April 2 1905

Missionary groups have starting appearing on our island and strongly sent a message to our Mandinka tribe. Christian churches have experienced a growth spurt in Africa and the Fathers and Sisters of the churches have promised to cleanse us of our evil sins if we follow the God. I personally am not convinced and I think this is destroying our roots of tradition and is affecting our cultural beliefs. Some of my friends as defected to the other side as he felt that our tribe was lagging behind the times and our religious beliefs and practices were irrelevant to the future. This has incurred my wrath and I feel that by spreading such Westernised beliefs would cause a loss of tribal and national identity . This would cause a loss of culture which would potentially result in a split of set of thinkings which would greatly destabilize our nation.

Besides, the British have brought in many new diseases that our tribes and villages have never seen before. I have heard from other tribes that many people have died due to new strains of diseases which are powerful and are fatal. My tribe used to be rather healthy prior to the Europeans arrival, but since then, we are unable to cope with the new strains of diseases that are surfacing. Frankly speaking, everyone is in a state of frenzy and is worried about being the next one to get infected with the disease. This is causing a state of fear amongst us and I think this is a worrying trend that deserves much concern. I think the Europeans must find a way to solve the problems that were generated by them. They should research for cures on such diseases and bring some over for the Africans who are in the current plight even though we are totally innocent. My friends who rears livestock for a living has suffered major losses as most of his livestocks are unable to survive the disease of the regions.
I have also heard from other tribes that the epidemic has caused much burden on the breadwinners of the family. As parents die or are unable to work, children have to sought care elsewhere and this increases burden on existing families to provide money for the family.

All that I saw from our period of colonization so far is that the Europeans have barely contributed to the modernization of African states and the previously stated benefits were just overhyped. I just hope that this epidemic would be resolved by Europeans who have to take up responsibility in sparking off this strain of illnesses and affecting our lifestyle.