From taking exams amid the echoes of gunfire to growing up during Liberia’s brutal civil wars, one law student shares his remarkable story of resilience and survival in a childhood shaped by conflict.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Protégé Podcast, Alfred Brownell, a law student at the University of Queensland, opened up about his journey growing up in Liberia amid civil war, where gunfire and conflict were an inescapable part of daily life.
Brownell opened up about the complex history that framed his early years in Liberia – a childhood marked by civil strife and political upheaval, experiences that would leave a lasting imprint on his life.
“I was born in the area where our country was going through a civil strife. So basically, it started off where Liberia was funded by freed slaves. So slaves who were taken to the Americas, to Europe, to work on plantations and everything,” he said.
“When the United States decided to abolish slavery, some of these people decided, ‘well, we don’t want to remain in the US, so we can return to Liberia. We return to our country to put our own whatsoever.’ So there was this sort of formation of what we call the American Colonisation Society.”
However, Brownell explained that tensions in his country quickly escalated following their arrival, as clashes with the indigenous population over political influence and cultural identity began to take shape.
“Then, when these people from the US returned, there were also people who were underground ... who had no say in the way of life. So then they became a clash in terms of how do we go ahead,” he said.
These mounting tensions ultimately plunged Liberia into a devastating civil crisis following a coup, an upheaval that brought violence and uncertainty to countless families, including his own.
“I was born in the era where there was a coup, where the indigenous people decided, ‘well, we need to have a say in this political process.’ So from 1985 to 1990, we had a civil crisis around it,” he said.
“Then, within that period, I was just a little boy trying to grow up, and my uncle got caught up in the crossfire. He took me to a shopping centre to go and purchase something, and while there, the civil war broke up, so we could not return home.”
Brownell revealed that the conflict in his country forced him, as a young child, to flee Liberia multiple times, describing the deeply traumatic impact these experiences had on him at such a young age.
“Then we had to see how we could flee the country. So I fled the country, actually, three different times. So one to Abidjan, one to Guinea and then to Côte d’Ivoire. All of those times it was very traumatising as a young child coming up,” he said.
The dangers even followed him into the classroom, where Brownell recalled sitting exams under the constant threat of gunfire, never knowing when a rebel attack might erupt.
“There are times when I had to actually sit exams under the shadow of gunfire. You are in the classroom and there’s a week of exams and you’re taking exams, and next thing you look up, there’s a rebel attack,” he said.
“Now you are running from one point to another point, but you don’t know where the rebel is coming from. So if you are lucky, you’re going to survive, as [some of] my friends did, just end up dying in the process.”
Despite these harrowing experiences, Brownell reflected on how growing up in war-torn Liberia shaped him, viewing those challenges in a positive light for the resilience, strength, and determination they instilled in his character.
“All of these decisions, our process going through the civil war and everything, should be to become the person I am,” he said.
