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AN INTERVIEW WITH ABU BAKARR KAMARA, SALNAM SECRETARY GENERAL Question: You have been in this position since October, 2009 after a hotly contested campaign for this very senior position which you handily won in the election which followed the campaign. As the secretary General of this organization, your role in SALNAM’s leadership and management is very pivotal for both the short and long term success of the organization. You can agree with me that there is more to your job description than taking notes or writing minutes at meetings. I hope I am correct in my assessment of the very important role you are playing in a thirty year old organization. Apart from SALNAM’s president, you are the next “go to” leader in the organization’s hierarchy. Please elaborate on the other duties outside of your normal job description that occupy your time from time to time. Answer: Right Randolph, I have been in this senior position since October, 2009 and I would like to use this interview as an opportunity to, once again, thank all those who voted for me. And I can definitely agree with you that there are other duties I have been forced to accept as part of my obligation to make SALNAM succeed in its delivery of acceptable programs and services for the benefit of its members: They include sharing my input in writing a proposal for the resource centre funding, helping in the development of strategies and planning for programs of this organization. I also play a useful role in reporting the various activities of SALNAM using different communication channels.
I attend meetings with other organizations where I have had the opportunity to share the views of our community with sister organizations, government and social service agencies on a host of issues. These interactions help all the parties to understand each other’s problems and aspirations. I also sit on the Council of the African Communities of Manitoba Inc (ACOMI) and attend a meeting with the Winnipeg Police Service’s Community Support Unit once a month. The purpose of the meeting with the police is to establish and foster a relationship based on trust and mutual respect between the law enforcement agency and minority, especially African, communities and to help dispel the stereotypes that exist between these two entities. Also, from time to time, I get preoccupied with apprising members about the need to show interest in SALNAM and to seriously engage in its activities. Let’s just put it this way, Randolph, I have redefined the role of a SALNAM Secretary General. Question: Unpaid community work can sometimes be fulfilling and at other times be frustrating due to a number of contributing factors. However, and whatever the situational outcomes, people and certain individuals like yourself are always willing and ready to serve their communities. Your willingness to serve can be described as a testimony to your desire to see your community as viable, caring and a progressive entity in the community of communities in Manitoba. I have personally seen the energy and the excitement you have brought to this position as the Secretary General of SALNAM. I have jokingly referred to you as the shovel brigade, and you are still growing and learning the job. Now then, I would like to know what is it that motivates you as a hardworking and a very successful Secretary General of this great organization, one of the earliest pioneer organizations in the African community. Answer: After examining my suitability and qualification for volunteering for this position I concluded, I was uniquely qualified to assume the responsibilities that are expected of a Secretary General of this body. Simply, my motivation comes from my belief that I have to join forces with progressive members in our community to create a new Sierra Leonean personality that is free from tribalism and other negative factors that have divided our people for a very long time. I want to be a leading voice in this for this new community of Sierra Leoneans in our new home away from home. I want to see SALNAM as the catalyst that made this happens: Sierra Leoneans first in all of our manifestations, Period. I immediately realized that I had a moral and a civic duty to help my community become the most caring in all of Manitoba. There is the need for the interconnectedness of all Sierra Leoneans whereby we see ourselves as one people; seeing the whole rather than factions and becoming active participants in shaping our reality and not resigning to helplessness and passivity. Another motivating factor is that being a member of the Executive Council, gives me the opportunity to propose initiatives that foster unity by promoting programs that help our community mobilizes its resources for the common good, bearing in mind that we can disagree on issues without being disagreeable. Look Randolph, we need to build a solid foundation for ourselves and for our children to help their successful integration into the mosaic of Canadian society. Other minority communities like the Filipinos and Asians in general have beavered over the years to build solid educational, economic and political rocks in this multicultural society; and I see the need for the Sierra Leonean community and other African communities to do the same at least for the future development of our young people. We must organize as never before for organization decides everything. We should also be prepared to move ahead in unison to build a vibrant community. Question: The enviable position you occupy as a leader in both the Sierra Leonean and the wider African communities in Manitoba, gives you the advantage to observe, assess and to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses and the challenges of our community in particular and for those in the African community in general, as we strive to build capacity. In your judgment how would you describe the participation intensity/level of SALNAM members in the planned activities of the association? In other words does SALNAM have an identifiable strategic plan or people oriented programs to make SALNAM the people’s Association? There is always the tendency for some executive bodies to behave as if they have all the answers to the exclusion of the input of their members. What are your thoughts? Answer: Under the leadership of the president, the new SALNAM is obligated to enlist grass root involvement in the major decisions of the time. At present, there is no strategic plan. However, once the constitution is ratified, serious work on developing a strategic plan will be a priority. In the short term, the leadership has resorted to consultations with the members before decisions are taken. The objective of SALNAM’s strategic plan and programs is to building our community’s capacity and engaging community members in organized socio-economic and cultural activities. So far, as stated, this has not materialized as a result of what I have discussed earlier. In my assessment, our strategic initiatives will be more successful when we eventually have our resource centre to be used for developing and delivering the organization’s programs and services. Currently, a favourable number of our members are cooperating but the level of cooperation and commitment varies from project to project. Social functions in the form of song and dance are always full and lively events. On the whole, community members have been very supportive of certain initiatives. I do believe there is room for improvement in planning as well as in the overall management of the Association. I paraphrase the words of President John Kennedy, and I appeal to our members, “ask not what SALNAM can do for me” but, “what I can do for SALNAM.” Randolph Gorvie conducted the interview. |
