Kisi love poem

Kisi (Kissi, Southern Kissi, Gussi, Gisi, Gizi, Tengia, Warn, Kissien, Luangkori), is a Nigero-Congolese language from the western Atlantic group, spoken by the Kissis. There are two main dialect variants of Kissi, that of the north (650,000 speakers) which is spoken in Guinea (where it is an official language), and Sierra Leone, and that of the south (450,000 speakers), spoken in Liberia and Sierra Leone. My poem is here in the southern one, the Kisi of Liberia.

The Kissis are a population spread over three countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the largest group being in Guinea. If they live in a forest area in Guinea, they are mainly farmers (cassava and rice), as well as fishermen, hunters and breeders. Generaly, their villages were of modest size which grouped two to three segments of exogamous lineages, coming from the ancestor founder of the village. Their society was egalitarian under the authority of oldest men assembled in village councils.

During their meeting with the French, we must mention Kissi Kaba Keita. He succeeded to find a force of opposition, in bringing together several chiefdoms. Despite this and a fierce guerrilla warfare that he will set up, he will not be able to prevent the conquest by France, which possessed much superior weaponry. After recognizing him as head of a conquered region, the French will eliminate him.

I want to thank Pastor Saa Sollieyah Blama who made this translation of my poem, and dedicate here a little space for the work he does in Africa with his NGO to save lives ... I hope that by passing on this page some Net surfer will want to bring an help to his NGO. Here's what he said to me:

"The recent epidemic, the Ebola virus, caused lots of lives in 2014 in the sub-region of three neighboring countries of West African: Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Liberia alone lost about 8 thousand lives, mainly adult men and women. As a result about three(3) thousand children were orphaned by this deadly disease. We therefore formed voluntary organization called Diompillor Liberia in 2014 to advocate for some of these orphans mainly those whose deceased parents hailed from Lofa County where the disease originated. We did register 150 of them(orphans)and 75 caregivers or guardians at the end of 2014. We did receive assistance from some organizations and distributed food and non-food help to these children and their caregivers as emergency relief. In 2015 we began to advocate for the orphans for their educational assistance through the help of some organizations by paying some school fees with an average of 150 USD per student. However not all these orphans have been benefiting from the assistance because the sponsor(s) didn't commit themselves to full time scholarships. Adding insult to injury is the fact the guardians and caregivers of these orphans are vulnerable-widows and widowers whose relatives died and left these children to take care of them unavoidably. The world pandemic, COVID '19 or Corona virus has made and is making the situation more horrible: the lockdown has caused these vulnerable caregivers to loose chances of going out to do manual work to earn wages for their daily one -meals per day for themselves and their families.

Diompillor Liberia, inc.. is now a registered NGO since April 2019 and are planning to extend this program to Lofa County in areas where the epidemic originated from and hit the most, especially the Quadu Gboni and Foya Statutory Districts. We have mapped Monrovia into four(4) zones as follows: ZONE (1). (West Point, Clara Town, Sinkor Old Road and Central Monrovia;) ZONE 2. (Bushrod Island of Logan Town, New KruTown, Duala, Cald-well Rr. Red Hill Field, Virginia, Brewerville and up to Po River), 3. (Bernard's ville. Gardnersville, Stephen Tolbert Estate, Jacob Town ,etc.) and ZONE 4. (Lower Johnsonville ,Pipeline , Paynesville Red Light, Bernard Farm and Zayzay Community, Police Academy and surroundings). Not all the orphans and caregivers were available but we took these as examples according to sectors. We have covered 3 sectors so far and will continue to sector 4 which will be divided into two sections because of long distances of communities. OUR CHALLENGES : 1. Transportation 2. Staff remuneration 3. Digital cameras 4. Office space"

Pastor Saa Sollieyah Blama, is the Executive Director of DIOMPILLOR LIBERIA, INC.. EMAIL: saasblama58(at)gmail.com TEL.(+231)777 515 199/ 886 515 199 WhatsApp # +1763285 5498 . For more information, please contact him. A brochure can also be sent via email. Thanks in advance for your generous response and support. The affiliate organization in the USA is called Diompillor America, Inc.