The hilly profile of Freetown, Sierra Leone, is taking shape in the morning twilight as he drives the half-paved road to the radio station. Millions of people in the city are just waking up. He knows they are excited to hear from him today.
I meet him in the parking lot. He greets me in haste, walks inside, and gets into the producer’s booth. A few minutes later, he signals the start of his program, Gud Mornin Salone.
“Confession time,” he mutters to himself.
All across the country, the students getting ready for school, the drivers of poda poda vans packed with commuters, the sellers at streetside markets are tuning in. They listen to his report, uncovering a case of corruption that involved a small political party during the recent elections. He got the party leader to admit to taking money… on record.
At the end of the report, his unmistakable, slow-paced sign-off phrase blares out the speakers.
“For the society of Radio Democracy, it’s Michael… SA-MBO-LA.”
I imagine them—the students, the drivers, the commuters, the market sellers—flashing a satisfied grin as he is now, still sitting with his arms crossed in the producer’s booth.
Once again, Michael Sambola, the greatest investigative journalist in Sierra Leone, has delivered.
Since I arrived in Freetown and started following Michael’s work, everyone I met has referred to him as a hero. So, when the bright red ON AIR sign goes off and we sit in the recording studio for an interview, it feels a bit like I’m asking Peter Parker about his origin story as Spiderman.
Michael was 12 years old when the Civil War finally ended in January 2002. At the time, he was living with his grandmother, the only relative still in the country. Everyone else had already moved to the Bronx, in New York City, where Michael’s father still lives today.
Ten years of war had deeply scarred Sierra Leone’s children. Hundreds of thousands of them bore the trauma left by the conflict, and a significant minority had even fought as child soldiers. Access to healthcare and education was limited, as was awareness of the rights of young people.
Broadly speaking, in the eyes of the public, children in Sierra Leone fell into two categories: victims of violence, or perpetrators of it. It was Search for Common Ground to first break this dichotomy and turn children into interlocutors—with Michael’s help.
In 2000, Search opened its Sierra Leone office. One of the organization’s first moves was to establish a radio production house, Talking Drum Studio, to create programs in support of the peace process. It was a tremendous success; within a year, Talking Drum Studio had already become a household name, racking up a massive audience nationwide. Among the studio’s biggest hits was the show Golden Kids.
Nothing like it had ever aired in Sierra Leone. At a time when youth had little to no media presence, Golden Kids turned children into journalists, giving unprecedented power and resonance to young voices. Under the supervision of Search’s staff, the titular golden kids produced reports, newscasts, and interviews raising awareness of the issues faced by young people in the aftermath of the war. Golden Kids gained a large following, changed the social and cultural norms surrounding young people, and influenced policy at the highest levels. The show was one of the factors leading to the adoption of the Child Rights Act in 2007—a comprehensive regulation protecting the rights of children in Sierra Leone.
The Golden Kids team in 2003. Michael is the 5th person from the left.
Photo credit: Tara Todras-Whitehill
Michael was an avid Golden Kids listener. At the end of each episode of the show, a message in the local Krio language repeated, “our office is at 44 Bathurst Street,” enticing Michael to pay them a visit. Encouraged by his grandmother and uncle, a DJ and radio producer himself, one day he finally mustered the courage to go.
Two weeks later, he was a golden kid, running around Freetown to capture the stories of young people.
“The decision [to go] changed my life,” he tells me. With the mentorship of Search’s staff, his talent blossomed. He started by following experienced journalists and quickly learned the tools of the trade. Within months, he was leading interviews himself, speaking up to the powerful despite his young age.
“The idea was to empower people growing up. Children’s rights, sanitation, corruption… burning issues were coming up, and the kids were the ones investigating them,” Michael says. “We interviewed authorities, policy makers, [members of] civil society, children themselves. ‘What about the Convention on the Rights of the Child? Has the government done X, Y, and Z for children? What about WASH [water, sanitation, and hygiene, Ed.]?’ […] I see myself as a journalist from that point.”
In his two years as a golden kid, he covered hundreds of stories, learning much more than the profession. The experience molded his personality, instilling in him the values of integrity, justice, and truth that inform his work today. “At Search, when we started, it was all about values. You would be at a production meeting, and they would tell you about the goal and vision of Search,” he recalls. “[When you are] a kid growing up, what you plant is what you’re going to sow. My values, norms, and tradition—those came from Search.”
From the Golden Kids days, it would take Michael about a decade to become Sierra Leone’s leading investigative journalist. First, he volunteered as a voice actor on Talking Drum Studio’s soap opera Atunda Ayenda, an ongoing radio drama that started back in 2001. Then, he became an assistant producer with Search – Sierra Leone and worked on the news show Borderline. He went on to read Mass Communications at the local Fourah Bay College.
Around this time, Radio Democracy’s manager, Asmaa James, offered him a position at her station. Along with his participation in Golden Kids, this was another major turning point in Michael’s life—and possibly in the history of journalism in Sierra Leone.
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- Golden Kids reunion taking place at Talking Drum Studio. From left to right: Michael; Mariatou, former radio producer and current Mass Communications student; Aboubakar, stand-up comedian; Fuad, leader of a theater company. Photo credit: Massimiliano Colonna
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- James Cullen, also known as Commander-in-Chief DJ Cullenzo, is Michael’s uncle and the first blind disc jockey in Sierra Leone. He founded one of the 4 radio stations that kept broadcasting during the Civil War. He still hosts his own music program and radio talk show today, at age 64. Photo credit: Tara Todras-Whitehill
Nested on the slope of one of the city’s many hills, Radio Democracy 98.1 broadcasts from an unobtrusive one-story building in the New England area of Freetown. Judging from its modest appearance, the station doesn’t look like a media juggernaut. But, you know how the saying goes.
Radio Democracy 98.1 was the first station to broadcast programs in Krio. It was established during the Civil War as a counter-propaganda outlet, gaining nationwide notoriety. After the end of the conflict, it became the radio station with the largest listenership in Sierra Leone.
Gud Mornin Salone, the daily program produced by Michael, is its crown jewel. It’s the most popular radio show in the country: according to the media professionals I asked, it garners an estimated seven hundred thousand to a million listeners every day. For a nation of seven million people, that’s a staggering amount.
Michael’s reporting for Gud Mornin Salone has had tremendous impact. One story on child brides sparked a nationwide debate on the human rights of children. Another report uncovered a system of bribery behind access to Freetown’s energy grid. Michael’s investigations unearthed scandals related to food hygiene, political corruption, and embezzlement, providing an unhoped-for window onto truth in a country that consistently ranks low in the global press freedom rankings.
The marketplace around Leicester Road, Freetown. Photo credit: Massimiliano Colonna
This groundbreaking reporting has gained Michael recognition from the two most authoritative media institutions in Sierra Leone: the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) and the Independent Media Commission (IMC). He received his first award for political reporting by IMC in 2012, when he was only 21. Every year since, he has won an award from either SLAJ or IMC.
As I observed Michael’s work for a few days, it struck me that he can do it all. He’s a detective, a storyteller, a sound technician, and an editor, able to produce his stories from ideation to broadcasting. He’s passing on his techniques to the journalists he supervises at Gud Mornin Salone, building a formidable team of news hunters.
Michael interviews Valnora Edwin, the Coordinator of Campaign for Good Governance, an important civil society organization based in Freetown.
Photo credit: Tara Todras-Whitehill
I followed Michael on one such hunt, the investigation behind the corruption story that aired today. Watching him, you wouldn’t fathom that his name strikes fear in the hearts of those on the wrong side of the law. He looks even younger than his 28 years, wears a student’s backpack, captures sound bites with a small recorder. The whole time, he maintains a friendly, unassuming demeanor with the interviewees. However, they know that, through him, they are being held accountable in front of the entire country.
Unsurprisingly, some people try to sway him with bribes.
“They might ask you ‘How much do you need for this story? This doesn’t have to go public. Just tell me your price and we’ll give [it to] you,’” says Mabel Kabbah, Head of News at Radio Democracy. “But Michael, he’ll tell you ‘I don’t want your money, I’m not here for the money. I’m here to investigate the issue and the public must know what is going on.’ […] Whenever they hear Michael Sambola is there, people are afraid, because they know [he will] get the information he wants without any money or bribery.”
The subjects of some of his investigations offered Michael bribes up to 8 million Leones, roughly 1,000 USD. That’s a small fortune in a country where the majority of the population lives in extreme poverty.
“If you collect money from someone, [people] will know. So your credibility as a journalist becomes in the balance,” Michael explains. “When I was at Search, one thing I learned was, don’t collect money. Don’t sign for it! […] That value about money not being the issue is paramount.”
Michael’s behavior has earned him a reputation for courage and audacity, renewing the public’s respect for the profession as a whole. It changed the image of journalists in Sierra Leone from blackmailers to heroes. “There is a new brand of journalists who are a model of integrity,” says SLAJ President Kelvin Xander Lewis. “A lot of people are looking up to [Michael]; he is the foremost person doing this kind of investigative journalism.”
“It’s a very dangerous world. You have to be fearless in a way. You must have the guts to say, ‘I have an instinct, this is a story I can pull off’ without thinking about the dangers,” says Ady Macauley, who presides over Sierra Leone’s Anti-Corruption Commission. “I think he’s that kind of journalist.”
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- Head of News Mabel Kabbah and Michael working on one episode of Gud Mornin Salone. Photo credit: Tara Todras-Whitehill
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- As the Anti-Corruption Commission Coordinator, Ady Macauley frequently works with Michael. Photo credit: Tara Todras-Whitehill
To be a successful investigative journalist, Michael must ask tough questions. Sometimes, he must ask those questions of himself.
Recently, he won a visa lottery to enter the United States. If he so desires, Michael could move permanently to the other side of the Atlantic and rejoin his father. Last year, he decided to stay in New York for a few months and see how he would like it.
His dad was happy to see him. “Observe the system here”, he said, “and then decide.” Michael settled in and started taking college classes.
One day at the end of the first semester, he made up his mind.
“Dad,” he said. “I observed the system.”
“And?” came the reply.
“And I’m going back.”
His father asked why. Michael opened his laptop and showed him one of Gud Mornin Salone’s broadcasts. His father was proud but still resisted the idea that Michael should return.
Michael remembers every word of the exchange that followed.
“Mike, I don’t think you should go back. Sierra Leone is not developed right now.”
“If we don’t develop Sierra Leone, who will?”.
“That’s not going to happen now, it’s going to be in a long time.”
“I know. But we have to start somewhere. And I want to be a part of that change.”
Gud Mornin Salone continues to draw a million listeners every day. One of them tunes in from the Bronx, New York City.
In June 2018, Michael received a Common Ground Award from Search for Common Ground, his first international recognition.
Listen to Radio Democracy 98.1.
Massimiliano Colonna is Search for Common Ground’s Manager of Digital Communications, Editorial, and Campaigns. He is based in Washington, D.C.