Operation Certain Death by Damien Lewis

Author:Damien Lewis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House

14

NO ESCAPE

Those who look upon other people’s misery with indifference are the most miserable people of all.

– Paulo Coelho, Manual of the Warrior of Light

DAY TEN OF the hostage crisis was a Sunday, but no one in Gberi Bana was going to church. The West Side Boys believed in a bizarre fusion of black magic and voodoo often called ju-ju in West African countries like Sierra Leone – so there was no special or regular day of worship for them. When practised traditionally in Sierra Leone, the belief system of a family, a village or tribe is rooted in reverence for their ancestors and in animistic beliefs (the worship of nature, the sky, trees and animals, all of which are believed to have souls). This is the ju-ju that is practised by the Kamajors in Sierra Leone. As such, it is supposed to provide the Kamajor warriors with unearthly powers in combat, and supernatural prowess in battle.

But the West Side Boys had taken this traditional belief system, and bastardised it. They had taken the ju-ju and turned it to the dark side, trying to use its powers to justify their cruel and inhuman behaviour, and to protect them against those who tried to rein in their depravities.

Much of their warped belief system seemed to be inspired by Foday Kallay’s wife, their so-called Voodoo Queen. Mamma Kallay had an insatiable appetite for cruelty and evil. She took intense pleasure in killings and torture. Her speciality was summary executions. She would have prisoners tied up, place a pistol in their ear and pull the trigger, watching the brains spurt out the other side of the skull. She was addicted to heroin and crack cocaine, as was Foday Kallay himself, and regular supplies would be brought into the rebel base from Freetown, to feed their addictions.

The most popular time for the West Side Boys to have some heavy voodoo sessions with her was before they went into battle. The Voodoo Queen would gather the young warriors around her bulk, roll her eyes and jiggle her ample bosom, and mutter what the British hostages suspected was a load of complete gibberish. A chicken might be sacrificed, its entrails being ‘read’ to predict victory in a forthcoming battle. Feathers and bones would be handed out to the young fighters, as charms to ensure defeat for the enemy. The rebels seemed to like it, and Mamma Kallay wasn’t the one going off into battle with only a few chicken-feather charms to ward off the bullets.

Halfway through that Sunday morning, the hostages noticed that there was a bit of a commotion down at the riverside. As they watched, a crowd gathered and shortly a group of thirty or so men and boys were hustled up the track towards the centre of the village. As they were frogmarched up the hill, they were being yelled at and hit around the head and generally intimidated by the West Side Boys. But in spite of their bad treatment, the group

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