When did you leave Sierra Leone?

I have visited SL twice since the end of the war, and there is none of the tension in other post-war African countries. People who fought on opposite sides in the war live side by side. Bangura left SL in 2003, so no war related fears there.

Note, he is from Freetown, the capital, where secret societies of the sort which he claims he fears, are not very influential. In any event, these societies are NOT ‘voodoo cults’ as the media are trying to portray them. They are merely community organisations. I have never heard of anyone being threatened with death for not joining. I believe he made up this story just to be allowed to stay in UK.

As a Sierra Leonean I hope he will be able to get a work permit. But not by lying about his country. His made-up account has given the Western media the occasion (once again) to portray Africa as the ‘heart of darkness’, a place of unimaginable savagery. Through the tabloids, more people are hearing Bangura’s lies than followed the SL elections this summer, which saw a peaceful handover of power to the opposition for the first time ever!

SL needs inward investment. These poisonous lies will only scare away the investors.

Fact is, it’s more about awareness than anything else. His situation may turn out well, because as you said, either way, he hopefully will have options available to him to keep him from being forced to stay in Sierra Leone, there are many other people in similar or worse situations, and a high-profile case like this might help to create awareness of those situations, and hopefully help at least another person out in the future.

Plus, he might go to Mali because of ancestory, he’ll be able to reside there for 6 months min. I believe…

Thanks for sharing more background about Al. This world is a crazy place and it’s unfortunate that issues like this have to be brought to light after many hundreds of thousands of people have suffered. Ahmed brought SoccerLens original post on Al to my attention and my guys are doing what we can and know how to help ( http://tinyurl.com/32b6k3.html ). I guess the deeper question to all of this is how can the football community at large continue to help with these important life issues? We for one are trying to build a foundation — Footballers For Peace — and there are other great organizations around the world like Grassroots Soccer who are helping to educate Africa about AIDS through soccer as well as others. Every football/soccer supporter I would hope has an organization that they support and dedicated time to as its important. We all have the power to make an impact and collectively we can generate significant change in this world. Sorry for the lecture, I’m just passionate about evangelizing the need for a more united football community.

On another note, Eddie I noticed you are in South Texas – me too. In fact, I’m in New Braunfels, TX in between San Antonio & Austin. So, if you’d ever like to get together and chat about football let me know.

Save Al ( http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-al-bangura )

Cheers,
Jason

Aside from that, this is an excellent write-up. I’ve been following soccerlens since its early development and this is precisely the kind of articles that should feature more on the blog. Please keep it up. ^^

Good to see the Watford fan’s doing this…