Hamilton woman is Sierra Leone's only special envoy in Canada, 25 years after fleeing its civil war
CBC
Warning: This story contains disturbing details of violence.
The office is warm, colourful and inviting, and the same goes for May-Marie Duwai-Sowa, the woman who brought it to life just over a year ago.
No signs point the way nor has there been any great fanfare, so people in Hamilton may have no idea that a little piece of Sierra Leone's government has taken up residence in the city's downtown.
At the corner of West Avenue and King Street, on the third floor of a building that started out as a brush factory in the 1890s, is Sierra Leone's Office of the Special Envoy for International Relations, Trade and Investment (SEIRTI) — the only one in Canada.
It's where Duwai-Sowa works diligently as the special envoy. Born in Sierra Leone, she ended up in Hamilton after she was forced to flee the West African country's civil war in 1999.
Now a Canadian citizen, Duwai-Sowa's mission is to help find ways to better connect the two countries.
Once she was named special envoy, Duwai-Sowa wanted the office to be in her adopted home of Hamilton. The goal of the office is to help establish stronger diplomatic ties, investment and international relations between Sierra Leone and Canada.
"My goal is to make meaningful connections for both countries," said Duwai-Sowa, 46. "Canada is a great country that Sierra Leoneans need to know a lot more about.
"Likewise, Canadians need to know more about Sierra Leone, and know about the history of Sierra Leone, and the potential and prospects that Sierra Leone has."
"They're two places that are so close to my heart," she added. "That's why this office matters so much to me."
At the moment, trade between the two countries is modest. In 2022, Canada exported $9.8 million Cdn worth of goods to Sierra Leone while receiving $6 million worth of imports. Compare that with the $697.4 billion worth of goods Canada exported to the U.S. last year.
Canada and Sierra Leone have an important historical connection that dates back more than 200 years.
In the wake of the American Revolutionary War, thousands of formerly enslaved Black people who fought on the side of the British resettled in Nova Scotia, but they faced harsh conditions, financial exploitation and discrimination. Joining them in Nova Scotia were hundreds of Black Jamaicans who were forcibly resettled to Nova Scotia in 1796 following the Maroon War.
Between 1792 and 1800, about 1,700 of these new Nova Scotians took advantage of an offer to return to Africa. Those who survived the cross-Atlantic journey helped establish the city of Freetown, now the capital of Sierra Leone.
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