Black Diamond

This book is a simple but an insightful and uplifting memories and reflections on the odyssey that took Frank Kamara to the United States of America from his village in Sierra Leone, West Africa, where a dream was just a dream, where opportunities were nonexistent, and where hope and bright future for all the young people were just fumes of fancy. This was in the late fifties, and there was only one young man who attended a secondary school from my village. The dream to aspire to higher education was just a wish-fulfillment fantasy, and the general population was poor and uneducated. However, things have changed considerably. Modern homes are being built, education is expanding, a secondary school and two primary schools have been established, and there is a plan for a super highway construction that will soon pass through the village.

There were several positive factors that were true about my village: First, we lived in nuclear families, in which all the members protected one another and provided the needs of everyone. Secondly, we always lived in families that had intense love to go around, except in my case. The only family member, my father, upon whom I could depend and receive my training, the love, the nurture, and the emotional support I needed as a growing young boy was not only physically, mentally, and verbally abusive but he was the individual whose subversive behavior almost ruined my life. He constantly reminded me about growing up to be a failure and that Id amount to nothing. For him, I was not expected to be educated, let alone to achieve anything in life. He compared me to a helpless girl. The verbal and physical assaults on me and my mother were daily occurrences. We were beaten up on regular basis. I went through a lot more that could have brought all his predictions to pass. My father, therefore, is the main reason for me to write this book. I hope it will inspire all the young people who are in despair and who are in abusive and hopeless situations to realize that they can develop self-worth, self-determination, and create for themselves the empowering nature of solid internal motivation that can defeat failure.