The African Who Brought Chesterton to Sierra Leone
Editor's note: in the following months expect to read new dispatches from John Kanu about the projects at Sierra Leone Chesterton Center. Please prayerfully consider purchasing tools for SLCC or funding the Italian Chesterton Society's container project via the latter's merchandise arm, Pumpstreet.
Written by Rodolfo Casadei and originally published online in Italian by TEMPO. Translation by Laura Ahlquist.
A Bridge Between Balance and Folly
As far as money goes, the difference between the SLCC and the NGO's is “decisively abysmal”. From its inception, the largest donation that Kanu has received has been 600 pounds given by Aidan Mackey, the founder of the Chesterton Study Centre in England. Everything else is based on volunteers and contributions from the community that will benefit from the projects. These projects are things like the teaching of agricultural techniques through the Farmer-Field-School methodology, assistance with access to special seeds, organization of cooperatives among farmers, construction of two professional schools in the village—schools which will soon be functional.“The village residents themselves have put all materials and labor at our disposal, except for the zinc needed for the roof construction and for the fence that we have procured”, John explains. “From these schools will come carpenters, masons, mechanics, and other technicians, who pledge not to migrate to the city, but to render their service in the rural community from which they came. Right now they need tools and machinery to equip the schools; and this is the reason why I am in Italy and why, for the first time, we are asking the help of outside donors”. Following an invitation by the Italian Chesterton Society, Kanu met with organizations and individuals in Siena and Ferrara willing to form a partnership. In public appearances he has spoken primarily about the philosophy of development and the style of the SLCC’s approach to their programs.“The role of the family is central”, this father of four explains. “In Africa we don’t have welfare systems like in Europe: the family is our welfare system; it is our credit card, our bank, our safe. If anyone needs a loan, one does not go to the bank, where one will be exploited; one goes to his family circle. The family is where he feels at home, it is the key to his moral education—it is the bridge from folly to stability. When I was a child, I begged my father to send me to school. 20 members of my extended family got together and, after a long consultation, they decided to sign me up at a school in a local neighborhood. In Sierra Leone, 70% of the population is Muslim. We Catholics are only 15% and the others are Protestants. But we all share the same connection; the family is the primary fount of life.This praise for the family, an institution that also presents many problems and sometimes hinders human development, is not to say that the SLCC is a proponent of an immovable and archaic vision of Africa, centered on the exaltation of the “good old times”. “The great challenge to growth consists in changing minds. Progress, I always say, is not a question of electricity, roads or infrastructure. All this helps, but progress is a question of people. Our work aims at changing people’s mentality, and this is achieved only through education. Education accomplishes, realizes and completes. But only if it is centered on the truth and that which is just. Then it becomes that spark inside of you that no one can put out. Education enriches you with treasures that no thief can ever steal from you.” Before launching into the project of professional schools in villages, SLCC started helping families from the rural district of Kono to increase their own income, because this enabled them to send their children to school. They also helped with the instruction of the farmers in better agricultural techniques.
We don’t tell them that the way they cultivate the land is wrong, we show them in concrete ways the advantages of the new seeds or of new techniques. When the government decided to make available Nerica high-yield hybrid rice in our country, we first provided intermediation so that the more marginalized rural communities would not be left out. After that, in order to convince the farmers of the advantages of the new seeds, we had them give us a piece of land next to the fields that were being cultivated by traditional means. We sewed it with Nerica rice. During the first harvest, everyone saw the difference, and they came to us to ask how they could obtain those seeds.
It Wasn’t All Wasted Time
SLCC does not shy away from broad political endeavors, which consist in defending the rights of the rural communities vs. the interests of the mining industry. Sierra Leone is rich in alluvial diamonds. This means that the rocks are sought in large areas by the river banks. The damage to the environment and agriculture is huge.The law dictates that mining companies restore the land at the end of the search, but this law is often not followed. “In the Kono district as well as in many others, the mining industry and the agricultural industry are in competition. Water and lands are contested. We work with civil organizations, especially with those that specialize in the relationships between development and justice, to remind the government of its duties, and apply the laws that require the restoration of the territories damaged by diamond exploration.” 45 cooperatives have been established up to now, approximately 600 people have benefited from programs which range from the supplying of special seeds, to the instruction of new agricultural techniques, to the furnishing of tools and equipment. The SLCC cannot boast about huge numbers but about great quality because their accomplishments are the result of volunteer efforts rising from a local level, and not government assistance from the top down."As a child I fought like a lion to be able to go to school. I exhausted my father so he would send me. Then, when I arrived at Oxford University, while Sierra Leone burned, I thought that my learning was not going to serve anyone if I remained in Europe, that my country needed me most and it needed something new”, John Kanu concludes. “Fortunately, my English friends made me discover Chesterton and his three economic ideas: the widespread distribution of the means of production, the importance of rural economy, and the centrality of the family. Today I tell everyone: they are the only three important things that I learned while studying at Oxford. But don’t tell that to the rector of the university or to his professors."