bu
Bakarr came from Kabala, a town in the extreme north of the country.
He was a high school student at the catholic school there. He was a catechumen, in the final preparations for his
baptism. It was Nov. 1994 and the
rebels had attacked the town, and as they do everywhere, they tried to enlist by
force or persuasion young persons to join their cause.
They forcefully approached Abu Bakarr and “invited”
him to join them. His response to
them was a resounding “no” and he based that on what he was learning
and trying to live as a disciple of Jesus…
Violence was to have no place in his life.
Their response was to gruesomely kill him as an example to the other
youths of Kabala town.
Emmanuel Pratt was a CYO leader (Christian Youth Organization) in his parish of Waterloo and representative to the Western Area Youth Council of all the parishes in the Greater Freetown region. He was also on the parish council. He was being trained in conflict resolution skills and mediation processes which would hopefully lead to reconciliation, especially among the young, in the present conflict in Sierra Leone. However, in January of 1999, the rebels moved to Freetown, driving through surrounding towns like Waterloo. Emmanuel must have tried to mediate the fracas, because in a recent CNN documentary on the attack of Freetown (Cry Freetown, Feb. 2000), he is mentioned by other youths as one who tried to bring peace to the onslaught, but was gunned down by the rebels… He was trying to intervene and bring sanity to this insane situation. He was a leader, a Christian leader who put his life on the line for the youth of Waterloo, and lost his.
The Christmas Martyrs. Christmas 1998 was supposed to be Baptism day for many of the young cathecumens, (converts to the Catholic faith receiving training in doctrine and discipline before baptism), of the Makeni diocese. In the early hours of that same day the Peace (Ecomog). Forces arrived and used Christian and cathecumens and their families as shields in front of them as they sought the rebels, who had done the same things themselves in the surrounding villages. “My heart bleeds and cries for them!” grieves Xaverian Missionary, Fr. Nazzareno Bramati. “The Cathecumens have received their baptism, a Baptism of blood.”
(From Xaverian Mission Newsletter)