Life in Sierra Leone
by
Anne Zabolio
February 23, 2000
On February 9, 2000, I interviewed Alhajie Dumbuya, formerly of Kukuna, Sierra Leone, Africa. Kukuna is a city of 500,000 people in the northwest part of Sierra Leone, on the border with Guinea, and most of Mr. Dumbuya’s family hails from Guinea. (Please see the map on page 4.) Al, as he is known in the United States, teaches chemistry at Austin Community College and at U.T.
Sierra Leone was colonized by the British, and the official language is English, which Al speaks with a beautiful accent. In addition, he speaks Susu, Temne, Mende and Krio, the last of which he said is creole, as its pronunciation would imply. Most of the people in Sierra Leone are fluent in several languages.
Al arrived in Texas in 1987 to get his master’s degree at Southwest Texas State University. Although to attend either of the two universities in the whole of Sierra Leone, a student must be in the top 5% of his or her class, Al got his first degree there. He mentioned these two facts at different times during the interview--the academic requirements and his individual achievement--and let me draw my own conclusions. To do otherwise would probably be considered bragging in his culture. He is considering a Ph.D. at U.T.
Contrary to what most United States citizens would think, Austin’s heat was a horrible shock to this African man. The climate of Sierra Leone is the mild mix of seacoast and tropical rainforest, with temperatures varying from 40 to 95 degrees F. Occasionally, Western Africa will get a "hamatten," a cold wind off the Sahara Desert, which causes an uncharacteristic cold snap. Al arrived here in the summer and was shocked by how little clothing people wore. In Africa, he said, "There are no bikinis; people like to cover up."
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Another cause of culture shock for Al was how isolated people are in the United States. In Sierra Leone, households and houses are large, with 15-20 people living together--parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins. Al has one sister, three full brothers, and two half-brothers, a normal-sized Sierra Leone family. He has yet to marry and have children of his own. Since Al plans to retire in Kukuna, he has built a home there, with nine bedrooms in the main house and a backhouse with three additional bedrooms. This enormous (by U.S. standards) dwelling is funded by his comparatively large salary: the money he makes here is a fortune in Sierra Leone.
In Sierra Leone, people don’t take work as seriously as we do in the United States. Of course, teachers like Al must arrive at work on time, but others are not likely to be at their places of employment until hours after they are scheduled to arrive. School, on the other hand, is very serious business. School standards are much higher than those in the U.S. and learning is very competitive.
Humor in the U.S. is very different. In Africa, there are no jokes about parents, perhaps good-humored jokes about great-grandparents, and only then because they are old and do things differently from the young. The elderly are respected there: for example, if a person sitting on the bus sees someone perceived to be older get on the bus, the younger person--of any age--will give up his or her seat to the elder. A main source of humor in the United States--the mother-in-law joke--would never be told in Africa, "not if you want to keep your wife," said Al.
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There is little fast food; everyone cooks. Soup is popular. So are kitchen gardens: anyone who has the space grows vegetables, even in the city. People eat less meat than here, but, since Sierra Leone is a country with a long coastline, fish is very popular. While there are no shopping malls, there are large supermarkets, usually owned by Africans or Indians. There are many Indians in Sierra Leone, also many Chinese and Americans.
People in Africa have pets--dogs and cats--but, unlike in the United States, pets stay outside. Often people build a little house for their animals, but they never come into the house. Most people have televisions in the cities but the countryside has no electricity.
The religions practiced in Sierra Leone are Muslim and Christianity. The plethora of Christian sects that abound in the United States are also present there: Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Spiritualist Church. Unlike Christianity, the Muslim religion is not splintered but unified.
Soccer is the main sport: everyone plays, watches, follows and fights over soccer. Volleyball, cricket and lawn tennis are also popular; colonial influence is apparent in the sports scene in Sierra Leone.
My sense of Al, as compared to a man of my culture, is of a gentle, but brilliant, person. While I could, of course, be viewing this man from my own culture-bound stereotypes, I do feel comfortable in his presence and his arrival in my office, where he comes to copy papers for his classes, is always welcome by my office mate and me. He always has a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. If Al’s gentle energy is typical of a person from Sierra Leone, I believe I would enjoy his country immensely.
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Times Books
1992 The Times Atlas of the World, 9th edition. London: Times Books. Plate 89.