Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Aminata Conteh-Biger with Juliet Rieden, Pan Macmillan, $34.99.
The autobiography of Aminata Conteh-Biger is not only remarkable, but it’s also a heartening read!
This is one woman’s amazing journey in which she turns unbelievable trauma into the power for good in the world. Her determination to turn her harrowing experience from negative to positive can only be applauded.
Sierra Leone was in the midst of a brutal civil war in 1999 when mindless violence, vicious amputation and the rape of young enslaved women were the everyday weapons of bloody conflict. Rebel soldiers snatched 18-year-old Aminata from her father’s arms and held her captive.
Following her release, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees recognised her captors still posed a serious threat to her safety. Aminata was given the chance of a fresh start, as a refugee, and came to Australia in 2000. She did not allow her ordeal to define her and admits that while her story is in no way unique, she didn’t want to be thought of as a victim. Survival skills are fine-tuned.
Living in Sydney, the author and inspirational speaker is proud of her new life, but it took a near-death experience during the birth of her daughter Sarafina that turned her attention to the women of Sierra Leone – where they are 200 times more likely to die while having a baby than in Australia.
“I have big dreams and my heart is bursting with joy for the future. I can see it, feel it and touch it. The word ‘impossible’ doesn’t exist for me. Life is always full of possibility and this is what I was meant to do.”
So, she set up the Aminata Maternal Foundation, then returned to the land of her birth to help others in need. The project to lift the standard of maternal and infant health in her former homeland is an intensely personal account of endurance.
The unbelievable brutality is disquieting and inspirational, at the same time. It’s an incredible story of change and conviction. In the face of so much hardship, Aminata’s steadfast belief in human kindness can only be commended.
