Band Of Sierra Leone Refugees Take Center Stage In PBS Special

Band Of Sierra Leone Refugees Take Center Stage In PBS Special

From 1991 to 2002 a civil war wracked the West African nation of Sierra Leone. The death, mayhem and destruction forced hundreds of thousands of residents to flee, many to the north, to refugee camps in Guinea.

It was in one such camp that a handful of musicians from Freetown, their nation's capital, found one another and began to play together using the few simple instruments at hand. They called themselves Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars. Their leader, Reuben Koroma, says at the outset of this film -- which is to be shown tonight on the PBS series "P.O.V." in concert with World Refugee Day, which was observed last Wednesday -- that it is through their music that they could begin to regain some control over their lives.

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