Classis In The News

SIERRA LEONE ACTIVIST STARTS NEW LIFE IN CANADA

By Sophie Vandenberg

“We left behind many wet pillows,” said Sheku Koroma, a Sierra Leone development worker, describing the sadness that accompanied his family’s recent move to Canada.  “We got all our stuff in one suitcase because we left many relatives behind.  We realized we were coming to a country where others would help us, so we talked to our kids about this, that all of us were to give away our belongings, clothes, cassettes, books, shoes, money,” he said.

The six-member Koroma family landed at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport last November.  Sheku, who was baptized in Sierra Leone by Christian Reformed missionary Paul Kortenhoven, had publicly criticized the corruption and poverty in his country, both in writing and on radio and television.  He was rapidly “becoming a marked man,” said Peter Schaafsma, a member of Second Christian Reformed Church, Brampton, Ontario, explaining why Koroma asked him in 2001 if the Brampton church could sponsor his family.

Schaafsma first heard Koroma’s story at a Christian Reformed World Relief Committee gathering in Canada in 1999, which Koroma attended as an overseas delegate for a CRWRC partner organization.  “It was a horrible story,” Schaafsma said.  “The people of Sierra Leone have been traumatized.  Children have been abducted and forced into the army.  Some were forced to kill their parents, to cut off feet and hands.  We read the Bible and cried together.”

The Koromas experienced much suffering during Sierra Leone’s brutal war.  Various homes they lived in were torched.  A surprise attack on Kabala drove the family into the bush.  “We ran helter-skelter.  For three weeks my wife and I lost track of each other.  I thought she had been killed,”  Koroma said.

“Soldiers targeted civilians.  They cut off people’s hands because they voted for the democratic government.  They said, ‘You voted for Ahmed Tejan Kabba.  Go now and vote.’”

During the 1999 attack on Freetown, rebel soldiers fired 40 rounds of ammunition into the Koromas’ home while the family lay on the floor of their basement, praying.  “They arrested me and said I was a soldier,” Koroma said.  He described being shot at, but while the rebels discussed whether or not to kill him a helicopter came by and fired on them, dispersing the group.  Koroma hid in a gutter.  “the Lord saved me,” he said.

From The Banner, March 2004.  Used by permission.