An inspiring story of courage and perseverance was told by a man who saw things young children should never see.
Kidnapped as a 5-year-old in his native Democratic Republic of Congo, Michel Chikwanine was forced to become a child soldier for his country's army. He escaped and went back to his family, only to endure more hardship before leaving the country as a refugee, and making his way to Canada.
Chikwanine told his story Friday from the stage of the St. Clair College Chrysler Theatre, as part of the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board's annual WE Day event. Over 1,200 students from the Catholic board gathered to hear music, guest speakers and inspiring messages designed to empower and motivate students.
Chikwanine's talk suited the mood of the event, as it described how he came back from the trauma of being kidnapped and forced to shoot his best friend, then living as a refugee before settling in Canada in 2004.
Chikwanine was a typical kid living in the Congo with his family, playing soccer with his friends. But life in his country wasn't that idyllic, as the military presence in the Congo brought much stress and heartbreak.
"In the 1990s, the Congo was a really difficult place to live because we had a dictator in power," Chikwanine told the audience. "He loved himself so much, he believed that anything that happened in the Congo could be fixed."
One day in 1993, Chikwanine ignored his father's curfew and stopped to play soccer with his friend Kevin, when several military trucks suddenly turned up at the soccer field and got the kids into the back of one of the trucks. Soon after, he was "initiated" into the army by having his arm slit, then being placed in a line, blindfolded and forced to shoot his friend Kevin.
Pausing periodically to control his emotions, Chikwanine described to the silent audience what was happening.
"My head was just hurting at this point. It was beating as if there were drums beating in my head," recalled Chikwanine. "I took off my blindfold and looked at my hand... and there was blood dripping from it. I looked a few feet in front of me and saw my best friend in a pool of his own blood."
Told by the soldiers he would be a pariah for shooting his friend, he was then trained as a child soldier. However, after a couple of weeks, Chikwanine managed to escape, running for three days nonstop until he somehow worked his way back home.
His family fled the war-torn region, becoming refugees and living for about a year in a refugee camp.
His father's connections helped the family move to Uganda, and then to Canada, settling in Ottawa. He talked about how when he arrived in the capital, he was taken by surprise by the cold weather.
"I got out of the plane and it was so cold, it felt like my hands were being stabbed with knives," said Chikwanine.
Chikwanine said adjusting to life in Canada wasn't easy at first, and he discussed how the colour of his skin led to him being bullied in high school, and how he came back from the bullying when a friend of his encouraged him to dress like a hip-hop star. Nevertheless, he used that instance to draw attention to the fact that people weren't treating each other as equals, and he resolved from then on to speak out against bullying.
He told the audience that the point of his message was to encourage them to stand up for what is right.
"You can't tell me in this room that as young people, we can't do anything," said Chikwanine.
