The Committee to Build A Socialist Party in Sierra Leone would like to inform you that officials of the Tanzanian Home Ministry and Immigration Department, Tuesday April 14, 2009, denied Comrade Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Director of the African Socialist International, entry into Tanzania.
Comrade Bah was due to visit Tanzania for the second time after he was hosted few weeks ago at an event at the Dar es Salam University.
This time, Comrade Bah and his entourage of 15 other comrades were stopped at the Kenya-Tanzanian Border town of Nemanga on their way to Dar es Salam to attend the Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival organized by the University of Dar es Salam.
The officials also impounded 150 copies of Comrade Chernoh Alpha M. Bah’s New Essays On Socialism. The Book contains a critique of Julius Nyerere’s brand of African Socialism and an overall condemnation of the neoliberal African political structure. Other literature that includes DVDs, Books and copies of the Spear newspaper were also confiscated by the Tanzanian Customs officials. No strategic and convincing reasons were given for the action.
Comrade Bah and his traveling party are among hundreds of African revolutionaries, progressives and intellectuals invited to participate in this year’s Julius Nyerere Festival. The meeting is expected to bring together academics and activists across the world engaged in both scholarly and practical work to advance the struggle for African unity and liberation in the 21st century. Prof. Wole Soyinka, Gamal Nkrumah, the son of Kwame Nkrumah, Franz Fanon’s son, Dr. Godwin Murunga, Prof. Issa Shiviji are part of the battery of individuals attending the event.
It should be noted that Comrade Chernoh Alpha M. Bah is one of the fiercest advocates for African unity and socialism, and for the last five years devoted his entire time traveling across the world to build and consolidate the scattered efforts of African revolutionaries into the African Socialist International.
This is why we view this act of Tanzanian officials an absolute violation of the fundamental rights of Comrade Chernoh Alpha M. Bah and other comrades in his entourage. And we hereby call for a protest action against the officials responsible for this act.
We call on everyone to demand the return of the confiscated materials and for compensation to immediately paid to Comrade Bah and his traveling party for all inconveniences and losses incurred as a consequence of this action. We calling on the Tanzania’s representatives across the world to investigate this incident and immediately provide an explanation to the International African Community on the reasons of this action.
This, we believe, is in violation of the African Union principles of free movement of Africans across the borders of the continent.
If anything, it exposes the Tanzanian government’s non-commitment to African unity and regional integration.
A statement of protest will soon be sent out to Tanzania’s representatives across the world in due course.
Down with colonial borders!
Forward to a free, united Africa of the workers and peasants.
For & Behalf of the Committee
James Koroma
Spokesman
About Chernor Bah
CHERNOH ALPHA M. BAH
Leader of the Africanist Movement
of Sierra Leone and West Africa
Chernoh Alpha M. Bah was born on March 28, 1979 in Makeni, Sierra Leone where he attended primary and secondary school. He later pursued African Studies at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone in Freetown.
At twelve, Chernoh was recruited into the Sierra Leone army as one of the infamous child soldiers. Chernoh was forced to fight in the deadly civil war instigated by the brutal Revolutionary United Front (RUF) that devastated the country in the 1990s. Chernoh was in the army until 1994 when the masses of the people of Sierra Leone were demanding peace.
In 1995 Chernoh participated in the formation of the Pan-African Movement for Human Rights and Democratic Development, which campaigned for the protection of the oppressed masses of Sierra Leone. The Pan-African Movement was instrumental in building the national demand for civil rule.
As Secretary General of the Pan-African Movement for Human Rights and Democratic Development, Chernoh became politically active, participating in the campaign against the oppressive military regime of the National Provisional Ruling Council then in power. Chernoh was part of the fight to restore democratic rule to Sierra Leone in 1996. This struggle led to the installation of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah as head of state.
In 1997, at seventeen, Chernoh joined forces with other comrades to form the Awareness Movement to unite young Africans in Sierra Leone to struggle against the notorious atrocities of the Revolutionary United Front. When President Kabbah was overthrown that same year by the Sierra Leone Army, Chernoh again participated in pro-democracy campaigns to fight for the restoration of civil rule. Since that time Chernoh has remained actively opposed to the ongoing military rule in his country.
In 1998 Chernoh became the editor of The Point newspaper after most Awareness Movement members fled Sierra Leone due to incessant attacks by the ruling military junta.
When RUF rebels invaded Freetown in 1999 Chernoh was forced to move to Guinea-Conakry. In exile he formed the Young Writers Association, which worked to unite writers and journalists displaced from Sierra Leone and Liberia. Journalists from the association reported abuses against the thousands of African people from war zones of those countries who were seeking refuge in camps in Guinea.
The Young Writers Association quickly developed into a mass movement, bringing together Africans from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia to discuss problems facing refugees and their persistent harassment and intimidation by the Guinea police. The Association became a vehicle not only for the discussion of problems facing the war-torn African population in Guinea but also of the need for the African masses to unite and organize for genuine liberation in Africa.
As president of the Association, Chernoh helped established The Nations Newspaper, the first English publication in Conakry to provide news and analysis of the conditions of Africans in exile in Guinea and the conflicts in both Sierra Leone and Liberia.
In 2001 Chernoh was arrested in Guinea and detained on charges of “espionage and sedition.” After his release from prison the regime in Guinea banned the Young Writers Association and The Nations Newspaper. Chernoh returned to Sierra Leone, bringing together what remained of the Young Writers Association to form the Africanist Movement whose goal is to fight for the uncompromising liberation and unification of the oppressed African masses. Since that time the Africanist Movement has grown into a mass movement dedicated to African liberation and unification with thousands of members in more than eight countries throughout West Africa.
Chernoh is currently Director of the Africanist Movement, leading its activities in West Africa, and now works with the African People’s Socialist Party to build the African Socialist International.
In addition Chernoh holds the posts of editor of the Critique News International Magazine, and publisher and editor of The Africanist newspaper and the African-Extro Bulletin. He is also a member of the West Africa Monetary Zone Media Forum established to promote grass roots participation in the economic development of West Africa.
Mr. Bah was editor of the Concord Times Newspaper; he was a columnist for The Democrat Newspaper and winner of the 2002 African Journalist of the Year award. Chernoh is one of the few journalists in Sierra Leone trained to report on international criminal justice. Several of his newspaper articles are available online at AllAfrica.com.
Highlights of Chernoh Alpha M. Bah’s political activism and journalistic accomplishments include:
Secretary General of the Pan-African Movement for Human Rights and Democratic Development, 1995.
Co-founder of the Awareness Movement, January 1997, formed to unite young Africans in Sierra Leone to campaign against the atrocities of Foday Sankoh’s Revolutionary United Front.
Editor, The Point newspaper, March 1998
Founder and President of the Young Writers Association, 1999, formed to unite exiled writers and journalists from Sierra Leone and Liberia
Founder of The Nations Newspaper, first English publication in Conakry to provide news and analysis on the conditions of ‘refugees’ in Guinea and conflicts in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Founder and Director of the Africanist Movement, 2001-present, formed to fight for the uncompromising liberation and unification of the oppressed African masses.
Former Editor of the Concord Times Newspaper (several articles available on AllAfrica.com)
Former columnist for The Democrat Newspaper
Winner of the 2002 PAMHADD’s African Journalist of the Year Award. Mr. Bah is one of a few journalists in Sierra Leone trained to report on international criminal justice.
Editor of the Critique News International Magazine
Publisher and Editor of both The Africanist newspaper and African-Extra Bulletin
Member of the West Africa Monetary Zone Media Forum established to promote grass root participation in West Africa’s economic integration process.
Director of the Africanist Movement now working with the African People’s Socialist Party to build the African Socialist International, committed to organizing African people in Africa and dispersed around the world.
Photo: Chernor Bah.
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