Yes, Sierra Leone! (part 1)
In the far east of Sierra Leone, in the three-country corner of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, you can find the Manor river. This border river separates Sierra Leone from Guinea.
This is the first hurdle for many refugees making their perilous journey to Europe, a journey in which many of them experience accidents, are sold as slaves, or even murdered. Almost all of those who make it to Europe after great hardship are sent back, because their reasons for escaping do not convince the authorities: ‘After all, Sierra Leone is a safe third world country’!
A safe third world country? The most common reasons for escape would show that they had little choice in the matter:
– Homosexuals are socially excluded and fear excessive violence, even lynching.
– Poor farmers from remote but resource-rich areas are chased off their land without compensation, so that the industries can satisfy their hunger for raw materials.
– Greedy diamond traders exploit their workers, including children, who earn starvation wages in the often illegally appropriated mines.
– Climate change is leaving areas deserted and others flooding, causing hunger and poverty.
– And then on top of it all, there is the Covid-19 crisis!
Till date, Sierra Leone has not been affected by the virus too badly. Currently, there are not many more than 1600 registered cases. However, there is a growing rumour among young people that Europe, because of the many Covid19 deaths, is now in urgent need of aid workers and that they will be welcomed with open arms on their arrival.
Sahr Yilia, a kanthari (2009) from Sierra Leone, says: “I sometimes have these absurd conversations with young people who tell me that they would be doing the Europeans a favour if they could quickly get there, because so many people in Europe had died from the corona virus. I don’t know if I should be angry or amused by so much naivety. But these conversations also show me how important it is to build something meaningful for young people here, so that they can have a life perspective for themselves in their home country.”
Sahr Yilia’s own life story is marked by the 11-year civil war (1991-2002). Violence, hunger and poverty that he had experienced in his youth led him to set up an organization for orphans and street children. Another impulse for this work was the sudden death of his partner. Like so many, she died during childbirth and left behind a daughter named Comfort.
“When I looked around the morgue, I realized that only young women were lying there. The cause of death was the same for everyone. Lack of medical care after childbirth. I wondered how many of these motherless children end up in orphanages or become street children. My daughter should never feel like an orphan!”
After training at the kanthari Institute and after five years of studying at York University in the Field of Human Rights, Sahr heads ‘YES Sierra Leone’, a training centre that trains young people in professions that will be important for survival in future. Its target group exists of orphans and former street children. He wants to give a different perspective to those who want to leave the country of their traumas behind as quickly as possible.
“We all need to learn to say “YES,” “YES” about living in Sierra Leone. The way to do this is difficult, because the nightmares of the past are still overwhelming for most of us.”
The Civil War in West Africa
Sahr is a kanthari of the first generation. In this first year, we had five participants from the countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia, both war-torn regions. At the time, we did not know much about the extremely brutal civil wars that had just ended. The first-hand reports and the post-traumatic symptoms that came to light again and again during certain occasions horrified and confused us: Shortly after his arrival in Kerala, Mohamed (Sierra Leone) crept up trembling under the bed when one of our Indian employees carelessly started a firework as a welcome greeting. From then on, fireworks on the kanthari campus have been banished.
James and Victor (both from Liberia) were already grown-ups when the war broke out. They were able to talk comparatively freely about their experiences. Both are completely blind. James was a pastor and Victor had taught at a school for the blind in Liberia during the war. They recounted how they had to stand in a queue waiting at a rebel checkpoint. Then suddenly, the rebels counted them off, and the person who had the bad luck of representing a prime number, was shot. James was number 12 and Victor was on spot 14. Directly next to them, numbers 11 and 13 were killed.
Jonson, another kanthari from Liberia, was blinded by the explosion of a grenade thrown into his house. He would almost have bled to death if it had not been for a civilian, a Chinese, to take care of him.
And Sahr?
For the first three months after arrival at our campus, Sahr was noticeably quiet and silent. Later he slowly thawed, but he remained rather reserved when it came to his own war time experiences. We suspected that he must have gone through a difficult phase as a child. But only now, eleven years later during a long telephone conversation, I got a deeper insight into his life, the life of a visually impaired abducted child soldier.
At age eight, Sahr became almost blind. His parents tried everything to save his sight. They took him to traditional healers, but they only made his condition worse by pouring chili concentrate in his eye. He was about to attend a school for the blind in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, but then the brutal battles began in his home region of Kono.
Sierra Leone’s civil war lasted about 11 years, from 1991 to 2002. It was triggered when the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) occupied the diamond mines in the east of the country. They were rebel troops led by Liberian warlords Charles Taylor and Foday Sankoh. They raided villages and towns and used the diamond mines to finance their own wars in neighboring Liberia. Sahr was one of the abducted children. Ever-changing government forces, often represented by private combat units, also used children as soldiers in their attempt to stop the rebels.
Jungle Battles
(Note: this chapter contains descriptions of acts of violence)
Sahr Yilia was only 13 years old when the rebels attacked him and his entire family.
“My father was chief over 14 villages. At that time, we ran a farm with cattle, a coffee plantation and a cocoa plantation, not far from the Liberian border. That’s why the rebels were particularly interested in us.”
It was about 6:00 in the morning, on the way to the farm, when the family was attacked and driven together like cattle. The children were separated from their parents and Sahr was forced to join the “Small Boys’ Unit”. The father was tortured and later died of his injuries. His mother, two years older sister, and his two aunts came to the unity of the rebel women. Since the rebels initially focused mainly on the women, Sahr had toyed with the idea of fleeing. But then he quickly abandoned the plan because he was afraid that he would never be able to see his family again.
In those first days, the boys had already witnessed the incomprehensible brutality of the rebels. They overheard an argument between commanders about a young pregnant woman. It became heated when one claimed her unborn child was a boy, the other swore it was definitely a girl.
“I remember one of them saying, “why don’t we have a look?!” They cut open the pregnant woman’s belly with a machete. And then they celebrated with enthusiasm as if they had won a football match: they were twins, a girl and a boy… the three bodies now lay lifeless. We were in shock. But the rebels made fun of us: “If you think that’s the worst thing you’ll see, just wait until we get into the jungle!”
And then they left to the jungle. All marched 180 km, with heavy bags, crammed with everything one needed for a war camp. Weapons, ammunition, furniture, bags of stolen food. Even the smallest of them were not spared. They carried bags that seemed to be larger and heavier than themselves. If they stumbled and fell, they were kicked by the rebels until they were back on their feet. There were no vehicles, they would never have been able to drive through the dense forest anyway.
After a few days and nights, they arrived at the base camp in the middle of the most remote thick jungle….
Read Part 2 on https://www.kanthari.org/corona-blog-18-07-2020/