07/12/2025
ABASS SESAY: A Remarkable Journey of Hope
Some of us face overwhelming challenges because life sometimes feels impossible, despite our best efforts. Yet, my dear friend Abass Sesay has navigated through every obstacleโcreeping, crawling, and walkingโand now he stands tall and proud. Abass lost his right arm to the same bullet that tragically took his grandmother, who was carrying him on her back, forever part of the Sierra Leonean civil war.
As a young child, Abass was caught in a brutal and uncontrolled civil war that lasted over ten years in Sierra Leone. From 1991 to 2002, the country was engulfed in chaos, which I once described as โa war of all against all for no reason.โ When President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah finally announced in January 2002 that โDe Wa Don Donโ (the war has ended), even he didnโt fully believe that peace had truly arrived. Like many Sierra Leoneans, he was taking a leap of faith with the rebel groups, including the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which kept the country in a constant state of conflictโshrouded in the innocent blood of countless citizens.
The war ended, but Abass was still just a child. He was paraded on international stages to show how deeply wounded and depraved our society had become. Despite this, Abass refused to be defeated by his hardships. I know this because I, too, survived the Liberian and Sierra Leonean civil wars. When I looked into his eyes, I saw a boy who would face lifeโs difficulties like Leonidas at Thermopylaeโdetermined and courageous. This wasnโt about making lemonade out of lemons; Abass chose to confront the sourness of life because sometimes itโs unfair, and thatโs okay.
Sierra Leone eventually found peace, but Abass was pulled from the loving embrace that once carried him like a lamb, and he found himself in orphanages and amputee campsโpoor, hungry, and longing for the love he needed. His mother, too, had been deeply traumatized by the war, left with wounds so profound they cannot be seen.
With a little help from a kind Catholic priest who ran an orphanage, offering care and a reason to keep going, Abass found the strength to survive. Many children faltered even with this support, but Abass persisted and eventually went to college, earning a degree in Social Work.
When I first spoke with Abass, he shared his dream of becoming a lawyer because he wanted to be an advocate for others who, like him, had endured the horrors of war. Yesterday, he took another step toward that dream, graduating with an LLB. Honors.
In a year, he will enter law school, standing tall with those expressive eyes that reveal his incredible resilience. And I will be cheering for my brother, proud of his journey and his bright future.
