The Free Press, Mankato, MN

January 9, 2010

Back to Sierra Leone

Sheka Mansaray saving for trip to see family

By Leticia Gonzales, Special to The Free Press 

MANKATO — When school lets out this spring, many students at Minnesota State University will be taking vacations or going home to their families. 

But for 20-year-old Sheka Mansaray, a junior at MSU, his break from school will hopefully take him thousands of miles away. Mansaray has been saving money for the past year for a summer-long trip to Sierra Leone, Africa, to see his mother and other family members.

Mansaray has not been to his native homeland since he left the country in 1998. At the time, his father had arranged for Mansaray and his two brothers to come to the United States with him because of conflict and war in Sierra Leone.

The details of what happened aren’t completely clear to Mansaray, but while he was traveling to the United States with his brothers at the time, his father was apparently killed by rebels in Sierra Leone before they could reunite. 

Mansaray was only 9
years old when he and his two older brothers arrived in the United States in 1998. With help from his father’s friend, the three boys first went to Maryland and later ended up in Cottage Grove. They didn’t know anyone except for a family friend whom he refers to as “auntie.”

“It was hard for us to contact them from our family side in Sierra Leone because the war was going on heavy,” said Mansaray. “The reason why I am going to Sierra Leone is so I can find out more stuff.”

The details of his father’s death have never emerged. Mansaray has heard that it had to do with his father’s role in politics in Africa. He was not able to make contact with his mother or other family members that remained in Sierra Leone for many years.

“It took us five years to get in contact with my mom,” he said. “She had to be protected from the war that was going on. They were looking for people connected to my father.”

His mother didn’t have a working phone for a while, but when they did get in touch, the phone line connections were really bad.

“It was not a strong signal on the phone,” he said. “You would talk for two minutes and then there was background noise, and it was shut off. It’s been like that for the past four or five years. You can talk for about two or three minutes.”

Not only did Mansaray leave his mother behind in Sierra Leone, he had to say good-bye to his older sister and his grandmother, who helped raise him. His grandmother died in 2006 when Mansaray was a junior in high school. 

Mansaray used to stay with his grandmother when he was younger while his mom traveled to neighboring cities to sell peppers and other plants in markets. 

“Grandma was there to raise me when I was little,” he said. “She was my hero and still is. I never had the chance to show how much I appreciated her when I was younger.” 

The separation from his family has been painful. 

“It was really, really hard.” he said. “There were times when I questioned myself. Why am I still here? Why can’t I see my mother?”

When Mansaray arrived in the United States, he didn’t speak English, yet he found himself suddenly immersed into the fourth grade in at Cottage Grove Elementary School. Despite the difficulty of the situation, the concept of an education was promising for Mansaray.

“At an early age, I learned to understand that things do happen for a reason,” he said. “When I was in Sierra Leone during war, there was no schooling.”

Mansaray said he was fascinated by how English was spoken, too. In Sierra Leone, Krio is the main language. He described Krio as a combination of broken English and African dialect. Other languages spoken are Mende and Temne. Mansaray also spoke broken French. 

With the help of his fourth-grade teacher at Cottage Grove Elementary School, Kay Youngstrom, Mansaray said he was able to learn English.


Youngstrom said she remembers Mansaray as an eager learner.

“Sheka was very shy at first. He sat in the middle front row, and I remember wondering how much he was understanding in class,” she said. “But I knew that he was listening, and throughout the year I could tell that he was retaining the information”

Youngstrom was also instrumental in Mansaray’s future studies.

“I feel like, from when I first came, teaching was something I found very highly respected,” said Mansaray. “I wanted to do something just like that. I have wanted to be a teacher since fourth grade.”

Mansaray graduated from Park High School in Cottage Grove in 2007. He became a United States citizen the summer of 2008 and is majoring in English at MSU.

He has been planning his trip to Africa by doing various fundraising events, such as book signings at various schools for a self-published novel he wrote. He originally planned to take the trip during winter break but hadn’t reached his goal. 

The cost of plane tickets alone is about $2,000. As of last month, Mansaray said he had raised about $800.

“There are a lot of questions that I have, and I need to sit down with my mother and find out,” he said. “I feel like I am lost. Do I still have a family in Sierra Leone? Am I still thought about in Sierra Leone?”

Mansaray’s mother has only recently found out about her son’s quest to return to his native country. 

He said he had to call her at 3 a.m. because of the time difference.

“She was shocked,” he said.

Moments like these magnify the importance for Mansaray to return home in May.

“I am (going) to find some answers,” he said. “It’s my own journey to know about (my father) and why I came here.”