USAID/Sierra Leone: Kissis Unite to Address Cross-Border Issues

APRIL 20, 2005

Kissis Unite to Address Cross-Border Issues

Following several unsuccessful attempts by the governments of Guinea and Sierra Leone to settle a simmering border conflict at Yenga in Koindu, Eastern Sierra Leone, a civil society initiative led by Parliamentarians and prominent citizens in the 'Kissi' chiefdoms in the tri-border area of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia is helping to address the issue by seeking an amicable resolution of the issue. USAID is giving this initiative support.

Local inhabitants of Koindu and Yenga, border towns in Eastern Sierra Leone, along with mainly Kissi-speaking communities in both Liberia and Guinea seized the opportunity of the official opening of the Koindu International Market as the occasion to build peace and promote regional stability. Three respective Heads of States of the Mano River Union, traditional leaders and elders and key national and local government functionaries to converge on the Sierra Leonean side of the border at Koindu, Kissi Teng Chiefdom, Kailahun District Feb. 17-20, 2005.

Women representing the Mano River Women's Peace Network -- this group is from Guinea

USAID sponsored the rebuilding of the Koindu market, which was completely razed to the ground during the decade-long war in Sierra Leone. Since the market was rehabilitated there has been a steady stream of traders across the tri-border areas in what was once known as the trade hub for Mano River Union and other West African Countries, as far as Cote D'Ivoire.

The President of Sierra Leone, Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah; Cellou Dalein Diallo, Prime Minister of Guinea, and Charles Gyude Bryant, Chairman of the National Transitional Government of the Republic of Liberia, graced the opening ceremony. According to the event chairman and co-organizer of the event, Sierra Leonean parliamentarian Francis Tengbeh, two-hundred people arrived from the three Mano River Union countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. The Guineans came in five trucks.

The occasion was the first opportunity for the Kissi people of the three countries to come together and it was regarded by all present as the first step to building people-to-people regional cooperation and solidarity in the sub-region. The official launching of the market also provided the Kissis an opportunity to celeberate their common heritage and culture after several years of mutual suspicion and fear fed by events of the war in the sub-region.

Kissi people crossing the Makona River by Ferry from Guinea to get to the three-day meeting in Koindu, Sierra Leone

Kissi participants crossed over the Makona River on ferries from Guinea to attend the three-day event in Koindu, Sierra Leone. The opening of a central market in Koindu, sponsored by USAID, is giving support to trade in an area that before the war was a trade hub for many countries in the sub-region.

The event was capped in a symbolic display of solidarity -- at the exact point where the three countries meet, a spot that all Kissi people are familiar with. At a ground familiar to all three delegations, a representative from each country sacrificed a chicken and a sheep, following which the animals were cooked and eaten there together, with all parties swearing solidarity and never again to attack or condone attacks from each others' territories. In spite of their completely different colonial backgrounds and experiences, each of the three delegations agreed to be their brother's keepers. A total of six cows and 1,500 bags of rice were consumed over the four days of meetings and celebrations.

While the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) supported the occasion, it was an entirely a home-grown affair -- each group that participated in the event provided food and other consumables to share during the three-day event.

This historic meeting was an initiative of two parliamentarians, Francis Sahr Dunnoh Tengbeh of Sierra Leone and Gnouma Fenello Millimouno of Guinea, supported by the governments of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia and hosted by the people of Kissi Teng Chiefdom in Kailahun District. The first two days were dedicated to discussions of affairs concerning the Kissi people among which were unity, peace, security, agriculture and food security, development and a common market for the Kissi people in the three countries. The discussions explored the historical background of the people.

The Kissi group looked at the factors responsible for the war and how it affected them as a people, including difficult issues related to their experiences as refugees and how they were treated while in neighboring countries. The meeting recognized that geographically, the Kissis are remote from the respective capital cities and their situations are made worse by bad roads and poor communications networks. The frank discussions that ensued saw each group accepting their faults, and offering apologies to each other.

The MARWOPNET (Mano River Women's Peace Network) were also in attendance, and given sponsorship at the event by the USAID West African Regional Program. The Gueckedou/Guinea Chapter of MARWOPNET dressed in full traditional costume (Ashobie) and were joined in Koindu by their counterparts from Conakry and Freetown. As an aside, the Ashobie material was not available Conakry but was in plentiful supply in the Gueckedou market, across the Makona River from Yenga.

The 'Kissi devil' mask was brought out as part of the festivities during the Koindu celebration.

With regard to reinforcing security in the region, MARWOPNET has mobilized its membership in the tri-border area to support early warning systems to ward off conflict as their contribution to the overall human security of inhabitants in this remote forest region.

The National Forum for Human Rights, along with USAID-funded non-governmental organization Talking Drum Studio were at hand as journalists to cover the event, and to secure reactions of local citizens to the events of the week. The data were processed into radio programs in Kissi, English, French, and Liberian Pidgin by and aired by the USAID sponsored Radio Moa community radio station based in Kailahun. Radio Moa can be heard all across this zone.

At the end of the day event, all parties agreed that a 12-person sub-regional decision-making committee should be formed to represent the collective interest of the the Kissi people. The committee was promptly established to effect proposals for their collective development through their respective heads of state. The committee drafted a resolution that was deliberated on and then named the "Koindu Resolution." This was presented to the three heads of state, each of whom made commitments to support the solidarity building that the Kissi people had begun to foster trade and other development issues.

Four key suggestions were also made:

Women should be brought into the mainstream of all decision-making. Kissi women should also be well represented on all major women's peace networks in the region such as MARWOPNET and WANEP (West African Peace Network).
Children should be taught the Kissi culture so as to sustain and promote the culture. Cross-cultural trips, particularly for children, will help to reduce fear and suspicion between countries.
A sacrifice is made to their ancestors to appease them for their own wrongdoing.
Finally, although youth and women will be active in decision-making, the 12-person committee should include male elders.

Other human security issues of how the communities can ensure their own security on multiple levels were raised. Since Koindu is located in such a remote area, these issues are paramount to people feeling comfortable in their own homes, and on their own property. How do the people of that community secure their livelihoods and their own resources? These were some of the critical issues that the three MRU countries need to address.

Charles Gyude Bryant, Chairman of the National Transitional Government of the Republic of Liberia; Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, President of Sierra Leone, and Cellou Dalein Diallo, the Prime Minister of Guinea, at the cross-border event in Koindu, Sierra Leone.

The meeting also raises the deeper question of other border disputes in the Mano River Union. How they should be resolved, and by whom? A joint visit was made to contested village of Yenga, which lies in Kissi Teng chiefdom but is occupied by Guinean soldiers. The issue is still under diplomatic consideration but the people of Yenga have lost a chance of rehabilitating their village are on the verge of losing another farming season as they are prevented from carrying on such tasks in the area.

The Koidu Declaration has set the pace for the Kissi people of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to use the free-flow of official information to help them live in peace and unity, resume their historic trading links, promote cultural values for development, and to ensure their collective security.

Story and photos by Laura Lartigue