving the house without permission. He was severely beaten with a belt by the father, especially for not going according to his wish, not to become a member of the society.
After a week, his father, Sanusi Savage decided to bring the society members again to take Nathaniel but this time around he was sleeping inside so he didn’t see them coming but only heard the unique sound that is associated with the Poro Society.
Nathaniel immediately got out of the bed and jumped through the window to seek refuge at the house of his uncle, Samuel Koroma, at Mountain Town, Regent Village.
While residing at his uncle’s house, Nathaniel decided to start going to church though he was a Muslim who hails from strong Muslim family background.
When the father and other members of the Poro Society learnt that Nathaniel was residing at his uncle’s place and he has now become a Christian they stormed the uncle’s house with machetes and bottles but were unable to enter the house because it had a strong iron gate. They started to furiously hit the gate but the uncle refused opening the gate and they disappointedly left.
After one week the society members came back to the house and did the same thing but were still unsuccessful in getting Nathaniel and they despondently left again.
Sadly, on the 14th August 2017, Nathaniel’s uncle, Samuel Koroma, died in a tragic mudslide incident that occurred at night up at Regent Village. It was feared that Nathaniel was among the victims of the tragic landslide that died in the affected house.
However, according to a reliable source his uncle took him to safety out of the house before the unfortunate incident happened out of fear that the Society members will successfully apply another strategy to lay hands on the poor boy.
Up to this moment of going to Press the whereabouts of Nathaniel Abubakarr Savage is not known. But what is certain is that the members of the Poro Society are desperately searching for him vowing that if he is seen they will kill him and sacrifice him to the Poro gods.
For now Nathaniel has been declared wanted in the country by the Police and the Poro Society members. The Police want to ascertain whether he was among the victims of the tragic incident and the Poro Society members for what they consider as treachery especially for failing to adhere to the dictates of tradition.
From what this medium learnt there are other hapless young boys and girls in the country who are forced to be associated with certain traditional practices, including forceful membership into secret societies, some very harmful, against their wishes all in the name of preserving traditions or customs.
However, in reality, their basic fundamental human rights are being violated with impunity on a daily basis which is why it is important for Rights-Based Organizations in the country to step advocacy and raise up their voices loud against such harmful traditional practices otherwise young people will continue to suffer in silence having nowhere to seek redress.
