By Roland Bankole Marke.
Salifu was born in Sierra Leone, a tiny West African nation about the size of Maine. He was only 9 when rebels abducted him at the Wesleyan primary school at Bafodia, Kabala in northern Sierra Leone.
In a vicious whirlwind of death, he lost his family: parents, Fatu and Hamidu Kamara and six siblings. Rebels raped his sister Kadiatu before his eyes and the bandits daringly took her away to become a wife. She’s presumed dead as nothing has been heard about her since the fateful day she was taken away.
Speaking with his dimmed eyes and a subdued voice, Salifu said: “I hope and pray that day will never come again.”
Whenever he remembers the plethora of injustice and agony endured, he’s paralyzed with despair. “I wish I had the might to challenge the rebels,” his human nature cried out. But a voice inside him said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” His Christian values had not yet evaporated into thin air. The civil war that ravaged Sierra Leone razed it to a mere rubble.
Today, the Atlantic sea breeze is blowing with refreshing vitality under a newly elected president Ernest Bai Koroma. But it would take time for the pendulum of transformation to teeter towards a dramatic rehabilitation while the impoverished nation is incessantly chocked with overwhelming basic needs.
A miracle herb was slipped into Salifu’s tea, similar to the drug ECSTASY that transformed him beyond recognition. He became bold, fearless and eager to venture into daring adventures. And he was forced to play the role of a boy soldier, with a mandate to protect the rebel commandos, armed with his AK47 on a 24-hour shift.
David M. Crane, a former prosecutor of the Special Court in Sierra Leone said that during one of his hearings around the country for people to talk about the war, a child-soldier said, “I killed people, I am sorry, I did not mean it." I went over to him, tears in my eyes, hugged him and said, "Of course you didn’t mean it. I forgive you."
Several boy-soldiers who resisted or tried to escape were pinned down screaming, while the rebel trademark AFRC-RUF, was carved on their chest with a sharp object. Luckily, Salifu was able to escape and brave it out along a protracted arduous trek from Kabala to Freetown, in order to earn his freedom. However, United Nations Forces found him after the termination of the civil war, but not without physical and emotional scars.
At 21, he’s disabled and walks with a crutch, but his mental prowess like his vision for the future is as clear as his glaring, youthful eyes. He’s the pioneer of the Global Network for Disabled Youths in his homeland that caters for the needs of young disabled and traumatized war victims. He arrived in the United States on March 15, 2007 through donations from philanthropists. Like most immigrants, he deals with culture shock daily. When he first arrived at his US home, he stared at the well lit house and asked: “When will the lights go off?” . His friends chuckled, “The lights in America stay on 24 hours-a-day,” one of them,Francis, told him.
But in Sierra Leone, electricity is sporadic, where most people in the capital Freetown, have gone without electricity for a long period. The next day, Salifu was invited to breakfast. Breakfast! Surprised he said, “What are you talking about?” “Here we eat breakfast in the morning, please come join us,” Junior, another friend, said. He eyed the generous and delicious food, “You guys are blessed here in America,” he said.
He contacted me through my website: www.RolandMarke.com by posting a long message. I responded promptly, as he was eager to tell me his story. We bonded almost immediately. His search for a trust-worthy Sierra Leonean writer, mysteriously led him to me. But because of his horrible experiences, it’s hard for him to trust people in a hurry. After being robbed of his childhood and family, he still struggles to come to terms with reality. But his predicament did not paralyze his life, or his vision to chart out his own destiny.
After several conversations with him, I believe that his mindset does not represent a normal 21 year-old, having bagged a second class division in the General Certificate of Education Examination (GCE) the equivalent of a High School Diploma. Despite all the emotional turmoil he has weathered,he’s currently taking preparatory classes to equip him for college, through the help of UN officials and sponsors in United States.
His transition has shifted into overdrive, to emerge a roving peace seeker: who tours US cities on request, to speak about the dangers and plight of child soldiers around the world. He pleads: “Children should not be used as puns in wars that adults choose to fight.”
Stressing that the enormous resources expended in futile wars could be diverted into education, poverty reduction and job training for youths around the world. The demand for his services is increasing in a community infected with violence.
Speaking recently at the United Nations(photo), his appeal fell on fertile ground, with the smoothened innocence of a child, as he addressed the world body to alleviate the appalling conditions around the world that fuel wars. He’s a testament to the assaults of wars on children in Sierra Leone’s civil war. It is illuminating witnessing a child-victim of war narrate a heart-piercing message with universal appeal. His conviction, like his intelligence, is rooted in passion. Evidently, he has lived a life of trauma, violence and destitution. He’s the poster child of others still caught up between a rock and a hard place, who are incessantly plagued with hopelessness and emotional nightmares.
While at Birghampton University in Pennsylvania and New Paltz University in Upstate New York, his message was well received. At question time students asked him about ways they could help victims of the war. They offered to help Salifu first to get him settled down in United States because he personifies the malaise of child soldiers, and brings reality to the American stage.
Images showing victims of war and the violation of their human rights feature daily on our TV screens, but these images are perceived as routine news. Child-soldiers who have been abused portray the same syndrome as other children, who desire love, affection and protection from their parents and the global community.
At the Quaker George High School, he spoke to about 700 students at a special devotion, followed by focus group discussions. The discussions were lively and focused on Sierra Leone and the factors that led to the war.
A student asked, “How were you able to survive the war?” His explanation was passionate as the students’ eyes were glued on him, as he carefully narrated his ordeal. Only those with a heart of stone would not have been touched by his exposition.
Soon tears dripped down some emotional faces. In unison, the teachers and students so deeply touched decided to raise funds for the child-victims of Sierra Leone, by printing T-shirts and raising awareness throughout their community, and various fund raising drives. Some students expressed their desire to visit Sierra Leone to get a first hand account of the impacts of war on children.
Like Saul in the Bible who was converted and became Saint Paul, our hope for redemption is possible as it’s necessary: not only for war-victims, but for a mind-change of those who start wars. It’s wrong and unethical to punish children who are used as puns to fight adult wars.
15-year-old Canadian Omar Khadr could have been one of those boy-soldiers in Sierra Leone, but he was captured in Afghanistan. David M. Crane a renowned professor, articulates this sobering reality in his article ‘The Child as War Criminal’ published in the International Herald Tribune -November 9, 2007 last Para:
“No child found in combat should be held liable for his or her acts. That is the legal standard of the world community and of this country. What will take place in Guantánamo in the coming weeks is wrong.”
*Roland B. Marke is a Sierra Leonean writer based in Florida, USA. He is the author of three books and his most recent is "Harvest of Hate" a collection of stories and essays dealing with Sierra Leone’s civil war. Visit his website www.RolandMarke.com, or contact him at bankole@mindspring.com or 904-645-5738.
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