Getting to know Sierra Leoneans has changed the image of Africans. Africans have always been lazy, poor, evil-free and unfriendly in my heart. But when I actually came to the real Sierra Leone and interacted with the locals, I changed my perception of them. With them, I can feel happy, and I can also feel poor and happy them.
I have been to Sierra Leone for more than ten years, and each experience has made me see different Sierra Leoneans, their lives make me feel sad, and each local experience has deeply touched me, penetrated into their simple lives, and made me understand that the marriage of Sierra Leonean people is more stressful than ours.
2010 was my first trip to Sierra Leone. Before I arrived in this country, I thought that the country was as widespread as its neighbors. But in reality, on the day I arrived, I was amazed to see the green vegetation everywhere in Sierra Leone.
As we all know, Sierra Leone is located in the west, north, north-east of Africa bordered by Guinea, south-east with Liberia, south-west and west by the Atlantic Ocean.
Such a coastal country, which supports more than 7.55 million people, lives in this tropical monsoon climate, and their average temperature is 27°C throughout the year. In my experience, Sierra Leone has a much better environment than Guinea.
The vegetation here is luxuriant, the seaside vegetation everywhere, the vegetation on the mountains, enough to imagine that the life of the locals should be moist.
But the reality is not what I imagined, relying on the good dock and going deep into their lives really made me know how difficult it is for Sierra Leoneans in reality.
That day, the good dock, the customs and workers on the ship came to the ship together, their enthusiasm, people feel very different, even the customs made me feel very different. We offered to give them something, and they didn't want it. We have the impression that officials in the West African littoral countries ask for money.
Looking at the officials and workers who came up, everyone gave a very festive look. Their expressions all reveal kindness and optimism.
During the berth, I was helped by one of the shipwrights workers who, under his guidance, really introduced me into the life of a Sierra Leonean.
I think I must have touched him with a smile, and his kindness to me goes far beyond taking me out to play.
For me, a stranger, he could invite me to sit in his house, which shows that he is a kind-hearted person.
The two of us left the port, there was little transportation, the road infrastructure was poor, and the only cement road had fallen into disrepair for years, dilapidated and potholes, and the more we went into the village, the more unimaginable the traffic was.
If you drive, if you want to drive on the local road, there is no certain chassis height, and the bottom of the car can break in minutes. Rainy days are considered painful for locals, muddy roads, and there is no way to travel at all.
Led by the workers' eldest brother, we walked from the port area into their local village, called Yonggoro Village, in the coastal village near our port.
On the side near the sea, the environment was not bad, and we could see people on motorbikes, carrying several people, happily passing by us.
The people here are really welcoming, greeting us when they see us, whether they know each other or not, as if everyone is their own friends.
The speeding motorcycle, hit the pothole, can jump the people sitting in the back directly to the floor, but they are still happy, in my eyes, these people live easily.
I saw that many children were excitedly playing football in the seaside forest, and many children were playing football in groups on the beach in the distance.
There are children playing soccer in the sand, children playing soccer in the sea, and watching the children here live very happily. From the outside, their childhood life is happier and happier than that of children in China.
Led by the worker's eldest brother, I came to his house.
His home is in the woods of the village of Yongoro, and there are a lot of coconut trees, Brazil wood, and even a lot of mahogany for me to see.
With trees as pillars and trees as beams, they built their own houses with simple branches. Straw houses, mud houses, everywhere.
When I came to the worker's house, my wife was busy with the children, and the polite wife stood up to greet me. Although I didn't know each other, the enthusiasm on my face was sincere, and they liked to shake my hand, but the girl was refused by her husband to kiss her face.
Why is that?
In fact, in Sierra Leone, people's daily interactions, hugs, handshakes, veneers, kisses are common meeting etiquette, but the continuous spread of the Ebola virus, so that locals dare not touch skin at will, out of friendliness to friends, at most can only shake hands to express their friendliness.
At that time, the worker's eldest brother did not allow his wife to have other ways of greeting me, so as not to affect my health.
In fact, he also cares about me, and he himself does not know whether his wife has this disease, but he only did it out of concern and protection for me.
I am grateful to my eldest brother for his kindness in allowing me to travel and explore Sierra Leone more safely.
My eldest brother took me around the village and told my wife to make lunch when I went out. The eldest brother wanted to keep me for dinner at his house, and I heard this, and I immediately became polite.
In fact, as a stranger, it is rude to eat at someone else's house for the first time. But I was very touched by my eldest brother's words, he said: He is very grateful to Chinese to come to Sierra Leone, if he did not come to the local business Chinese, his life would be very bad.
It seems that Sierra Leone also has a lot of Chinese businessmen investing in the local area, so that the local people have more jobs.
When my eldest brother said this, I had the bottom of my heart, hoping to see the market in the village and buy some gifts for my eldest brother.
Under the leadership of my eldest brother, we walked a lot in the village, although the road surface was not easy to walk, and the good weather did not affect our travel, but the women here also affected my cognition to some extent.
For this reason, I quickly asked my eldest brother to ride to the boat and tell my colleagues to stop the unfriendly practice.
I saw women sitting at the door in their village greeting me, at first I thought it was a warm and friendly way, I also greeted them, but the eldest brother saw the two of us greeting each other and immediately told me that the woman was beckoning me to her home.
My eldest brother reminded me that in Sierra Leone, Ebola and AIDS also existed, and many poor women wanted to earn some living expenses in this way, usually to earn the expenses of the crew from the port.
Hearing my eldest brother say this, I immediately thought of several colleagues on the boat, who had said that after arriving in Sierra Leone, they would bring family planning supplies and go outside.
For the safety of my colleagues and my own safety, I immediately asked my eldest brother to go to the boat to inform my colleagues not to experience bad business again, otherwise it would bring trouble to myself and affect the health of others.
The eldest brother was kind and called a friend from the village to go in order to accompany me himself. I don't know if my colleagues will not believe him when they see my eldest brother's friends.
That day, my eldest brother took me to a market along the coast, where many fishermen were pulling nets by the sea, originally my interest was to buy seafood, there are many seafood here, tuna, bangka fish, lobster, etc. I tried to ask the price, and I didn't know if the fishermen recognized me as a foreigner or if the seafood was so expensive locally.
Fishermen told me that lobster is 90 yuan a kilogram and tuna is 110 yuan a kilogram.
I sound like the price is more expensive than what I bought in other West African countries.
There was nothing else to buy, and in order to thank my eldest brother for his leadership and hospitality, I still chose to buy some lobster to give to him. At that time, I bought 7 of them, which was about 260 yuan.
The locals collect dollars, which makes it easier for me to buy things, which is too rare. In many African countries, people only recognize their local currency, not foreign currency at all.
After buying the seafood, we continued to walk the market.
Then I passed a stationery store, which is the largest stationery store I've seen in Africa. Originally, I was not interested in stationery stores, but I took a closer look and found that there were also football sales in the store, so I remembered that local children love to play football, so I considered buying two football balls for my eldest brother's children.
The owner is also more pitted, the quality of football is really poor, told me to ask for 270 yuan. In order to surprise the children, I decided to buy two football balls for my eldest brother's children, which cost me a total of 540 yuan.
My eldest brother was very happy to learn that I was going to give him seafood and football. He didn't have the heart to take me shopping at all, and said that he would take me home and share this gift with the children as soon as possible.
In fact, the eldest brother doesn't just want to share gifts with the children, he hopes that he will come home early to help make lunch.
After buying the football, we walked quickly in the direction of the house, the excitement of the eldest brother was still very high, and before he reached the door, he began to call out to his children, and the children heard the news.
The eldest brother took out the two footballs I sent, and the children immediately became happy, and took the balls to the village to share with their friends on the spot.
The eldest brother who returned home never sat idle, put me aside, and diligently helped his wife cook lunch.
My eldest brother took my seafood and started cleaning the lobster.
Sierra Leonean kitchens are also rudimentary, and they are also a few aluminum pots, directly on the stone, and under the fire to cook.
The eldest brother's family did have very little food, and that day, he made me sweet potato cakes, fried lobsters, and took some smoked fish that had been sealed for a long time, and eight people simply sat around and ate them.
That meal was not hearty, but the exchange of a meal was too rich, which gave me a real insight and made me understand the life and marriage of a different Sierra Leonean person.
During the meal, the eldest brother mentioned Chinese businessmen again, saying that several Chinese in Sierra Leone had opened seafood buying companies in the local area. Their arrival has given us, fishermen, greater motivation, to sell every fish caught to Chinese bosses at a good price.
Also talked about the previous fishing life, a month's income is only 300 yuan, which is also the common income of Sierra Leoneans, and then the Chinese came, his income also increased, and now he can earn more than 500 yuan a month, or even more.
He felt very grateful to the Chinese and proud of himself. On weekdays, if he does not go out to sea to fish, then go to work at the dock, pay more salaries, and make his life better.
It's a good thing, and I also see the look of happiness on his face. Although they still don't earn much, the way they are poor and happy really makes me feel very different.
The eldest brother is very satisfied with the current life and likes more Chinese to invest in Freetown, so that he can buy more weddings for his children.
A word from my eldest brother broke my silence. I became curious about the wedding customs in Sierra Leone, and my eldest brother did not stop his topic, which made the atmosphere particularly beautiful.
The eldest brother told me that Sierra Leoneans used to be doll parents, and as long as the relationship between the two families was particularly good, parents were willing to set up doll parents for their children.
All parents have an unwritten rule that children are less than 5 years old and do not have a relationship, even if the relationship between the two families is good, they will not mention marriage.
What's going on here?
The eldest brother said that in Sierra Leone, the happiness index of the people is very low, a poor country brings everyone a poor life, the country has resources, but the country's economy still cannot develop, this is a historical reason and a management problem.
For now, Sierra Leone remains one of the poorest countries in the world, and they need a lot of international relief to tide over the difficult times.
In the Human Development Report 2020 published by the United Nations Development Programme, Sierra Leone ranked 182nd out of 188 countries in the Human Development Index.
As a whole, 57.9 per cent of the country's population still lives below the poverty line.
Life expectancy data for 2012 reported that the average life expectancy in Sierra Leone was 60.42 years for women and 55.23 years for men. It is enough to see that the lives of the local people are basically short-lived, and from another perspective, it is also seen that the living environment of Sierra Leoneans is poor, the quality of life is very low, long-term malnutrition, poor food and insufficient food. Only rare cassava and sweet potatoes can be used as the main food.
At that time, although there were also meats such as cows, sheep, chickens, and fish, these things were eaten by rich people. There is not much meat, and vegetables are foods that locals eat less, and they don't seem to be interested in green leafy vegetables and can't afford to eat them.
In this environment, child mortality is high, with about 16.1% of children dying before the age of 5 every year, due to a variety of problems, such as diseases and nutrition, which put the survival of children here at risk.
For this reason, many parents do not want to set up a doll parent for their children so early, they understand that as long as the child passes the age of 5, the body slowly becomes tougher, the physical resistance, immunity rises, and the chance of survival is greater.
In this way, both parents have a deeper heart, and both parents will not be sad because the premature doll parents lead to the death of their children.
As long as the child survives a catastrophe and the relationship between the parents is good, then the doll parent can be set in time.
After setting up a doll parent, the two families are not relatives, they are more like relatives, they will take care of each other, and they will work harder for the child's marriage.
In Sierra Leone, engagement does not mean immediate marriage, and the woman's parents ask the man to take three diamond rings for marriage, which is also equivalent to their bride price.
When I heard that I wanted 3 diamond rings, my heart was balanced. I have always thought that the pressure on Chinese men to get married is very high, and now I hear that they are so poor in such a poor country, and the engagement bride price is so high.
However, in communicating with my eldest brother, I learned that Sierra Leone is a rich source of diamonds, and many local parents have worked very hard to dig diamonds since they started to make children.
In the eyes of the locals, Sierra Leone's diamonds are everywhere, as long as they are willing to dig, the lucky people can dig up, it is only a matter of big and small.
Looking at resources, Sierra Leone's national diamond reserves amount to more than 23 million carats, which means that Sierra Leone is full of diamonds, but it is not known where these diamonds are hidden.
At that time, I was excited and wanted my eldest brother to take me to dig diamonds, but due to time, this thought was stopped.
The eldest brother said that in the countryside of Sierra Leone, three diamond rings are the premise, no matter how good the relationship between the two is, do not come to get married without a diamond ring, until there is a wedding fee, you can get married after paying.
This is a very realistic way to get married, and their three diamond rings are prescribed.
The groom himself wants one, the bride is engaged, and each needs one for marriage, and the doll does not need a bride price, and the engagement must give a bride price.
The night before the wedding, both couples have to hold a single farewell ceremony at their parents' home, and the family sits together to eat well.
Weddings here tend to take place in the evening, so after the groom has a single farewell ceremony at home, he will go to the woman's house the next day to marry the bride home.
In the evening, their wedding officially begins, often from the moment the sun goes down, they begin their wedding ceremony. The groom gives the bride two kinds of fruit, one called carabas fruit and the other called kola nut.
Both fruits have symbolic representation.
The carabas fruit was cut straight that day and then hollowed out on the spot. After hollowing out, rice, oil, salt, clothes, and fabrics will be put in, which means that the future will be worry-free and have a happy life.
Kola nut is a local Chinese medicinal fruit, which is a metaphor for husband and wife to protect each other, illuminate each other, and grow old together. I also wish them to be like kola nuts, bearing many seeds, which means that the descendants are full and have many children and grandchildren.
Such blessings are beautiful, and every couple must have such a process.
The whole wedding process will last until four or five o'clock in the morning, and relatives and friends from both parties will be invited to the scene to drink together.
Listening to my eldest brother's introduction, I have a new understanding of Sierra Leonean marriage customs, and I have gained a lot of knowledge.
A simple meal for Sierra Leoneans brought me a rich feast of knowledge, gave me a new understanding of the country of Sierra Leone, and also let me see the life of poor and happy people.