TRIBUTE TO A LEGEND BROTHER, Abdul Kareem Sow

The Late Mr Abdul Kareem Sow

The life will live is full of uncertainties. No one can ascertain as to what happens tomorrow.  We are like candles in the wind that can completely burn out at any time. What time our candles will burn out, only God knows. The information about the death of my brother, Abdul Kareem Sow, reached me as a shock. I couldn't believe it after seeing it on our Kenema Old Students' Association (the United Kingdom and Ireland) Forum. The preoccupation of the shocking news made me contact the current Secretary-General of our Alumni, Mr Magba Taimeh, who confirmed that he is truly dead. I observed some minutes of silence, thinking of what may have gone wrong, knowing a brother who had sacrificed all the opportunities in the United Kingdom to serve his country.

I knew Sowman, as we called him, during our school days at the Government Secondary School Kenema (College of the East). I was his senior at the school but he was someone that we connected through the Poor Boys Association (PBA) movement, a movement meant to support comrade students from poor backgrounds and foster the spirit of humility. He was an active member like many others. Our connection became, even more, resound out of our outspoken nature, a bond that continued when we met again at the Christ the King College Bo (a school meant to groom great and enviable scientists in Sierra Leone- both pure and social scientists). I was one year ahead of him in the sixth form.

At the Christ the King College, we hooked up again in our usual Poor Boys Association movement and we even tried to introduce drilling which became unsuccessful because of the catholic nature of the school and the fact that drilling was alien to the diction of the school. I could remember the many challenges that we faced from some students in the school in the many times we went around classes where there are fresh students, taking advantage of absentee teachers in the classes.  Our friendship was so strong that we were meeting for studies after school hours and worked closely in rising above the fluid nature of the town we were living miles away from parents. During Ramadan, he will take me to his Fula relatives for us to breakfast and we shared and cared for each other. Watching each other's back was our norm until we completed the sixth form.

Upon completion of the Sixth form, Sowman categorically told me he wanted to go to university abroad and never wanted to study in Sierra Leone. He had all the qualifications to enter university but deliberately stood by his determination.  He finally travelled in the late 80s to the United Kingdom. The lesson that I learnt from his determination is to never give up and that the impossible can always become plausible. We lost from each other after the post sixth form era until we met again around the mid-year of 2000. 

Brainy and smart as he was, he never took money before education, like the many fellow Sierra Leoneans that are laid back and short-sighted about education being secondary in their lives. Sowman was able to compromise family matters, education and miscellaneous issues-multitasking by nature. He did his first degree in pharmacology and later pursued his master's degree in pathology. He worked for the NHS for some years and later decided to go into teaching. When I asked him why he went into teaching, he told me because he wanted to have time for the kids and use teaching skills to provide educational empowerment to the children. That tells us about his strong family savvy.

Sowman taught chemistry at both secondary and college levels in the United Kingdom and even became head of the chemistry department in the college he was teaching. As a global teacher and having the passion to explore international teaching arena, he took up an international job in teaching in the East Africa nation of Kenya. In Kenya, he flew our Sierra Leone flag and the United Kingdom flag high and used the Queen's English to teach chemistry.

My brother was an entrepreneur and with the true spirit of self-reliance. Upon coming back to the United Kingdom from the teaching taster in Kenya to join his family in London, he opened his private institution, Push for Excellence, where he recruited me and other teachers. He is one of few Sierra Leoneans that never solely relied on the paid job he was doing as a teacher but decided to diversify the earning pool out there to increase his household income.

Sowman was a politician too and a strong and paid-up member of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP).  Not only was he a member of the party but a core member of the new direction that stood by President Julius Maada Bio's vision to bounce back in the politics of Sierra Leone. I could remember the many times he tried to convince me to join the SLPP, which my lost hope in the party after the nightmare experiences during the Tejan Kabba era couldn't allow me to reckon with.   When the SLPP new direction won the recent election in Sierra Leone, he was not given any position. He never got frustrated or discouraged but smartly thought to build his project to provide the invisible hand to his party. I could remember encouraging him to do so as that is the only way he can survive amid fouls, knowing very well the ethnic-regional sentiments in the SLPP and APC parties in Sierra Leone. The project he built was Public-Private Partnership and the focus was in education.  I worked closely with him to fine-tune the project which he forwarded to the current SLPP government and fortunately the authorities embraced it and allowed him to carry on the project at the Ministry of Education.

Until his death, he worked tirelessly to fulfil the dream of the project in Sierra Leone. He used the many media platforms to sensitise the country about his project and worked within the purview of the objectives of the project. I trust that if his candle in wind had not unexpectedly burnt out, our country would have benefited a lot from the project. Although my brother is gone to the land of the dead, I hope the present and future governments will continue his legacy and do not use the ongoing political bashing strategy in the body politics to block a project that will immensely benefit our beloved country.  My brother is gone and optimistic his spirit we continue to shadow his the project, Public-Private Partnership at the Ministry of Education.

Sowman left behind a humble and supporting wife (Binta Sow), charming children and a great extended family. My sympathy to the entire family and pray that God consoles them and guide them through their trying times. Those that feel the heat know it best. You need to test the tide to know what lies in it.

Till we meet again on the next planet, my brother Abdul Kareem Sow, rest in absolute peace. I know now that you are gone but be assured you had left an enviable landmark on planet earth.

Amen

Prince Foday

London, United Kingdom