West African leader speaks at St. Norbert College By Sonja G. Ostrow News-Chronicle Alie B. Sheriff, paramount chief of the Jong Chiefdom in the West African nation of Sierra Leone, told of the misery civil war had brought to his country and his hope for a better future as he spoke to a group of students and community members at St. Norbert College on Thursday. He provided the audience with a brief political and cultural background of his country, which until 2001 had been in the throes of civil war, and articulated his vision of a peaceful and democratic future. There are 149 chiefdoms in Sierra Leone, the paramount chiefs of which are similar to governors. In 2002, Sheriff was elected as paramount chief of the Jong Chiefdom from among a set of candidates with hereditary claims to the position. Before assuming office as paramount chief, Sheriff worked as a teacher and was a national delegate to the Sierra Leone Teachers Union. The district in which the Jong Chiefdom is based, like the majority of Sierra Leone, was ravaged by the civil war that raged from 1991 to January 2001, when President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah officially announced the end of the war. Sheriff described the war as "a journey in human misery, a war of victims and victimizers." He spoke of young boys forced to take up arms and fight for one side or the other, and young girls raped and then forced to marry their assailants. The headquarters of the Jong Chiefdom, Mattru, still has rubble instead of a post office and other public buildings. Sheriff praised President Kabbah for finally bringing to an end the war, which led to the deaths of more than 50,000 men, women and children and caused Sierra Leone and several surrounding African nations to lose billions of dollars in revenue. Yet he also acknowledged the Kabbah-led government inherited a number of problems which will take several generations to solve. The solutions to some of those problems, he hopes, can be found during his visit to the United States. "While I am here, I hope to learn about new ideas and new developmental strategies to take back home," he said. "But I must focus on the more basic strategies that we can implement, not the highly advanced and scientific issues for which we do not even have the basic strand." Even in matters as simple as farming techniques, the years of war have kept Sierra Leone far behind the times, and Sheriff issued a heartfelt plea to local farmers to share their knowledge with farmers from his province. Sheriff also stressed that although peace agreements have been signed, the maintenance of a truly peaceful nation will require diligence and patience. "We as a nation finally got a taste of peace," he said. "But peace does not only mean the absence of war, it means providing a means of economic growth for your citizens, access to education for your children, and a responsible use of natural resources." Sheriff ended his presentation by thanking the many nations and organizations that helped Sierra Leone survive the war. He then expressed his hope that they would not withdraw their support now that the war had ended. "Just as the international community resolved to end the war," he said, "we are hoping that they will resolve to keep the peace."