Salifu Kamara speaks to the eighth grade.

By Molly R.

The class of 2014 just finished reading the book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, the story of Beah’s journey as a child soldier during the civil war in Sierra Leone as part of our African Connections unit. We were fortunate to have Salifu Kamara, another former boy soldier from Sierra Leone, come to talk to us on March 31.

The room was silent. The air was thick. We all were waiting for Salifu Kamara to speak. At first glance Salifu looks like the average college student: collared shirt and tie with a leg injury forcing him on crutches. But Salifu is far from average, for hiding behind his eyes is the haunting past of his childhood.

Salifu grew up in Sierra Leone during the civil war. He grew up in a poor house on a small farm where he had no bed and little education. But nonetheless he was happy. He would play soccer for hours on end like any other African child. When Salifu was nine, the army rebels came to his village and destroyed everything he once knew. He watched his family die, his sisters get raped, and his life change forever. Salifu became a child soldier in the rebel army at the age of nine.

While most nine-year-old children are learning how to multiply and do long division, Salifu was learning how to use a gun and how to kill. He stayed with the rebel group for about two months, making little friends along the way. The one boy Salifu was able to connect to was gruesomely ambushed while sitting next to Kamara. If there’s one thing Salifu remembers about being in the rebels’ army is that he was taught to be forceful, and was taught to kill. “My gun was my everything.” Salifu described, “Without it, you were gone.” Salifu didn’t even know what he was fighting for. It wasn’t until his arrival in the United States that he learned the war was over diamonds.

After running away from his fellow comrades, Salifu went into hiding, yet still acted as a rebel by being forceful. Not a day went by that Kamara didn’t think to himself and say, “Today I could die.” Salifu wasn’t able to escape Sierra Leone until three years ago; when he was 20 years old, he came to the United States with a few friends. Since his arrival he has been attending Clark University in Worcester, MA and enjoys speaking publically to raise the awareness of the plight of child soldiers that still exist across the world.

“Glory I lost in childhood I will regain,” Salifu says. Salifu is still haunted by his past but he’s striving to move on and make a brighter tomorrow. He likes to publicly speak in front of the younger generations to help make a difference for future child soldiers. Yet as positive as Salifu strives to be there are still moments were he becomes truly depressed. He says, “On parents day for Clark University all my friends would come introduce their families to me. Oh this is my mother and father, they would say. And I was happy for them. I was. But afterwards I went to my room, thought about my own family and cried.” At a young age Salifu was deprived of the one thing everybody needs – love. He was never able to have his mother hold him when he was scared, or tell him it was going to be okay. He had to make do for himself. “Love was forcefully taken from me,” he acknowledges. Having survived through Sierra Leone’s living Hell, Salifu has twelve goals he emphasizes people to strive for:

1. Love others as you love yourself.
2. Give to others.
3. See others for who they really are.
4. Rejoice through suffers
5. Never laugh at others
6. Be mindful
7. You can always find your way
8. Be vigilant
9. Give hope by loving others
10. Be the first voice to say no, fight for freedom from inequality
11. Be the change you want
12. Love always deeply and be there for others.

Salifu Kamara is one of the most inspirational people I have ever seen. Even throughout all his daily challenges, adapting to American culture and walking on crutches, he strives to be a good person. When people ask how he managed to turn his life around he simply replies, “I don’t know…God?” or “God brought me here.” Salifu is trying to forget the past. The people he knows from Sierra Leone he considers to be a part of his family, greeting them by “brother.” Yet the former child soldier has no desire to return to his homeland: “The trust is gone, I’m afraid if I return the rebels will show up again, burning down houses and the violence will be back.” Salifu refuses to read the book A Long Way Gone, and even though he is friends with the author, they never talk about their experiences or Sierra Leone.

Salifu Kamara is an amazing person. His personal strength and ability to love is something we should all strive for. The major issue he stressed during the presentation was your ability to love. “Just hug a child and say I love you. Kids need to be protected, and we all still need love.” Salifu has gone through hardships that my worst nightmares can’t even compare to. To embrace the world alone, with no family, is a scary thought. Yet somehow Salifu managed to overcome seeing the world at its worst, seeing suffering, villages burned, gruesome sins and his whole family gone. Salifu finds comfort in speaking publicly for he feels that the more he can educate younger generations the higher chance change will come.

When Salifu was finished with his inspiring speech, the air was once again thick and everybody sighed in relief and counted their blessings. With a thunderous applause, I think its safe to second what Salifu said and say that, “My heart is with all of Sierra Leone’s surviving refugees.”

Photo Credit: Peter Smith

Just a few days ago, one of the most important Asian festival past by us, and it is the Moon Festival. Lucky for Worcester Academy, it’s introduced and celebrated at the school. However, people were mostly enjoying the food, and the companionship of friends without comprehending the significance of this festival and we also ignored the most important thing about this festival, the moon.

Moon Festival happens on August 15th of the Lunar calendar every year, and it is usually in the middle of Fall, so it’s also known as the mid-Autumn Festival. However, the most significant thing about the moon festival is of course, the moon. The Lunar calendar is actually a calendar that is based some what on astronomical events and the moon festival suppose to be the day in the year that the moon is closest to earth and it figure the biggest and roundest through out the year. Moon Festival then seems to be a festival enjoyed by people who are interested in astronomy, however, that is not the case. Moon Festival is in fact the second biggest traditional festival in China, only second to Chinese New Year. Moon festival existed in China as early as 1000 B.C. Nowadays, nobody know who first thought about it and how it really originated, but there is a very beautiful Chinese folklore associated with moon festival.

Once upon a time in the world, a hero called Yi Hou shot down 9 extra suns using a bow from God and leaving only one sun on the sky, making earth more comfortable for human beings. He later married a beautiful girl called E Chang. Because Yi served people with God’s will, he received a special pellet from a Goddess. Anybody who eats the pellet will be able to leave the mortal earth and become an immortal God in the sky. Yi didn’t want to leave his wife behind on earth, therefore kept this pellet in his wife, E’s cabinet. Later that day, a rouge who heard this rumor broke in to Yi and E’s home when Yi was not there, and asked E to give the pellet to him. E being a female knows that she cannot win the battle and swallow the pellet herself to prevent it from being used by evil means. Of course, after E swallowed the pellet, she left her mortal body on earth, and her spirit flew out to become a Goddess. Because her love for her Husband Yi is so great, she flew to the star nearest to the earth, the moon, and became a Goddess there. After Yi came back and heard the story, he was anguish and sorrowful from the fact that his wife was being forced to leave him. When he looked at the moon that day, it’s the biggest and the roundest moon that he had ever seen, and he decided to make this day the Moon Festival to remember his wife, now the Goddess of Moon. Later this Festival became to remember any lost family members or loved ones who are far far away from each other. People feel that by looking at the moon when it’s roundest, the spirit of people who are dead or far away can be connected with each other.

The full moon itself soon became the symbol of united family for people. In this increasingly developed world, the concept of united is getting more and more attention. With the moon cake and dumpling representing the shape of the moon, eating them during moon festival becomes a tradition. That being said, the moon festival is not just a festival of eating special kind of food or observing the big and bright moon; it’s a memorial festival where the connection between family member is strengthened, especially when they are away or gone for long. With food only serving as tool, Moon Festival is far more than just food.

Photo Credit: Dennis Wong, icools, Thai Jasmine