NEVAEH* (SIERRA LEONE) “I thought I had lived a lifetime.” See Mustapha’s Refugee Learner Narrative I have two brothers and one adopted sister. My adopted sister’s biological mother was killed for another perspective and additional during the war and my mother took her in. My The boundaries and names shown and the designations Mamou used on this map do not imply official endorsement or er acceptance by the United Nations. Nig K information on Sierra Leone. ol L e father worked in the diamond mines. That is where o n G UINEA t l e a SIERRA the war started. We did not hear from him for a Kindia LEONEFaranah Médina Dula Falaba while, so we thought that he was dead. Before Tabili ba o s a g Dubréka K n ie c o r M Musaia Gberia a c S Fotombu Coyah Bafodia t Life before Canada the war, my mother worked for a non-government a e r G Kabala Banian Konta Fandié organization (NGO). She helped the NGOs with Kamakwie Koinadugu Bendugu Forécariah li Kukuna Kamalu Fadugu Se Bagbe r Madina e Bambaya constructing buildings and houses for them. She g Jct. i ies NORTHERN N Birthplace and Family arc Sc Kurubonla e Karina tl it Mateboi Alikalia also taught the blind and the deaf to read. L Yombiro Kambia M Pendembu Bumbuna Batkanu a Bendugu b Rokupr o l e Binkolo M Mange Gbinti e Kortimaw Is. Kayima l Kushe. Hello. My name is Nevaeh. I was born on Mambolo Makeni i Bendou Bodou Sierra Leone had a civil war that affected my family Port Loko Magburaka Tefeya Yomadu Lunsar Masingbi Koidu-Sefadu July 22, 1994, in a village in Sierra Leone. I am li Koundou e a Lungi Pepel S n Int'l Airport or a Matotoka Yengema R el p ok m and had a lot to do with the control of the diamond Freetown a Njaiama Ferry Masiaka Mile 91 P Njaiama- Wellington a not clear what village it was because the civil war Yele Sewafe Tongo Gandorhun o Hastings Yonibana Tungie M Koindu WESTERN mines. I was separated from most of my family Songo Bradford EAS T E R N had already started and people were on the run AREA Waterloo Mongeri York Rotifunk Falla Bomi Kailahun Buedu a i Panguma a Taiama Manowa Giehun Moyamba T when rebels attacked my village. On that day and Bauya Boajibu Njala Dambara Pendembu trying to find a place of safety. In between all the Yawri Bendu Banana Is. Bay Mano Lago at the time, I was still very young and my Grani was SOUTHE R N Bo Segbwema Daru running, that’s when I was born. I lived in several Shenge Sembehun Gerihun Plantain Is. Sieromco Mokanje Kenema Bumpe Tikonko wa Blama Tokpombu holding me in her arms. Everyone tried to escape Gbangbatok Se ro Kpetewoma o villages and places in Sierra Leone. I was living in Sh Koribundu M erb Nitti ro River a o i Turtle Is. o from the rebels. In the chaos of the moment, Grani M h Sumbuya a Sherbro I. Matru je Gambia prior to coming to Canada and, according n M Bonthé a a Potoru t W i Gorahun o a Man r and I were separated from my mother and my t ATLANTIC OCEAN S o to my parents, I also lived in Guinea, but I was very br Pujehun Sher Zimmi Kongo LIBERIA o an brothers and sister. This separation lasted for many Lake M Mabesi young and I do not remember that time. SIERRA LEONE Bendaja a Lake Mape of years. For a while, Grani and I ended up living in National capital L Bopolu Provincial capital l au City, town Sulima t P Freetown, the capital city, after we escaped the Bomi-Hills Sain I belong to the Kpamende cultural group. My Major airport International boundary Lake Bong village. We were living in a house with 15 or more Provincial boundary Robertsport Piso Kle grandmother speaks several dialects and she and Main road other persons, all who were not related, and all Secondary road 0 20 40 60 80 km Railroad my mother speak Mende, the language of the 0 10 20 30 40 50 mi who were strangers. We had to hide and be very Kpamende. My father comes from the Kono district Map No. 3902 Rev. 5 UNITED NATIONS Department for Peacekeeping Operations quiet all the time because we were afraid of being January 2004 Cartographic Section and speaks Temne. At home we spoke Krio, the found. I recall that there were times when, if dominant language. I grew up with my Grani until someone knocked on the door, I would have to hide she came to Canada. I had some “aunties” and © United Nations/Department for Peacekeeping Operations, under the bed and be very quiet. We had to be in “uncles” who were just friends of my family, but I Cartographic Section. Map No. 3902 Rev. 5. January 2004. Map our homes by a certain time of the day or they mostly grew up with my Grani. of Sierra Leone. CC License. <www.un.org/depts/Cartographic/ map/profile/sierrale.pdf>. * To protect the participant`s privacy, pseudonyms have been used in this narrative. 85 would “cuff” us. There were times when we had to hide in the sewage ditch. I remember vividly SIERRA LEONE when a soldier came to our house and everyone fled to the back of the house and tried to be very Historically, Sierra Leone was a source country for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Later it became a site quiet. One of the older men was having trouble for the repatriation of former slaves during the abolitionist movement. staying quiet because there was a dead body close to where they were hiding and he started to cry. Sierra Leone is a nation with a population of about 6 million people. It became an independent nation in Someone put a hand over my mouth to keep me 1961 after a long period of colonization by the British. From 1961 until the start of the civil war in 1991, quiet. It was at this point that I too saw the dead political instability was common with several coups resulting in regime changes. body, and soon realized that the situation was very serious. I was five years old when I came to that Sierra Leone has many natural resources and is rich in diamonds and other minerals. The illegal trade in realization. diamonds became known as “blood diamonds” due to their role in financing and perpetuating civil war. Civil War The community was very caring; they gave me snacks and watched out for me. If one of them saw The civil war began in 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) began a campaign against me somewhere where I shouldn’t be, they would President Momoh and captured towns on the border with Liberia. The brutal civil war in Liberia played take me back to my home. I often felt like I had a critical role in the fighting in Sierra Leone. Charles Taylor, the leader of the National Patriotic Front of many Granis. I was happy living in the community Liberia, is deemed to have helped form RUF. because of the sense of being looked after, but The conflict was not based on ethnic or religious divisions. It resulted in part from opposition to the corrupt ruling class and a fight for control of the country’s diamond mines. The war resulted in an estimated 50,000 deaths and the displacement of over 1 million citizens. Both rebels and government forces used a large number of child soldiers. RUF was notorious for atrocities committed during the war, such as mass rape and mutilation of victims. The war came to an end in 2002. An UN-backed war crimes court was set up to try those who were primarily responsible for the atrocities committed. In April 2012, the court found former Liberian leader Charles Taylor guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes in the Sierra Leonean civil war. References • Global Issues, Sierra Leone. Retrieved from <www.globalissues.org/article/88/sierra-leone>. • Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship, SIERRA LEONEAN COMMUNITY PROFILE. Retrieved from <www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/11_2013/community-profile-sierra- leone.pdf>. • BBC Country Profile, Sierra Leone. Retrieved from <www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14094194>. © UNESCO/J. Caro Gardiner. Everyday life in a market in Freetown, Sierra Leone. CC License. 86 eventually as I got older I became aware of the fighting and the war. I would hear the older people speaking about the war. We were afraid. Sierra Leonean Refugees I developed malaria while living in the house. My Grani made me herbal During the height of the civil war as many as 2 million of the country’s medicine for the malaria. Later, when I moved to the refugee camp, I was 6 million citizens were displaced, with some 120,000 fleeing to Liberia (even given medication. I lived with my Grani from my birth until I was reunited with though that country was experiencing its own civil war and conflict) and my family. I have a very close relationship with my Grani. 370,000 to Guinea. Others sought asylum in neighbouring countries such as Gambia, Ghana, and Nigeria. We also lived in Gambia for a while. We had a house for the two of us then. All Under UNHCR’s voluntary repatriation operation from September 2000 to of the houses had metal roofs which were very sharp and had clay walls.