Vitabu Books

Ahmed Koroma’s Letters from America were first published five years ago. This is Part 2 of the six-part series, which ran on July 30th, 2012.    Suba Ranka picked up his cutlass, wiped the blood with his fingers and smiled. He had killed again. Only this time, the victim was a goat. He meticulously picked his nose and looked around. He was getting really good at this; chasing goats and chickens around the baffa and killing them one after another.  Last night, as he ran around the village looking for goats and chickens, he realized that the moon had suddenly disappeared. The place had gotten dark and his victims were hard to find. He had killed the moon, too. He took one more look at the dead goat. I am going to pluck the wings off the goat before it flies away.  He was really good at this. Last night, just before the moon disappeared, he had sworn that one day he would take a big knife, climb the court barre wall and take a stab at the moon. He didn't know wh...

T he harrowing events of May 25, 1997 in Freetown, Sierra Leone fell far short of the lofty ideals of 25 May 1963, when the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was founded. More than 30 years earlier, the OAU had been set up to support the work conducted by freedom fighters, and improve living standards across member states. At the ‘63 meeting in Addis Ababa, Africa Freedom Day was renamed Africa Liberation Day. According to records, the renamed celebration of Africa Day continued to be celebrated on May 25 in respect to the formation of the OAU. Haile Selassie reportedly exclaimed, "May this convention of union last 1,000 years." By May 1997, the union was just over 30 years old. That was the day Bailah Leigh’s life took an ominous turn. The German-trained obstetrician and gynecologist, who’d returned to his native Sierra Leone in 1978, was midway through his career when Sierra Leone was upended by yet another military coup. Coup d’états had been a part of Sierra Le...

O n May 6, Akibo triumphed. And that song, the one about Akibo, became an instant hit and would forever remain part of the legacy of a community. APC Central One,  Na Akibo we want oh Ah say APC Central One,  Akibo we want oh Ah May 6 oh, Akibo win election For go na palimehnt  For woke for di nation Ah Nancy Oh, e lef pan you oh Akibo Betts!  Na man way we want oh For we minister N ineteen seventy-seven was a turning point in Salone (Sierra Leonean) history. It was one of the most intense campaign-elections in Freetown. [With] the Fourah Bay College (FBC) Student protest during Convocation, January 29, 1977; an attack by All People’s Congress (APC) party supporters at the Mount Auroel campus, January 31, 1977; premature dissolution of parliament, April 4, 1977; and a hurriedly held election on May 6. It was the year of the "un-opposed" but in Freetown Central One the election was anything but 'APC un-opposed.' The stage was set not (just) between...

Milo and All That Jazz is the most recent work of Dr. Kitty Fadlu-Deen, published by Sondiata Global Media. The book takes the reader on a journey through Sierra Leonean culture expressed in her distinctive music. Milo and All That Jazz explores the history and creative breadth and depth of Sierra Leonean music from the 1960s to the 1990s. Considering the vast choice of bands and artists during that period, this is no mean feat. Aminatta Forna, a renowned Sierra Leonean author, says: “Dr. Fadlu-Deen has commemorated Pino and all the most talented of Sierra Leone’s array of musicians over three decades in a fascinating story that has been meticulously researched and elegantly written… Sierra Leone boasts a powerful voice that moves to its own distinctive beat."  This is a must-read for music lovers the world over. It is a book that connects the development of Sierra Leonean cultural music and its sources of inspiration from the African Continent and beyond. Above a...