War Stories

“The rebels caught us. The men had to work for them. And we had to cook for them.”

The war is not something that all that regularly pops up in conversation here and nor are there, with some notable exceptions like the shot-up town of Mokanji, many physical reminders of it. There are ruined buildings dotted around but such is the poverty in the country that that kind of dilapidation does not make your mind immediately jump to a violent conclusion. But every now and again I find myself talking about those dark days in a living room, on a walk, by a fire or on a veranda. I am going to try to retell a few of those stories here with as little commentary as my verbosity allows. I am going to try to recall how they were told to me. And tell you.

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That time was so hard. Ha, we have got Mark to sit down. Yes, stories. Ha. Those days, I tell you, they were hard. We lived with them, the rebels. Yes, we lived with them. We sat with them just as we are sitting with you now. We talked, we made that fun, you know? And then we would sneak out to the bush and quietly listen to the news on the BBC on my brother’s radio. The rebels would always give us the opposite story.

And we couldn’t eat salt. If they found you with salt they would ask you where you got it. If they found you with salt, trouble for you. If they found you with tobacco, they’d ask you where you got it. They had all the roads blocked and you couldn’t get salt here, so if you had salt... What I had done was get an empty flask and put salt in it. But if your wife cooked fine plassas (sauce) and they tasted salt in it, a problem for you. No rice either. They ate rice. But if they found us with rice they’d ask us where we got it. So we ate cassava that whole time. Oh that time was hard. Beef too. If you got some meat, some beef, they’d take it. My boys and I would set out traps and if I caught something I would have to sneak it home and give it to my wife to cook. I caught a squirrel once and they have a long tail. So I cut off the tail and I had a coat like this one I am wearing at the time so I covered the beef with the coat and slung it over my shoulder like this. No-one knew there was anything there.

We lived with them, yes. Well, they believed that if they had civilians with them they would be safe. Ha. Those times were hard. Ha. This man, Jonathan, his father being an outspoken man, they killed him. Yes, as he says, he was shot.

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The first time I saw a rebel. I was working on my farm and I saw this rebel. A small boy, like that boy over there, with drugs, a gun and everything. He stopped me and asked, ‘Have you ever seen a rebel before?’ And I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Well you have seen one now’. He asked me where my village was. I pointed off to a far place. He asked me what I had to give him. I said nothing. He asked me if we had rice. I said there was no rice here. He asked if I had any tobacco. I said there was no tobacco here either. He took my watch and led me off to a village nearby. There were people there and other rebels. One woman had a small plastic bag tucked in to the thatch of her house with snuff in it. When the rebels found it the one who had taken me there came to show it to me. ‘You said there was no tobacco here. What is this?’ ‘That’s snuff’ I answered. He brought me to where everyone was kneeling on the ground and poured kerosene over my head. Then he poured some on the man next to me and some others. He was going to do it too. But then they decided they needed us to carry their things for them.

Patricia was there, you remember her, brother? She had just come back from Bo and had all kinds of provisions which they took. They said that she would make a good wife for them. After we had carried their things all the way to Serabu we stayed the night there. They had a big dance and we went there and had some drinks and forgot about what was happening for a while. We danced all night. Ha. The next day they let us go. But they took Patricia with them. Did we see her again? Yeah, once everything was over. She’s there in the village. But I still see that boy. Once everything was over I saw him in Serabu and I could see him looking at me. I went to him and said, ‘Do you know who I am?’ He said yes. He said it was all fear. I said, ‘Look, that is all over now’. We can sit down now and laugh about those days. How? Look, that is all over now. What good does it do holding on to that thing now?

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The rebels would take those big batteries, those big 24 volt batteries. They would take them out of those mining trucks and they would make you carry it on your head and they would attach it to a music set and you would walk with them while they danced before you. Human beings can be so wicked to one another.

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I just knew. The Holy Ghost had shown me. I just knew. That day there would be an attack. I started making my little nest under the sink. I told those in the upper floors to come down and stay with us. Everyone laughed at me but I knew. I told them they should make safe places for themselves. I got myself under the sink and prayed and prayed. Then that evening, sure enough that noise, the sound of an RPG. The rebels attacked. And everyone joined me under the sink. ‘You were right, you were right...’

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The rebels, they surrounded us. There was no escape. They lived with us. That place, so, so rebels. Any fine girl they saw, they took her. My daughter, I made her get under my bed and that is where she stayed. Later they dressed up as Nigerian ECOMOG soldiers and came in to town in that truck, that green one. As people came out to cheer them, they shot them, saying, ‘Oh, so you don’t like us, eh?’ And there was nothing to eat. We cooked for them but we didn’t eat any of it except to taste it before they ate. They always made you eat some first.

One man I felt so sorry for him. Till today I feel sorry for that man. He had been in America and had come back to see his people just before the rebels took over our area. The rebels went to his house and said, ‘Where are the dollars you brought back home with you?’ The man said he had no money. So they cut all two of his arms off. Till today I feel so sorry for that man. That place, so, so rebels. Then when the war was over they all went back there so we have to look at each today.

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The rebels told us that we could speak freely. We could ask them any question we wanted. So I said, ‘Look. We are living with you so you have made us all rebels. But you eat rice and salt and everything. What about us?’ They arrested me. Ha! Yes, yes, you are right but they had said we could ask anything! I was locked up in a house and then they started to travel with me to Serabu and said that I would be killed the next day at 5. We stopped at that bridge, you know that bridge where they had the heads? They had killed three men. One of them just a boy. A fine boy too. A fine boy. They had killed them and cut their heads off and stuck them on sticks by this bridge. It was terrible...the flies... Well, we stopped there and I sat down. This small rebel came over. Just a boy. I could have been his father. He looked at me and said, ‘Look at this old man with his bald head. He looks like the kind of man that eats government money.’ I laughed at him. The way these small boys talked to us was so shameful. When they were small so. Most of them didn’t have any education. Even one word of Krio, lots of them couldn’t speak. I am telling you. He said I was disrespecting him. Another rebel was there and he said I was disrespecting him. I laughed at him too.

But God is good. Being a teacher is a blessed profession and God took care. A senior rebel arrived and he saw me. It was a former pupil of mine. I had taught him when he was in Primary School and had had a good relationship with him. He looked at me but I kept my head down. ‘Do you know me?’ he asked. I said I didn’t. That’s what we always said. If they found out you knew them and might be able to identify them later they killed you. So I said no. He asked again. I said that maybe his face was familiar. He smiled and told me not to be afraid. He told the other rebels to leave me alone, that I had helped him a lot when he had been at school. He told two of them to walk me back to the village but later changed his mind and said he would do it himself. Often people would be sent off like that but their escorts would kill them on the way. So he came with me. And there was a big celebration when I got back. God was in control.

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That old man, that one. They made him a town commissioner so if anything went wrong they would beat him. They would give people 100 lashes. In our village I saw that happen three times. They would use big sticks not canes. That old man, not a day went by when they didn’t beat him. And if there were three rebels and they said 50 lashes they would all hit you at the same time and they would count that as one. I don’t know how that old man lived. When you see him walking slowly now, bent over, that’s real. There was one time when they told him to make a bridge. It was over that river, that big one. There was no way he could have built it in the time they gave him. They beat him hard that day. Every day, every day they beat him. Even now, when he sees them, he can go and cry like a small child. Because of the beatings they gave him.

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They came in to the village and they asked this one boy if he could write. He said no. They told him to put out this hand. They took their gun, placed it before his hand. Pop. They told him to put out his other hand, they lifted the gun again. Pop. ‘Well, you said you couldn’t write anyway...’

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I was walking with my daughter and my twins, who were just babies then, on my back. Then there were explosions. My daughter ran off and I didn’t know where she was. Then there was an explosion right beside me and as I jumped face down to the ground a big piece of shrapnel passed over me and the twins.

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As the rebels got closer and closer to Freetown there was one woman who kept saying that she was excited that they were coming. She said that things would be better when they took over the city. I told her she was crazy. Then on the day the rebels did enter the city, as the first one made his way down our street, everyone stayed inside. But this woman went out to greet him and celebrate his arrival. He shot her.

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I was in the bush when this woman came running. The rebels had just cut off her two hands. I felt so sorry for her. It was so pathetic to see her like that. I didn’t know what to do. I brought her down to a river to clean her wounds. Then some government soldiers came and she went with them. I never saw her again.

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It is the Nigerians that I really hate. I hate them. None of this had anything to do with them. They were vicious. I fought with the AFRC. Johnny Paul did not organise the coup. They broke him out of prison and then they put him in charge. The coup was not his idea. He is a good man. A good leader. I fought for him in the bush for a year after the Nigerians pushed us out of Freetown. (Johnny Paul was the leader of the group of soldiers who took control of the country from President Kabbah and invited the RUF in to Freetown to form a government with him. When the Nigerians drove them out of the capital and reinstalled Kabbah they fought with the rebels in the bush. Johnny Paul is one of those indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for war crimes but his whereabouts are still unknown. People here are fairly sure that he is alive despite reports that he was killed towards the end of the war. Many I have met, like this speaker, speak highly of him which is just bizarre to me given what I read about the AFRC. Those who have a positive idea of him seem to be saying ‘Good leader, bad followers’.)

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I had been going for a walk when I came across three rebels by a swamp. They called me over and told me to carry them across the water. So I got in to the swamp and lifted them on my back, one by one, and brought them across. Ha. The way I lifted the last one and swung him up on to the bank, he shouted, ‘This guy is strong! This is the kind of man who kills rebels!’ When I got home my mother told me that that was the last time I would be going off for a walk! Ha!

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When they said ‘Ceasefire’, I said ‘Thank you God’. When we went home NOTHING was left. NOTHING. My husband said, ‘What kind of trouble is this?’ That was the second house we had had, the first one they burned it. I had had a television, a fridge, all kinds of things. Then we had struggled, struggled to get things for this second house. Now, everything gone again. I told my husband, ‘Well, it’s all just possessions. Life is more important’. We didn’t even have a seat to sit on.