Refugee Was My Name

On the eve of a promising future in his homeland, a former street boy (peekin) in Liberia sees his plans disappear when war erupts, the predicted 'fatal rain,' erupts overnight. Civil War is driven by political and tribal animosities. Crossing armed checkpoints as a displaced person in his country and a refugee in Sierra Leone and Ghana, Mogama (Moses Garswa Matally) leads a band of middle-class and other Liberians fleeing their country's disaster. Loss of identity, changing identities, and travel by foot, bus, boat, and air lead to Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana recognized by Ghana and the UN High Commission for Refugees. Christian and Muslim groups bring aid into the camp, where hard floors, unsafe water, hunger and cold test every day. Mogama records on paper, in those times, the disease, distrust, and immeasurable pain of war survivors who have lost almost everything, including their families, in some cases. Refusing to give up, even in his own depression, Mogama agrees to take on other leadership roles, to gather people together and help work continue together for daily needs, physical, relationship, and spiritual. Help from U. S. and others leads to studies in the U. S. at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. The author is a writer, counselor, teacher, and pastor, whom war made a suffering servant. His messages to others are included in this honest account of rising above what could kill the spirit as well as the body or mind. The author is a well-educated, compassionate, and insightful English-speaking writer. His story moves quickly between his years aged 24 to 28, with clarity, ironic humor, wry insight, and wise observation.