A Thank You gesture is in order for our Nigerian brothers and sisters present in our midst and  elsewhere, and their leaders for their considerable efforts in staying the course to facilitate the peace and the curb  the      mayhem. Whatever situations arose as a consequence of their  presence in those geographic locations. they are not the first neither will they will be the last. Remember the Vietnam war?????? Children are still coming out of the woodworks to connect with their fathers. Wars create strange circumstances and both soldiers and natives suffer emotionally and otherwise. As we  contemplate the  unproductive consequences of the African conflicts let us resolve not be part of the destruction. We do not need a new breed of Africans , what is needed is the ability to distinguish between the negative and positive life force with which each  of announced our entrance into the world and make a conscious decision to leave it a better place 
. 
>>> Ben Weller <[log in to unmask]> 01/08/00 10:42AM >>>
"War-weary Nigerian soldiers are preparing to leave Sierra Leone where for
years they have formed the basis of a peacekeeping force." West Africa
correspondent Mark Doyle also wrote that "to a bluesy piano accompaniment,
a musical Nigerian major [sang] a song to celebrate his imminent return:

     Ecomog is through -
     Nigerians got to go home.
     Little darling,
     please don't you cry."

Elsewhere, the years are the 1930s-40s in the Caribbean, the beat is
Trinidadian calypso, and the strain
a familiar one:

     Brownskin gyal
     stay home an mind baby
     Brownskin gyal
     stay home an mind di baby
     I'm going away
     in a sailing boat,
     An if I don't come back,
     stay home an mind di baby...

A year ago I wrote that when ECOMOG forces left Liberia they left behind
25,000 children.  Could Sierra Leone be saddled with similar legacy?  Just
musing.

Ben

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