VoRTCS - Volunteer Refugee Tutoring & Community Support Program

A woman of Courage

Born in Freetown in 1957, I grew up to become a social activist. My role was sensitising the population on gender violence and female circumcision. I refused to be initiated, recognising that is was an injustice to women.

A friend doctor returned from South Africa and heard that we had about 30 supporters. A workshop was held for the fight against female circumcision and we took, as part of our own input, the fight against the Aids virus. During the time they are doing the initiation for circumcision they use only the one weapon to circumcise 50, 60 even 100 women, this is done without sterilising or even changing the weapon. So, through this we thought that we could come to the rescue of young girls, knowing that every one of them was at risk of getting the Aids virus through the use of only the one instrument.

Because of this I was cast out of our cultural tradition and my friends, fellow members and myself, who were part of the movement, were cast out of the Government. The President condemned our work and gave rights to those who circumcised women.

Sierra Leone became involved in a civil war in 1991, with the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebelling against the government. The RUF took over the government. When we learned of a possible military intervention, as a social activist I was called upon to organise a demonstration. I organised a demonstration along with other zonale heads, all women and children, dressed in white, with placards. Although this was not done in the interest of the RUF but out of concern for the population and to prevent the destruction of the country. We further called for a peaceful resolution to reinstate the government into power and bring the country back to normality.

Nevertheless, my name and other leading women’s names were blasted over the radio as collaborators. The RUF, thinking the demonstrations were done on their behalf, contacted me and offered me to work as coordinator for women’s affairs. I turned down their offer and never attended any of their meetings. Because of this I kept out of public life due to intimidation from the regime. Consequently, a security search was made for me and as a result I fled to Lungi for safety. But I returned to Freetown in December 1997 because I had responsibilities to my parish. I remained in hiding and never went to my house for fear of being arrested by the RUF.

On the 2nd of February 1998, when the sanctions were hitting hard, my husband came to Freetown to take me and my children to Kenema. But on the 5th of February, battle broke out between the ECOMOG and the RUF which brought the overthrow of the Junta regime. Unfortunately, on 13th February 1998 during the mopping up operations the angry mob of Sierra Leone Peoples Party stormed our house together with the militia men to arrest me and my husband. They said we were collaborators.

During that time, my husband was arrested and tortured and then they cut off his head. They then turned to me and asked me to laugh at their cruelty. But I didn’t know whether I should have laughed or whether I should have cried. I was dumbfounded, they then said, we are going to marry you, I was caught and raped several times, and so were my two daughters. Several of my boys were taken from the house, one of my sons struggled and was shot. I was shamed, stripped naked and taken outside to people who had come to watch this, I was humiliated, molested and beaten and I was lying down bleeding, they thought I was dead, they took my girls away, my son was lying down bleeding by the stray bullet, then they danced down the street with my husband’s head. My house was vandalised and everything in my house was stolen and my husband’s body was still in the house as it was set alight. I lay naked and still as if I were not alive, they left me there thinking I was dead. I was then picked up by Red Cross and hospitalised for three months.

Two weeks later I suffered another human violation (female circumcision) when I was arrested and taken to a detention cell. I was imprisoned without trial for 6 months until the guerrillas came along and broke down the prison doors, all the prisoners escaped on that day. I fled to Campbell Town where I met up with my children at my father’s house. As we were fleeing the guerrillas were killing people, burning houses, everywhere was being burnt. We left this house and went down the street, we were hiding under a table. The guerrillas were bombarding the houses, burning the houses, bombing the houses; we remained there for a while.

Later my son found out some boys were stealing a sailing boat. So he went down to the boys, to ask them where they were going. They said “we are fleeing to Guinea”, but they were leaving today. My son Paschal carried me on his back for I was unable to walk, I was too sick. We went 2 or 3 days on the sea with no drinking water, no food, no nothing. When we arrived in Guinea, we were caught again and put into cells for three days. As I was sick, one of them said “this woman is sick, let her go with her children,” and they left us. We didn’t have anywhere to go so we went to an unfinished house. The night watchmen allowed us to sleep outside in the dew and we remained there.

Then in September 2000, Guinea President said all refugees should be arrested and put into custody. We were again arrested with other refugees, we remained there for three days in very inhumane conditions, no drinking water, no washing, no food and we were released on the fourth day. When we were released the community house where we were living was raided, they said we were rebels and all of our property we had left was stolen. From this I went back to Lucien and I asked them to take my children to the refugee office. They took us to the refugee office. They beat our children, they beat us, they took our things and took my boys to the cells.

I went to the UNHCR station and applied for political asylum for I could not go back to my country and I had all these children. I’d lost my husband, my home, no work, no money, they froze our account and all our business was taken from us. I applied for political asylum, after two years of waiting for this, in January 2002 I was called up for an interview. I was supposed to answer two questions but I answered only one question: Why did you leave your country? I explained and they never asked me anything else. They said welcome to Australia. They arranged everything. The Government took our photographs and paid for the tickets, everything.

I still have children back there, two girls. They have their own children too, and they are taken care of by me. Part of my pension is sent to take care of their welfare. Their husbands were all killed along with my husband. I’m trying to get them to Australia but I’ve not got any money yet. It’s just hard and I have to take care of them. I send money to them every month. They want to leave, they are being humiliated and called names. So they play to go to Guinea where we were hiding and go to refugee camps there.

I have other children I have to take care of. I have been living very hard. I don’t have any other immediate family apart from a sister; I don’t know whether she’s alive and I don’t know where she is. She doesn’t know whether I’m alive. We all fled. She left her children and the oldest cried to me to send money for their mother. I can’t because I have others living with me. So I really have problems. My hopes are now to have the rest of my family with me; there are still 6 to come.

Apart from my children not being with me; my peace is almost complete now in Australia. Here in Australia you do not hear gun shots, nobody searches our pockets, and nobody asks me what I eat, or what I do for the day, like in Africa. There is something out there which Australians do not know about and I pray that God will keep it far away from us.

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