Story Board- a de go na os (I Am Going Home)

Character Bios:

Samuel Yewande is only a small 11-year-old boy thrown into a world of fear, hatred, violence, and greed. Samuel lives with his mother Roseline and his young sister Jemmi in a peaceful farming village in Sierra Leone during one of the most hellish African conflicts to date. Samuel is a smart boy who lives quite happy despite the horrific civil war taking place in his country. He enjoys reading more than anything else and is frequently mocked by other children for being such a bookworm. Samuel takes care of his sister most of the time because his mother must work all day and his father was killed when the civil war began in 1991, or so he was told. One of his biggest flaws is the fact that Samuel is unsure of himself and constantly blames himself when bad things happen around him. This part of him makes him vulnerable and dangerous later on in the story. Samuel cares deeply about his family and feels lost when he is without them.

Jemmi Yewande is Samuels’s younger 9-year-old sister. Although Jemmi is quite smart and is a strong individual all around, she is quite afraid of the danger that threatens her village. She is a quiet girl and spends most of the time along side of her older brother. Jemmi’s prized possession is a tiny stuffed rabbit named “Mama Rabbit”. She cares deeply for this toy even though it is quite childish. Jemmi seems like she is timid and weak, but when the time comes she will show her ability to fight for what she believes in.

Roseline Yewande is the mother of Samuel and Jemmi. She is a hard-working 46-year-old woman who loves her children more than anything. She is fairly weak physically because of her job working in the rice field’s long days. Roseline is often extremely worried because of the haunting thought of the R.U.F. (Revolutionary United Front) rebel group coming back to her village like the time when her husband was taken. She shelters her kids as much as possible from the threatening violence of the rebel groups.

Sheku Yewande is the father of the Yewande family. The R.U.F. rebel group took him back in 1991 when he was with a group of farmers out searching for a small herd of stray cattle. The rest of his family is under the assumption that these people killed him. However, while the rest of his group was murdered, the rebels thought that he was young and fit enough to work for them in the diamond mining fields. This man is still good hearted and loves his family dearly, but he abides the commands of the rebel leaders. He has little hope, but when he reunites with someone he presumed to be dead, he gains newfound courage.

Story Synopsis:

Samuel Yewande, a seven-year-old boy from a small farming village in Sierra Leone during the country’s civil war there in 1999 is absent-minded of the horrific events taking place in dozens of places all over his country. No, instead he is focusing on his English grammar that he has been learning a lot about. Walking down the dirt road leading to his school he pulls out a book. The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare, one of his favorites. A group of children walk past, giggling at Samuel because he always seemed to have his nose in a book. He is along side his younger, nine-year-old sister Jemmi. She is silent and walks quietly with a slightly fast pace. She is focused on her stuffed companion, Mama Rabbit who seems to have a small tear on her left side.
Samuel looks up from his book as he hears peoples’ voices approaching. He turns back and sees a girl around his age laughing along with her father as they too walk down the dirt road towards the village school. He stares for a few seconds until he realizes this is impolite and turns back. Samuel begins to think deeply about the father he once had. This makes him slightly angry and he forgets about it as Jemmi and himself approach the school. After an eventful day at school, the two siblings hurry home to begin their chores. Jemmi cleans the family’s home as dirt is blown into it when the family is away. This doesn’t take long so she eventually starts her homework. Samuel is preparing the rice for dinner as he often does and doesn’t begin his homework until around the time when the children’s mother, Roseline arrives home from the rice fields where she works. After a happy family meal, the sun goes down and the three of them go to bed. Samuel can’t sleep and lays down facing the ceiling, in deep thought for long periods of time as he often does. On this particular night, he is listening to the sounds of his village. He can hear the cattle, as they cannot seem to fall asleep either. He hears the sounds of his mother and sister breathing quietly, but he also hears one other sound. He can’t make it out. It is a faint buzzing noise and it seems to be getting louder. It isn’t exactly a pleasant sound and Samuel begins to hear a booming noise. This is the sound of music, but not the kind of music Samuel likes, and it sounds as if it’s getting closer. Samuel then hears the sound of angry yelling and realizes that the buzzing noise he heard was a truck. At this moment Samuel knows that something bad is approaching. Panic now builds inside Samuel and he hurries over to his family members to wake them. His mother wakes up angrily, but after a few seconds she hears the noises too and becomes very afraid. When all three of them are awake, they run outside their home to see that many others are now up and frightened. Samuel can now see the trucks of men. He hears them yelling. The trucks slow and they begin to hear gunfire from the far side of the villages. People are now running in complete panic, screaming and running while people they have known all their lives are being murdered all around them. Roseline screams at Samuel to take his sister Jemmi and run down the back path toward the jungle as fast as they can while she goes to get her closest friend in the hut only a few homes away from their own. She is sweating and wears a look on her face that the children hadn’t ever seen before. She screams again at them and they both don’t think twice. After what seems like a very long time of running in fear, Samuel turns back to make sure that his sister is keeping up to him. He his still on the path and is close to the jungle. As he turns back, Jemmi is nowhere to be seen. Scared and in complete hysteria he screams for her several times before seeing a light from behind him. When he turns around he sees a truck coming down the path in his direction. Breathing hard, he sprints into the neighboring field and into the jungle. He is now crying, bleeding with no shoes, and being cut by the branches as he moves quickly through the forest. He then falls to the ground, tripped by a log covered with moss. He can still hear the devastation. After some time, things are quieter and he begins to cry. Then, without any notice or warning, Samuel is grabbed by a man from behind and violently taken from the forest the opposite way from which he came. Thrown into a random truck and taken away with a handful of other boys he had seen before, Samuel had become a prisoner and a soon to be child soldier for the Revolutionary United Front.
As time moves on, Samuel is forced to do horrific things as a soldier. He is mostly reluctant. However, when he is violently scolded, he does as he is told. After being trained to be a cold-hearted killer, the group travels from place to place and causes total destruction. In one particular place, while these events are going on, Samuel stops to see something that makes him happy and terrified at the same time. He sees his sister Jemmi holding a gun in her hands and shooting with a violent look on her face that he had never seen before. For the time they stay in that area, Samuel meets with his sister and to his relief she is the same sweet girl at heart that she’s always been and only very afraid. Soon after, they are split apart again and taken in separate directions.
When Samuel is taken to a diamond mining field with a few other children for a short while, he reunites with a man who he presumed to be dead from the time when he was three years old; his father Sheku. Their relationship with each other is uneven at first, but Samuel trusts this man. One day, Samuel’s father comes up with the idea to escape. The two attempt this and it works until they are quickly begin being tracked. However, the area they had escaped from was then attacked by governmental troops. The father and son hide out from both sides of the war, unsure whom to trust. They travel to Freetown, where they get to know each other much better. When the city is attacked, Sheku orders Samuel to take the diamonds that he’s been smuggling. Samuel is angry and scared because he thought that his father was good man and that he wanted to end the violence in his country. Sheku is shot and demands Samuel to use the diamonds to get to a safe place and possibly find the rest of his family. With other refugees from Freetown he travels along and meets a man who can help him find his family. However, in return he wants the diamonds. On their way, the area is attacked and their car is shot at. The car crashes and the man steals Samuel’s diamonds and runs away. Samuel once again runs to safety, but the rebels are stopped by troops. This time Samuel runs to their aid. When safe, a woman working for the Peace Corps. asks him what his name is. When Samuel tells her she stops and looks at him. When they arrive at the refugee camp, the woman takes Samuel to an area where to his surprise he is reunited with his mother and sister.
Samuel’s village is eventually rebuilt and his family returns there to start over again. Samuel doesn’t tell them about his father because he is unsure of what to think of him himself. Samuel’s spirit has changed and he is often very emotional. An honorary cemetery to fallen family members is put up near the village and his fathers name is among those honored. In the end, Samuel comes to the conclusion that some people may do bad things, but good people sometimes do bad things for good reasons. This brings Samuel to tears. He understands that his father did what he did because it was the right thing to do. He did what he did because he loved Samuel. Samuel feels extremely guilty about what he did after being captured, but comes to an understanding with himself as well. Samuel tells himself that he is a good boy who will fight for his family and what he loves through anything, that he is cannot blame himself for what people in his country do to each other. Lastly, Samuel understands that he must move on because that’s all he really can do.