Something To Think About
A Living Mirror: The Life Of Deyda Hydara
By Salieu Kamara
May 22, 2008, 15:13

We want to thank the organizers of this event for inviting the Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD), to make a brief statement.  We also want to thank the authors of the book, which we are about to launch, as well as all those journalists, human rights and civil society activists whose efforts and steadfastness have contributed to making this day a reality.

Let me start my statement with a short story that I was read this morning an international magazine: “An elderly Burmese man suffering from a chronic toothache makes his way across the border to Thailand to consult a dentist.  A bit surprised, the Thai dentist asks him: “Don’t you have dentists in your own country? “Oh sure we do”, comes the answer, “but we’re not allowed to open our mouths (in our own country)”

Our brother and colleague, Heyda Hydara, would have run away across the border to a place where he would be more freely to open his mouth, especially when the political system in which he was working has itself become the general disease.  But, like the good leader he was, Hydara stayed with his people not only to state their case, but also to pursue it to the very end.

Hydara knew he could be arrested by the forces of evil.  He knew he could be tortured by enemies of civilization.  He knew he could ultimately be killed for choosing to open his mouth.  This was enough to scare anybody away.  But not Hydara!  The drive in him to do what he was doing was stronger than the evil forces that were bent on destroying him. So he continued to fight the cause.

In one of his most widely read articles titled: “Accra Goes with Pepper” published on Tuesday 17 August 2004, Hydara reiterated his determination to pay (if need be) the supreme price in pursuit of press freedom and respect for human dignity in The Gambia.  On the fateful night of Thursday 16^th December 2004, Hydara was murdered in cold blood.  Despite all the commitments and assurances from The Gambian government, the hired killers of Hydara are still at large, enjoying maximum protection from their masters.

The life of Hydara was an epitome of struggle.  As editor of The Point newspaper, he used his two popular columns: “Good Morning Mr. President” and “The Bite to campaign” fearlessly for the sanctity of the rule of law and for better living conditions of the people of The Gambia.

At the time of his death, Hydara was fighting tirelessly for the repeal of two draconian laws passed by the Gambian parliament: The Criminal Code of 2004 that criminalizes defamation and the Newspaper Act of 2004 that increased registration fees of newspapers and radios from 1000,000 Dalais to 500,000 Dalais.  These were all measures employed by the state to gag press freedom and freedom of expression in The Gambia.

Physically, Hydara is gone.  He is no longer with us.  We continue to mourn his loss.  We do so in diverse ways: by reproducing his works, dedicating articles and other publications to him and publishing tributes.  All this is good.  But is it enough?  No, it is certainly not enough.  Hydara and all other colleagues like Nobel Zongo of Burkina Faso, Dele Giwa of Nigeria and Harry Yansaneh of Sierra Leone who lost their lives in the line of duty, died for a cause, a noble cause, just that.  And until we are able to get our governments to do what these people died for, we should not let off the heat in our campaign.  The publication of this book on Hydara is one big move towards restating the case of Hydara and all his like minded colleagues.

We at NMJD sees this event as a challenge to the Sierra Leonean journalists to wake up from their slumber and re-examine their role in society with the view to making themselves more effective in their pursuit of justice and freedom for their people.  Many questions are still lingering and begging for urgent answers: What had become of the Harry Yansaneh case?  What has happened to the Harry Yansaneh lecture?  How far has SLAJ gone with the moves to have all draconian media laws reviewed?  Where is the freedom of Information Bill?  And many more!

As a civil society advocacy and human rights organization, NMJD condemns any form of censorship and human rights violations.  And we stand ready at all times to work with all progressive groups here in Sierra Leone and abroad to create an open society where there is respect for human dignity and the rule of law.

I will conclude by asking a thought-provoking question using one of Bob Marley’s lyrics: How long shall they kill our prophets, while we stand aside and look?