It's Only Banter: The Autobiography of Leroy Rosenior by Leroy Rosenior

Author:Leroy Rosenior
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2017-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

8

Realm Of The Free

Tap…tap…tap.

My father had been expecting an ominous knocking but nevertheless, it filled the house with fear. Minutes earlier he and my mother had peered from behind an upstairs curtain and seen that unwanted visitors were headed their way. They were banging on neighbours’ doors and soon it would be his turn.

Tap…tap…tap.

As a kid, when the doorbell went and having peeped from the living room window in Brixton and seen that it was the electricity man come to enquire about a meter skilfully but illegally tampered with, Dad would tell us all to hide and be quiet. Off we’d tip-toe behind the sofa or into the kitchen, trying hard not to squeal with laughter. It was an adventure where our imaginations could run wild until Dad would give the all-clear, ‘He’s gone. You can come out now.’

This was different. In the late 1990s my mother and father had moved back to Freetown in Sierra Leone to give life a go in the home town that together, they had never called home. The region had been in political turmoil for years and in May 1997 there was a new coup in which Freetown itself was taken easily by a military general, Johnny Paul Koroma, who had been freed from jail by his soldiers and who would oversee widespread looting, rape and murder in the city for months to come.

Moving from door to door, arresting people on a whim and taking them handcuffed into custody, armed soldiers on a mission to fill prison cells and maybe worse were on their fearful manoeuvres. Who knows what fate befell those taken from their homes on that sinister, moonless night and my father knew he and my mum were in trouble. ‘Hide,’ he told her. ‘Hide well.’

He directed her to a small cupboard, gave her a reassuring hug and made an unconvincing promise that he would – like he had so often in London – talk his way out of a tricky situation.

Tap…tap…tap.

My father tentatively answered the door.

* * * * *

‘Don’t do it!’ my dad had always said. Ever since I had started at Fulham, the Sierra Leone national team had made formal and informal contact regarding me playing for their national team. Dad was adamant I shouldn’t, citing his country’s widespread corruption and unorganised bureaucracy as a reason to simply not get involved. I would nod and smile at him but the real reason I was saying no was I had ambitions of playing for England. As a schoolboy footballer, I had worn that blazer with the three lions and I wanted to do it at a senior level.

Under Graham Taylor I had made one under-21 appearance and while I didn’t agree with Graham’s style of football, I liked him and wanted to sample international football at a higher level. It wasn’t to be. In 1993, in the autumn of my playing career and with an African Nations qualifier against Guinea looming, word reached me that the country of my mum and dad’s birth once again requested my services.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.