Best of Q: Athlete shares harrowing tale of escaping Libyan war
How Alex Owumi, a Nigerian-American basketball player, escaped from the heart of the Libyan civil war.
In a conversation from the Best of Q, basketball player Alex Owumi recounts the harrowing story of how he survived and escaped from the heart of the Libyan civil war, and explains how those dark days changed his life.
Before he lived in Libya, he believed longtime president Moammar Gadhafi was the benevolent "king of kings". It wasn't until he was exposed to terrible truths while in Libya that he understood how wrong he'd been.
Hear an excerpt below. For the full interview, click on the listen button above.
The Nigerian-American athlete's memoir, Qaddafi's Point Guard*, chronicles his time as a member of Al-Nasr (Gadhafi's Benghazi basketball team) amidst the deadly conflict.
"As a kid, you would never think in your future that you would see people die before your own eyes. Some people can't even stomach it when they're watching films, but for me, in real life, to witness that blood massacre in my own eyes...it was just the worst thing I've ever seen in my life."
"This book is for people to read and understand what is going on in those parts of the world. They need to read about the people that helped me."
*NOTE: We have spelled Moammar Gadhafi in accordance with the CBC Language Guide; however, we've kept Owumi's spelling when referring to the title of the book, specifically. Here's a short PBS write-up on why there's so much inconsistency in the global press.
The original segment aired January 27, 2014 as part of the Q on Sports conversation series. Browse the project microsite here."This book is for people to read and understand what is going on in those parts of the world. They need to read about the people that helped me."
*NOTE: We have spelled Moammar Gadhafi in accordance with the CBC Language Guide; however, we've kept Owumi's spelling when referring to the title of the book, specifically. Here's a short PBS write-up on why there's so much inconsistency in the global press.
