The plight of the refugee in today's war-torn world is captured in the African proverb "When two elephants fight, the grass suffers." So it was in Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2002, when the government and various rebel factions carried out a brutal civil war in which the terrorizing of civilians--by killing, mutilation, rape and forced conscription--was common practice on all sides.
The war sent hundreds of thousands of ordinary Sierra Leoneans fleeing to refugee camps in the neighboring West African nation of the Republic of Guinea. That's where the remarkable story of Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars begins.
Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars are a band of six Sierra Leonean musicians who have been living in Guinea. Many of their family and friends were murdered in the violence, leaving them with physical and emotional scars that may never heal. Despite the unimaginable horrors of civil war, they were saved through their music.