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Momo Moses Kargbo ("Momo Jesus") visits inmates at the Male Correctional Center men's prison in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone
Photo: Benjamin Moscovici
The iron bars crash into the lock, and his eyes have to get used to the darkness in the cell block.
Hands stretch out to him from the darkness.
"Momo Jesus is here!" Someone calls out, and the echo resounds from the cells, booming, whispering and moaning: "Momo Jesus, Momo Jesus!"
Momo Jesus, whose real name is Momo Moses Kargbo, is a social worker at Don Bosco Fambul, a local NGO that is sponsored by the Catholic Order of the Salesians of Don Bosco.
A tall man in his early fifties.
Checkered short-sleeved shirt, clean-shaven - not a person who makes a lot of mess around.
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Momo Jesus ran away from home as a child and made his way on the street
Photo: Benjamin Moscovici
But here, in the Male Correctional Center, the hopelessly overcrowded central and maximum security prison in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown, he is the last hope for many.
He has been visiting inmates for years.
From Monday to Friday.
Every day.
He shows them that the world outside has not forgotten them.
Up until a few months ago, this was primarily morally and emotionally important;
meanwhile, the lives of almost 1400 men depend on it.
Because: There are no more documents about the prisoners.
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
All gone.
How long are their sentences?
When did they pull in and when can they get out again?
Questions that no one in the prison administration can answer.
How could this happen?
"It started here", Momo Jesus mumbles softly as he penetrates deeper into the darkness of the long cell wing.
The thought of April 29th still makes him feel slightly sick.
For a long time the events of that morning robbed him of sleep, the images haunted him in dreams.
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Almost 1,400 people live in the men's prison, the largest in Sierra Leone
Photo: Benjamin Moscovici
The first corona case had been registered two days earlier, in a prison that is actually only designed for around 300 inmates.
The prisoners were afraid.
What if the virus spreads?
Poorly nourished, crammed into tiny cells with no running water.
And without proper medical care.
Would they all die here?
When the guards unlocked the cell doors that morning on April 29, they were overwhelmed by prisoners storming out.
The prisoners smashed one of the skulls with concrete blocks - the other guards fled.
The inmates blew up cell locks, broke open the bars on the blocks and set fire to the detention center's administrative buildings.
Soon the flames were blazing all over the site.
It took several hours for the army to regain control of the uprising.
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Burned-out remains of buildings on the prison grounds - the prison was built in 1914 by the British colonial administration for around 300 prisoners
Photo: Benjamin Moscovici
When the smoke cleared, the extent of the disaster became apparent: dozens of dead people lay in the courtyard and several buildings were completely burned out.
The prison's archives were also destroyed by the flames.
And from the detention documents there were only smoky rags that fell apart between the fingers, recalls Momo Jesus.
"It was six months ago now," says Momo Jesus later in his office at the headquarters of the aid organization.
He is tired, exhausted, has not taken a break in weeks.
"Some inmates should have been released months ago," he says.
But what should you do if there are no more documents?
Even the computer on which the entrances and exits to the prison were documented was destroyed in the fires.
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Since the uprising, the small chapel on the prison grounds has served as a makeshift field hospital
Photo: Benjamin Moscovici
The state is overwhelmed and has different priorities than criminals and prisoners.
The Ministry of the Interior says: We'll take care of it.
But nothing has happened so far.
The minister has announced that he will close the dilapidated prison and move the prisoners into a larger building.
But that's been promised for years.
For the prisoners this means for the time being: for life - for lack of documents.
But people wouldn't call Momo Moses Kargbo Momo Jesus if he just gave up.
He has been taking care of people in need for a quarter of a century.
During the Civil War and later during Ebola.
When everyone fled, he stayed.
When everyone gave up, he was there.
And so it is now.
Together with his colleagues from Don Bosco, he has found a way to save the prisoners from life in the eternal darkness of their cramped cells: in Sierra Leone, every judge has to keep copies of his verdict.
It is now time to find these copies.
But in a country where courts have neither websites nor spokespersons, where judges use private Hotmail addresses, and where almost all administration is done on paper, often handwritten, this search can take years.
After all, there are almost 1400 prisoners and judgments from all over the country that are years, sometimes decades.
"Immediately after the uprising we started writing to courts and contacting judges," says Momo Jesus.
"And we have sent colleagues to the various provinces to personally look for the copies."
But so far the efforts have almost always been in vain.
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The Salesians of Don Bosco specifically care for the sick and weak in prison.
Among other things, the inmates receive an additional meal from them.
Photo: Benjamin Moscovici
The state is not of great help either.
The Ministry of the Interior has assigned two employees to look for the documents together with Don Bosco.
Travel and other costs are paid by the aid organization.
"It's frustrating," says one of the NGO's paralegals.
He is jointly responsible for the search for the copies and complains: "Judges are supposedly on vacation, e-mails go unanswered, cell phone numbers are unreachable."
In other cases they would have found the documents in some archives, but the judges responsible would refuse to release and certify the documents.
Some make up fees, others openly ask for a tip for their signature.
Their calculation: we can wait, the prisoners can't.
If the aid organization doesn't pay - maybe at some point one or two inmates will be willing to pay for their release.
It is therefore worthwhile for the courts to postpone requests for help.
"We keep fighting," Momo Jesus promises the prisoners again and again.
He knows that research can take years and that you will probably never be able to find all the documents.
But he also knows that this search is the prisoner's only hope.
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