ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT – DRAMA-SIERRA LEONE: A Popular TV Show Eases The Pains Of War

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Jun 15 1999 (IPS) - A popular weekend television show, which has taken Sierra Leone by storm, is helping viewers to ease the pains of war.

The show, which features popularly acclaimed performer Ernest Brewah as Bamboi, is the hottest drama on national television. It brings together whole families, including women and children round the TV sets, on Saturdays.

Neighbours, too, flock to the living rooms of the affluent to watch what is now popularly referred to as the “Vamboi Programme”.

Many had lost their TV sets and other belongings, including houses and vehicles, when the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), invaded the capital Freetown in January, and unleashed terror and destruction on the population.

Among the titles so far performed by “Vamboi” and crew are “Uman Nar Uman (A Woman is a Woman)”, “Yellow Woman”, “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “Udat Nar Mi Papa? (Who is my Father?)”.

Reactions from the public indicate that “Udat Nar Mi Papa?” is the spiciest humorous menu. The Sierra Leone TV has repeatedly been showing the play to the amusement of the traumatised population.

The plot, which runs in a minutely chronological order, is a bit of a thriller. Apart from its characteristic comical aspect, it makes war-weary Sierra Leoneans laugh out their guts.

In the play, a flambouyant and love crazy Vamboi demonstrates genuine fatherly care to a boy, believing that he was the boy’s biological father.

Six years later, Shee, a boyfriend of Rosaline (Vamboi’s wife), is freed from prison and gets united with the now born- again Rosaline.

Shee inquires about Roseline’s pregnancy and is informed that Vamboi is taking care of the boy. That is really Shee’s son.

After a fruitless attempt at talking Vamboi into handing him the boy, Shee kidnaps the boy and flees. A desperate Vamboi, wanting to teach Shee a bitter lesson, sues him in court, hoping to get back his son.

In court, Rosaline gives evidence that Ahmed (the boy) is actually Shee’s son. Viewers could imagine Vamboi literally shaking the court’s foundation with protests.

Beyond the fascinating conflict over the boy, the story has a socialising touch, divulging on relationship “lover’s entanglement”, in this case.

At the end of the trial, stunned viewers witnessed Roseline giving Ahmed to the man (Viambo) she knows is not the true father of the son. How would a husband be sure that his wife’s child is biologically his?

For many viewers, the drama eases the pains in a war-ravaged country, where conflict has impoverished the population.

“I can’t afford to miss Vamboi programme,” says Sallay Kamara, a school leaver. “The plays performed make me forget my sorrows. They enliven me quite well.”

Margaret Bongay, a housewife, agrees. “I used to be a night club freak. But, now that nightlife is zero. I take consolation in the Vamboi programme on TV. They amuse me a lot,” she says.

Brewah, who stars Vamboi, says his aim is to comfort a devastated people. “What more can you do for a war-weary population? With my performances, many simply put aside their worries and laugh their guts out,” he told IPS.

Brewah says the dramas are a vacuum filler, as the 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew imposed in the west African country bores Sierra Leoneans, who are already traumatised by the conflict.

The conflict in Sierra Leone erupted in 1991 when former army corporal Foday Sankoh launched a bush war to overthrow the government of then President Joseph Momoh.

Since then, more than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict, while an estimated quarter of the country’s 4.5 million people are scattered as refugees in neighbouring countries.