Reconstructing Life as a One-Foot Man: Reflections on the Role of Football

Abstract

This article is one of a series of personal construct investigations of the aftermath of the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone. It is based on interviews conducted with nine members of the Sierra Leone Single-Leg Amputee Football Club, all of whom lost a limb during the war. Interview themes concerned participants’ construing of this event and its perpetrators, the constriction of their lives and the emotions they subsequently experienced, the choices that they made, and the role of football and of forgiveness in their recovery and in posttraumatic growth.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to the members of the Sierra Leone Amputee Sports Club, who were extremely keen for their stories to be shared with the international community. I would be failing them if I did not mention the need for financial support for their activities. Should you wish to learn more about them, or to make a donation, their website and email address are www.streetfootballworld.org/network/all-nwm/SHSC and [email protected]. I am also grateful for the support of the Barnet, Enfield, and Haringey Mental Health Trust Sierra Leone Project Implementation Group; and to Dr. Nick Wood and Funmi Ladeinde, for their contribution to the analysis of the transcripts.

Notes

¹Code numbers of participants are provided in parentheses.