Harvard Law School’s Shameful Endorsement of Corrupt African Politicians: A Betrayal of Justice

By Dr. Fatima Babih

In photos being propagated on social media by the Strategic Communications Division, Office Of the First Lady, Mrs. Fatima Maada Bio, wife of the current illegitimate president of Sierra Leone, is seen standing at a podium on a stage with the background inscribed with the emblem of “Harvard Law School.” This is Mrs. Bio’s way of arrogantly bragging to Sierra Leoneans that Harvard Law School gave her a platform to speak. In doing so, Mrs. Bio seeks to portray herself as a beacon of authority and legitimacy, basking in the endorsement of one of the world’s most renowned academic institutions.

However, the reality behind this facade is far from flattering. Despite vehement protests and concrete evidence of Mrs. Bio’s involvement in perpetuating violence against women in Sierra Leone, Harvard Law School callously chose to provide her with a platform to speak on a topic she knows nothing about, “Breaking Barriers, Building Future: Addressing Gender-Based Violence in the African Context.”

This endorsement not only undermines the credibility of the university’s purported commitment to fighting gender-based violence but also perpetuates the cycle of oppression and injustice in Africa. The Sierra Leonean activist group, United Voice for Sierra Leone, rightly cautioned Harvard Law School against the authenticity of Mrs. Bio’s advocacy efforts. Yet, Harvard Law School chose to ignore these warnings and instead provided legitimacy to a corrupt and oppressive African First Lady.

By allowing Mrs. Bio to stage such a bogus lecture on a critical topic after learning, through evidence, about her corrupt and oppressive activities in Sierra Leone, Harvard Law School has clearly demonstrated its callousness toward the plight of women in Africa. It has proven to be a racist higher education institution in the Western world that plays lip service to African women’s plight while covertly perpetuating their disempowerment by supporting corrupt and oppressive politicians like Mrs. Bio.

There are hundreds of women in Africa, including Sierra Leone, who are genuinely working on women’s issues, protecting girls, and fighting against gender-based violence. However, institutions like Harvard Law School only promote politicians who are looting from the resources of poor African countries to pay them for these platforms where they engage in self-promotion, thereby giving credence to their lies and false claims. In contrast, the masses in those countries languish in poverty and social decay.

It should, however, not come as a surprise because Harvard University is an institution that was built and became prominent from its involvement in the slave trade, which, according to a report,

“…included enslaved individuals on campus, funding from donors engaged in the slave trade, and intellectual leadership that obstructed efforts to achieve racial equality”
(Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery, 2022).

Given its conniving activities with corrupt African politicians like Mrs. Bio and her cohorts, Harvard University proves its continued involvement in neocolonial practices that are contributing to the stagnation of progress in the African continent.

We have not seen any video or text of the speech Mrs. Bio’s office claims she delivered at Harvard Law School. Still, judging from the report published by her office, Mrs. Bio’s speech was irrelevant to the topic of “Breaking Barriers, Building Future: Addressing Gender-Based Violence in the African Context.” Instead, her speech focused on self-promotion, self-aggrandizement, and lofty false claims about her achievements in Sierra Leone with her bogus presidential program called Hands Off Our Girls.

Furthermore, the event appears to have been staged with Harvard Law School’s assistance, as the pictures show Mrs. Bio’s entourage occupying a significant portion of the audience. In the small room where Mrs. Bio appears to be speaking to an audience, one can see that the whole right side of the room (80% of the audience) was Mrs. Bio’s entourage; the large number of people that traveled with her, including her adult son, Sierra Leone Embassy staff members, her lobbyists and other officials of her husband’s government.

To get to these stages in the Western world, Mrs. Bio appropriates millions of dollars of government and donor funds to pay for travel expenses and per diem for herself and the large number of people who travel with her, as well as payments to lobbyists that help stage these speaking events for her. Meanwhile, a majority of Sierra Leoneans go to bed hungry every night as

57% of people in Sierra Leone are food insecure
26% of children have chronic malnutrition
43% of people live below the poverty line (World Food Program, 2023).

Harvard University is not oblivious to the suffering of the people of Sierra Leone, but because of historical racism, supports this misuse of the country’s resources, which further underscores the university’s disregard for the suffering of African people.

Nonetheless, concerned Sierra Leonean nationals in the diaspora, committed to fighting for human rights, democracy, and social justice in Sierra Leone, will continue to stand united in our condemnation of institutions such as Harvard University for endorsing corrupt politicians like Mrs. Fatima Maada Bio.

References

Harvard’s Ties to Slavery

HARVARD & THE LEGACY OF SLAVERY

President and Corporation dedicate $100 million to implementation of recommendations

SIERRA LEONE Economic Update Enhancing Value Chains to Boost Food Security October 2023

World Food Program USA

The UNBECOMING Mrs. Maada Bio of Sierra Leone: A Case of First Lady Syndrome.

Sierra Leone 2023 – European Union Final Report on General Elections June 2023 (p. 74).

Promoting Violence Against Sierra Leonean Women (p. 70).

Africa News. (February 3, 2023). Children in Bo Town Suffer Severe Injuries Due to Mrs. Bio’s Negligent Sanitary Pad Distribution.

Africanist Press. (January 18, 2021). Illegal Public Spending: Sierra Leone’s First Lady Received Le29.7 Billion in Government Funds.

Goodbye democracy – goodbye peace and stability in Sierra Leone – Op-ed.