By Mohamed T Massaquoi
Momoh Kamara was 14 years’ old when the civil war broke out in 1991, east of the country. He had just sat to the Selective Entrance Examination and was waiting for the result when the fighting reached his town of Zimmi in the Zimmi Makpele chiefdom.
“My parents and some other people supporting me were now preparing for my junior secondary school when the war finally interrupted,” Kamara, now 39, and a commercial motor cyclist in Zimmi Makpele, recalls.
Kamara said he had no option but to join and protect his life. He served as communication officer for the rebels.
Zimmi Makpele is in the Pujehun district in the south of the country. Here many youths like Kamara lost their childhood, alongside the opportunity to be educated, to the eleven-year long civil war.
Kamara recalls that he was a clever student and that he’d even earned himself a scholarship from a Catholic priest who’d offered to take him in in the district headquarters town of Pujehun where he was to attend the Saint Paul’s Senior Secondary School.
“Because I could not continue my education as a result of the outbreak of the war, I am presently engaged in commercial motor bike riding to get my daily bread,” he said.
Mohamed Harding Borbor Mansaray has an even more somber experience. When the war broke out he was studying for his O’ Level. He said he was forcefully conscripted by rebels. Mansaray blames this on his current condition which he said has cost him his wife.
“My wife divorced me and she is now living with a well-to-do man in Bo,” he said.
Mansaray makes out his living from repairing shoes. He has three children from his ex-wife; and the children are under his care.
“It is difficult for me to fully take care of them,’ he said.
Thousands of Sierra Leoneans live in similar conditions as a direct effect of the war. The situation for many of these people was made worst because of the impact of the war on the educational system.
There are twelve chiefdoms in the entire district of Pujehun. The two –
Makpele and Sorogbeima – chiefdoms located on the Mano River border axis were the most affected by the war. This is because most of the youths joined either the rebels or the civil defence forces – Kamajor. So there was that rivalry among these youths which led to them destroying so many properties in show of prowess.
A lot of other government quarters were equally set on fire which has been greatly undermining the general development of the district, said Anthony Fortune, Chairman of the Health Committee in the Pujehun District Council.
“The civil war brought every development in the district to a standstill and life became very difficult,” he said.
Fortune said because many of the youths joined the rival factions in the war, the district became a favourite place for the rebels, which led to many deaths and destructions.
Fortune, a native of Pujehun himself, fled to neighboring Bo District, also in the southern region of the country. He said he had just completed his secondary level education with a plan of going to university.
“Achieving my educational goals became a problem as government salaries were not coming for my parents to pay fees for me,’ he said.
He recalled that at that time some students from the university who were on vacation in Pujehun were also “trapped and forced” to join the rebels.” He said most of them lost their lives while a good number of them did not continue their university education.
Some of these conscripts were the ones used to destroy the infrastructure of the districts, he said.
“Some of the structures that were demolished or set on fire during the war are still in the same condition.”
Child conscription also led to the prevalent use of harmful drugs as this was a way of inducing the kids to cause destruction, said Fortune.
“A very small boy in Pujehun who was forcefully conscripted and introduced to harmful drugs use became insane and after the war he was brought back home and his family tried to treat him but they could not succeed; and he ended up stabbing his mother to death for five hundred Leones when she refused to give him money to buy marijuana.”
Pujehun District and the south of the country in general, had a very good track record in terms of quality education in the country between the 60sand the 80s.
There are twelve chiefdoms in the entire district of Pujehun. The two –
Makpele and Sorogbeima chiefdoms – located on the Mano River border axis, were the most affected by the civil war. This is because most of the youths joined either the rebels or the civil defence forces – Kamajor. So there was that rivalry among these youths which led to them destroying so many properties in show of prowess.
A lot of other government quarters were equally set on fire which has been greatly undermining the general development of the district.
Those familiar with that era said there was heavy competition among students in the district that is home to some of the best learning institutions, like Christ the king College, Saint Paul’s Senior Secondary School, Bo School, Ahmadiyya Senior Secondary.The value of education began taking a nose dive when the war broke out, said Paul Jusu, a senior teacher at Saint Paul’s Senior Secondary School. He said apart from the classroom buildings the school had a boarding home that accommodated over two hundred pupils; and because of the quality of education provided by the school, he said, some of their pupils in those days came from as far as neighboring Liberia.
“This facility and the staff quarters were set on fire during the war by the very pupils who were attending the school and later conscripted into the rebel war,” said Jusu.
(C) Politico 24/03/16
