A few months ago I caught a cold, the normal flu. But
this came with a splitting headache that made it impossible for me to do
virtually anything. So I spent the next few days in bed. The interesting thing
was that I caught this particular flu strain from my young toddler daughter,
who had also caught it from one of her siblings. As flu goes, within about a
week, my entire family had wet noses and was sniffling and sneezing all over
the house.
In the throes of my pain and discomfort, I started to
thank God for giving us the flu and not something more serious. I reflected on
the Ebola virus that had ravaged through countries close to mine and devastated
homes and families in one fell swipe. I gave thanks to God for the flu and
reflected on how Ebola had come close to my home and literally ‘passed over’ us.
At the beginning of the Ebola crisis in Liberia, my
elder brother was the Deputy Commanding Officer of a 900 man United Nations
Force in Liberia. They were based on the border area between Liberia and Sierra
Leone (Bong, Lofa and Nimba Counties). Incidentally, this was the area through
which Ebola spread from Sierra Leone to Liberia. He had been assigned there in December the previous
year for a six month tour of duty which was to have ended in August 2014.
Getting to the
end of his tour of duty, then Ebola struck! We were all waiting for him to return in time
for the birth of his daughter, scheduled two weeks after his arrival in
September. Then Ebola struck Liberia! Big Brother’s contingent of 900 soldiers return
to Ghana was delayed week after week as the United Nations and the Heads of State
of Ghana and Liberia battled with whether to permit Big Brother’s contingent to
return to Ghana and be replaced by a fresh contingent or keep them there in
Liberia for another six months or more, after all, they were already exposed to
the risk!! The challenge for Big Bro as Deputy Commander of the force was how
to keep 900 strong and virile Ghanaian soldiers confined to the barracks for
weeks on end with absolutely no contact with the local Liberians who might be
carriers of the deadly strain.
Back home in Ghana, we, his family were in serious
prayers, first for his and his entire contingent to come home safely, because,
knowing the historical relationship between Ghanaian soldiers and Liberian
women, it was near impossible that none of the soldiers would defy the orders
to remain in camp and steal out into town to bid farewell to a cherished lady
friend, and by doing that, inadvertently bring the Ebola virus into the UN
camp. We fasted, we prayed and waited
upon the Lord as their return was delayed day in and day out. Secondly, we
prayed that he will come back home in time to share in the birth of his
daughter.
After several weeks of uncertainty and diplomatic back
and forth, the green light was given for the entire contingent to return to
Ghana. All the soldiers and their property returned to Ghana safe and Ebola
free!! Less than one week after his
arrival, we witnessed the birth of a bouncy baby girl who weighed 4.0kg.
Gratitude!!
One of my sisters also lived with her family of four
and worked in Conakry, the capital of Guinea. Guinea was the epicentre of Ebola
and the start point. In June 2014, my sister and her young son left her husband
in Conakry to visit relatives in Europe. She was six months pregnant at the
time she left. Due to the uncertainty of the health systems in Conakry she
delayed her return until the birth of her daughter, hoping that the Ebola
Crisis will be over by the time her baby was old enough to travel. Six months
later in December, 2014, the crisis was still raging and had spread from Guinea
to Liberia, Sierra Leone with isolated cases in Mali and Nigeria. She was faced with a dilemma. Continue to
stay in Europe, leaving her job and her husband in Conakry for as long as
possible or return to Guinea with her toddler son and new born baby and take
the risk of Ebola. After weighing the odds, she chose to return to Guinea where
she had a life, family and a good job.
First, it was difficult to get any flights that would
connect her to Conakry as most airlines had cancelled their flights to all of West
Africa, not only Guinea. When she finally got an airline which had a stop in
Conakry, she recounts that airline staff were shocked that she would choose to
take her young children back into the uncertainty and stories of death that the
Western media had spun around the Ebola Crisis!
Prevail she did, and thankfully, the virus passed over
her, her family members and their friends in Conakry, her fellow colleagues at
work, the pupils in her son’s school and even her household staff.
Gratitude!!
Other stories about family members and Ebola in Mali
as well as an aborted peace keeping mission to Liberia in early 2015 for
another family member shows how connected we all became to this continental
crisis and how through it all, we became stronger and more united.
In the Old Testament book of Numbers, Moses and the
Israelites go to battle against the Midianites with twelve thousand men, a
thousand from each tribe. The Israelites won the battle. The most striking
thing about this story is in the verse 49 where the army commanders came to
Moses and reported that they have counted the men under their command and ‘not one is missing!!’. Twelve thousand
men go to war against the Midianites and not one single soldier dies. Our God
is indeed still in the miracle making business.
Gratitude!!
While I tell stories of gratitude, I also painfully
recognise that a lot of families suffered as result of Ebola and many lost
loved ones. We also remember the healthcare professionals who took their oath
seriously in the care of Ebola patients and paid the highest price. These
include Dr. Willoughby of Sierra Leone, Dr. Micheal Kargbo and Dr. Stella
Adadevor of Nigeria. We remember your sacrifice and bless your families and
their generations for your works. As Wole Soyinka will say, ‘may their shadows
never shrink’. I also recognise that there are many untold stories of bravery,
survival, compassion and hope that will stand the test of time and be told
within families and communities. These stories must continue to be told. We
must never forget so that we never repeat the mistakes of the past.
The Africa Union’s Agenda 2063 speaks of a vision of a
peaceful, prosperous and integrated Africa and the seven aspirations are
drafted to reflect Africa’s desire for shared prosperity and
well-being, for unity and integration, for a continent of free citizens and
expanded horizons, where the full potential of women and youth, boys and girls
are realized, and with freedom from fear, disease and want. Ebola gave us a
reason as a continent to put Agenda 2063 into practice in a way that connected
all levels of Africans- the pan African institutions, individual nations and at
the lowest levels, continental citizens and families such as mine.
Ebola became a by-word for West Africa. In the
rhetoric of rallying support to help stop Ebola was the tacit international
quarantine that all West Africans suffered. Flights stopped flying to ‘West
Africa’. Anyone from ‘West Africa’ on a flight had to be monitored. Indeed,
even my Ghanaian friends in the diaspora cancelled their visits back home
because there were travel bans to ‘West Africa’. West Africa therefore had to look inwards and
support ourselves. I salute the Ghanaian government for making Accra for
hosting the UN emergency Ebola Response Centre.
Gratitude!!
