Joseph Ben Kaifala

Joseph Ben Kaifala is a Sierra Leonean author, lawyer, historian and human rights activist. He set up the non-profit Jeneba Project, with the aim of providing education for underprivileged girls in Sierra Leone and the neighbouring countries of Guinea and Liberia,[1] and also co-founded the Sierra Leone Memory Project to help communities to cope with and heal from past trauma.[2][3]

Biography

Kaifala was born in Sierra Leone, where he was raised, as well as spending part of his early childhood in Liberia and Guinea.[4] Later moving to Norway, he studied at the Red Cross Nordic United World College (UWC Red Cross Nordic),[5] and subsequently enrolled at Skidmore College in New York, earning a BA in International Affairs & French, with a minor in Law & Society.[6][7] He holds a master's degree in International Relations from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, studied International and Comparative Law at Vermont Law School, and is a member of the Washington, DC, bar association, among other qualifications.[8]

He went on to found the Jeneba Project, a non-profit organization with the focus of transforming the educational experience for girls in Sierra Leone, fostering intellectual growth and leadership skills that will "create ripples of social impact across communities".[9][10] Kaifala is also co-founder of the Sierra Leone Memory Project, an oral-history initiative dedicated to recording testimonies from survivors of the Sierra Leone Civil War.[11][12][13]

In 2016, he was shortlisted for the "Outlook Inspirations Awards", initiated to mark the 50th anniversary of the BBC World Service programme Outlook, and honouring people who "have shown real courage and inspiration".[14][15]

His published writings include Freed Slaves, Freetown, and the Sierra Leonean Civil War, about which Adam Hochschild said: "It's no easy feat to write a country's history in one book, especially when the nation involved has been through as much hope and as much suffering as Sierra Leone. But Joseph Kaifala has managed the job knowledgeably and skillfully, by focusing on key periods of his country's evolution. This is a first-rate guide to understanding the deep historical underpinnings of the challenges facing Sierra Leone today."[16] His memoir Adamalui: A Survivor's Journey from Civil Wars in Africa to Life in America (2018) has been listed as one of the "Best Sierra Leone Civil War Books of All Time".[17] Among his other publications are Tutu's Rainbow World: Selected Poems (2017)[18] and What I Think: Maxims of an African Philosopher.[19]

In 2021, Kaifala became the first Sierra Leonean to be honoured as a Ford Global Fellow.[20]

In 2022, he was appointed a writer-in-residence by the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (LOATAD), based in Accra, Ghana,[21][22] the first Sierra Leonean to receive the honour.[23]

Selected bibliography
  • Free Slaves, Freetown, and the Sierra Leonean Civil War, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, ISBN 978-1349948536
  • Adamalui: A Survivor's Journey from Civil Wars in Africa to Life in America, Turner, 2018, ISBN 978-1681626840

References
  1. "Joseph Ben Kaifala". Giraffe Heroes Project. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  2. "There is more in you than you think. | Joseph Kaifala | TEDxYouth@Kingtom". TEDx Talks. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
  3. Kamuskay, Sallu (1 November 2021). "Joseph Kaifala Becomes The First Sierra Leonean To Receive Ford Global Fellow". Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  4. "Theme: Triggering Potentials". TEDxYouth@KingTom. 28 July 2018.
  5. "Joseph Kaifala ('02 – '04)". UWC Red Cross Nordic. 14 March 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  6. "Joseph Kifala". Vermont Law School. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  7. "International Students and Scholars | Joseph Kaifala '08". Skidmore. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  8. "Our Team". Jeneba Project. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  9. "Democratising Access to Education in Sierra Leone". UWC. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  10. "About". Jeneba Project. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  11. "The Memory Project: Learning from History". Joseph Kaifala Consulting (SL) Ltd. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  12. "The Memory Project: Learning from History". Jeneba Project. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  13. "The Memory Project: Learning from History". Center for Memory and Reparations. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  14. "BBC Inspirations 2016". BBC. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  15. "BBC Inspirations 2016 | The Outlook 15". BBC. 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  16. Kaifala, Joseph (2017). Free Slaves, Freetown, and the Sierra Leonean Civil War. Springer. doi:10.1057/978-1-349-94854-3. ISBN 978-1-349-94853-6. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
  17. "44 Best Sierra Leone Civil War Books of All Time". Book Authority. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
  18. "Joseph Kaifala - a Palewell Press author". Palewell Press.
  19. "Team". Center for Memory and Reparations. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  20. "Joseph Kaifala first Sierra Leonean to receive Ford Global Fellow". Awoko. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  21. Kargbo, Lamin (5 April 2022). "Sierra Leone: Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (LOATAD) appoints Joseph Kaifala as one of its new Writers in Residence". Switsalone. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  22. Murua, James (23 February 2022). "Library of Africa and African Diaspora Announces West African Writer Fellowship Residents". James Murua's Lterature Blog. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  23. Kamara, Morlai Ibrahim (2022). "Sierra Leone's Joseph Kaifala Appointed Writer in Residence For Library of Africa". Sierraloaded. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
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