Introduction
Richard was 14 years old when rebels fighting the government entered his school and took him away to fight. Oladela was a year younger that day, but it took a few years before the war reached his home. When it did, he joined a small militia to protect his community against the advancing rebels. Alhassan, who has lived on the streets of the capital since he too was 14, managed to evade bearing arms all together.
Today, 10 years after the formal end of the conflict, they share the same streets and ghettos of central Freetown in search of their ‘daily bread’. They were shaped by, and sometimes shapers of, a conflict that raged for a decade when they were children. They came of age during and often because of the war.
As they approach the next stage in their lives, the shift from youth to adulthood, they find themselves trapped. The opportunities for social advancement: a job, a home, the money to get married or the chance to emigrate: are out of reach. Like being trapped in a recurring dream they remain afloat between crisis and renewal.
(names have been changed)
twitter
linkedin