Deborah Schaffer

Nani Kadiatu Koroma
silver gelatin print
32 x 48 in.

Kasi Gbah
silver gelatin print
32 x 48 in.

Daniel Sandy
silver gelatin print
32 x 48 in.

The rebel group Revolutionary United Front terrorized civilians of Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2002, killing at least forty thousand and raping, mutilating, and abducting countless others. These 2002 images are from the Grafton War-wounded Camp, located just outside the capital. They document some of the external wounds suffered upon those at the camp, but fail to document the internal woundedness, especially from sexual violence, throughout Sierra Leone. These photographs stand as a testimony to our hesitant participation in the suffering of Liberia, neighboring Sierra Leone, in the fall of 2003, while engaging Iraq. “America, save us. We are dying.”

© Deborah Schaffer