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Speaker 1: We'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land

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Speaker 1: on which this podcast was produced, the gadigall people of

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Speaker 1: the orination. We pay our respects to elders past and present.

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Speaker 1: In this episode, Amenada shares her confronting first hand experience

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Speaker 1: of war. There are discussions of rape, murder and abuse.

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Speaker 1: Support is available through the links and phone numbers in

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Speaker 1: the show notes.

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Speaker 2: It's nineteen ninety nine and we're with Amanata Conte Bijour

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Speaker 2: in her family home in Sarah Leone's capital. As the

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Speaker 2: civil war rages on. All houses surrounding hers have been

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Speaker 2: burnt to the ground. It's been a particularly brutal, violent

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Speaker 2: few weeks. Her bright yellow house is the only one

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Speaker 2: that remains, and has become the safe place for her family, friends,

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Speaker 2: and even strangers who have nowhere to go. Today, this

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Speaker 2: all changes. They hear the voices of the rebels are

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Speaker 2: followed by a bash at the door. Despite everyone's best

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Speaker 2: efforts to stay silent, the rebels know there are people

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Speaker 2: inside and start yelling threats to burn the house down

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Speaker 2: with everyone in it. Eighteen year old Amanata knows these

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Speaker 2: aren't empty frets. She's watched it happen right in front

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Speaker 2: of her. They are found and dragged outside by fifty

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Speaker 2: rebels and child soldiers. Amanata clutches onto her father's hand.

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Speaker 2: One of the rebels locks eyes with her and starts

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Speaker 2: heading towards her. I'm Att Middleton and this is head

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Speaker 2: game today, turning harrow into hope. Thank you ever so

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Speaker 2: much for joining me. Talk to me about you upbringing

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Speaker 2: in Sera Leone and where you come from, and you know,

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Speaker 2: did you have normal.

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Speaker 3: Bring My childhood was beautiful, It was beautiful. It was

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Speaker 3: very special because I was raised by the most incredible

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Speaker 3: human being, my father. So I grew up in what

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Speaker 3: you would say in the west bubble like. My dad

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Speaker 3: was very protective man. He raised us all all his children,

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Speaker 3: and we as a daughter, we grew up very knowing

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Speaker 3: that the girls are special, which is very rare in

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Speaker 3: places like Africa, that the girls the men are treated

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Speaker 3: differently than the boys. Ours was the opposite, and our

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Speaker 3: childhood was so it was just beautiful. We live sort

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Speaker 3: of like an English kind of life because he traveled

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Speaker 3: a lot to the UK and he loved that life,

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Speaker 3: and so at home we just watched movies in the

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Speaker 3: digestive biscuit where new balance all these things and watching

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Speaker 3: James Bond movies that would come out, and it was

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Speaker 3: just one of those places where I didn't grow that

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Speaker 3: anything can hurt me. All of my siblings did think

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Speaker 3: that way.

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Speaker 2: How many girls were there?

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Speaker 4: Six six and I have my two older sisters who

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Speaker 4: went to the UK in ninety eighty just before were

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Speaker 4: before I was born in ninety eighty and they lived

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Speaker 4: there and then but he all most of the children

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Speaker 4: were in the UK, but then I've traveled so when

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Speaker 4: so because we were younger, he stayed with us.

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Speaker 3: So it's a very interesting story because we didn't we

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Speaker 3: were not raised by our mother's So my dad, I'm

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Speaker 3: not sure about his life the way it was raised.

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Speaker 3: I think he made a decision to raise all his children.

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Speaker 3: So we were alwaised by one human being, so we

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Speaker 3: all kind of have the same mindset. And so growing

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Speaker 3: up in cyrill Leon I grew up in the capital

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Speaker 3: city of free Town, in a neighborhood called Kissi so,

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Speaker 3: but I think from early my dad said, a place

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Speaker 3: where even though we grew up very privileged, we still

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Speaker 3: grew up in a place where there was poverty. But

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Speaker 3: we didn't know it was it was poverty. So even

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Speaker 3: though it was protecting us, but we wanted us to

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Speaker 3: live in a place.

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Speaker 2: And it was sincerely owned, right, yeah, necessarily owned Freetown.

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Speaker 2: And you're right because you know there's places that you

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Speaker 2: know are normal, and that seemed like quite up and coming,

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Speaker 2: but then you take you turn the corners and you

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Speaker 2: do experience extreme poverty, extreme proverty. But we didn't know

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Speaker 2: that was poverty, but you didn't. But you didn't know

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Speaker 2: because that was normal.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, And I think he said that scene for us,

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Speaker 3: for us to be able to live anywhere around the world,

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Speaker 3: which is what we've done. My dad was just one

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Speaker 3: of those men that would trow us in the most

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Speaker 3: uncomfortable places. So I like being in the place that

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Speaker 3: are that we call uncomfortably. So I think growing up

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Speaker 3: in that sense, we've heard about the war. It's been

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Speaker 3: going on from since nineteen ninety, but it never got

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Speaker 3: into the capital city. But we always knew something was coming.

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Speaker 2: And what was it? Just a civil unrest? Was yes,

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Speaker 2: a civil yes, a sort of government versus well, yes.

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Speaker 3: The soldiers and civilians. So it was started from Liberia

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Speaker 3: because of the most people would have seen the blood diamond.

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Speaker 2: That's interesting from Liberia because people don't realize that that's

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Speaker 2: where that's.

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Speaker 3: Where, Yeah, that's where, that's where it came from. So

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Speaker 3: childs still all of course, and when you're coming from Liberria,

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Speaker 3: the places that you meet in from Syrilli is the village,

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Speaker 3: so where the diamonds are, So that's connor Bo, yes,

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Speaker 3: so of course, So it took longer. It took about

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Speaker 3: nine years or so for the war to enter the

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Speaker 3: capital city, which is what the rebels were aiming for.

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Speaker 3: But by then I think we're actually with the rebels.

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Speaker 3: What we didn't know so when the war, when they entered,

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Speaker 3: it just felt like they came off the cloud. And

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Speaker 3: as soon as we hear the sound. I remember it

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Speaker 3: was school time and we hear the sound and we

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Speaker 3: just knew.

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Speaker 2: So for since nineteen ninety, you know it's happening. You

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Speaker 2: hear about it, but it's a very distant thing. You

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Speaker 2: don't believe that it's really.

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Speaker 3: It was not really distant because we saw that part

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Speaker 3: of the war or the kind of signature thing that

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Speaker 3: was happening. They were amputating long sleeve and sleeve and all.

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Speaker 3: So we saw refugees flying from Liberia and from the

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Speaker 3: rural area to the city. Yes, and we knew what

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Speaker 3: would happen to young girls, So the story was kind

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Speaker 3: of very close to our heart, like we knew what

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Speaker 3: was happening.

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Speaker 2: Did you ever think it would come to Freetown or

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Speaker 2: did you think that Freetown was just quite strong?

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Speaker 3: I think that's a long time we did. We didn't

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Speaker 3: think that it would, but then we did. But that cloud, yes, yeah,

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Speaker 3: and we thought because every time they come a little

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Speaker 3: bit closed, that the government to push back. So I

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Speaker 3: think they used a different technique this time. So when

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Speaker 3: it arrived, they were already in the city for months embedded,

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Speaker 3: so it just they just as I said, just like

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Speaker 3: from the cloud just falling. As soon as we hear

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Speaker 3: the sound, everybody knew, like, yeah.

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Speaker 2: Take me back to that day. Did you get up

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Speaker 2: to go to school or it was midnight?

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Speaker 3: It was around it was midnight, so we're sleeping and

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Speaker 3: then we just heard the sound. So by the time

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Speaker 3: we looked through the windows, you could see the smoke

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Speaker 3: because one of the things they do to they burn

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Speaker 3: people in the house, so everything was cloud and like

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Speaker 3: smoke all around, so you can see people. Screw you

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Speaker 3: can hear people screaming, and our house we had like

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Speaker 3: a kind of bullet to prove a tinted window. As

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Speaker 3: I said, my dad was a businessman, so we had

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Speaker 3: this protection so we could see people from the inside,

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Speaker 3: but they could not see us, got you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, anyone that you could see what was going on,

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Speaker 2: what they couldn't see what was going Yeah, And.

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Speaker 3: It was one of those scene where you cannot stop

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Speaker 3: watching because you can see what is being done to people.

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Speaker 3: And my dad just quietly closed all the windows and

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Speaker 3: just quiet hold at this stage eighteen.

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Speaker 2: Yes, so you're you're you intrigue, you want to know

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Speaker 2: what's going on, you know you and again you're scared, right,

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Speaker 2: You're hearing scared, You're hearing the screams, you're seeing the smoke. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I suppose you want to you want to check it

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Speaker 2: out because you want to know if it's going to

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Speaker 2: reach you door. Yes.

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Speaker 3: Well, also people anybody that have gone through war, you're

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Speaker 3: you're you're past the world scared because you know you're

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Speaker 3: in it. So I will not even think of the

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Speaker 3: word scared. You're in it, so you don't feel what

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Speaker 3: am I going to do? So my dad closing the door.

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Speaker 3: It was a way of saying, we're all going to

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Speaker 3: be killed here. He didn't want us running around like

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Speaker 3: everybody was running because it was chaos, like what people

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Speaker 3: experience during war, people abandoning their children, wars. It's very

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Speaker 3: vicious than what we see on television. You leave, you

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Speaker 3: leave your children, you leave places, you jump on someone destruction. Yes,

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Speaker 3: and your mind is our minds thinking surviving, and so

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Speaker 3: whatever Dad, you need to do, you just do. You

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Speaker 3: don't have time to think. So my dad just closed

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Speaker 3: the door. And we grew up very disciplined, so we listen,

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Speaker 3: of course, and just stay in and then keep going.

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Speaker 3: But it was really strange because our house is massive.

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Speaker 3: It's big, the biggest house around the area, and was

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Speaker 3: bright and yellow and for some reason, after it's been

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Speaker 3: closed for long a while, we've been in the house

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Speaker 3: for a very long time, and nobody knew it was

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Speaker 3: it's really busy. It's one of those things that you

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Speaker 3: see probably a movie. We did. We could not understand

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Speaker 3: why all the houses are being burned but not ours?

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Speaker 2: Why Why do you think that was?

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Speaker 3: I think what I put it on. My dad was

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Speaker 3: a beautiful man, was a good man. I felt like

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Speaker 3: I do believe something was protecting us. I really do,

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Speaker 3: because there was no way our house could not have

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Speaker 3: been seen. It's very sort of iconic around the area.

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Speaker 3: People knew our dad, they knew the life that we lived.

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Speaker 3: But it was almost they were passing the whole time.

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Speaker 2: And it was bright yellow as well. Yes, it was mellow.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And then a scene happened when a lot of

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Speaker 3: people were running, but it all came and knocked at

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Speaker 3: our house and my dad for the first time opened

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Speaker 3: the door.

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Speaker 2: This was a refuge, Yes, sicking the refuge.

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Speaker 3: So we end up and it's three stories and split

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Speaker 3: it so three stories as it's massive, so we end

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Speaker 3: up having over five hundred or even a thousand people

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Speaker 3: living in our house. But even for those weeks, still

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Speaker 3: the rebels were passing by. It's really busy every time

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Speaker 3: I talk about it because it almost feel like those

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Speaker 3: middle hobe.

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Speaker 2: So they take over the over freeze, but they're just bypassed.

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Speaker 3: It just passed the house and it was quiet. It

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Speaker 3: was just simply quiet, and there was a lot of

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Speaker 3: food because what my dad would do most of the

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Speaker 3: way we grew up, we buy a lot of rice.

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Speaker 3: We have a storage of right so that's how we

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Speaker 3: lived our life. Storage of everything, so they were food

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Speaker 3: for people to eat. And then it just came around

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Speaker 3: the time when the government was really pushing and then

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Speaker 3: we heard one of the rebels just said who has

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Speaker 3: this house? Who is in this house? And then we

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Speaker 3: knew straight away.

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Speaker 2: So did you start to feel safe? Did you start

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Speaker 2: to feeling like, no one's gonna knock on our door,

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Speaker 2: We've we've been given a pass or such.

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Speaker 3: I think we grew up in the Tennessee that our

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Speaker 3: dad was almost god. Yeah, of course, so he made

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Speaker 3: us feel that way, so there was no fear. But

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Speaker 3: we saw we were still looking what was being done outside.

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Speaker 3: We're not allowed to look at the window, but we

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Speaker 3: were still looking because he was downstairs. I was in

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Speaker 3: the middle floor. But we were seeing things that were happening.

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Speaker 2: And what type of things would you see?

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Speaker 3: Well, really the amputation they acting people long slaving, short

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00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:30,439
Speaker 3: sleeve people being burned, and the long.

220
00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:33,080
Speaker 2: Sleeping short slaves is explained it The short sleeve is

221
00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:35,319
Speaker 2: above the elbow and long sleeve islow.

222
00:11:35,679 --> 00:11:39,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you get to choose. Yeah, we're seeing women

223
00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:43,920
Speaker 3: were pregnant and being asked, do you think you're having

224
00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:48,839
Speaker 3: a boy or girl and then they were split. So

225
00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:52,360
Speaker 3: we saw, Yeah, they.

226
00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:54,959
Speaker 2: Were playing these huge mind games, mind games.

227
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Speaker 3: Because they were rebels who were their kids. There were

228
00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:00,400
Speaker 3: young shoulders through so it was their mind has been

229
00:12:00,640 --> 00:12:02,160
Speaker 3: with drugs.

230
00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:06,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, they've been drugged that they've been inductrinated, brainwashed years

231
00:12:06,320 --> 00:12:08,079
Speaker 2: and they've been with alcohol drugs.

232
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Speaker 3: Yes, and most of these boys have been they've been

233
00:12:10,920 --> 00:12:12,439
Speaker 3: trained to kill even their own parents.

234
00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:14,079
Speaker 2: Yes, they've been given the power too.

235
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Speaker 3: So they were the most one. You should be scared

236
00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:18,599
Speaker 3: of the younger ones that they're older.

237
00:12:18,520 --> 00:12:20,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, because unstable.

238
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Speaker 3: Yeah. So when when we heard that voice, it's almost

239
00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:26,880
Speaker 3: that annoying that Okay, we're going to be out and

240
00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:29,200
Speaker 3: we're going to be killed. So it's you come. I

241
00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:30,680
Speaker 3: think in life, you come to a place where you

242
00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:35,160
Speaker 3: make peace with where your your life is. Yes, and

243
00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:38,200
Speaker 3: I think that way of knowing. And we're calling everyone.

244
00:12:38,280 --> 00:12:40,559
Speaker 3: Next to our house, there was a there was a

245
00:12:40,679 --> 00:12:44,800
Speaker 3: land that was open and everybody came out and my dad,

246
00:12:44,800 --> 00:12:46,760
Speaker 3: I was only my dad's hand. We jump over the

247
00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:47,520
Speaker 3: fence and then we.

248
00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:49,719
Speaker 2: So take me back. So you get a knock on

249
00:12:49,800 --> 00:12:50,480
Speaker 2: the doors, it was.

250
00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:52,079
Speaker 3: Just that noise. Who is in the south and then

251
00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:54,000
Speaker 3: a few of them start acting, so it was one

252
00:12:54,040 --> 00:12:57,240
Speaker 3: person out of curiousity is one of the rebels start acting,

253
00:12:57,360 --> 00:12:59,079
Speaker 3: and then the others start acting. And now they got

254
00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:02,079
Speaker 3: really cute's like almost like there's a house here.

255
00:13:02,280 --> 00:13:04,120
Speaker 2: That hasn't been touched.

256
00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:07,679
Speaker 3: Yeah, And then they asked if you don't open, will

257
00:13:07,720 --> 00:13:10,520
Speaker 3: burn the house. So that's when my dad opened, of course,

258
00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:13,600
Speaker 3: and and they asked us to go to the outside field.

259
00:13:13,679 --> 00:13:16,800
Speaker 3: We went, and then they start burning that they we

260
00:13:16,840 --> 00:13:20,600
Speaker 3: have this brand leather chair. They start burning the chair

261
00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:23,520
Speaker 3: to burn the whole house. And then one of the

262
00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:27,120
Speaker 3: rebels asked who is who owned this house because quite

263
00:13:27,120 --> 00:13:27,960
Speaker 3: a big it's a.

264
00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:31,040
Speaker 2: Yes, it's a beautiful house.

265
00:13:31,640 --> 00:13:35,720
Speaker 3: And they told politics politicians so and then somebody said

266
00:13:36,480 --> 00:13:38,880
Speaker 3: mister Conte. Yeah, yeah, they call him pa content, so

267
00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:40,680
Speaker 3: they know a lot of people know his name. And

268
00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:43,760
Speaker 3: then somebody was giving description of who he is. And

269
00:13:43,800 --> 00:13:46,520
Speaker 3: then one of the rebels said, I know him. He

270
00:13:46,679 --> 00:13:48,920
Speaker 3: is the man that has started to build a hotel

271
00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:53,800
Speaker 3: and gave it off to refugee to stay there. So

272
00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:55,959
Speaker 3: my dad used to build it was building a hotel

273
00:13:56,720 --> 00:14:01,079
Speaker 3: that he stopped building. Refugee stay there through and then

274
00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:04,640
Speaker 3: they spoke for his character. Yeah, and did the rebel

275
00:14:04,720 --> 00:14:08,000
Speaker 3: like that? They yeah, they stopped burning the chair. They

276
00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:12,440
Speaker 3: put the chair off. Wow. Yeah. And we went to

277
00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:14,480
Speaker 3: the field and my dad had parkinson. I didn't know

278
00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:17,400
Speaker 3: what Pakistan was, so he said was shaking. And then

279
00:14:17,440 --> 00:14:22,400
Speaker 3: I was holding his hands and and I locked eye

280
00:14:22,440 --> 00:14:25,480
Speaker 3: with one of the rebels, and I knew straight away

281
00:14:25,600 --> 00:14:27,040
Speaker 3: was coming for me. Oh wow.

282
00:14:27,080 --> 00:14:30,440
Speaker 2: So yeah, they're in the field. You got your your

283
00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:31,880
Speaker 2: hand in the hand with your father.

284
00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:33,680
Speaker 3: So we're all standing in the field. So everybody has

285
00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:36,040
Speaker 3: come out. It's like a thousands, like a lot of people.

286
00:14:36,200 --> 00:14:38,480
Speaker 2: And we they go down the line, don't they Yeah.

287
00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:40,400
Speaker 3: Well, all my hands. We know they were going to

288
00:14:40,440 --> 00:14:43,480
Speaker 3: pick your girls. So I knew.

289
00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:46,120
Speaker 2: I was why did you Why were they picking young girls?

290
00:14:46,160 --> 00:14:49,080
Speaker 3: They choose young girls and mostly virgin to be used

291
00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:51,880
Speaker 3: as a sex slave. And I see human shield mostly

292
00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:53,720
Speaker 3: that's they tend for them to pick. It's kind of

293
00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:56,320
Speaker 3: like a spirit as superstitious that they will win the war.

294
00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:01,840
Speaker 3: So well us holding my dad hand, we thought they

295
00:15:01,840 --> 00:15:03,800
Speaker 3: were going to burn all of us or should or

296
00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:06,000
Speaker 3: because we have them do we have the rebels right

297
00:15:06,040 --> 00:15:08,720
Speaker 3: in front of us. So I was just standing there

298
00:15:08,840 --> 00:15:12,720
Speaker 3: and just ready to go with him. But as soon

299
00:15:12,760 --> 00:15:15,760
Speaker 3: as one of the rebels looked at me, I knew.

300
00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:20,680
Speaker 3: I just knew it was this possession of Luke. And

301
00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:23,680
Speaker 3: when he as soon as he altered the word you come,

302
00:15:24,360 --> 00:15:26,440
Speaker 3: he looked at me, you come here. I let go

303
00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:28,920
Speaker 3: of my dad's hand.

304
00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:31,480
Speaker 2: Why did you let go of your dad's hand to

305
00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:32,160
Speaker 2: protect him?

306
00:15:32,720 --> 00:15:34,120
Speaker 3: Yes, it was the first time I knew how to

307
00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:39,960
Speaker 3: protect someone. And once I let go, I did not

308
00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:44,680
Speaker 3: look at his face. Now because I knew everybody that

309
00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:47,480
Speaker 3: knows my dad knows my dad about his children, So

310
00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:53,880
Speaker 3: I just walk away, did not have a look at

311
00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:54,360
Speaker 3: his face.

312
00:15:54,960 --> 00:15:56,360
Speaker 2: And that's your protection.

313
00:15:56,880 --> 00:16:00,760
Speaker 3: Luckily, the guy that took me walk away because he

314
00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:03,040
Speaker 3: had had four guilts or the girls that were standing

315
00:16:03,160 --> 00:16:05,960
Speaker 3: waiting for him, so he had four guilts that he

316
00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:09,280
Speaker 3: had kidnapped. So I joined that group and any walk

317
00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:14,760
Speaker 3: away with me, and you don't look back. No, I

318
00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:20,080
Speaker 3: never looked back. I still try to picture even now

319
00:16:20,120 --> 00:16:21,920
Speaker 3: most of the time when I share my story, to

320
00:16:21,960 --> 00:16:31,520
Speaker 3: see what position he would have been. And and yeah,

321
00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:34,640
Speaker 3: way he didn't move. I think he was just stuck or.

322
00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:41,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well maybe as a as a father, maybe

323
00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:43,680
Speaker 2: he knew that if you, he would have probably got

324
00:16:43,720 --> 00:16:47,040
Speaker 2: himself killed, you killed, and all of his children killed. Yeah,

325
00:16:47,080 --> 00:16:50,560
Speaker 2: and it's a decision that you you made right not

326
00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:54,240
Speaker 2: to because any normal child, you think, would have just

327
00:16:54,320 --> 00:16:57,320
Speaker 2: held on tighter. Yeah, right, because but you made a

328
00:16:57,360 --> 00:16:59,800
Speaker 2: decision to text your family, and he probably done the

329
00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:03,880
Speaker 2: same him to protect you, because like you said, the

330
00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:06,920
Speaker 2: rebels were so unstable that if you look, probably shut

331
00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:07,440
Speaker 2: you down.

332
00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:10,040
Speaker 3: Mostly were asked the daughter to shoot or the rap

333
00:17:10,160 --> 00:17:12,720
Speaker 3: the daughter in front of the father. So that was

334
00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:15,080
Speaker 3: one of the reason too. So there was a lot

335
00:17:15,080 --> 00:17:17,400
Speaker 3: of scenario that I knew of because of the history

336
00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:20,359
Speaker 3: of the war. So I knew that if he fought,

337
00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:23,800
Speaker 3: they would either asked me to shoot him, or shoot

338
00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:26,400
Speaker 3: him or rape me in front of him. So there

339
00:17:26,440 --> 00:17:29,000
Speaker 3: was a lot of things that would have happened. So

340
00:17:29,160 --> 00:17:32,800
Speaker 3: and I felt like even not standing, not keeping me

341
00:17:32,880 --> 00:17:34,720
Speaker 3: there to look because I would have turned or look

342
00:17:34,800 --> 00:17:37,600
Speaker 3: at his face, that was a protection there too. That

343
00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:40,800
Speaker 3: was guide me through that he took me and walk

344
00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:41,480
Speaker 3: away with me.

345
00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:51,840
Speaker 2: What happens next, I.

346
00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:55,240
Speaker 3: Still don't remember how long I was kidnapped for. We

347
00:17:55,520 --> 00:17:58,040
Speaker 3: start walking up the hills because you know civilian high

348
00:17:58,119 --> 00:18:00,360
Speaker 3: it's called lion mounting because of the hills to start

349
00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:03,280
Speaker 3: walking off. And again it's the acceptance this is it,

350
00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:05,440
Speaker 3: this is live. Because there were bombs going on, there

351
00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:07,200
Speaker 3: were a lot of things going on. It was very

352
00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:11,920
Speaker 3: intense time because the government was really pushing back. So

353
00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:15,800
Speaker 3: and mostly what the rebels would we take civilians and

354
00:18:15,840 --> 00:18:20,240
Speaker 3: put them even give us, give guns, so the government thinks.

355
00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:23,680
Speaker 2: That you are by seeing your weapon, I think you're yeah.

356
00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:27,000
Speaker 3: So it was all surviving. We had to go up

357
00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:28,800
Speaker 3: the bush and we have to change our clothes to

358
00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:32,639
Speaker 3: camouflage with the green. The green where so if you

359
00:18:32,680 --> 00:18:34,960
Speaker 3: wear something white or something bright will shoot you. So

360
00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:37,239
Speaker 3: we have to wear something green or dark. So if

361
00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:40,280
Speaker 3: there's an alicopter then they don't see where we're going.

362
00:18:40,359 --> 00:18:43,280
Speaker 3: So for all those things that you don't grow up with,

363
00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:48,000
Speaker 3: you just instantly lean to do wow. And because there's

364
00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:51,520
Speaker 3: dead body next to you, there's somebody just fall being shot,

365
00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:54,240
Speaker 3: so you don't you don't have a second to think.

366
00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:55,600
Speaker 3: You have a time to think.

367
00:18:56,160 --> 00:18:58,320
Speaker 2: So you've been ripped away from your family, How you've

368
00:18:58,320 --> 00:19:02,640
Speaker 2: been ripped ripped away from your your your dad? What's

369
00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:06,840
Speaker 2: going through your mind? Is it? Obviously the first bit

370
00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:09,480
Speaker 2: was protection, Just get me out of here. So, yeah,

371
00:19:09,520 --> 00:19:11,879
Speaker 2: you're taking attention away from your dad really and your

372
00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:15,480
Speaker 2: family when you're walking up what how does your life

373
00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:17,760
Speaker 2: flip on its head all of a sudden the realization

374
00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:20,320
Speaker 2: of you know where you where you're sleeping, where you're living,

375
00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:21,800
Speaker 2: just put put it in put it in our heads,

376
00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:22,480
Speaker 2: where where you were.

377
00:19:22,920 --> 00:19:25,119
Speaker 3: The first time that we took so the girls that

378
00:19:26,359 --> 00:19:28,600
Speaker 3: it was really engraved with the girls that he had kidnapped.

379
00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:31,000
Speaker 3: These are girls that I knew from school, but we're

380
00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:36,359
Speaker 3: not friends, so and we we didn't start moving right away.

381
00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:38,640
Speaker 3: We had to settle in our house up the hill.

382
00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:44,000
Speaker 3: That night is when he started, like the rebel that

383
00:19:44,119 --> 00:19:48,480
Speaker 3: kidnapped me, Darahmi that was his name, start calling each

384
00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:52,280
Speaker 3: girl in the room and and sort of rapping each

385
00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:54,160
Speaker 3: girl as he called them in.

386
00:19:54,119 --> 00:19:55,320
Speaker 2: The room, including yourself.

387
00:19:55,680 --> 00:20:01,320
Speaker 3: Yes, so, and I know for sure most the girls

388
00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:04,680
Speaker 3: I could hear the voice, so you just know when

389
00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:11,440
Speaker 3: it's your turn. So so I was brutally my first

390
00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:15,240
Speaker 3: experience was between five or six men, because after you

391
00:20:15,359 --> 00:20:19,399
Speaker 3: call some of his crew and then just woke up

392
00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:24,400
Speaker 3: being fainted, and then you then you as soon as

393
00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:26,919
Speaker 3: that finish, you start running again, so you don't have

394
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:28,720
Speaker 3: time to think, you start. So as soon as that

395
00:20:28,840 --> 00:20:31,960
Speaker 3: same finished, he knew straight away. So that's when his

396
00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:35,760
Speaker 3: pos his obsession became because then I hadn't been was

397
00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:38,879
Speaker 3: my first experience, So he became really possive. He didn't

398
00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:42,640
Speaker 3: want the others anymore, so he became really really possive.

399
00:20:42,680 --> 00:20:47,480
Speaker 3: But what was also interesting, my brother Ali, who was

400
00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:52,320
Speaker 3: very protective of me, saw that Darami had took me.

401
00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:58,200
Speaker 3: So he was following me little by little like yeah, yeah,

402
00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:01,720
Speaker 3: so he vollowed un till he followed me. And so

403
00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:04,840
Speaker 3: at one scene when they wanted to almost shot him

404
00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:07,120
Speaker 3: and he just said, that's my sister. So but because

405
00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:11,520
Speaker 3: Darami was obsessed with me, he accommodated my brother.

406
00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:17,359
Speaker 2: Wow. And so they were gonna they were.

407
00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:20,119
Speaker 3: Going to kill. Yeah, they mostly killed the men or

408
00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:22,399
Speaker 3: used them to be training to be a soldier or

409
00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:23,720
Speaker 3: carry to stop this story.

410
00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:26,439
Speaker 2: Yes, I saw that they were strong and yeah, if not,

411
00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:29,080
Speaker 2: they just put them him as an example on the fire.

412
00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:31,440
Speaker 3: So my whole experience, I was with my my, my

413
00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:32,800
Speaker 3: brother and he so.

414
00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:34,760
Speaker 2: What did they do to grab your brother and put

415
00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:35,879
Speaker 2: in with you?

416
00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:38,800
Speaker 3: In with me? But Daramy had the three girls, the

417
00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:42,600
Speaker 3: three friends that I know, which I talk about in

418
00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:46,560
Speaker 3: my book. And then my brother just joined in. Well,

419
00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:50,840
Speaker 3: he knew my brother sort of for somebody to just

420
00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:55,680
Speaker 3: volunteerly followed. He knew that my brother loved me. He

421
00:21:55,840 --> 00:22:00,440
Speaker 3: loves me. And then so his obsession become became more

422
00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:07,280
Speaker 3: like very like really deep obsession. And my brother most

423
00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:09,080
Speaker 3: of the time had to witness a lot of things

424
00:22:09,119 --> 00:22:12,479
Speaker 3: that was done. So you would play really nice if

425
00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:15,280
Speaker 3: I was nice and beaving, but you're.

426
00:22:15,119 --> 00:22:16,080
Speaker 2: Just manipulating you.

427
00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:16,480
Speaker 3: Yeah.

428
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:21,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, And how long does this go on for?

429
00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:24,959
Speaker 3: For? About? As I said, I still don't remember. I

430
00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:27,679
Speaker 3: thought it was three months, but my friends that was

431
00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:29,600
Speaker 3: being kidnapped with there's a lot of things that I remember,

432
00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:30,679
Speaker 3: I said it was six months.

433
00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:33,520
Speaker 2: So I stay at this stage, you got no appreciation

434
00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:36,240
Speaker 2: for time. You're living in a nightmare.

435
00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:38,000
Speaker 3: Sometimes you feel like you're safe I being with them,

436
00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:40,919
Speaker 3: because you don't know when you get into when you

437
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:43,119
Speaker 3: come across the ecomok the government, if they're going to

438
00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:46,040
Speaker 3: shoot you, if they're going to kill you so and

439
00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:48,280
Speaker 3: you have to go. And then with the rebels, if

440
00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:50,560
Speaker 3: they find out that you want to escape, they kill you. God,

441
00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:53,359
Speaker 3: they think you're a traitor. So you're almost between that

442
00:22:53,560 --> 00:22:57,040
Speaker 3: scene of if you could escape, you can, but mostly

443
00:22:57,160 --> 00:22:59,600
Speaker 3: there was no much escaping because it was as I said,

444
00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:01,600
Speaker 3: it was one of the most intense time for the

445
00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:04,520
Speaker 3: past nine years of the war. Wow.

446
00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:07,120
Speaker 2: And what year was that when you got When you got,

447
00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:11,080
Speaker 2: I was in nineteen eighty nine, nineteen ninety nine. Wow. Yes,

448
00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:14,760
Speaker 2: So you're you know, they've gone into Freetown, They've they've

449
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:16,960
Speaker 2: taken over free Town. Do they need to move much? Now?

450
00:23:17,400 --> 00:23:19,879
Speaker 2: Are they moving you from location from location to location?

451
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,159
Speaker 3: So sometimes we're staying there in a place for like

452
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:26,560
Speaker 3: one week or two weeks, and then they can tell

453
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:28,640
Speaker 3: because they go out hunting and they can tell when

454
00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,800
Speaker 3: the government is getting closed and there were more. So

455
00:23:31,880 --> 00:23:35,320
Speaker 3: you move us trying to stay one say, and then

456
00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:38,359
Speaker 3: you move years. So you know when movement is happening.

457
00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:40,080
Speaker 3: You can hear the gardens all the time, but you

458
00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:41,160
Speaker 3: know when it's coming closer.

459
00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:44,320
Speaker 2: So you know you're living a nightmare. You're you're moving

460
00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:48,679
Speaker 2: along your food, you're just sleeping the house. How are

461
00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:50,600
Speaker 2: you sleeping? And you're just sleeping in one room, all

462
00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:51,440
Speaker 2: of you together.

463
00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:53,480
Speaker 3: On you you just sleep if you can, you sleep

464
00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:55,120
Speaker 3: on a rock, you sleep on the store, you sleep

465
00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:57,280
Speaker 3: wherever if you if you end up going to a

466
00:23:57,280 --> 00:24:00,320
Speaker 3: place where his house that everybody occupied those houses because

467
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:04,080
Speaker 3: those people have moved out. And then food sometimes you

468
00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:05,879
Speaker 3: go to a build, you end up in a village

469
00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:07,840
Speaker 3: where there's a lot of goods and you eat so

470
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:09,920
Speaker 3: whatever you can. Sometimes there were weeks that we didn't

471
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:14,680
Speaker 3: have food and you just it survived.

472
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:18,280
Speaker 2: And it was the r u f are Uf and

473
00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:22,040
Speaker 2: what what was there? You know, what was the goal?

474
00:24:22,320 --> 00:24:24,880
Speaker 2: They want to take over the gold and the diamond

475
00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:25,800
Speaker 2: minds or was there.

476
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:30,240
Speaker 3: Was diamond diamonds and so everything has been corrupted. So

477
00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:35,879
Speaker 3: they are fighting against the government and that it was

478
00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:40,119
Speaker 3: more between civilians or have become rebels and so just

479
00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:43,320
Speaker 3: that are fighting. Some soldiers have joined in that we're

480
00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:46,560
Speaker 3: fighting with the government. And again that trade came to

481
00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:49,680
Speaker 3: all charld Stale or from Liberia the president at the time.

482
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:53,600
Speaker 3: So it was more the resource, where the resource is

483
00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:57,280
Speaker 3: going and what how they can get more resources sell

484
00:24:57,320 --> 00:24:59,639
Speaker 3: it and where how they can get the guns?

485
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:04,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly through dim Yeah, because they took over all

486
00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:07,119
Speaker 2: the diamond minds, didn't they And then they started buying

487
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:11,359
Speaker 2: some serious weapons and they were gathering huge momentum. You know,

488
00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:13,560
Speaker 2: you look at the r U, the West Side Boys,

489
00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:16,959
Speaker 2: they were that you know, they'd taken over, right, and

490
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:19,840
Speaker 2: they're only when the more they're taking over, the more

491
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 2: money they're getting, the more weapons they're getting, so ultimately

492
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,760
Speaker 2: building an army this nightmare. Does it become like you said,

493
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:29,200
Speaker 2: you know, you feel like you're more protected when you're

494
00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:31,920
Speaker 2: with them. Does it does it flick into the norms?

495
00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:33,280
Speaker 2: You think that this is going to be me for

496
00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:35,240
Speaker 2: the rest of my life. I think you make peace,

497
00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:39,040
Speaker 2: You make peace with with being the way that you're

498
00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:40,120
Speaker 2: treated and thinking that this.

499
00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:42,359
Speaker 3: Is just I didn't. I didn't make peace with it.

500
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:44,840
Speaker 3: I was very I think with everything that was happening,

501
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:48,120
Speaker 3: I worry about my father, my father was I had.

502
00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:50,639
Speaker 2: No communication with your father, no contact.

503
00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:53,960
Speaker 3: Communication with my father. But I don't know why was

504
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:56,560
Speaker 3: everything was happening to me when my dad was was

505
00:25:56,600 --> 00:25:58,880
Speaker 3: my main focus.

506
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:02,720
Speaker 2: But so that was like a beacon of hope, that

507
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:04,480
Speaker 2: kind of and thinking.

508
00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:07,680
Speaker 3: Like where easy easy, okay? Did he died after I

509
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:13,040
Speaker 3: was gone? We're very close to him. So but also

510
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:16,760
Speaker 3: I think every day you start to adjust, even people,

511
00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:19,000
Speaker 3: even people who are kidnapped, even if it's in the

512
00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:21,840
Speaker 3: city or anywhere. And I've seen stories before in the

513
00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:23,920
Speaker 3: US where people are you start to just you start

514
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:26,960
Speaker 3: to almost pretend to make that's your home. You start

515
00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:29,479
Speaker 3: to make it as how you create homes. I can

516
00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:32,960
Speaker 3: I can see myself just cleaning because my dad was

517
00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:36,560
Speaker 3: everything used to be tidy and fixing the bed. You

518
00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:39,080
Speaker 3: start of accepting, even if you don't want to say acceptance.

519
00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:40,600
Speaker 3: So it's it's.

520
00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:44,320
Speaker 2: Amazing mechanism, isn't it. You almost go in flicking that

521
00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:49,800
Speaker 2: survival mechanism of adapting and slowly accepting but knowing that

522
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:51,440
Speaker 2: there's a hope.

523
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,080
Speaker 3: Yes, I I don't know. For some reason, I just

524
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:58,760
Speaker 3: knew I was going to see my dad. That was

525
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:00,679
Speaker 3: something that I don't know how, but I knew I

526
00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:03,639
Speaker 3: was going to see my dad. Mass situation was in

527
00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:05,679
Speaker 3: the word when you say the word impossibly, something I

528
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:08,480
Speaker 3: don't see in my life anymore. But I could not

529
00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:10,440
Speaker 3: have been I could not have been able to run

530
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:13,800
Speaker 3: away from this from this man. But then through that

531
00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:17,680
Speaker 3: time with my friends that was kidnapped with we were

532
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:20,440
Speaker 3: I went to Christian school, so the Bible was our

533
00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 3: only hope. So we started reading a bible. We had

534
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:25,760
Speaker 3: a pocket bible given witness give. So faith and my

535
00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:29,240
Speaker 3: dad were the center of how and I navigate to

536
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 3: things you can't ask why you look around it's all women,

537
00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:37,119
Speaker 3: young girls. So uh, but my faith keep me going

538
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:39,919
Speaker 3: and and knowing that I would see him, So that

539
00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:44,000
Speaker 3: was Yeah, that was something that That's something I've told

540
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:44,840
Speaker 3: on to always.

541
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:48,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, And when was the the next time you saw

542
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:49,400
Speaker 2: your father?

543
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:54,000
Speaker 3: So when I saw my dad. Uh, we had run

544
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:56,880
Speaker 3: out of food within it for weeks and the government

545
00:27:56,920 --> 00:28:02,720
Speaker 3: and the rebels were making sort of arrangements. Yes, we've

546
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:07,119
Speaker 3: not heard about. It's really quiet, and a really terrible

547
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 3: thing had happened with one of with with me. One

548
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:14,240
Speaker 3: of the rebels who Colboot. His nickname was cold Boot.

549
00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:18,080
Speaker 3: It was one of the most vicious ones. Something horrible

550
00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:22,920
Speaker 3: had happened between between him and me. I had come

551
00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:25,280
Speaker 3: to trust him because he said his wife was called Aminata,

552
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:29,800
Speaker 3: so I became really trust him. And the rebel that

553
00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:34,800
Speaker 3: kidnapped me, Darami, was scared of Cold Boot, so he

554
00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 3: took me saying that he was going to protect me

555
00:28:39,120 --> 00:28:44,000
Speaker 3: from Darami. But then something really horrible happened between us

556
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:47,080
Speaker 3: a night. But I could tell I felt safe with him.

557
00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:50,640
Speaker 3: But there was a time because I have not really

558
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:52,719
Speaker 3: fully developed, even though I was eighting, I had not

559
00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:54,840
Speaker 3: fully really developed. But I could tell there was a

560
00:28:54,840 --> 00:28:56,880
Speaker 3: time when he looked at me, and I knew it

561
00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 3: was a look of protection.

562
00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:01,200
Speaker 2: When he knew that look when when you were failed

563
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:03,440
Speaker 2: and you locked eyes and when he dragged.

564
00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:07,440
Speaker 3: Down, I had that sense. I'm like, I knew that

565
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:11,000
Speaker 3: was a predator kind of look. So so something horrible

566
00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:15,080
Speaker 3: happened between me and him, and it felt. It's really

567
00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:17,760
Speaker 3: incredible how even the most evil people can feel guilt.

568
00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:21,600
Speaker 3: He felt that he took something because his wife name

569
00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:23,840
Speaker 3: was Aminata. He was protecting me at one time, but

570
00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:27,320
Speaker 3: then it took something. And the next morning I could

571
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:30,720
Speaker 3: see that for the most vicious rebel was a shame.

572
00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:35,640
Speaker 3: It was really it was really incredible. So then I

573
00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:39,960
Speaker 3: heard that they were getting young kids to go for

574
00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:44,360
Speaker 3: the exchange. And then but what he did was because

575
00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:46,440
Speaker 3: he was a shame. He handed me back to Daramy.

576
00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:48,240
Speaker 4: Wow.

577
00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:50,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, so when he hadn't when he handed me, because

578
00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:54,040
Speaker 3: Daramy is obsessed with me, got really angry that I

579
00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:58,400
Speaker 3: have been with this person, with this rebel, So he

580
00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:01,960
Speaker 3: got really, really angry, so just made the situation even.

581
00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:04,280
Speaker 2: Yes, I remember, if you could get any worse.

582
00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:06,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember being in this room any and then

583
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:09,920
Speaker 3: I remember that I'm being angry and said, you run

584
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:11,640
Speaker 3: away from it because she had food. And then he

585
00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:14,360
Speaker 3: fired shot, about seven or eight shot on my feet.

586
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:18,040
Speaker 3: I do not know how. Nothing touched me. His intent

587
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:20,920
Speaker 3: was for me not to run away anymore. Then he

588
00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:24,640
Speaker 3: got really angry, so he walked away because he was angry,

589
00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 3: so he walked away, and he asked me to go

590
00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 3: to the next building to wait for him. And I

591
00:30:29,800 --> 00:30:32,480
Speaker 3: remember my dear friend who lives in the UK, Francis,

592
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:36,160
Speaker 3: who I was with. I remember looking at Francis. I said, oh,

593
00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:39,880
Speaker 3: I heard they're going to release some children, and they

594
00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:41,800
Speaker 3: said yeah, and I said, I'm gonna go.

595
00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:44,479
Speaker 2: And this was the sort of like the peace agreement

596
00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:47,600
Speaker 2: that they're trying to give us. This this we're releasing.

597
00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:49,720
Speaker 3: But I've just heard this about a few minutes ago.

598
00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:54,080
Speaker 3: And for Francis, Francis knew my circumstances, and she cried

599
00:30:55,120 --> 00:30:57,440
Speaker 3: and I knew where she was crying because it was impossible.

600
00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:00,480
Speaker 3: But I don't know why I said it. I don't

601
00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:02,560
Speaker 3: know why I said it because I knew it was impossible.

602
00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:05,920
Speaker 3: And I said to her, I think I'm going to go,

603
00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 3: and then she cried and then I walked away less

604
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:14,080
Speaker 3: than one minute. I'm walking away. That ram the guy

605
00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:17,920
Speaker 3: that took me that night called me and because of

606
00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:20,240
Speaker 3: his git, yeah, his guilt, and he said, do you

607
00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 3: want to go? And I just and I nod my head.

608
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:26,200
Speaker 3: And because that REMI.

609
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:29,800
Speaker 2: Has walked away, You're gone.

610
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:34,920
Speaker 3: It was just the most miraculous thing. And he didn't

611
00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:37,560
Speaker 3: come till late. The army did not come to He

612
00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:40,840
Speaker 3: thought I was waiting for him in his unit, and

613
00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:43,520
Speaker 3: then I left. But the most beautiful part of his story,

614
00:31:43,560 --> 00:31:46,800
Speaker 3: my brother had seen me leave, so he went and

615
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:50,280
Speaker 3: bypassed and followed, and then one of the rivers caught

616
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:55,000
Speaker 3: him and then he pointed, that's my sister. And then

617
00:31:55,040 --> 00:31:58,360
Speaker 3: they were trying to give us questions, both differently to

618
00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:01,640
Speaker 3: see if the story is match. And the guy that

619
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:03,320
Speaker 3: was doing it, he said, what's your name? And I said,

620
00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:04,840
Speaker 3: I mean not a content and he said who is

621
00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:08,000
Speaker 3: like just a small country. And I started telling him

622
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:10,800
Speaker 3: about my dad's hotel and stuff, and he said I

623
00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:14,120
Speaker 3: know him. So I was released with my brother.

624
00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:26,040
Speaker 2: I love the story of your brother. So he's got

625
00:32:26,080 --> 00:32:31,760
Speaker 2: a constant eye on you and he's going forward, probably

626
00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:36,080
Speaker 2: protecting you. Wow. So the rebel lets you.

627
00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:38,840
Speaker 3: You then go to a group of rebels so that

628
00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:40,520
Speaker 3: we have to do an exchange. It's one of those

629
00:32:40,520 --> 00:32:42,160
Speaker 3: things that you see in the movie. We were in

630
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:43,720
Speaker 3: the middle of the street. It was the first time

631
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:45,720
Speaker 3: they were doing the exchange, and they had to be

632
00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:49,040
Speaker 3: no gon fire, so and we had to walk towards

633
00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:52,200
Speaker 3: the government and then they released some full and medication.

634
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:55,920
Speaker 3: It was peaceful, and they took us to the capital

635
00:32:56,000 --> 00:33:00,160
Speaker 3: city and there were thousands of parents just which in

636
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:05,280
Speaker 3: their child can be among those seventeen or twenty one children,

637
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:09,280
Speaker 3: and everybody was just in the street and free time,

638
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:14,720
Speaker 3: just celebrating. It was almost unreal. I don't sometimes I

639
00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:19,200
Speaker 3: think it's real. And they took us to the government

640
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:23,600
Speaker 3: where they echo they sold just at the camp. So

641
00:33:23,800 --> 00:33:26,920
Speaker 3: my father found that I was alive on television because

642
00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:29,800
Speaker 3: what had happened. The rebels gave us, gave me the

643
00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:33,920
Speaker 3: letter to give to the government about the demands, so

644
00:33:33,960 --> 00:33:37,160
Speaker 3: I had to be on TV. And so that's when

645
00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:41,560
Speaker 3: my friends and my dad found out I was on television.

646
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:44,239
Speaker 3: Everybody was watching it. Everybody was with their neighbors. So

647
00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:47,080
Speaker 3: the line of all the girls that they all their children.

648
00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:49,040
Speaker 3: I was being released and my brother was with me,

649
00:33:50,080 --> 00:34:00,320
Speaker 3: and yeah, and then we had to return home. My

650
00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:03,760
Speaker 3: dad was just not the same. He was really in

651
00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:08,600
Speaker 3: a in a he was the only person that had

652
00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:14,320
Speaker 3: two children that was released. Well, he was never the same.

653
00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:21,120
Speaker 3: He was gone, and I could just hear him softly crying,

654
00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:29,080
Speaker 3: and then he just starts just start breaking up, breaking up.

655
00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:34,480
Speaker 3: He didn't know how to celebrate. He knew something had

656
00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:41,640
Speaker 3: been taken and he felt like he failed. And it's

657
00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:43,520
Speaker 3: the most painful part in my story. Now, what was

658
00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:44,000
Speaker 3: done to me?

659
00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:51,080
Speaker 2: Seeing this strong man that he once left just a

660
00:34:51,160 --> 00:34:58,800
Speaker 2: shadow of himself. Yeah, such a wow. I'm getting emotional

661
00:34:58,920 --> 00:35:04,360
Speaker 2: as well because it's so you're back with when do

662
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:09,680
Speaker 2: you actually you know, you know your father? Like you said,

663
00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 2: it felt like he felt like he fouled you. You're

664
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:17,000
Speaker 2: seeing a shell of a man. What happens there after?

665
00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:20,040
Speaker 3: I feel like it was almost gone. I almost felt

666
00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:22,360
Speaker 3: this transition up. And I was a very swell child

667
00:35:22,400 --> 00:35:25,719
Speaker 3: and very I was very sicky and very kind of

668
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:30,360
Speaker 3: weakened everything. And I actually feel like my dad's strength

669
00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:35,520
Speaker 3: transformed on in me. He became really weak. I became strong.

670
00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:38,560
Speaker 3: I really believe that, because all night I could hear

671
00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:42,799
Speaker 3: him cry, and he cried a lot every night. So

672
00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:44,760
Speaker 3: I had to leave syrillly on to go to Guinea

673
00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:49,680
Speaker 3: because my kidnapped. We knew where my house was and

674
00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:51,880
Speaker 3: was going to look for me. I knew that, And

675
00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:54,320
Speaker 3: because the piece went really smoothly, we knew that it

676
00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:59,680
Speaker 3: was not going to be any sort of accountability or

677
00:35:59,880 --> 00:36:01,319
Speaker 3: as who come live in peace. So I had to

678
00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:05,160
Speaker 3: flee to Guinea Kunakri to meet my mom. My mom

679
00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:09,200
Speaker 3: lives in Guinea, and I didn't see my dad until

680
00:36:10,120 --> 00:36:12,440
Speaker 3: a few months after. He was going to Guinea to

681
00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:14,279
Speaker 3: get a flight to go to London because he had

682
00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:16,920
Speaker 3: to he had cancer. We'll find out he had cancer,

683
00:36:16,960 --> 00:36:19,680
Speaker 3: and he had the packings in And still even I

684
00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:22,359
Speaker 3: spent time in Guinea, he was never he could never

685
00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:24,359
Speaker 3: look at me in the eyes so much.

686
00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:28,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can I can imagine being a father myself.

687
00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:34,000
Speaker 2: I can only only imagine what he's been through. You know,

688
00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:38,520
Speaker 2: we are here to protect, we're here to provide, and

689
00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:41,360
Speaker 2: you know there's not my way simple beings fathers. You

690
00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:44,280
Speaker 2: know We just want to what's best for our children,

691
00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:47,600
Speaker 2: especially when it comes to our daughters, because that's you know,

692
00:36:48,160 --> 00:36:51,439
Speaker 2: the most vulnerable part of being a father is that.

693
00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:54,920
Speaker 2: So you go and live with your mother? Did did

694
00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:56,120
Speaker 2: you have a relationship with your mother?

695
00:36:56,280 --> 00:37:00,000
Speaker 3: What was my life? I didn't memories, that's what I think.

696
00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:01,640
Speaker 2: So when you went there, what was that like?

697
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:02,560
Speaker 3: You know my mom?

698
00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:06,560
Speaker 2: Because that's another huge change, just being reunited with your family.

699
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:10,960
Speaker 2: You know, you see your father, it's destroyed everything, and

700
00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:13,080
Speaker 2: then all of a sudden you're having to go and

701
00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:18,239
Speaker 2: live a stranger again, your mother because she wasn't part

702
00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:19,000
Speaker 2: of your She was.

703
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:22,239
Speaker 3: Not part of my upbringing, not because of choice. My

704
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:24,839
Speaker 3: dad took use. But when I went, when I went

705
00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:30,320
Speaker 3: to Gidea, seeing what my dad did of serving helping people,

706
00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:32,839
Speaker 3: I took a few girls with me that stayed with

707
00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:35,560
Speaker 3: my stay at my mom's plait because everybody was looking

708
00:37:35,600 --> 00:37:38,200
Speaker 3: for shelter. My mom was a Guineaan woman that has

709
00:37:38,239 --> 00:37:41,000
Speaker 3: their own house, So we had a few community that

710
00:37:41,080 --> 00:37:42,760
Speaker 3: came and stayed with us.

711
00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:45,719
Speaker 2: So after all this that you go through, you you're

712
00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:47,120
Speaker 2: still thinking about other people.

713
00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:50,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think children see what the parents are and

714
00:37:50,360 --> 00:37:53,560
Speaker 3: they become that I saw my dad was fully that

715
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:58,000
Speaker 3: serving and helping. So I just took friendly girls in

716
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:00,359
Speaker 3: the neighborhood that didn't have family in gear me because

717
00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:02,799
Speaker 3: they would have gone to refugee camp, and my mom

718
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:05,160
Speaker 3: just accommodated them. But my mom also was trying to

719
00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:08,400
Speaker 3: make sense of what had happened to me, because I

720
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:11,319
Speaker 3: have when nine in our family, but I'm the only

721
00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:16,520
Speaker 3: child to my mom, and so she she doesn't know

722
00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:19,120
Speaker 3: what to do with the whole things.

723
00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:22,960
Speaker 2: And especially doesn't know. You know, you can't just tell

724
00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:25,439
Speaker 2: by like a look on your face. You know, I'm

725
00:38:25,640 --> 00:38:28,000
Speaker 2: constantly I can tell when my child's down just by

726
00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:31,120
Speaker 2: looking at them when something. And she she was just

727
00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:31,719
Speaker 2: trying to figure this.

728
00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:33,120
Speaker 3: She was trying to figure and I was. And the

729
00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:35,000
Speaker 3: more I move away from my dad, I missed my dad.

730
00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:36,799
Speaker 3: So the whole time I was thinking of my dad too.

731
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:41,440
Speaker 3: But also we don't when those things happen, especially people

732
00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:44,120
Speaker 3: have gone to you don't you don't know. You don't

733
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:50,120
Speaker 3: talk about these things. You're talking language there that she

734
00:38:50,520 --> 00:38:53,480
Speaker 3: would have known what happened to me. And when you can't,

735
00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:55,760
Speaker 3: you don't know, you don't communicate those things. There's no

736
00:38:56,040 --> 00:38:58,680
Speaker 3: your mind is sort of move. You survive and what

737
00:38:58,719 --> 00:39:02,480
Speaker 3: you want to do is leave and continue because these

738
00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:05,560
Speaker 3: people around you've gone through probably was or the same.

739
00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:08,040
Speaker 3: So so we never talked.

740
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:10,480
Speaker 2: You never talked, and you just you just held the

741
00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:16,319
Speaker 2: senior in yourself. And then how did Australia come about? Then?

742
00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:20,680
Speaker 3: Well, Australia came about because my story was on television.

743
00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:23,880
Speaker 3: So when the UNH chair in Guinnie heard of me,

744
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:27,600
Speaker 3: they went straight on protective mode because they knew that

745
00:39:27,640 --> 00:39:30,960
Speaker 3: I was a girl on TV. And also I've heard

746
00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:33,360
Speaker 3: that Darami had come to the city looking for me,

747
00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:37,520
Speaker 3: so they wanted to get me out. But I had

748
00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:41,560
Speaker 3: choice to go to America, Canada and the UK, and

749
00:39:41,719 --> 00:39:43,200
Speaker 3: I didn't want to go to any of those because

750
00:39:43,200 --> 00:39:46,040
Speaker 3: there was a big community there and we were part

751
00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:49,040
Speaker 3: of the first group of refugee to come to Australia.

752
00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:52,560
Speaker 3: And I've never heard of Australia before at the French

753
00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:56,319
Speaker 3: Day Australia, so I thought it was Austria. Yeah, So

754
00:39:56,400 --> 00:40:00,360
Speaker 3: then I asked the un guy at the time, Sinai.

755
00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:03,759
Speaker 3: I still remember it was African American tall and who

756
00:40:03,800 --> 00:40:06,320
Speaker 3: was working at the UNHA, and he was very protective

757
00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:08,520
Speaker 3: of me, and I said, what is that place? And

758
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:11,360
Speaker 3: then he just said, oh, it's far and the program,

759
00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:15,799
Speaker 3: as you know, Australian program takes longer, and it was

760
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:18,120
Speaker 3: encouraging me to come to the US or the UK

761
00:40:18,280 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 3: because it was more fast the program. So I said no,

762
00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:23,799
Speaker 3: I want to wait for coming to Australia and he

763
00:40:23,800 --> 00:40:26,440
Speaker 3: said why because I didn't want people to know my story.

764
00:40:26,480 --> 00:40:29,200
Speaker 3: I wanted people to help me because I needed help.

765
00:40:29,640 --> 00:40:32,239
Speaker 3: But then again, I was raised by a father who

766
00:40:32,719 --> 00:40:35,520
Speaker 3: trust in the most uncomfortable places. My sisters went to

767
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:39,280
Speaker 3: Scotland and went to boarding school, so we were raised

768
00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:42,560
Speaker 3: by not being fearful. So then I decided to come

769
00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:43,840
Speaker 3: to Australia in two thousand.

770
00:40:45,239 --> 00:40:47,600
Speaker 2: Was it exciting news to you or was it just

771
00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:49,800
Speaker 2: a case of I've just got to get out of

772
00:40:49,800 --> 00:40:51,239
Speaker 2: here my mom?

773
00:40:51,480 --> 00:40:53,400
Speaker 3: Was the case of me getting out my mom and

774
00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:55,440
Speaker 3: she could understand why I couldn't live earlier with the

775
00:40:55,520 --> 00:40:59,080
Speaker 3: UK myself. I think I don't know. I think after

776
00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:02,920
Speaker 3: the war I went to a phase of forgiveness and

777
00:41:02,960 --> 00:41:06,279
Speaker 3: I started making peace with my life and what how

778
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:10,360
Speaker 3: well forgive the I think I went to boarding school

779
00:41:10,640 --> 00:41:13,840
Speaker 3: before the war. It was I was a Christian school,

780
00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:17,080
Speaker 3: so I land. One of my favorite stories, the productan Son,

781
00:41:17,520 --> 00:41:19,120
Speaker 3: So I used to tell my dad that story a lot,

782
00:41:19,239 --> 00:41:22,000
Speaker 3: and I knew I had a sense, even though I

783
00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:25,279
Speaker 3: didn't understand it. I knew forgiveness was about me, it

784
00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:28,960
Speaker 3: was not about them. So that made me really light.

785
00:41:29,120 --> 00:41:31,640
Speaker 3: So wherever I was going to go, I think Australia

786
00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:33,759
Speaker 3: just came up on the map because I've never heard

787
00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:36,800
Speaker 3: of it. That's why I wanted to come. But anywhere

788
00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:40,759
Speaker 3: else I would have been, I knew that I was

789
00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:44,040
Speaker 3: going to be fine. I knew that I'll be fine,

790
00:41:44,239 --> 00:41:47,760
Speaker 3: and so the excitement for Australia was not really exciting

791
00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:50,440
Speaker 3: committed to overseas because I lived that kind of life

792
00:41:50,480 --> 00:41:54,680
Speaker 3: back home, So it was it was not anything that

793
00:41:54,800 --> 00:41:58,280
Speaker 3: really I would not say excitement. And I was not fearful,

794
00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:01,279
Speaker 3: even for the person that was looking for me. There

795
00:42:01,360 --> 00:42:04,520
Speaker 3: was a fear had gone for some reason. I don't

796
00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:10,120
Speaker 3: know how, and I think I was just looking forward

797
00:42:10,120 --> 00:42:13,759
Speaker 3: to life like I wanted to. I knew that I

798
00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:17,000
Speaker 3: had thought. I was trying to understand how I had

799
00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:20,120
Speaker 3: thought to survive, and I still can't make sense of it.

800
00:42:20,320 --> 00:42:22,799
Speaker 3: But I knew that if I had to go six

801
00:42:22,880 --> 00:42:26,400
Speaker 3: feet it's going to be we living life large and fully.

802
00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:29,560
Speaker 3: So that was going to be wherever, even if it

803
00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:31,279
Speaker 3: was going to be in Afghanistan. I was going to

804
00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:37,479
Speaker 3: make sure I leave fully, and I think that would

805
00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:40,600
Speaker 3: give my dad peace to know that I was not

806
00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:44,000
Speaker 3: a victim and something that's been taken away. But I

807
00:42:44,040 --> 00:42:47,640
Speaker 3: was not broken. I had been raped, things that happened

808
00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:51,080
Speaker 3: to me, but I didn't feel broken. I never wanted

809
00:42:51,080 --> 00:42:54,319
Speaker 3: Still now I don't feel broken. I feel whole. I

810
00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:57,520
Speaker 3: feel I feel proud all the time of the person

811
00:42:57,520 --> 00:42:59,279
Speaker 3: that I am, and I had that, but I just

812
00:42:59,280 --> 00:43:02,000
Speaker 3: didn't know how to articulated. But I knew when I

813
00:43:02,040 --> 00:43:04,759
Speaker 3: walk in the room, I am present, I am there,

814
00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:06,520
Speaker 3: I am supposed to be there. And my dad will

815
00:43:06,520 --> 00:43:09,239
Speaker 3: always say, if you if somebody doesn't like it, they

816
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:11,759
Speaker 3: can live. But you're the most important person in that room.

817
00:43:11,760 --> 00:43:15,080
Speaker 3: But you're not important than anybody else. So a lot

818
00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:18,360
Speaker 3: of things I didn't have the language for, but we

819
00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:19,759
Speaker 3: just knew that I was going to leave it.

820
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:22,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, but yeah, you knew what you want, how you

821
00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:24,880
Speaker 2: want to. I knew I wanted to show how I

822
00:43:24,960 --> 00:43:28,600
Speaker 2: wanted you wanted to and you've done that through through you, right,

823
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:31,719
Speaker 2: through through your actions. And when was the last time

824
00:43:31,719 --> 00:43:32,479
Speaker 2: you saw your father.

825
00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:35,040
Speaker 3: I went to see him in London in two thousand

826
00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:36,840
Speaker 3: and three because we knew it was going to pass.

827
00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:42,520
Speaker 3: So I went to sick and goodbye to him, and yeah, and.

828
00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:45,239
Speaker 2: It was it was it was their words exchanged with

829
00:43:45,320 --> 00:43:46,640
Speaker 2: your father now because I'm.

830
00:43:47,400 --> 00:43:51,200
Speaker 3: He just smiling. It's whole continents changed when I arrived. Yeah,

831
00:43:51,200 --> 00:43:52,839
Speaker 3: we just spent time and I tell him how I

832
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:59,240
Speaker 3: was living my life in Australia and my faith because

833
00:43:59,239 --> 00:44:02,279
Speaker 3: a government mostly family, but I became a Christian. So

834
00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:03,799
Speaker 3: I was telling him all the story and he has

835
00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:07,439
Speaker 3: this cheekiest smile that you always have. In three days

836
00:44:07,480 --> 00:44:11,400
Speaker 3: with him and he went to board. Yeah, he was

837
00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:13,440
Speaker 3: pretty sick. He was very sick. We had to put

838
00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:15,279
Speaker 3: a lot of clothes on him because they were not

839
00:44:15,400 --> 00:44:19,480
Speaker 3: let him travel. But I think my whole family thought

840
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:23,040
Speaker 3: I was going to be the broken one when he passed. Yeah. Everything,

841
00:44:23,320 --> 00:44:25,520
Speaker 3: I think, everything about my relationship since the war, my

842
00:44:25,520 --> 00:44:28,520
Speaker 3: family had been surprise is because I was always the

843
00:44:28,640 --> 00:44:33,000
Speaker 3: sick at child. And so when my when he even

844
00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:35,280
Speaker 3: when he passed, because he went back home in serially

845
00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:38,160
Speaker 3: on and he passed away, I didn't cry. I just

846
00:44:38,200 --> 00:44:43,640
Speaker 3: felt this beautiful, this liberation that he was at peace,

847
00:44:43,920 --> 00:44:47,160
Speaker 3: but he was he was in hell being on earth.

848
00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:50,520
Speaker 2: But like you said, and you mentioned it a couple

849
00:44:50,560 --> 00:44:52,959
Speaker 2: of minutes ago, you didn't want your dad to feel

850
00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:55,840
Speaker 2: like that you were a victim. You almost drawn his strength,

851
00:44:55,960 --> 00:44:58,960
Speaker 2: to be sure, because otherwise, you know, I can imagine

852
00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:01,920
Speaker 2: from a father's standpoint, if if what happened, you know,

853
00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:03,719
Speaker 2: broke here and it's going to break you and it's

854
00:45:03,719 --> 00:45:05,680
Speaker 2: going to take down the whole, then yeah, so you're that,

855
00:45:05,800 --> 00:45:08,839
Speaker 2: you're that solid foundation. You're almost taking over from his role.

856
00:45:08,960 --> 00:45:09,960
Speaker 3: Yes, right, is.

857
00:45:10,040 --> 00:45:10,560
Speaker 2: What it felt like.

858
00:45:10,800 --> 00:45:13,440
Speaker 3: It does. It still does every every time. It is

859
00:45:13,520 --> 00:45:16,000
Speaker 3: my guiding injury and everything that I do, how I

860
00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:17,720
Speaker 3: talk to people, how I treat people, are.

861
00:45:17,600 --> 00:45:20,560
Speaker 2: Sure and you do. You you've come over to Australia,

862
00:45:20,600 --> 00:45:23,120
Speaker 2: talk about treating people and talk about still being that

863
00:45:23,320 --> 00:45:26,359
Speaker 2: pillar of positivity and strength for your father because you've

864
00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:30,359
Speaker 2: got the amnatam maternal foundation. Tell me about that.

865
00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:32,560
Speaker 3: Well, when I give birth to my daughter in twenty

866
00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:35,759
Speaker 3: twelve and I almost lost her, like we almost died,

867
00:45:35,840 --> 00:45:38,239
Speaker 3: and I've never heard the word maternal. Hell, I've never

868
00:45:38,280 --> 00:45:41,560
Speaker 3: heard those words before I was kept at the hospital

869
00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:44,200
Speaker 3: and for four days and did a case study on me,

870
00:45:44,480 --> 00:45:47,600
Speaker 3: and it was very interesting. The doctors were talking not

871
00:45:47,760 --> 00:45:49,839
Speaker 3: to me, but they were talking about me. So I

872
00:45:49,880 --> 00:45:52,400
Speaker 3: was picking up the words that we're saying. Four days later,

873
00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:55,120
Speaker 3: I went home in google meturnal health and syreally and

874
00:45:55,200 --> 00:45:57,880
Speaker 3: come up. And I always remember my dad will always

875
00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:00,520
Speaker 3: say to whom much is giving, what is required, but

876
00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:04,160
Speaker 3: not how much. So the fact that I was in Australia,

877
00:46:04,200 --> 00:46:08,040
Speaker 3: a refugee, was in a public hospital, were just working

878
00:46:08,080 --> 00:46:11,000
Speaker 3: in retail. But I had become an ambassador for u

879
00:46:11,080 --> 00:46:13,880
Speaker 3: n H Chair and I just thought, well, I'm privileged.

880
00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:16,080
Speaker 3: If I can have seven doctors in the room to

881
00:46:16,160 --> 00:46:19,800
Speaker 3: make sure that I survive, I should be able to

882
00:46:19,840 --> 00:46:24,360
Speaker 3: do something. And I love storytelling. So I just asked

883
00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:27,520
Speaker 3: anybody that I could meet with those platform from unhhair

884
00:46:27,520 --> 00:46:30,440
Speaker 3: and nobody could say no to my friend and everybody.

885
00:46:30,719 --> 00:46:33,480
Speaker 3: I just kept up calling meetings upon meetings. But it

886
00:46:33,520 --> 00:46:35,239
Speaker 3: was not to set up a foundation. It was just

887
00:46:36,200 --> 00:46:39,240
Speaker 3: I come from a war zone. Unfortunately is going to continue.

888
00:46:39,280 --> 00:46:44,400
Speaker 3: But the fact that we birth life, women birth life phenomenal.

889
00:46:44,640 --> 00:46:47,080
Speaker 3: How could we allowed in the world when we talk

890
00:46:47,120 --> 00:46:50,720
Speaker 3: about women's right and human rights allowed women to die

891
00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:54,879
Speaker 3: just because for me that didn't make sense. So after

892
00:46:54,920 --> 00:46:57,239
Speaker 3: three years of research, and the professors at uns w

893
00:46:57,400 --> 00:47:00,400
Speaker 3: knew that was not giving up because my son after words,

894
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:03,160
Speaker 3: and I was showing up. I was calling meetings. It

895
00:47:03,200 --> 00:47:05,800
Speaker 3: was very interesting because I would get all these professors

896
00:47:05,800 --> 00:47:08,160
Speaker 3: in the room and with speaking language, I have one

897
00:47:08,239 --> 00:47:11,560
Speaker 3: percent of what they're saying, and I just shake my head.

898
00:47:11,719 --> 00:47:15,399
Speaker 3: End I've calling the meeting. And then finally three years together, yeah,

899
00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:18,160
Speaker 3: three years later, like she registered them, Like what does

900
00:47:18,160 --> 00:47:20,560
Speaker 3: that mean? So everything has just been a larning and

901
00:47:20,640 --> 00:47:22,840
Speaker 3: I think we all have our strength. My strength is

902
00:47:22,840 --> 00:47:26,960
Speaker 3: connecting people. And I have brilliant people around me. I

903
00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:29,000
Speaker 3: don't need to be them. They can be all the

904
00:47:29,280 --> 00:47:30,879
Speaker 3: academic and I can be the fun one.

905
00:47:30,920 --> 00:47:34,040
Speaker 2: And yeah, exactly, you're almost piecing the vision in your

906
00:47:34,080 --> 00:47:36,760
Speaker 2: head with you know, bringing people together.

907
00:47:36,840 --> 00:47:40,040
Speaker 3: And everybody told me I thought I was mad, and

908
00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:41,759
Speaker 3: I now I look at myself. I was mad because

909
00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:43,120
Speaker 3: I was saying I want to be the hospital I want.

910
00:47:43,200 --> 00:47:45,759
Speaker 3: I was saying all these big things and I didn't

911
00:47:45,760 --> 00:47:48,680
Speaker 3: know how complicated it is to build an organization in

912
00:47:48,719 --> 00:47:50,839
Speaker 3: Australia working in Africa. If you're not you and you're

913
00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:52,799
Speaker 3: not uni safe. I did not know, and I didn't

914
00:47:52,840 --> 00:47:55,120
Speaker 3: want to know because I just got like, well, why

915
00:47:55,120 --> 00:47:57,080
Speaker 3: should I not do it? Why should we not do it?

916
00:47:57,080 --> 00:47:59,520
Speaker 3: It was just so if it's not being done, why

917
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:02,120
Speaker 3: not we do? So it was more what of that?

918
00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:06,319
Speaker 3: And it was heartbreaking that nobody knows about cyrillion and

919
00:48:06,360 --> 00:48:09,080
Speaker 3: nobody knows about the issues. So it's really out of

920
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:12,200
Speaker 3: I don't know if you can call it passion and

921
00:48:12,239 --> 00:48:14,279
Speaker 3: the idea of serving. I always wanted to serve. That

922
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:16,640
Speaker 3: was also anything that I was going to do in

923
00:48:16,680 --> 00:48:18,680
Speaker 3: this world, even the way I show up for my friends,

924
00:48:18,680 --> 00:48:21,520
Speaker 3: my kid's we're here. Whether we want to agree or not,

925
00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:22,520
Speaker 3: we're serving each other.

926
00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:25,839
Speaker 2: It's not being liked. So for me, that's the only

927
00:48:25,880 --> 00:48:27,399
Speaker 2: way we're going to progress in life. That's the only

928
00:48:27,520 --> 00:48:28,839
Speaker 2: we need each other. Yeah, you know.

929
00:48:28,880 --> 00:48:30,880
Speaker 3: And when I look back what I've done already, and

930
00:48:30,920 --> 00:48:33,120
Speaker 3: sometimes I marvel at it. We just came back from

931
00:48:33,160 --> 00:48:36,440
Speaker 3: CYRILLI and I look at myself like, oh my gosh.

932
00:48:36,920 --> 00:48:39,439
Speaker 3: And the saddest part imagine if I didn't do it. Yeah,

933
00:48:39,719 --> 00:48:42,120
Speaker 3: And I look at it like what I've done, what

934
00:48:42,160 --> 00:48:45,760
Speaker 3: we've done with the foundation they miss out on people

935
00:48:46,719 --> 00:48:49,080
Speaker 3: where people don't do because of what somebody think. I

936
00:48:49,120 --> 00:48:51,799
Speaker 3: think that's the saddest part for me in humanity, in

937
00:48:51,880 --> 00:48:54,919
Speaker 3: human life, that because somebody thinks you cannot do it,

938
00:48:55,520 --> 00:48:57,719
Speaker 3: I would have missed out because nineteen nine point nine

939
00:48:57,719 --> 00:49:00,279
Speaker 3: percent of people said I could not do it, and.

940
00:49:00,239 --> 00:49:02,600
Speaker 2: I've been That's why you say that you don't believe

941
00:49:02,600 --> 00:49:04,319
Speaker 2: that anything is impossible, and you don't use that word

942
00:49:05,239 --> 00:49:07,799
Speaker 2: it is. Really I've got the same mindset of that.

943
00:49:08,080 --> 00:49:11,280
Speaker 2: You know, I havn't done so many things and seeing

944
00:49:11,320 --> 00:49:13,520
Speaker 2: so many things. It's like nothing is impossible.

945
00:49:13,560 --> 00:49:16,719
Speaker 3: It's like what dad said. The person that says it's impossible,

946
00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:19,880
Speaker 3: it's not or they're both right. So if you if

947
00:49:19,880 --> 00:49:24,080
Speaker 3: you said it's impossiblely you're right, absolutely absolutely. And how's

948
00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:27,479
Speaker 3: the foundation going? Is its strength to strength? It's going

949
00:49:27,480 --> 00:49:30,160
Speaker 3: from strength to strength? It is it's a lot of

950
00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:33,160
Speaker 3: it's it's a lot of joy. I get more than

951
00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:36,279
Speaker 3: I give, to be honest, but it is. It is

952
00:49:36,600 --> 00:49:40,280
Speaker 3: difficult because aust so far off Africa, yeah, the UK

953
00:49:40,520 --> 00:49:44,600
Speaker 3: you need in Europe, in the US, yes, that's the problem.

954
00:49:44,840 --> 00:49:46,560
Speaker 2: Yours are so bloody far away.

955
00:49:46,719 --> 00:49:49,640
Speaker 3: So the more for that they are the more they

956
00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:52,320
Speaker 3: lack of interest. Like this morning, I had a meeting

957
00:49:52,400 --> 00:49:55,840
Speaker 3: with a university in the US that found heard of

958
00:49:55,960 --> 00:49:58,680
Speaker 3: me and the tracement. I will never have that in Australia. Yeah,

959
00:49:58,920 --> 00:50:01,719
Speaker 3: so it is difficult for that, but I think my

960
00:50:02,440 --> 00:50:06,280
Speaker 3: mission is to make sure I change that and after

961
00:50:06,320 --> 00:50:11,440
Speaker 3: that gradually, patiently and ask for grace. But at the

962
00:50:11,480 --> 00:50:13,839
Speaker 3: same time I have to be realistic that women are

963
00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:19,000
Speaker 3: dying one in seventeen women and children. It's the highest

964
00:50:19,000 --> 00:50:21,200
Speaker 3: in the world. It's the most dangerous place for any

965
00:50:21,239 --> 00:50:24,640
Speaker 3: woman to give birth, even worse than refugee camp. And

966
00:50:24,680 --> 00:50:27,160
Speaker 3: if it's an organization like myself, like I mean at

967
00:50:27,160 --> 00:50:30,920
Speaker 3: a maternal foundation with one staff can do what we've done.

968
00:50:31,040 --> 00:50:34,400
Speaker 3: Imagine if we are one person of Australia just jumping

969
00:50:34,440 --> 00:50:38,120
Speaker 3: on board, we've done incredible work. But I also have

970
00:50:38,160 --> 00:50:40,600
Speaker 3: to be realistic that as much as I'm being patient,

971
00:50:40,640 --> 00:50:45,759
Speaker 3: I have to open to international aid to to do

972
00:50:46,000 --> 00:50:49,560
Speaker 3: what we're doing, because in Sydney alone, or in Australia alone,

973
00:50:49,600 --> 00:50:52,120
Speaker 3: I'm the only organization that I know office working in

974
00:50:52,160 --> 00:50:55,440
Speaker 3: Africa in maternal health. And this is different of course

975
00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:58,040
Speaker 3: from the UK. I'm the only black person that has

976
00:50:58,120 --> 00:51:01,520
Speaker 3: founded African person that has founded and run and on

977
00:51:01,640 --> 00:51:07,760
Speaker 3: for profit. Wow, that's very especially in Australia and it's everywhere.

978
00:51:07,360 --> 00:51:10,680
Speaker 2: And well, do you know what, Hopefully you've kick started

979
00:51:10,719 --> 00:51:14,200
Speaker 2: something that they need to start somewhere, right and you've

980
00:51:14,239 --> 00:51:16,920
Speaker 2: been that stubborn and I don't need to finish it

981
00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:17,440
Speaker 2: at all.

982
00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:23,400
Speaker 3: It can pass on to someone. It's really the issue

983
00:51:23,440 --> 00:51:26,759
Speaker 3: day is really terrible. It's it's hopeful. There's a lot

984
00:51:26,760 --> 00:51:28,759
Speaker 3: of hope that things can be done. We walk with

985
00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:31,719
Speaker 3: a lot of teenage pregnancy girls. Syrian didn't have the

986
00:51:31,760 --> 00:51:35,320
Speaker 3: highest teenager teenage pregnancy because of Ebola. There was on

987
00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:37,000
Speaker 3: schooling for two years.

988
00:51:37,239 --> 00:51:40,160
Speaker 2: So and that was the first pandemic. Yeah, a lot

989
00:51:40,160 --> 00:51:42,720
Speaker 2: of people say, you know there was a pandemic COVID

990
00:51:42,800 --> 00:51:45,759
Speaker 2: was Boler was a pandemic because everything got shut down

991
00:51:45,800 --> 00:51:50,520
Speaker 2: there you couldn't get it. And I was us, Yeah, yeah,

992
00:51:50,680 --> 00:51:54,280
Speaker 2: I was. I was stuck out and Surah enduring during

993
00:51:54,360 --> 00:51:59,200
Speaker 2: the boler pandemic, and yeah it was. It was totally

994
00:51:59,239 --> 00:52:03,759
Speaker 2: different to what I experience with the COVID pandemic. But

995
00:52:03,920 --> 00:52:06,680
Speaker 2: what I love about you is you use your life

996
00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:10,080
Speaker 2: experience in such a positive way. And I know that

997
00:52:10,120 --> 00:52:13,760
Speaker 2: your father is sitting here, and I know it's because

998
00:52:13,800 --> 00:52:16,000
Speaker 2: of him that you're you're like that, But that takes

999
00:52:16,200 --> 00:52:19,640
Speaker 2: a certain mindset. What how do you How do you

1000
00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:21,279
Speaker 2: do you stay so positive? Do you?

1001
00:52:21,360 --> 00:52:22,120
Speaker 3: Are you?

1002
00:52:22,040 --> 00:52:25,440
Speaker 2: You cut things out that? Are you just right? I'm

1003
00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:27,600
Speaker 2: living life. I'm just grateful to be here. I've got

1004
00:52:27,920 --> 00:52:31,000
Speaker 2: my guardian angel my shoulder, which is my father, and

1005
00:52:31,680 --> 00:52:34,279
Speaker 2: I'm just going to push on and do good for

1006
00:52:34,360 --> 00:52:39,480
Speaker 2: other people because co to not be to be as

1007
00:52:39,480 --> 00:52:42,919
Speaker 2: selfless as you are with what you've been through, that

1008
00:52:43,080 --> 00:52:47,040
Speaker 2: is phenomenal. It's it's inspired, it's inspirational what goes on

1009
00:52:47,120 --> 00:52:50,120
Speaker 2: in your mind on a day to day basis in my.

1010
00:52:50,080 --> 00:52:54,440
Speaker 3: Mind, I think I come to accept that acceptance to

1011
00:52:54,480 --> 00:52:57,960
Speaker 3: be honest, like life is never going to be perfect

1012
00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:00,640
Speaker 3: every single pace, even if you have other in the world,

1013
00:53:00,680 --> 00:53:03,359
Speaker 3: there is something that's happening. It's not anything personal. Life

1014
00:53:03,360 --> 00:53:08,080
Speaker 3: will continue to happen, and that's the acceptance for I

1015
00:53:08,080 --> 00:53:10,440
Speaker 3: think in the wayst it's very different to we have

1016
00:53:10,560 --> 00:53:13,279
Speaker 3: this illusion that things have to go this way. If

1017
00:53:13,320 --> 00:53:17,120
Speaker 3: you have cancer, I mean something, you did something. It's

1018
00:53:17,200 --> 00:53:19,719
Speaker 3: just understanding that this is the life that we live.

1019
00:53:19,800 --> 00:53:24,160
Speaker 3: Things will happen. And then making a decision that while

1020
00:53:24,600 --> 00:53:27,560
Speaker 3: it's happened, where things are happening, what are things that

1021
00:53:27,600 --> 00:53:28,960
Speaker 3: you can focus your mind. So if I have a

1022
00:53:29,000 --> 00:53:33,319
Speaker 3: situation going with work, I spend ninety percent of my

1023
00:53:33,480 --> 00:53:36,400
Speaker 3: time where the solution is or what is happening and

1024
00:53:36,440 --> 00:53:38,000
Speaker 3: then what is not happening because I do not have

1025
00:53:38,040 --> 00:53:40,960
Speaker 3: a control. And I always find yeah, I always find

1026
00:53:40,960 --> 00:53:43,480
Speaker 3: out that when I'm focused on that this is actually happening,

1027
00:53:44,200 --> 00:53:48,880
Speaker 3: like life is making it happen. So there's there's certain

1028
00:53:48,880 --> 00:53:51,719
Speaker 3: ways that I've walked my mind if I'm going through things.

1029
00:53:51,760 --> 00:53:53,719
Speaker 3: My husband is a person I don't I tell only

1030
00:53:53,719 --> 00:53:56,560
Speaker 3: after I've overcome it, because he is the person that

1031
00:53:56,600 --> 00:53:58,960
Speaker 3: wants to protect me. And I actually talk to my

1032
00:53:59,040 --> 00:54:02,120
Speaker 3: kids a lot since we're babies. Even in the back seat,

1033
00:54:02,520 --> 00:54:04,480
Speaker 3: I will tell my kids, oh I'm mad, this is

1034
00:54:04,520 --> 00:54:07,759
Speaker 3: this up. And so my daughter and my son twelve

1035
00:54:07,840 --> 00:54:10,200
Speaker 3: years old in ten I talk to them a lot.

1036
00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:13,640
Speaker 3: And kids are just brilliant and how they can come

1037
00:54:13,719 --> 00:54:18,399
Speaker 3: up with things so adaptable. So yeah, and when there's

1038
00:54:18,400 --> 00:54:20,840
Speaker 3: a situation going, I find I find instead of blaming

1039
00:54:20,840 --> 00:54:23,919
Speaker 3: and I'll say, okay, world role because did I play?

1040
00:54:23,960 --> 00:54:27,600
Speaker 3: Because we have it doesn't matter how much that hurts me.

1041
00:54:28,080 --> 00:54:31,359
Speaker 3: I would have contributed for something to have. So there's

1042
00:54:31,520 --> 00:54:33,280
Speaker 3: a lot of techniques that I do that I've become

1043
00:54:33,280 --> 00:54:36,640
Speaker 3: a lifestyle for me. I just don't dwell on the

1044
00:54:36,680 --> 00:54:39,920
Speaker 3: things that cannot change. I really, I really don't don't. Well,

1045
00:54:39,960 --> 00:54:43,319
Speaker 3: I don't forget it, but I found out I work

1046
00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:44,520
Speaker 3: itself out.

1047
00:54:44,800 --> 00:54:45,200
Speaker 4: Wow.

1048
00:54:45,520 --> 00:54:49,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, let's finish on your book, Rising Heard. Tell

1049
00:54:49,840 --> 00:54:51,960
Speaker 2: me about it. You've kindly brought me a signed copy,

1050
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:54,360
Speaker 2: which I'm going to dive into on my on my

1051
00:54:54,440 --> 00:54:59,400
Speaker 2: journey back to to home Rising Heart. Why did you

1052
00:54:59,400 --> 00:55:02,439
Speaker 2: write it and and tell me what it's about?

1053
00:55:02,440 --> 00:55:05,719
Speaker 3: Briefly, Well, it is about the story that I've talked

1054
00:55:05,719 --> 00:55:08,600
Speaker 3: about my life and the way I was brought up,

1055
00:55:08,640 --> 00:55:11,320
Speaker 3: and the reason why I wrote it it was because

1056
00:55:11,760 --> 00:55:16,480
Speaker 3: I wanted to people to understand how African grew up.

1057
00:55:17,120 --> 00:55:21,719
Speaker 3: I'm being in Australia being asked poverty all the other

1058
00:55:21,840 --> 00:55:24,400
Speaker 3: questions and asked about my dad, my grandfather, things that

1059
00:55:24,440 --> 00:55:27,400
Speaker 3: I larned, my brother. So it was for that reason,

1060
00:55:27,440 --> 00:55:31,239
Speaker 3: but also most importantly, I knew that my country has

1061
00:55:31,280 --> 00:55:36,120
Speaker 3: been forgotten and I felt like the way I was

1062
00:55:36,280 --> 00:55:38,040
Speaker 3: raised was the preparation for me to be able to

1063
00:55:38,040 --> 00:55:42,279
Speaker 3: tell my story with no shame, no guilt, and I

1064
00:55:42,320 --> 00:55:46,879
Speaker 3: talked about my story because it's mine, and I embraced it.

1065
00:55:47,120 --> 00:55:49,680
Speaker 3: I didn't like what was what happened to me, but

1066
00:55:49,760 --> 00:55:51,919
Speaker 3: I'm not afraid of it whenever it shows up. So

1067
00:55:52,440 --> 00:55:55,480
Speaker 3: I wanted to do it in the place of the

1068
00:55:55,520 --> 00:55:58,239
Speaker 3: other girls and the women that were kidnapped, people who've

1069
00:55:58,239 --> 00:56:01,160
Speaker 3: gone through things and all that. You don't have to

1070
00:56:01,239 --> 00:56:04,520
Speaker 3: sometimes tell your story, but you can't escape your story.

1071
00:56:04,960 --> 00:56:07,680
Speaker 3: You escape you can you can never escape it. And

1072
00:56:07,719 --> 00:56:10,080
Speaker 3: I think that's why we are stuck. I don't feel stuck.

1073
00:56:10,120 --> 00:56:14,000
Speaker 3: I feel liberated. I feel free because whenever it shows

1074
00:56:14,080 --> 00:56:19,799
Speaker 3: up and I say hi, yeah, and I recognize it,

1075
00:56:19,920 --> 00:56:24,200
Speaker 3: and I know I would probably not be here if

1076
00:56:24,200 --> 00:56:26,799
Speaker 3: I didn't go through that. It's not a thing that

1077
00:56:26,840 --> 00:56:31,120
Speaker 3: you want to go through. But we can make something

1078
00:56:31,520 --> 00:56:32,680
Speaker 3: good out of something.

1079
00:56:32,960 --> 00:56:35,799
Speaker 2: It's always positive, to be fair, it's always if.

1080
00:56:35,680 --> 00:56:36,440
Speaker 3: You find.

1081
00:56:38,200 --> 00:56:40,799
Speaker 2: There's always a rainbow, and courageous enough to dive into

1082
00:56:40,800 --> 00:56:41,960
Speaker 2: that negativity and look for it.

1083
00:56:41,960 --> 00:56:44,560
Speaker 3: There's a positive and the negativity. It's really the story

1084
00:56:44,560 --> 00:56:48,400
Speaker 3: you tell yourself. So it's what you tell yourself. And

1085
00:56:49,400 --> 00:56:52,680
Speaker 3: when I I said I've never thought of I don't

1086
00:56:52,719 --> 00:56:54,399
Speaker 3: really I don't think of my story until I talk

1087
00:56:54,440 --> 00:56:58,400
Speaker 3: about it, and then I forget about it. But wherever

1088
00:56:58,440 --> 00:57:01,200
Speaker 3: I am, I am with my story, and my kids

1089
00:57:01,280 --> 00:57:04,240
Speaker 3: will know my story, and it's a story of millions

1090
00:57:04,280 --> 00:57:07,200
Speaker 3: of girls, and it can liberate because a lot of

1091
00:57:07,200 --> 00:57:08,960
Speaker 3: people reach out to me Sie, thank you for sharing.

1092
00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:10,680
Speaker 3: But I didn't. I didn't want it to be just

1093
00:57:10,719 --> 00:57:12,319
Speaker 3: about what happened to me. I wanted to be about

1094
00:57:12,360 --> 00:57:15,239
Speaker 3: my childhood. I want to talk about my dad, the

1095
00:57:15,280 --> 00:57:19,120
Speaker 3: father five got the important of fatherhood because I actually

1096
00:57:19,200 --> 00:57:23,920
Speaker 3: believe that m if we stayed with our daughters or

1097
00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:29,200
Speaker 3: even our sons, like they can be better. We need

1098
00:57:29,240 --> 00:57:32,400
Speaker 3: more than ever. So yeah, so there was a lot

1099
00:57:32,440 --> 00:57:34,560
Speaker 3: of pizzis. So you got a refugee party, get ap

1100
00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:40,520
Speaker 3: bringing part, and you get a hopeful part in and joy.

1101
00:57:39,600 --> 00:57:43,080
Speaker 2: You know, and at the end of all of it,

1102
00:57:43,120 --> 00:57:43,920
Speaker 2: we've got hope and.

1103
00:57:43,920 --> 00:57:46,040
Speaker 3: Joy and not happiness.

1104
00:57:45,600 --> 00:57:48,960
Speaker 2: Joy rising hearts. Right, go out there and read it

1105
00:57:49,000 --> 00:57:51,840
Speaker 2: because people are going to get the you know, the

1106
00:57:51,920 --> 00:57:55,440
Speaker 2: general story from this podcast. But if you want to

1107
00:57:55,440 --> 00:57:58,439
Speaker 2: go into details, go and go and grab rising heart

1108
00:57:58,880 --> 00:58:01,800
Speaker 2: and best of luck with that. I wish you nothing

1109
00:58:01,840 --> 00:58:05,760
Speaker 2: but hope and joy. Thank you, thank you so much

1110
00:58:05,760 --> 00:58:08,920
Speaker 2: for joining me on headgame. To find out more and

1111
00:58:09,000 --> 00:58:15,320
Speaker 2: support the Amanata Maternal Foundation, head to Amanatamaternalfoundation dot org.

1112
00:58:15,960 --> 00:58:19,680
Speaker 2: I'll also link the details in the show notes. I'm

1113
00:58:19,720 --> 00:58:22,320
Speaker 2: Att Middleton. Catch you again next time.