Saying Good Bye to Voice of the Salone Diaspora

It is with great sadness, but with also excitement about the new venture, I say that I am no longer going to be blogging on Voice of the Salone Diaspora. On October 4^th 2009, nearly 10 years ago I started a blog. Today I begin the long goodbye to this blog and everyone who has followed and supported over the years. Read all the way to end because I will be doing one last thing as a special good bye to the blog.

Now anyone who knows me outside of the online universe, knows I am a quiet person and don’t like talking, but I love writing. What I didn’t reveal in that first blog post is WHY I started Voice of the Salone Diaspora blog. Let me take you way back.

Back when DMV had parties like every weekend at places like the Mirage. Back when they wouldn’t rent out halls to Sierra Leoneans because we just could not get our act together. Back to the days of why the Sierra Leonean DMV community has such a bad reputation. I don’t want to awaken some bad vibes, so I won’t go into details, but someone had created a website. It was what we say in Krio, a “congosa” website. The site on a daily basis put up stories (WITH PICTURES) about many well-known people in the Sierra Leonean community. I am sure some of us remembered that very terrible time. Some people loved it (I am sure because they wanted to get all the tea), but some of us were just baffled. Who the heck was this person? (Yes, I’ve heard the rumors of whom, but I am talking then) What was their deal? Why is this what we want to produce? Surely there are better stories out there that we could talk about than to gossip and tear down our fellow Sierra Leoneans? Surely, THIS could not be the Voice of the Salone Diaspora. I decided to create a blog.

This was the first time I put myself out there in such a way. I wrote a lot…privately and mostly creative writing, but never like this. Yes, I’ve shared my opinions as many people from Salone Connection days and Leh We Talk days will tell you (the two big SL discussion places I was actively engaged in over the years), but again not quite like this. Back then not many people I knew were blogging, but I remember when I first started writing about things, my good friend would send me this other girl’s, Vickie Remoe’s blog/website, SwitSalone. I was happy to see her stuff and I focused most of my first posts on SHARING stuff (this sharing thing has been with me a long time eh). I have never believed in keeping positive information that could change people, to myself.

It took me awhile to find my voice and the format and structure of the Voice of the blog. Honestly looking back at some of those posts, I cringe, but I pumped out 14 blog posts that first year (basically in 3 months), mostly sharing information and then in the next year about 38 posts. What helped greatly in that second year was the fact that on July 7^th, 2010 I left for Niger for my Peace Corps volunteer experience. Almost every day I wrote in my journal and whenever I had a chance to use the internet, I posted about my experience. Over the last ten years I’ve had 726 blog posts and more than 230,000 visits on my original blogging platform on blogger. Since December 2018 when Facebook blocked that website (long story), I’ve posted seven blog posts and have had more than 300 visits and 409 views on my WordPress site (I’ve not really been sharing this blog or posting as I used to). I have shared my Peace Corps experience in Niger and in Guinea. I have written about land grabbing in Sierra Leone, my return to Sierra Leone since leaving during the war and even posted about movies and tv shows. I also had series posts, such as my Black History Month posts and women’s history months posts. In 2013-2014 of course my painful, but truly one of the most eye opening experiences, blogging about rape and sexual abuse every day for a whole year.

In the past two years, I’ve been focused more on sharing more of myself: my career, my journey in self-development etc. This whole experience has led me to what this post is all about, me saying adieu, bye, toodles, etc. to Voice of the Salone Diaspora blog. I am not going to delete the blogger page because it is an archive and although it may not have had a large impact in terms of reach, I know many people appreciated the posts. People are still discovering it. I really felt it when for example all the photos in my blogs got deleted by accident. So, what does this mean? What am I going to do? Am I not going to share my opinions on all these things anymore? Of course not! I just know that blogging on a regular basis about all the things I used to, is not something I can do anymore as I have done the last ten years.

Last August I decided to go back to my first love, creative writing and launched my IG/Facebook Page: Kamakwie Princess. I am working on publishing a book of poetry in August and working on a LONG-term project, a novel based on my life. Last September, I also moved back to Sierra Leone to launch my non-profit Sudu. So, I decided that I need to put the blog behind me and the WordPress website will be transformed in the coming year to reveal my career website. The dream is to have a section for my company (to be revealed) & the Kamakwie Princess works. Maybe I’ll even have a section there to share some of my thoughts, but you can also always follow me on Facebook and I am on LinkedIn where I also share thoughts. If you want to know how you can help by contributing to this transformation (monetary or otherwise) please email me: salonecreatives@gmail.com.

It has been a great journey and I am thankful for all the followers and supporters over the years. For the more than 230,000 views/visits to the blog even when I wasn’t posting on a regular! So as a last gesture I am going to write some more until October 4^th. If there was ever a topic you wanted me to comment on (no matter how controversial) this is your chance to email/dm me or comment and ask. I will watch the comments, DMs and emails, then I’ll write about the things people asked about. Now you know I am not about drama, so don’t try to rope me into being petty. If I feel that it is something I can address without it turning into what I said my blog is NOT about, then I’ll do it. I will also be sharing some other things about the blog throughout the time so stay tuned.

All the love

© Voice of the Salone Diaspora