Good afternoon, Church.
I stand here today on behalf of Awoko Newspaper and myself to honour a man who was more than a colleague — Austin Allan Thomas was family.
So please bear with me as I try to summarise an over 20 years journey.
Austin has been part of my life for the best part of the last 20 years and more. It is such a long time that these past days I have struggled to remember how and when we did meet.
But I belive I got to know Austin through his work at the then Sierra Leone External Telecommunications company (SLET). The telex room at SLET was where reporters for most international networks converged. Those days there were no mobile phones, there was telex and landlines. The top news agencies or should I say the recognized news agencies then were Reuters, BBC, AFP, AP and then VOA.
The telex room was where most friendships started between SLET workers and journalists. I did not have to use the telex machine because I could make collect calls. SLET was also where you went to talk to friends and family abroad. People used to spend hours sometimes running through the night just to make international phone calls.
When I began to transition from print or newspaper to electronic, it was natural, to go to where the action was. The telex room at SLET was where the big boys then – Christo Johnson (Reuters), Clarence Roy-Macaulay (Associated Press), Victor Sylver (BBC) and Rod Mac-Johnson (AFP) – converged. And as a young man eager to learn on the job this was the place for me. Naturally out of the journalist circle it was necessary to know and befriend the workers at SLET. Freetown was a close society then and from your school friends and your family relations, it was easy to get to know just about everyone.
So Austin fitted into this mix of people. But from those early days his love and passion for football was clearly evident. At SLET we got the news from online sources, which was very rare then since the internet was not so popular yet. But from there the many arguments shifted to NP Club at Cotton tree where satellite television was available, and where the rivalry between Italian giants A.C. Milan, Inter Milan and Roma; the Spanish rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona and Liverpool and Manchester United in the English League were played out on the Tv screen. There was also the rivalry between Argentina and Brasil the South American football power houses. It was natural then to support one team in all three footballing nations and one national team in Europe and South America.
Austin supported AC. Milan as his first choice. And AC Milan then had a first team coach named Fabio Capello. He was a mercurial character. Very spirited on the sidelines. He would jump up and dramatically kick an imaginary football in the air while on the sidelines, and even fall flat on the ground. Austin loved this expressive character, and in the football discussions and arguments which followed every weekend of football, Austin a very spirited character himself would go on to mimic the Italian coach, such that he soon got to be nicknamed “Capello”.
It was apparently this love for international football and the prevailing political situation then which saw many people having a lot of time on their hands, which drove him into journalism. Austin as I know never wanted to be a journalist. Instead he wanted to be an accountant. I remember in the early days as sports editor he was offered a scholarship to study journalism in Nigeria by the late Brigadier Komba Mondeh who was the military attache to Nigeria then, and I believe who was also a school mate of Austin, but Austin turned it down.
The rebel war began to take a toll on government institutions, and SLET began to suffer. The depressing political situation in the country pushed young men to find entertainment in international football, because there was hardly any serious local football being played and the interest began to grow. This found expression in the newspapers, and Austin found his way into Concord Times newspaper which was one of the leading dailies then. These were also the very early days of the internet, and as the rebel war progressed security increasingly became an issue with the coups and counter coups and the rise of the NPRC government. To find entertainment, football lovers started to converge at NP Club and D’s Bazaar where satellite Tv was available. The discussions at Cotton tree would run several hours after the games would have ended, and one man in the center of these discussions was Austin Thomas. So when in the late 1990ies we set up Awoko we decided to entice Austin to leave Concord Times and come over. SLET had been re-named SIERRATEL and the institution was almost on its knees. Most workers by then were moving elsewhere. So we brought Austin over and he began to handle our sports desk. When others were doing three or four international sports stories on their back pages, Austin developed his own style of doing short two three lines, without breaks. The page was just one full page full of words with no headlines and very few pictures. At first it drew sharp criticism from colleague journalists that it was unconventional and it was not reader friendly, and I remember the great Olu Gordon also constantly drawing attention to that, but Austin would dismiss that in his typical way and say they were talking rubbish. Sports lovers however reacted differently and they were interacting positively with the pages more because of the sheer volume of information. Before long other newspapers copied the style, and today this is how the sports back pages are laid out in almost all newspapers. Austin developed that style which has now outlived him. During all this period Austin would not call himself a journalist. But as the war progressed he became more and more involved in reporting.
I remember on May 8 when the women led by Dr Kadi Sesay and others decided to march to Foday Sankoh’s residence on Spur road to protest for the war to end. Three of us went from Awoko to cover what we thought was a routine event. Take pictures of the marchers, record their singing and statement and find reactions after. It turned out to be anything but usual. We followed the marchers on to Sankoh’s residence and watched as some brave ones including our reporter Saoman Conteh began to push towards Sankoh’s gate demanding he comes out and takes action to end the war. As they breached the police barriers placed on the street leading to Sankoh’s residence his rebel guards could be seen becoming restless and clearly displaying their AK-47 rifles. The tension was rising. As the protesters breached the temporary Ecomog barrier it was evident something would happen. I and Austin moved closer to the armored car with a machine gun mounted at the top which Ecomog had deployed to support the women marchers or should I say protesters. Eventually the brave protesters got to the gates of Sankoh’s house and attempted to breach it. As expected, Sankoh’s rebel guards feeling threatened by the crowd opened fire. I and Austin quickly scrambled behind the Ecomog armored car, which was also now actively firing shots at Sankoh’s house. The reply was heavy as they were using heavy caliber guns. Several people lay dead in front of Sankoh’s house and the gun fire continued. As soon as there was a lull me and Austin scrambled from the back of the armored car and entered the nearby drainage. We then crept like lizards using our elbows and stomach down Spur road until we were out of direct line of fire then we came out of the gutter and ran down further. By then Sankoh and his rebels had fled the house and taken to the hills. The house was now abandoned and being ransacked. On Spur road, an SLBS cameraman was being carried on the back by another man. His waist had been brushed by a bullet and he was crying like a baby that his mother had warned him not to cover the march. We laughed. We later went to the Connaught mortuary where we identified the remains of our colleague Saoman Conteh who was among about 20 people killed during that clash. He had been one of those on the forefront of the protesters who wanted to bring down Foday Sankoh’s gates. When we got back to the office, Austin was the one explaining the whole ordeal to the staff. He was thrilled. He apparently enjoyed the adrenaline rush. The adventure of being a journalist, and watching history unfold. I believe this was a turning point for Austin’s career path. After this encounter Austin increasingly expanded from the comfort of the sports desk to general reporting.
When a few years later the Chinese embassy offered Awoko a scholarship for a journalist to study in China, Austin took the opportunity.
It was another turning point. In five years, the man who had wanted to be an accountant now had a Master’s degree in journalism from one of China’s leading universities. And ladies and gentlemen, this was how Austin Thomas became transformed into a black Chinese. In those five years he changed a lot. The passion and enthusiasm showed in his sports reporting was now seen in his reporting on China. You could never win an argument with Austin on China. He had become everything anti-west.
Austin was a also a hunter. Even during the rebel war after Ecomog had taken over security of the country and were trying to remove weapons from the hands of civilians Austin kept his hunting rifle, but he dutifully registered it with the small arms office every year. Austin would tell us stories about his hunting exploits. His encounter of seeing a half man half horse, and the story of a hunter who had set fire to warm himself after an unsuccessful search for animal game throughout the night. This hunter he said decided to rest and placed his gun and bag by his side, laid his head on what he thought was a rock and fell asleep. He woke up early took his gun and bag, and that was when he realised that the rock that he had used as a pillow during his short rest was infact a large boa constrictor which had also coiled itself to get warm from the hunters fire.
When Austin briefly moved from Regent to Maroon town he became engaged into our cultural festivities. Every christmas we had our own local masked devil “Lord Ah Mercy” which would come out. One Christmas we were dancing with the devil and Austin observed that I was not going too near because one of the men close to the devil had this local calabash filled with some liquid which he would use a short broom to dip into the calabash and sprinkle the liquid on the devil. Some of this liquid would invariably be sprinkled on those close to the devil. Me not being a society man, Austin observed me keeping my distance. He then came close to me laughing, because he had observed my predicament. He collected a strand of the grass tied around the devil and he tied it around my left wrist, and he said go now you are safe nothing will happen to you. I was grateful. This was the sort of caring person that Austin was.
At Awoko, Austin was responsible for bringing in over 90 percent of the staff, especially the women. This was because we were fearful of bringing in women among so many men without creating confusion in the newsroom. Austin did not agree and he would vouch for the women and most of them ended well.
Austin was the organiser at Awoko. He would organise the anniversary events, the parties and the outings to the beach. He was very good at rallying around the others to support his ideas. He was industrious. Even at SLAJ AGM’s when it had become fashionable for some journalist to comandeer drinks, Austin was the stabilising force to ensure an equitable distribution.
We will miss Austin his caring nature and his industry.
When Austin began to get sick we did all we can to support him. From Choitrams Hospital to 34 military hospital, to Ghana and finally to UK. He was very courageous and believed he would get well and come back to work. Even on his sick bed he would ensure his sports page was ready.
Last night when I read on twitter that the Chimney was being erected on the roof at the vatican for the election of the Pope. I recall the death of the last Pope. It was Austin who kept us informed with daily stories about the rituals during the Pope’s death. His funeral and up to the election of his successor. Austin used to bring us all the stories.
I cannot end without talking about Austin’s generosity. He believed in giving. Whenever Austin travelled he would bring back something for everybody, however small. He had a good heart, if not for his football or China arguments which sometimes got very heated he was a fine man with a beautiful soul.
Today we can only pray that Mother Earth rests gently on his beautiful soul. To the family here and abroad we extend our deep felt sympathy. To the wife, Millicent, the children Floriana and Delroy we will continue to embrace you. We have been a family and we will continue to be one family. May God bless us all.
Delivered by Kelvin Lewis on Saturday, 3rd May 202,5 at the memorial service at St Charles Church, Regent
