I heard it through the grapevine …

Almost everyone must be familiar with the expression, “From the grapevine.” It is particularly used with relish when a perpetrator indulges in the vilest or crudest gossip- “I heard it from the grapevine,” is how they put it. Quite recently I read a piece on the subject of “grapevine” from a religious pamphlet “Our Daily Journey” or ODJ. It is authored by Marian Williams who reminds her readers that a song was composed out of the expression which became one of the biggest hits on the Motown label. It points out that while the telegraph is obsolete the informal transmission of information, gossip or rumour from person to person is still going strong. (Photo: Dr. Sama Banya)

Marian Williams reminds us of what Solomon said, that not only is grapevine gossip wrong, but that it is dangerous, unwise and ungodly. We are told that the original word for gossip means “birds picking up seed.” When applied to a person it means one who is an information scavenger, picking up seeds of information, (rumours or facts) about others and foolishly or maliciously spreading them around. Solomon not only called such person an information scavenger but also categorizes him as a fool.

Marian Williams continues that grapevine gossip leads to disastrous effects. It separates close friends, betrays a confidence, shames and saddles him or her with a bad reputation, perpetually feeds the embers of a quarrel and is an indication that the person straight with God. I am aware that lots of innocent ordinary people have been victims of these malicious and often lying people, who spread their story from a morbid desire to destroy. But sometimes they expose themselves in the process.

For example a photograph of my Pendembu house is published with the front door and all the windows shut. The house is then described as being deserted without any thought that it faces the main street of the township. The for-di-people newspaper publishes a photograph of my wife and I dancing at a party to mark my 80^th birthday (the photographs were taken by one of his boys who had gone to represent him) and the same newspaper presents it as Sama Banya dancing on the misery of Sierra Leoneans and in 2010 too. The same photograph is picked up by pro APC Diasporas allies of the newspaper and I am depicted as a womanizer because Philip Neville publishes that undeserved and untruthful scandal about me. And even he has picked the story from the mouths of two brothers who lack any credibility in Kailahun. How come a hideous action like that is known and propagated only by a small group, or that the story should suddenly spring only now especially as NO MEMBER OF THE FAMILY HAVE BEEN AWARE OF IT,except from an unknown and a strange witness provided by Lamin Jetty?

Paul Kamara wrote recently that “even Sama Banya had advised Kabbah to pay Wanza,” knowing full well that such a story is a mere product of his imagination. There is a constant reference to me having abandoned my medical profession for politics. Just what do these information scavengers mean?

I returned home in 1963, served in the ministry of health in the three provincial headquarters before going into private practice in 1969 and built a 40 bed private hospital which continues to serve the people of Kenema. I first entered Parliament in 1978 fifteen years after my return to the country. When I didn’t win a seat in the general elections of 1986, I went back into private practice until I joined the SLPP government in 1998, or twelve years later. From whence come my having deserted my profession? Would these news scavengers have been at destructive work if I had rejoined the APC today? If the same people had an iota of evidence that I was enjoying any ill gains from politics would they be silent on the lurid details? I must repeat that no one, but absolutely no one is going to get the satisfaction of having silenced me by blackmail with fabricated allegations.

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