s i e r r a  l e o n e
In March of 1991, a brutal civil war began in the tiny West African country of Sierra Leone when a band of Sierra Leonean exiles and Liberian mercenaries attacked the town of Bomaru, near the Liberian border. Calling themselves the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), the rebels terrorized the civilian population for over ten years. In what has become a visual metaphor for this decade long reign of terror, the RUF also amputated the hands of thousands of Sierra Leoneans. Nearly half the four million people of Sierra Leone were misplaced by this bloodshed. Many crossed the border to the country of Guinea to live as refugees in camps sponsored by the United Nations.

The photographs and interviews in this portfolio were taken at the end of 2003, in UNHCR refugee camps on the Guinean-Sierra Leone border, and in several communities in Sierra Leone, in collaboration with the writer and anthropologist Lacey Gale. Early in 2003, the UNHCR declared Sierra Leone to be safe for repatriation, and began encouraging the refugees to return home. The documentary was an attempt to understand the complexity of this decision to return home, or not, for the refugees. The project was funded by the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid group which works with refugees worldwide.
b a c k
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