I Believe That There Is A God, And Coming From An African Tradition, I Believe Also That There Are Gods.
In Early 1993, When I Was 12, I Was Separated From My Family As The Sierra Leone Civil War, Which Began Two Years Earlier, Came Into My Life.
How Many More Times Do We Have To Come To Terms With Death Before We Find Safety?
I Had A Very Simple, Unremarkable And Happy Life. And I Grew Up In A Very Small Town. And So My Life Was Made Up Of, You Know, In The Morning Going To The River To Fetch Water - No Tap Water, And No Electricity - And, You Know, Bathing In The River, And Then Going To School, And Playing Soccer Afterwards.
My Teeth Became Sour As I Listened To His Story. It Was Then That I Understood Why He Was Quiet All The Time.
I Get A Chance To Observe The Moon Now, I Still See Those Same Images I Saw When I Was Six, And It Pleases Me To Know That That Part Of My Childhood Is Still Embedded In Me.
The Places I Come From Have Such Rich Languages, Such A Variety Of Expression. In Sierra Leone We Have About Fifteen Languages And Three Dialects. I Grew Up Speaking About Seven Of Them.
I Grew Up In Sierra Leone, In A Small Village Where As A Boy My Imagination Was Sparked By The Oral Tradition Of Storytelling. At A Very Young Age I Learned The Importance Of Telling Stories - I Saw That Stories Are The Most Potent Way Of Seeing Anything We Encounter In Our Lives, And How We Can Deal With Living.
I Was Still Hesitant To Let Myself Let Go, Because I Still Believed In The Fragility Of Happiness.
I Guess What I'd Like To Say Is That People In Sierra Leone Are Human Beings, Just Like Americans. They Want To Send Their Kids To School; They Want To Live In Peace; They Want To Have Their Basic Rights Of Life Just Like Everyone Else. I Think We All Owe An Obligation To Support People Who Want To Do That.
We Must Live In The Radiance Of Tomorrow, As Our Ancestors Have Suggested In Their Tales. For What Is Yet To Come Tomorrow Has Possibilities, And We Must Think Of It, The Simplest Glimpse Of That Possibility Of Goodness. That Will Be Our Strength. That Has Always Been Our Strength.
For Many Observers, A Child Who Has Known Nothing But War, A Child For Whom The Kalashnikov Is The Only Way To Make A Living And For Whom The Bush Is The Most Welcoming Community, Is A Child Lost Forever For Peace And Development. I Contest This View. For The Sake Of These Children, It Is Essential To Prove That Another Life Is Possible.
