My interview evokes the unthinkable in
today's world of corruption and abuse.
It reminds of the times when we've sat
in movie theatres, hands clenched, ready
to cover our eyes quickly: because of not
wanting to see the next scene.

Mariatu Kamara, ADESTE'S 2009
Unsung Hero, was a girl child caught
in one of Africa's civil wars. Hers is
the story of a 12-year-old fleeing with
her cousins from Magborou, her Sierra
Leone village of 200 people, all cramped
into living within eight huts and where
six years earlier she'd begun working on
the communal farm.

While headed toward villages in the
direction of the border, thus enabling
them to escape - Mariatu and her aunt
Maria and cousin Adamasay walked
into an ambush. Being murdered
before her eyes was a man from a
neighboring village who had raped
her weeks earlier and with whose child
she was now pregnant. Her recurring

spilled blood, that she'd had just the
night before, along with her aunt Maria
Kamara's advice: "Answer 'yes' when
asked if you liked what you saw after
witnessing the murder of villagers you
know", were becoming a never-ending
replay in her mind!

Mariatu was held captive for several
hours. She was raped and then: "with
the swinging flare of the machete knife,
came the cutting off of both my hands.
It took the boy two attempts to cut off
my right hand. The first swipe didn't get
through the bone, which I saw sticking
out in all different shapes and sizes. He
brought the machete down again in a
different spot, higher up on my arm.
This time, my hand flew from the rock
onto the ground. 'Go see the president,'
the child soldier told me. 'Tell him to
give you new hands.'

"It was a kind man who found me,
offering me a mango that he held to my
mouth. My instincts said 'be brave.' It
was important to me to feel like a whole
person. So I insisted on taking the fruit
and holding it in the clotting stumps I'd
wrapped in a sheet.

"I was 12 years old and shortly thereafter,
a little son was born. He died 10 months
later leaving me pulverized with guilt,
convinced I'd killed him because of not
loving him enough."

Mariatu tells of her journey to the
capital, Freetown, her medical care

and pregnancy and her next few years
living in a refugee camp, begging on the
streets each day. The rebels' signature
is mutilation and it is estimated that
thousands of civilians have had arms,
legs, lips, ears amputated with machetes
and axes.

The story of Mariatu Kamara brings to
light the intelligence and beauty of a
very brave young lady who found the
strength to reach beyond and then to
intervene and shield other villagers in her
homeland of Sierra Leone.

My interview begins at a university in
Toronto, Canada, where, at the age of
22, Mariatu has found her new home.

The incredible beauty and sweetness of
Mariatu's face magnifies the absolute
wonder of her spirit's ability to creatively
transform multiple lived atrocities into
multiple benefits for others.

Susan Schellenberg - Artist, Author
Toronto, Canada

Mariatu is a personal embodiment of not
just struggles, but liberation personifying
a hope shouldered on life's worthiness of
the sheer power of 'I can'.

David C. Wesonga
ADESTE 2008 Gold Medal Recipient
Nairobi, Kenya