By Hon. I. B. Kargbo
Two great men of Lebanese- Sierra Leonean origin were born on the same day 72 years ago and lived together in unity only to die within the same week in Lebanon.
Hashim and Hassan Hashim were born as identical twins in South Lebanon but lived their lives together in the Eastern Region of Sierra Leone where they established their businesses.
One of the twins, Hashim Hashim, said to me 20 years ago at his then residence on Wilkinson Road, ‘’whenever my brother falls ill, I suddenly become confused; just as whenever I am ill, Hassan becomes very restless.’’ The twins were successful businessmen who established the famous Capitol Cinema House and Capitol Hotel in Kenema.
They were also known as coffee and cocoa exporters, just as they also stood out as prominent diamond dealers.
Hashim Hashim was described by many as the socialite, the politician who always mingled with people in political power.
The other twin, Hassan Hashim, who was the workaholic, always engaged himself in buying and selling, even though throughout their lives they jointly owned all their resources.
The closeness of the twins, Hashim and Hassan, was such that once you befriended one of them, you would have also befriended the other.
In June this year, I was in the UK when I learnt that Hassan, one of the twins, had been hospitalized in a well-known hospital in Beirut- Lebanon.
The following week, I learnt that the other twin, Hashim, was also hospitalized in the same hospital but on a different floor of the hospital.
Hashim was Sierra Leone’s consul to Lebanon, a position he held with great dignity and respect.
President Bio had deliberately appointed Hashim to the position of consul to Lebanon, because he knew Hashim to be a trusted friend who has always stood by him.
When everybody saw Maada Bio as a nobody after he gave up the chairmanship of the NPRC in 1996, Hashim continued to stand by him. Hashim said to me, ‘’I know you are APC but don’t be offended if you find Maada Bio in my house; he is my friend, just like you.’’
Hashim, the more extrovert of the two, had seen and mingled with people in power over the years. When Dr. Siaka Stevens insisted that the government should set up gold and diamond office as a way of generating foreign exchange, President Stevens recruited Jamil Sahid Mohamed and Hashim to help convince members of the Lebanese community in Sierra Leone to sell their gold and diamonds to the newly established government-owned GDDO.
In other words, Hashim Hashim played a major role in the establishment of GDDO, for which President Stevens was most grateful to the then young Hashim Hashim.
Later, he was identified by President JS Momoh as one business men who could help the government convince the Lebanese business community to work with the government in an effort to stabilize the economy.
However, when President Momoh’s government introduced the ‘economic emergency,’ Hashim criticized the move and advised that government should reduce excessive regulations in the economy and concentrate on a liberal economy.
Once President Ernest Bai Koroma assumed office, he identified the business activities of the twins who had established an engineering branch of their company, which later won a contract to revitalize the national television service.
One of the strongest points in the success story of the twin brothers has to do with the fact that at all times the brothers operated as one united team, leading to great achievements in various fields.
The offspring of the twin brothers have also proven to be successful in their various fields of endeavour.
Alie Hashim, the first son of Hashim Hashim, is a famous broadcaster who had worked for the BBC, Aljazeera Television and other international television networks.
Noor Hashim, the other son of Hashim Hashim, is a well-known business man in the energy sector.
The offspring of the other twin, Hamza Hashim, is a famous proprietor of the Sierra brand of drinks, including Sierra Water and Sierra Juice.
The social lives of the two twins were enviable. They had great friends including onetime Vice President Victor Foh, President Bio, the late Vice President JB Dauda, and the late William Smith.
Among members of the Lebanese community in Sierra Leone, the twins were very close friends to Arif Halloway, Nasri Halloway, Samir Hassanyeh and the Jamil Sahid Mohamed family.
The Hashim brothers were largely mentored by their uncle, Pa Hashim of Kenema, who saw them through from childhood to the point when they established their own businesses.
Hashim Hashim will be remembered for his role as the head of the Lebanese community in Kenema at one time.
When President Bio assumed office and was searching for a consul to Lebanon, Hashim Hashim volunteered to take the position. When the passing away of the twins was announced last week, I remembered what Hashim told me once on a visit to his house in Beirut, ‘’we twins cannot explain ourselves; but I can only say my brother, Hassan and myself, are two bodies with one soul. People have always seen us as identical to the extent that they confuse us.’’
Yes, they confused them as was the case. When Hassan had travelled to Lebanon, using Hashim’s passport because his own passport had expired, nobody could spot the difference.
On one occasion, Hashim was out of the country when the then Minister of Finance, Thaimu Bangura, invited Hashim to a meeting at the Ministry of Finance. Minister Thaimu Bangura could not spot the difference even after the two-hour meeting with Hassan, believing that it was Hashim. When Hashim returned later, he went to Hon. Thaimu Bangura to report that ‘my brother said you treated him well sir.’
Hon. Thaimu Bangura said, ‘‘it was you who were at my meeting to discuss the Paramount Hotel issue.’’Hashim replied, ‘’ I was out of the country sir; you met my brother, Hassan.’’
Hashim Hashim and Hassan Hashim could have lived longer but to quote Hashim’s son, ‘’God did not want them to suffer any longer from debilitating illnesses that afflicted them.’’
The two brothers born on the same day died the same week, seventy-two years later.
May their souls rest in peace.
