Celebrity Visit and Pitch Invasions

“With 30 minutes left to play, the match was still goalless and tensions were rising. Neither team could break the deadlock until suddenly, from a powerful cross, Benzine volleyed the ball past the visiting team’s keeper. In one powerful surge, hundreds of fans charged across the pitch towards the goal scorer. It took the police and match officials over five minutes to disperse the crowd before the game could be restarted.” This was not a Millwall derby but the first competitive match of Goldtree’s season, played in honour of Mrs Williams (Fatima) who had arrived in Daru a couple of days before.

It was sometime in July that I made the decision to resurrect the company football team. They hadn’t played a competitive match in about 10 months as they didn’t have the resources for training or games. I assigned a member of staff to manage the team and made him responsible for a modest monthly allowance to cover footballs, maintenance of a local pitch, first aid, and food for the team after training sessions and competitive matches (also for the visiting team). The idea is that the team should play one competitive match per month. I also agreed to liberate company vehicles to transport the team on match days. The team mainly consists of labourers from the palm oil division who have given themselves Premiership names: van der Sar, Fabregas, Gallas, Drogba.

The first game of the season was a friendly against the local military barracks. I couldn’t be at the game but received the match report that Goldtree won 2-0. This week, we had our first competitive match, against Bio United, the largest Grade 1 cocoa dealer in the region. We are direct competitors off the field which only served to stoke tensions in the build up to the match.

An impromptu meeting about cocoa drying is entertainment enough to draw a whole village to spectate. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised, but a football match will draw a whole town. A PA system was installed and around 400 Daru residents flocked to the palm tree lined pitch. Sierra Leonean pop music (a fusion of West Indian and local beats) blared out of the speakers. Hawkers sold fruit, cigarettes and boiled ground-nuts off trays on their heads. The local police sent a detachment to help the referee and lines-men keep order. Before kick-off, Fatima was invited to walk down the line up of players shaking hands with each and then to take the kick-off before scampering to her Royal Box. The commentator made reference throughout the match to his sister who had come to join her English husband in Daru. At one point he said: “You’ve all heard that Fullahs never marry out of their tribe. Well tonight, you can go home to your families and tell them that it’s not true”.

At about 85 minutes, another Goldtree forward broke through the Bio United defence and after a brief run, slotted the ball through the posts. This prompted another pitch invasion, less of a release of tension than the first, more all-out joy. The pitch took still longer to clear as Daru collectively realised that their team would win another game 2-0. This time, ‘Mrs Williams’ also needed to be dragged off the pitch.

This was truly one of the best football matches I’ve attended and a wonderful evening for all the Goldtree staff. I hope we have the same result against Bio United off the pitch.

Child hawkers on the palm lined pitch

Mrs Williams greeting the player line-up

Police detachment surveying the area before the crowds arrived

Jackie Kennedy taking the kick-off

Goldtree keeper 'van der Sar' tips a shot over the bar

I've got love for you if you were born in the Eighties.

SURGE!!!

Unbridled Joy

Lines-man indicating a foul

Mrs Williams joining the pitch invasion

Another 2-0 win for Goldtree

Sierra Leone’s Answer to Nigerian 419 Fraud

Banks in Sierra Leone do a roaring trade. To open a bank account they request a deposit and pay 1% interest on the deposit. They then ‘loan’ you the very same money with an interest rate of 20%. Not bad eh?

The actual branches are quite fun though. Cash rules in business here and withdrawals consist of big plastic bags or cardboard boxes, stuffed with sealed blocks of bank notes. I saw a man walk into the bank with a massive cardboard box and put it down on a desk. I thought: ‘this guy is loaded’. He opened the box and it turned out to be a fan. Maybe they send fans in and out of the buildings to distract attention from the real boxes of cash.

I went into another bank to pay 1000 bank notes into someone’s account. I sat in the back area with a clerk who had to count the 10 blocks of cash and stamp each newly created block with an official rubber stamp. Such is the way in Sierra Leone that resources are short and the only official stamp was one marked ‘WASTE’. The branch manager was sitting on a risen desk. I shouted to him that he must be the world’s worst bank manager if he throws away all money that’s paid in. Fortunately he roared with laughter.

Enough cash to buy a loaf of bread (lie number 1 of the blog)

Enough for a newspaper (number 2)

Tomorrow We Take The World

Below is an email that I wrote this morning to a colleague in Freetown after four weeks of endless issues with registering two Land Rovers that Goldtree bought for the cocoa business. (Mr Adams is not his actual name)

Dear Mus,

The farce of the Land Rovers continues. Are we actually paying Mr Adams to do such a fantastic job at getting these vehicles registered?

Even after the endless back and forth with the ministries, two weeks ago I was told that ‘tomorrow’ we would have the income tax number and we could finally register the vehicles. Several days later, I was told that we had the number but that it had to be input into a separate computer and this would be done tomorrow. The next day I find out the computer is the other side of Freetown and they will need until tomorrow to do it. After chasing for two days I find out that the procedure has changed and only the commissioner himself can input the number but that he is out of town for a few days.

I have called Mr Adams everyday since you gave me his number and today he tells me that he’s fairly sure that the whole thing will be wrapped up by tomorrow. But Mus, tomorrow will never come. Is there anyone who can help us to understand how long we are actually looking at? Is there anything you can do to help speed things along?

Thank you for all your help so far. Best wishes,

Will.

I didn’t actually send the email as I realised that poor Mr Adams can’t be blamed for this ludicrous process. Someone tells him tomorrow, he tells me tomorrow, I tell the people who will use the vehicles tomorrow. It’s a mind-bending farce. Who can be blamed for the bureaucracy? I heard a theory that it’s the British. In colonial times we introduced the notion that administration is a good thing, and this notion has survived – no, thrived to the point of obsession – but without the necessary resources to make things work properly.

But I was wrong. Tomorrow arrived tonight. An excited Mus called to say that he has the papers we need in his hands and I will have the vehicles within two days. Today we won, we beat the system. Tomorrow we’ll take the world.

Rescued by the United Nations Breakdown Recovery Unit (UNBRU?)

Another journey, another breakdown. I’m starting to think the 6 hour Daru-Freetown journey is a myth. Today, our back tyre blew and no more than 30 minutes after putting on the spare wheel, we suffered another puncture. There’s no RAC service in Sierra Leone, so this kind of incident involves hitching to the next proper town with a whole wheel, getting the new tyre fitted, hitching back to the vehicle, changing the wheel and a final drive to the town again to get the other wheel changed. I’m very thankful to Mohamed the driver, who is currently taking care of this and is having to spend the night on the road.

As for me, I was picked up by a United Nations truck, returning from up-country with one of their 4x4s on the back that had been totally wrecked in an accident. The driver was the UN’s chief mechanic and a good man. I chatted to him about the idea of a breakdown recovery service in Sierra Leone and he thought it would work. He said that if I got the investment after my MBA, he’d work with me to set it up. We exchanged numbers so who knows…

Puncture 2

Puncture 1

UNBRU recovering a totalled UN 4x4. Apparently the driver fell asleep at the wheel and rolled iy.

In the cab

Solar Plastics

Goldtree is working in parnership with an NGO called Stabex who have provided us with several rolls of solar plastic sheets to distribute to local agents and farmers. The solar plastics solve a key problem for the cocoa business at this time of year: the rain. Grade 1 quality cocoa needs no more than about 6% moisture content which isn’t achievable when it’s bucketing down all day.

Over the past few days we have been around our centres, measuring the newly created drying booths and cutting the plastics to fit. They have been welcomed as a much needed innovation. Thank you Stabex. Photos below:

Despite the tiny photo, I'm not too difficult to spot

The Number 1 Ladies’ Cocoa Agency

Rather unusually for this male dominated area, two business women have been in and out of the Goldtree building in the last few days requesting our support. Fatmata is a farmer who owns a cocoa plantation and wants our support to brush the land, and Jattu has a drying table, a proven track record in small-scale cocoa trading and wants our support to expand her efforts. We usually direct these small organisations to one of our four main agents who might take them on as farmers/ sub-agents.

In this case, I thought we could do it a little differently. I invited both the ladies into the office and they arrived, dressed in striking African print from head-wrapping to long dress. I put it to them that Goldtree could go into direct business with them as a pair. We’d provide a small amount of working capital to Jattu so she could get a headstart with her cocoa buying this season, and we’d provide Fatmata with money to brush her plantation. Fatmata would then become one of Jattu’s suppliers. They both liked the idea and so it was that The Number 1 Ladies’ Cocoa Agency was born.

Bunumbu Training Day

On our first visit to Bunumbu a few days ago, we gave the collective the option of running the training this Friday or the following Friday. It was initially agreed that the later date would be preferable as it gave more time to collect as many farmers as possible. Iba Mustapha then gave a speech saying that Goldtree had come with investment so the first thing the collective must do is speed up and just ‘make it happen’ for this Friday. That was very un-Sierra Leonean.

In a few days days, Bunumbu managed to collect over 400 farmers who are all sat in front of me in a large school classroom. For my part, I have organised for the region’s five principal produce inspectors to give presentations covering every aspect of cocoa quality and the ways to achieve it through planting, harvesting and processing. Goldtree has also provided bags of rice to the collective so that the farmers are fed at the end of the presentations.
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It was a lively session in which we were also able to communicate Goldtree’s way of working as well as the points on quality. The farmers went away understanding that those who are honest and committed to producing Grade 1 cocoa would be rewarded with considerably higher prices and potentially support to improve their farms.

Iba Mustapha spent the whole session translating the Mende for me and I warmed to him further. I don’t want to let him or his collective down and I’m sure the feelings are mutual.