The cemetery, a designated area of land which hosts the remains of our beloved ones who passed on to eternity is no longer a resting place for the deceased. A ground meant to be the permanent resting place of our beloved ones; a sacred environment is now being polluted and desecrated by reprobates with tainted minds whose actions display a callous disregard for the dead. The cemetery has become a dumping ground for waste material including faces and garbage from homes. It has become a home to the demented, and a place for all sort of illegal activities including smoking marijuana and kush, illegal exhumation of skeletal bones for ritual purposes and other unknown diabolical practices.
Kissy Road Cemetery, where late President Ahmad Tejan Kabba and late President Joseph Saidu Momoh were laid to rest has samples of broken graves and empty tombs with no sign of burial apparel, coffin, decomposed bodies or skeletal bones. Other cemeteries around Freetown including Race Course Cemetery, Circular Road Cemetery, King Tom Cemetery, Kissy Mess Mess Cemetery and Accession Town Cemetery have samples of desecrated empty tombs also with the exception of Fourah Bay Community cemetery – a cemetery meant for the burial of indigenes of Fourah Bay Community only.
A broken grave at Kissy Road Cemetery
A standard grave, 6ft long, 2ft wide with a depth of about 3ft or 4ft is sold at Nle 350.00, about $ 15.332. However, there is no permanent resting place for the deceased whose grave was not built with concrete and also for some built with it. Graves built with concrete are now being broken into by unknown people believed to carry away skeletal bones and other burial items while grave diggers usually dug out and disposed of skeletal bones from graves without concrete after a certain number of months or years. This happens even when the relatives of the deceased had purchased the piece of land from the government through the municipal government body – Freetown City Council (FCC).
My late father, Musa Sesay passed away on Wednesday, 15th September, 1999 and was interred at Kissy Road Cemetery (25 years ago). I couldn’t even find his grave when I went there during my research. And, I did not ask. Who would have known in fact? The current grave diggers might not be the ones who dug his grave considering the number of years he passed. I was a small boy then. I was at home when his remains was being conveyed from church to the cemetery for burial. It was on a Sunday. I remember all of that. They didn’t allow us (my other younger siblings and I) to go to the cemetery. Years later, when I grew up (now a big boy), they took me to see his grave. I did not cry though as I did when he died. I visited few times afterwards with my intentions devoid of anything related to necromancy.
Relatives of deceased are usually not contacted to witness the exhumation of the skeletal bones of their loved ones. There are no records of who was buried here or there nor are there records of names of deceased persons whose graves have been broken into. Consequently, the municipal government cannot contact the relatives of the deceased to relate what had happened to them. Graves don’t have numbers as that would have made it easier to identify who was buried at a certain number. The bones of different people including children are gathered together and dumped around or wrapped in a shroud (Kasankay) that’s not completely worn out and thrown into secluded or old graves.
During the dry season, especially in March when there is excessive scorch from the sun, it is obvious for an overpowering acrid from those graves to be driven by winds to nearby residences and that might pose serious health challenges. It is also a risk to one’s life who unknowingly step on a bone and got pierced. The grave is then sold to relatives of the-now deceased person, and it continues on and on – fine money… (Smiles) A certain amount of money is levied as tax on a monthly basis for graves built with concrete. Can you imagine the commotion and shouting from every corner that will be there at the resurrection? Thus, “Get up from me; I was here before you. Who are you and why is your leg over mine? Push away; this is my spot…” I wonder how my late dad’s grave would look like today if it was there. But, like every other relative who did not build the grave of their deceased loved ones, his bones might have been dug and disposed, who knows…
A broken grave at Kissy Road Cemetery-
In July 2021, I wrote an article with the heading “Rising Tide Sweeps Graves into Sea” for Covenant Newspaper later republished in Prime Times Newspaperafter excess water from the sea caused by one day of torrential rains swept away some part of Funkya-Goderich Cemetery in the Peninsula Area, Western Rural District. That disaster was the result of illegal sand-mining and construction of houses on marsh areas which are passage ways for excess water from the sea during rising tides. The tide swept away a larger portion of land designated as grave yards, decomposed corpses, coffins and human skeletal bones into the sea, with some graves left opened or cracked.
Sample photos of affected area – Funkya-Goderich Cemetery (27th July 2021)
Sample photos of affected area – Funkya-Goderich Cemetery (27th July 2021)-
Funkya-Goderich cemetery is one different from other cemeteries. It is located on the bank of the sea. Muslims and Christians dead are buried separately. There is one side for the burial of Christians and another side for Muslims. Is that really necessary? The Christian side was hit by rising tide back in July 2021. The photos above captured part of the disaster. The Muslim side is no exception from being hit by natural disaster. Some graves submerge during torrential rains due to excess water coming down from College Road and other parts of the community which flows into the cemetery. It floods every year and is less taken care of. Garbage from the community is dumped in the cemetery. Kissy Road and King Tom Cemeteries are no exception. The rains are here again until October. The living are happy about that, but the dead might not be happy about the rains. Drainages are shallow with some filled with mud which prevents water from flowing freely to empty into the seas during the rainy season.
Waste dumped in Funkya-Goderich Cemetery (27th July 2021)
Rest In Peace (R.I.P)… Are the dead really resting in peace when our activities and actions “pose threat” to them? Are they resting in peace when graves are being submerged by floods? Are they resting in peace when we willfully dump waste and garbage in the cemetery? Are they resting in peace when we urinate and defecate in the cemetery? Rest In Peace; is this an irony? R.I.P is boldly written on almost every tombstone. The relatives of the deceased paid an artist who craftily engraves the name, age, birth and death date, who he or she was in life and in some instances a picture of the deceased is attached. Some uses paint though. They do it knowing fully well that their bones will be dug and disposed. What a tragedy and a sad state for mankind. The end of man is sorrowful.
The activities of the living destabilize the supposed peace of the dead. How could this be when the living speak of peace and claim to be peaceful? How could this be when the living wail for days at the passing of their loved ones? They forcefully and illegally remove the dead from their resting place. Imagine the level of hostility meted out on the dead by the living! How could the living be that hostile to the dead? If the living is that wicked to the dead, you could predict how cruel they might be to themselves. Some even urinate and defecate on graves. “It doesn’t mean anything,” they say. You literally urinate on the dead and desecrating the graveyard and claim it doesn’t mean anything? Would you consider it a kind gesture if someone was to urinate or defecate on your grave?
At Kissy Road Cemetery, you literally walk on bones as they littered everywhere. If you happen to behold the sight of skeletal bones being dug and disposed with no respect, you wouldn’t want to be buried in Freetown. The photo above shows a shroud not completely worn out and some skeletal bones dumped nearby an old and a newly dug grave. Who knows they were removed from the newly dug grave? I stood nearby an old grave while I took that shot. In it, I saw bones wrapped in a shroud, a broken skull and other bones lit on the surface.
In 2023, the grave of popular actress, Henrietta Mahawa Mbawah was cut open during the period when kush smoking was at its peak. That happened few months after she was buried on 27th February. However, her remains was not carried away. Sources allege human skeletal bones are used in preparing the kush drug. It is high time the municipal government and council officials (Western Rural & Western Urban) treated the issue of cemetery desecration with uttermost urgency and brace up in their responsibility to protect cemeteries from natural disasters and from being infiltrated, polluted and desecrated by the living.
Mbawah’s grave (Credit I.B Blog online TV)
Let me end this peace with a word of reminder from the Bible to the living that you will die one day so that you beware of your actions towards or what you do in the stiller town. It is certain you will eventually become a member of that town someday; sooner or later. Your time will come! In Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verses 5&6, the Bible says,
“For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know nothing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten”
“Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.”
You will die one day; so, respect the dead and allow them to Rest In Peace!!!
