Teens torn apart for 14 years by war

19 Aug 2011 | Gugu Sibiya in Liberia | Sowetan

AFTER putting a bounty on his friend's head - with the condition that he had to be brought to him alive - Michael Jentzsch was finally reunited with Benjamin K Zahm after 14 years of being separated by the Liberian civil war

Friendship bond: Michael Jentzsch and Ben Zahm. PHOTO: ANTONIO MUCHAVE

He failed to see through my anguish and used it as a money-making scam, milking me of thousands of dollars with stories that led nowhere

The story of Germany's Jentzsch and Liberia's Zahm is the stuff box office movie hits are made of. Brimming with intrigue, suspense, nail-biting moments and finally a tearful reunion, it is also the story of man's resilience and triumph.

It started in 1990 when rumours of war pervaded Liberia. The war caught most Liberians off guard.

Jentzsch's missionary parents did not want to take chances and decided to go on holiday in Ivory Coast. After four months the radio station where Jentzsch senior worked was bombed. The Jentzsches then left for Germany.

"I grew up in Liberia where people were free and relaxed. Germany was something else. The education system was good and life was better but I could not get the image of a then 15-year-old Ben, clinging to me and begging me to take him with me, out of my mind," Jentzsch said.

"Ben said war was coming and we would never see each other again. I tried to reassure him but I was uneasy."

There was not a single day Jentzsch did not think of his friend. After watching a movie with a similar storyline as their real lives, the German author could no longer bear the pain of wondering what had happened to his friend.

"I started looking for him everywhere but to no avail. Nobody knew where he was or what had happened to him. It was like he had vanished into thin air. I resorted to using the most effective tool of communication, the market in Liberia. I had already exhausted the Internet.

"Response was slow in coming. That is until I heard from a guy who had worked for us.

"He failed to see through my anguish and used it as a money-making scam, milking me of thousands of dollars with stories that led nowhere. It was after I had put a bounty on Ben's head that I made inroads that led to my ultimately finding him," Jentzsch recalls.

Zahm said he had stayed in the country when war started but had to rethink his future.

"My sister and I had sworn to die in our parents' house but things got worse. Next to the rebels kidnapping us to join their ranks by force, hunger was another major enemy.

"The day my sister and I agreed to go to the UN-secured camp in town, we received news it had been attacked and there were no survivors," Zahm said.

"We went back home and I asked my sister to wait for me as I went in search of food. I landed in a rebel camp where they beat me senseless. A soldier I had gone to school with recognised me and nursed me back to life."

Zahm went to neighbouring Guinea to further his studies, while his sister went to Ghana.

"When Michael and I reunited, it was the greatest day of my life. Based on our story, he wrote a book called Blood Brothers."

The two have been on a road show promoting the book, now among the best sellers in Germany.

"We are on the verge of translating it into English. I have shared the money I made from the book with Ben and donated the other to Crusaders for Peace Village," Jentzsch said.

When they met again, the two had both qualified as teachers. Both got married in 1994.

Their friendship is booming like it was never interrupted. If this is not Blood Brother material, I don't know what it is.

There are plans to develop the book into a film.

Jentzsch walked away with the Golden Image Award from the Liberia Crusaders for Peace for his selflessness.