Interview with Isatu Kallon, February 25, 2019

Interview Summary

In this interview, Isatu Kallon, born in 1991, speaks about her experiences growing up in Kenema, Sierra Leone, her family, and what it was like growing up during the Rebel War. She begins by introducing her relationship to her grandmother, the woman who raised her most of the time as her mother worked to send Kallon and her two sisters to school. She moves on to speak about her large family; Kallon says she has more than seventy cousins. Kallon speaks about the horrors she witnessed growing up during the Rebel War in Sierra Leone and her eventual boat trip to Guinea to take refuge from the violence in Sierra Leone when she was about nine years old. She remembers coming to the United States for the first time, to New York City in April of 2013.

Interview Keyword

Rebel War Sierra Leone Democracy Childhood Family Civil wars Travel Refugees Trauma Childhood trauma Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Rebel War, Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, West Africa War crimes

Interview LC Subject

Education Immigrants Philadelphia (Pa.) Sierra Leone. Childhood College students--Social conditions Employment Occupations Civil war Politics and government Guinea. Families Emigration and immigration

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.