Daniel Sesay, a Sierra Leonean in Lowell city, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA, was relieved when former Liberian President Charles G. Taylor was convicted on Thursday April 26, 2012 of war crimes in in his home country.
Taylor's rebels, who were found responsible for the murder of 50,000 people as well as mass rapes, tortures and dismemberments, destroyed his home, forcing him to flee to a neighboring village for his safety.
"On the 23rd of December, 2003, they invaded my town, Binkolo. There were 26 houses lit on fire -- my house was one of them -- and seven elderly people perished because they couldn't run out," said Sesay, who was on hand Saturday for a celebration of Sierra Leone's 51 years of independence at City Hall.
"I had to run out with all my family with just what we had on ourselves -- we couldn't take anything. We walked seven miles to another village; it took us the whole night," he said.
It was three years before it was safe for Sesay and his family to return to Binkolo. Less than two years later, he immigrated to Lowell to be with his daughter, Agnes, who is currently president of the city's Sierra Leonean organization.
At least Sesay only had to travel to a neighboring village.
"A lot of people went to neighboring countries for safety," said Lowell Housing Authority Board Commissioner Rosaline Willie-Bonglo, who immigrated to America in 1979 before the violence started.
Willie-Bonglo was joined by Mayor Patrick Murphy and Councilors Joseph Mendonca, Rita Mercier, Vesna Nuon and Marty Lorrey at Saturday's ceremony, where the flag of Sierra Leone was raised at City Hall. Murphy, who issued a proclamation naming April 28 "Sierra Leone Day," along with his aide Greg Page and Mercier, donned traditional Sierra Leonean garments for the event.
"Some time ago, I received a beautiful outfit and I put it on every time I come here for this event, so I can look as beautiful as you look," Mercier said.
Bowa Tucker, a research fellow at the UMass Lowell College of Engineering who was the first president of the organization, along with another former president, Mariatou Allie-Dumbuya, said they are both impressed with how the local Sierra Leonean community has grown; Willie-Bonglo estimated there are more than 500 immigrants from there living in Lowell today.
"We have gone through a lot -- plots, coups, killing, wars, maiming -- all the troubles of the world have passed through that country. We now have peace and we appreciate our friends that have welcomed us here," Augustine Kanjia said in opening remarks at the ceremony, which also included Muslim and Christian prayers and the singing of both the Sierra Leonean and American national anthems.
Credit: sentinelandenterprise.com
