kevindayonga

  MEET THE IRON LADY BEHIND BOUGAINVILLE'S REVOLUTIONARY LEADER By: Calvin Caspar “He was the first black man I’ve ever seen in my life! “He was so black! Seeing him had left me wondering how a person could have so much pigment to produce such black skin colour,” Elizabeth was recounting to me her yester-years of meeting the love of her life, the late revolutionary leader of Bougainville, Francis Ona. But her eyes seemed far away from me, staring into the clear blue skies from underneath the home she was accommodated in on Buka Island. It was a day after the inauguration of the 4th Bougainville House of Representatives in September 2020, when I met her. She’s never left Guava Village – a place which had become home to her, since the start of the 1994 ceasefire from the bloody Bougainville Crisis. This was her first-ever travel outside Guava on a special invitation by the Governor of Madang, Peter Yama, and I’ve had the privilege, along with the consent, to meet with her. The year w