I was born in a small village located in the Hollywood "Blood Diamond" movie region in Sierra Leone. At age, 14 having never left my village I was sent to live with a cruel and physically abusive cousin in a diamond mining squatter camp to continue my schooling but I soon dropped out for lack of school fees and I began selling oranges by carrying the orange basket on my head at the National Diamond Mining headquarters. While selling my oranges one day, I miraculously met Thomas Johnson, an American pilot from Minnesota, who was employed in Sierra Leone to fly boxes of gems and alluvial diamonds from Yengema to Freetown, where a British Airways jet would fly the gemstones to London. This American pilot met me, and befriended me, and out of his own goodwill and generosity gave me opportunity to education, brought me to the United States and paid my college tuition. Today, I am a proud, grateful and productive US citizen.
DIAMOND OF HOPE - by Shawn Justice based on true story and novel by Francis Mandewah Budget: $5M - $10M | Adventure ⋄ Biography ⋄ Documentary Unlike the exploitative and atrocious bloody Hollywood "Blood Diamond" movie story starring Leonardo DiCaprio, my screenplay - DIAMOND OF HOPE - adapted from my memoir book, a prequel & prelude to the "Blood Diamond" movie story and rebel war; DIAMOND OF HOPE will inspire and unify worldwide audience, see great value of interracial friendship, uplift the human spirit, perseverance against great many odds, and will restore faith and dignity and decency in humanity.
WINNER - 2016 Book Excellence Award
(2016)
SUNY College at Brockport
(1989-1991)
AIC - Springfield, Massachusetts
(1989-1991)
STCC - Springfield, Massachusetts
(1989-1991)