03:46 GMT 15th June 2011
Rosemarie slowly rebuilt her life in England where she continued to paint and her work has featured in a number of exhibitions, the latest at the Royal Commonwealth Society in London.
Like all those who have been forced to uproot themselves, she often feels as though she is passing through, and her work reflects this. The colourful pictures of everyday life and stunning portraiture that she was known for in Sierra Leone have given way to bold abstracts whose broad and busy brush strokes hit you in the eye. 'I leave it entirely to the viewer's imagina- tion to interpret the images,' she says, 'But for me they depict movement and flighta sense of being unsettled.'
Rosemarie also works as a teacher and dress designer but it is painting that has helped her through the difficult days of early exile. 'It was a form of therapy for me,' she says. 'I have never smoked but when I paint I think it is like having a good smoke, it's so enjoyable. It is not only my profession, it is a way of life.'
Born in the twilight years of colonialism to a prosperous Freetown family, Rosemarie revealed an early interest in art, using walls and pavements to show offher handiwork. 'I was around six and would draw pictures of people and trees and other things in the environment with charcoal and chalk,' she recalls smiling. 'Then I started to draw maps, and did one of Africa on the floor of our house - with my parents' permission. They really thought I had talent.'
That talent may have come from her mother, a successful jewellery-maker and designer, but it was honed at St Joseph's Convent, one of Freetown's oldest girls secondary schools whose Irish and Scottish nuns held art in high regard. 'This was unusual as in colonial days it was not really encouraged, beyond making handicrafts,' explains Rosemarie. 'But I was supported all the way in my love of visual art.'
These were heady times for Sierra Leone, with excited talk of independence everywhere. Her father, a well-known Freetown businessman, was often in the thick of the debate. 'I was always inquisitive and whenever people came round to our home I would make sure I would be there to serve drinks and food so that I could hear what was being said.'
The high hopes for the country were reflected in the investment being made in its young. As the location of West Africa's oldest university, Fourah Bay College, Freetown was regarded as a regional Athens where learning was a priority. It was decided that Rosemarie would take her A levels in the Sir John Cass School of Al1 in London before going on to do a foundation course at the North West College of Art, where she majored in textile design, inspired in part by her mother's work as a fashion designer. Next stop was Oxford University's Ruskin College of Drawing and Fine Art.
It was the "swinging sixties" when British culture was gripped by change and experiment, a propitious moment to be an arts student. 'They were exciting, carefree times because I came under so many influences, academic, cultural and artistic,' she says. Her muses ranged from the Nigerian sculptor and painter Ben Enwonwu to European modernists Paul Cezanne and Walter Sickert, whose understated realism and use of colour inspired her own imaginative paintings. A solo show at Balliol College Oxford and an exhibition at the Sierra Leone High Commission in London confirmed her talent.
After studying for a teaching qualification, it was time to go home. 'Once you finished your studies, you had to return the next day. Like other students who had graduated overseas, I was interviewed by the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation as soon as I got off the plane.' Soon afterwards, she landed a dream job as head of arts at her former alma mater, St. Joseph's, a post she held for seven years. During this time, she also became part ofa Unesco project to produce fiction books for West African primary school children. 'At the time all the books were European and did not reflect African life, so this was an important scheme.'
In contrast to its Cinderella status during colonial times, in the aftermath of independence art was being actively encouraged and Rosemarie was drafted into the ministry of education in 1978 to help lead the charge. 'As head of arts education my job was to promote arts and culture - art, drama, dance and music - in schools and colleges and I visited every nook and cranny of the country in search of untapped talent and to get people to appreciate their own culture.'
She was plunged into a whirl of activity, setting up workshops and specialist teacher training courses, organising festivals and exhibitions in collaboration with the Siena Leone Arts Association.
'It all went beautifully. Generally the idea was to make the most of what we had. Ifwe needed people to run workshops we would bring along our own master craftsmen. Also, we had very little money and to save costs only local materials from upcountry like sisal, clay, wood and leaves and flowers were used in making and colouring artefacts, then we raised extra funds by selling what the chil.dren produced.'
As the country's cultural profile was raised, so was her own as her works in acrylic and water colour began to sell internationally following a number of solo exhibitions including one as a visiting artist at the University of Xiamen in China in 1984. Having taken further studies in textiles at the University of London before her civil service appointment, she also began to design clothes with tie-dye cloth she had created that incorporated batik.
In 1997, just days after she returned from a Unesco conference in Paris, the recently elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was ousted. The country had been locked in conflict since the early 1990s as rebel militias sought supremacy and this was the third Birds, a painting reflecting fligbt and movement, a frequent theme of Rosemarie's UK oelMe coup in five years. 'We'd had coups before and after one or two days everything would go back to nonnal,' remembers Rosemarie. 'But this time it was different- we no longer felt safe.' As gunfire and anarchy spread deeper into the city, Rosemarie decided to make her escape. 'I was told there was a boat going to Gambia, but I ended up in Guinea, where I stayed for a number of months.'
In her naivety, Rosemarie thought calm would be quickly restored in Siena Leone and she would be able to return home. As the situation worsened, she realised that everything she held dear had gone forever, particularly her large collection of family photographs going back to the 19th century. All she had left were her memories.
Ever resourceful, she got a job with the UN to set up educational programmes for refugees before she managed to make her way to England, where she had relatives. She found work as a supply teacher in London and, for a time, set her paint brushes aside. 'It is not easy to start a new life and I lost all my inspiration to paint,' she recalls. 'Then one night, I woke up and felt like painting. It was a kind of therapy and I consider the work I produced around that time to be my best. They showed people on the move with intense expressions on their faces. '
Friends encouraged her to embrace her art again, taking her to exhibitions and generally drawing her back into the world. Now Rosemarie's new life is almost as busy as her old one, as she divides her time painting, dress making and teaching. In Aplil she was chosen to take part in the Royal Commonwealth Society'S Spring Group Show. In October last year her work figured in the People and Change exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands based on the theme of exile.
She has visited Sierra Leone on a number of occasions and always takes the opportunity to visit the schools and colleges that were once part of her remit as a public servant. 'Of course I miss my country, my home and my friends but I am grateful I survived, ' she remarks.
But although the country has been at peace for a decade, she is sony that the arts have been sidelined in the rush for economic growth. 'Everything 1 built up is gone,' she laments. 'There are people crying out to be creative but there is not much encouragement. We need development, yes, but we need culture too. It is not only a means of expressing ourselves it is a unifying force for the nation.'
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