By: Andrew Keili
When I wrote an inspirational story about Michaela DePrince titled “There but for the grace of God go I” in this column a few years ago, I could not have known that a few years later, this fairy tale would have a tragic end. Michaela’s death at 29 has left a big void in both the world of ballet and humanitarian efforts. I will reproduce below excerpts from my article.
“It was therefore of immense interest to me to learn about the story of Michaela DePrince, who, orphaned in Sierra Leone at the age of three is now a world renowned ballerina. The story of Michaela is indeed interesting, and illustrates the realm of the possible with hope and being at the right place at the right time. I was forced to think about what could have happened to her, had she stayed in Sierra Leone after reading her book” Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina”.
Michaela DePrince was born Mabinty Bangura in 1995, during our 11-year civil war. Her father was the victim of a rebel-led massacre of workers in the diamond mines. He was killed when she was 3. She and her mother moved into the home of an uncle, who gave them so little food that her mother died of starvation. That same uncle then deposited her in an orphanage. She was cursed by her complexion: Her chocolate-brown skin has white patches around her neck and chest caused by vitiligo, a skin disease. In the orphanage she was nicknamed “devil’s child” and told that she was “too ugly” to be adopted. Mabinty was called number 27 at the orphanage. She had only one friend, orphan number 26.
She had a dream since she discovered by accident, stumbling upon a magazine that had blown through the gate of the orphanage. The picture in the magazine was that of a “fairy-like creature,” a white ballerina costumed in a pink tutu. She ripped the page out of the magazine and tucked it into her underwear. A teacher at the orphanage explained the image was a picture of a ballerina. From that day she wanted to be a ballerina.
She was adopted, together with her friend number 26 by the American DePrince family and taken to America. The American DePrince family faced their own tragedy, losing three adopted sons with haemophilia to AIDS. They flew to Sierra Leone to adopt, and found four-year-old Michaela and her best friend, orphan number 26, now called Mia. The family adopted both girls. The DePrince family has adopted a total of six orphaned girls in Liberia and Sierra Leone, all victims of raging civil wars. It is reported “they encouraged all of their children to pursue their passions with equal vigour”.
“It has been a fascinating experience to watch Michaela go from the bedraggled, tough little girl that she was to a beautiful and gracious young woman who is so interested in helping others,” Elaine DePrince says………….
At 17, she became the youngest dancer at the Dance Theatre of Harlem in New York City. Presently she is with the Amsterdam-based Dutch National Ballet. Michaela has taught classes at schools in Brooklyn and in South Africa.
She is now a celebrity in the Netherlands, where she has been profiled in newspaper articles and appeared on television talk shows, and has become an inspiration to girls worldwide. She is the only dancer of African origin in the Dutch National Ballet, where 30 nationalities are represented onstage. Her mother says she receives about 40 interview requests for her every day. She is in great demand but for now has decided to concentrate on being a ballerina. She has also been asked to be a model for fashion brands, a spokeswoman for international charitable organizations including War Child and the International Red Cross, and even a cultural ambassador for the Sierra Leone embassy in the Netherlands…….
I can’t help thinking what would have happened to Mabinty Bangura, had she stayed in her village. Several possibilities come to mind. She could have been captured and impregnated by the rebels. Alternatively, a kind relative would have taken her in and sent her to school. She may have finished primary school, gone to a nondescript secondary school and become pregnant along the way. But who knows, she may have plodded along and finished senior secondary school and gone to some college to also face an uncertain future. May be in years to come she would finish college and face an uncertain future in getting employment. Indeed, there are a lot of possibilities but the skeptic in me would say the earlier scenarios would have been more probable.
Two things immediately strike me about this story-the hope and tireless effort of Michaela to achieve her dream and the hard work and compassion of the DePrince family. Michaela says in the book: “Being adopted by the DePrince family has brought me everything I have in life……..It has given me love, hope, and the opportunities to make my dreams come true. From them, I also learned about courage, compassion, and sacrifice.”
The DePrince family in an incomparable one. Adopting one child is praiseworthy, but six? And all of them being of a different race? When Michaela asked Elaine DePrince: “Mom, why did you adopt so many children?” her response was “Which of you should we have left behind in an orphanage? You?. She went on: “We were blessed and with blessing comes responsibility”.
Michaela gives a good reason for writing her memoir: “In addition to all my blessings I had been blessed with a hardy dose of hope. It was hope that enabled me to survive in Africa in the face of abuse, starvation, pain, and terrible danger. It was hope that made me dare to dream, and it was hope has helped that dream take flight. Yes, I would share my hope.”
A story of hope, courage and compassion indeed. Hope as a confident expectation of good things to come can have rewards. We must articulate hope in a despondent society like Sierra Leone…………..Indeed, Michaela can look at a pregnant girl who has just left secondary school abruptly and thrust into an uncertain world in Sierra Leone, sigh and say: “There but for the grace of God go I, Michaela DePrince”.”
I wish I could say -“Here endeth the story”. But no, the uncertainty of life has meant that such a tragedy could happen. Indeed, the hymn writer is right when he says. “We’ve no abiding city here”. The time God has appointed is best and it is His to fix her time of rest. It may distress the minds of us worldlings, but we have to accept it. May her soul rest in peace.
JFK: APC’S MAVERICK PLAYER IS ALREADY ON THE FIELD
Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, popularly known as JFK, a leading flagbearer aspirant of the APC has recently been no stranger to controversy in airing his views on national issues. He has been a prominent critic of government and often spars with government supporters. The maverick in him has meant that he has also been critical of what he considers as missteps of his party, including not going the legal route to address the party’s dissatisfaction with the last election. He has also made it clear to aspirants vying for the party’s presidential flagbearer position that the upcoming 2026 National Delegates’ Convention (NDC) will not be “business as usual, nor a coronation.” He has been said to lament the lack of visible opposition efforts from the party’s leadership.
What I did not expect however is that he has already started practising on the football field as a striker. One newspaper reports him as saying: “I am already in the pitch waiting for the whistle. I never stepped out of the pitch.” The paper further says he suggested that others within the APC aren’t even close to being contenders, claiming, “Others are not even on the sub-bench, let alone on the touchline.”
Other intending aspirants must be quaking in their boots with the appearance of this prolific striker on the field, probably too scared to raise their heads above the parapet. However, one potential aspirant who spoke on condition of anonymity has opined: “If he spends so much time warming up alone, without any trainer or team mates, he will tire himself out before the opposing team gets onto the field!”. For now, we haven’t heard much from his team mates and the opposing team. Only time will tell whether the intense and prolonged warming up under the scorching heat of the APC sun will not weaken him or whether the opposing players “resting” under the shade of the palm tree and probably taking more than a keen interest in his tactics will not “heng bazz” for him. But then, JFK is a maverick!
Ponder my thoughts.
