The Wisdom of Emmanuel

When we set out to make Brownstones, one of our major goals was to give these children a voice. We didn’t want to rely solely on parents or teachers or experts to tell this story. We wanted the kids’ perspectives. And they had so many important things to say.

Here are some thoughts from Emmanuel, who was rescued by Aunty Musu of the Children in Crisis school after the rebels murdered his parents. He was 14 years old when we filmed the documentary.

“When you are educated, no one can come and remove the education from your head.”

“I have to do something which is good for the people in Sierra Leone. That is the only way I think that Sierra Leone is going to be a good place in the future. For us and the children we are going to have in the future.”

“This war is not affecting the big people. It cannot affect them more than us, we the children, because they killed our mothers, they killed our fathers. We do not have parents again. So we think that this war is affecting us more than the big ones.”

“I have forgiven everybody who knows that he is guilty for my parent’s death because you have to forgive and forget.”