A Child Soldier From Ghana Builds A U.S. Following

In a formerly vacant storefront in West Hartford Center, beneath the million-dollar condos and beside the Ann Taylor store at Blue Back Square, a one-time child soldier from Africa is open for business.

The American Dream really does still exist. In this case, he is a fitness trainer in a neighborhood where they sell $10 hamburgers, $200 jeans and $300 sleeping bags.

"I could have let my past control me," D'Mario Sowah told me when I asked how this happens. "I realized I could change my life through the power of my thoughts."

People have been calling me about the man known around town as just D'Mario for months, telling me about this personal trainer from Africa to whom people pay $60 an hour for a workout.

"His story is what makes America great," basketball legend and ESPN broadcaster Bill Walton explained, calling from California immediately after my e-mail reached him. He launches into a monologue about John Wooden, Jerry Garcia and Bob Dylan before circling back to Sowah.

Walton, a part-time Blue Back resident, met Sowah at the New York Sports Club gym, where many of his new friends have run across him. His following has grown to the point where he recently moved to his own fitness studio in a storefront left vacant by the recession.

"He represents everything that our country and our community stand for. He has the ability to communicate," Walton said. "He can change lives."

That was enough for me to take a closer look at this dreadlocked 27-year-old African man who came to America from his native Ghana after a traumatic, violent childhood. At first he found little success, until he met a teacher who changed his life.

"I thought he was an exceptional individual," said Bruce McCubrey, who runs the adult education program in Vernon and met Sowah five years ago when he showed up looking to earn a G.E.D. McCubrey was so taken that he became Sowah's tutor and mentor.

"He came over when he was 12," McCubrey said. "He was 9 years old when he was kidnapped. He was taken to Nigeria, where he was trained in guerrilla warfare."

"He stuck with it, once he got a taste of going forward. It's his perseverance and determination."

Sowah was a boy, no older than a Little Leaguer, trained to shoot to kill, fed drugs by warlords and held captive for years until family members freed him. He was sent to America to be with his mother, who died in a car accident not long after his arrival.

He moved to Connecticut to live with relatives, dropped out of school, fathered a son and struggled. Then, by chance, he met McCubrey, which led to his career as a fitness trainer.

I stopped by Sowah's studio to hear more about what he calls the "complete turnaround" of his life. At his "akua bu" fitness studio, the child soldier works with dentists, lawyers and other local celebrities who can afford a personal trainer.

"I asked around who the best trainer was," said Molly Qerim, an ESPN broadcaster, when I interrupted her workout. "I was told he was."

Flattering, but an American success story doesn't erase the memory of a little boy trained to pillage and kill.

"In my mind, I feel guilty for these things I've done in my past," Sowah said.

Sowah is active with an international group trying to bring more attention to the plight of child soldiers. He traveled to the U.N. this winter with a school group from Clinton on "Red Hand Day," an international campaign to end the use of child soldiers.

The 2008 Child Soldiers Global Report says that "tens of thousands" of children are in the "ranks of non-state armed groups in at least 24 different countries." In more than a dozen countries, children are recruited into forces linked to national armies and militias.

Even now, years since his life as a boy soldier, "it's hard for me to see my success," Sowah said. "It is unbelievable to me."

It is unbelievable. And real.
credit: Rick Green's column appears on Tuesdays and Fridays. Read his blog at http://courant.com.rick.