By Alpha Amadu Jalloh(PHOTO)
Author of “Monopoly of Happiness: Unveiling Sierra Leone’s Social Imbalance” and recipient of the Africa Renaissance Leadership Award.
“Et Tu Brute?”, the final words of Julius Caesar as he realized even his closest ally had turned against him. That sense of betrayal is all too familiar in Africa today, where the people have long been stabbed in the back, not just by outsiders, but by their very own.
Africa, the land of dignity, minerals, wisdom, and resilience, still bleeds silently under the boots of foreign interests and their loyal African agents. Professor P.L.O. Lumumba could not have said it better: “We have been made to believe that we are incapable.” That false narrative has been planted, watered, and nurtured by both colonizers and collaborators, so that Africans grow up believing they need foreign validation to be valuable.
But not anymore.
From the deserts of Mali to the hills of Guinea, the voices of resistance are rising. And in Sierra Leone, my beloved homeland, the same story of betrayal unfolds. A country rich in diamonds, gold, bauxite, rutile, and iron ore, yet among the poorest in the world. Why? Because our natural wealth has never been ours to manage. The agreements signed with foreign mining companies are not worth the paper they are written on. They were crafted not for the benefit of the people, but to enrich a corrupt elite and feed the appetite of Western corporations.
Decades after independence, we are still watching our minerals shipped abroad while our communities near the mines lack clean water, electricity, decent schools, and basic health care. In Kono, in Tonkolili, in Marampa, in Lunsar, there are scars in the earth and hunger in the homes. How can this be? Because the so-called mining agreements were never meant to empower Sierra Leoneans, they were deals struck in quiet offices, sealed with handshakes between foreign investors and local politicians who prioritized their pockets over their people.
In the end, it’s betrayal, pure and simple.
When our presidents, ministers, and parliamentarians sign contracts that give 99-year leases to foreign firms and just crumbs to the host communities, is that not betrayal? When these same leaders are flown to conferences in Geneva and London to discuss “extractive transparency” while their people suffer silently, is that not a dagger in the back?
And when the World Bank, IMF, and other financial institutions condition our loans on policies that privatize our lands, open our markets, and liberalize our economies in ways that crush local industries, isn’t that betrayal too?
The betrayal is multi-layered. External forces exploit; internal forces enable.
Africa has always been punished for attempting to rise on her own terms. From the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in Congo to the silencing of Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso to the brutal killing of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, all because they dared to chart an independent path.
And now, Captain Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso faces similar threats. Why? Because he wants to control his country’s gold. Because he refuses to be another puppet. The same script plays out again and again, any African leader who refuses to bow to Western economic domination is either isolated, sanctioned, overthrown, or killed.
Even when it comes to gold, oil, or diamonds, if Africa wants to benefit from her resources, it becomes a problem for the West. Take the U.S. generals’ recent displeasure with Burkina Faso’s handling of gold exports. Do they really care about Burkina Faso’s people? Or are they just upset that the resources are no longer flowing into their hands unchecked?
This is the same game that has been played in Sierra Leone since the colonial era. The British Empire took the diamonds of Kono while giving the people nothing but police brutality and forced labor. Today, the names have changed, but the system remains. Now it’s multinational corporations with gleaming logos and local agents in suits, but the people are still hungry.
To the IMF and World Bank: you are not saviours. You are architects of dependency. You say you’re helping Africa, but your loans come with strings that leave us more entangled than before. You champion austerity while our hospitals lack syringes and our schools have no chalk.
And to the crybabies who still believe Africa must be guided by the West, I say, wake up! The youth are no longer blind. We are not fooled by grants and donor conferences. We see the hypocrisy. We see the manipulation. We are not against global cooperation; we are against exploitation disguised as assistance.
Africa does not need pity. Africa needs justice. And Sierra Leone needs leadership that will stand firm, not bow, not sell, and not beg. Leadership that will review every mining agreement, tear up the rotten ones, and negotiate in the interest of the people, not the politicians and their foreign handlers.
Yes, we will make mistakes. Yes, we may stumble. But at least the missteps will be ours, not imposed on us by outsiders or traitors within.
We do not hate the West. We simply demand respect. We do not reject foreign partnerships, we just refuse to be slaves in suits. We will trade, we will talk, but we will not kneel.
So once again, Africa must ask: Et tu Brute?
And this time, the answer must be: Never again.
To every Sierra Leonean, every African, this is the hour to reclaim what was stolen, to break the mental chains, and to believe in ourselves. We must write our own stories, draft our own contracts, and chart our own destinies.
Africa has awakened. Sierra Leone will not sleep. Burkina Faso and Africa will never sleep again! Yes, the devil in us is dead, now the angels guarding Africa’s welfare is awake.
