Bearing Witness
After 32 years in exile, Afghani refugee Sayed Sadat is telling his story through both words and pictures.

Sayed Sadat was a 14-year-old Afghani schoolboy when his father and two uncles were thrown in jail after a Communist faction seized control of the country in 1979 in a military coup. A year later, the Soviet Union invaded.
During the Mujahideen rebellion which followed, three of Sadat’s school friends were murdered and he witnessed violence that would scar him for the rest of his life.
When the authorities discovered Sadat’s father (who had been a high-ranking officer during the reign of King Zahir Shah and president Dawood Khan) had escaped to Pakistan, word reached Sadat that they were planning to take him hostage. So in November 1980, he and a classmate, Haytullah, fled their homes in the small town of Wardak, near Kabul.
It took the pair two weeks to cross the Spin Ghar mountain range and reach the border with Pakistan, where Sadat joined his father. Haytullah, however, was not so lucky – he was murdered the following spring when he returned to Afghanistan. Over the next four years, Sadat made the treacherous journey seven more times as he tried unsuccessfully to reunite his family 

My dad was the only member of my family that was with me when I arrived to Pakistan. Due to the dangerous circumstances our family was in, we had to leave everyone behind in Afghanistan because they were not able to handle the same speed as me and my dad for such a long distance. We lived together for more than four years and during that period I travelled back and forth more than six times despite the dangers and risks I had to overcome in order to see my family back in Afghanistan. The journey was approximately twelve to fourteen days long but it the length was dependant on the speed, weather conditions and the situation during that specific period of time such as governmental army controlling the pathway from Pakistan to Afghanistan. We were under direct bombardment and snipers attack as we made our way into Afghanistan but we survived this horrific situation a number of times by having luck on our side. After much anticipation, my dad was finally able to manage rescuing our family by hiring animals such as camels, donkeys and horses which at the time were a used a transport. His mission was a success and my family was able to manage their way out of Afghanistan by taking on a long journey. Therefore, my five sisters, two brothers and mother had now begun a fresh start and start living in exile.

The tragic news of my father passing away reached to me as I was making my way to New Zealand. At that time of grief I was in Bangkok, Thailand. I was deeply saddened by this news and felt a great sense of grief and loneliness. I went to visit my country, family and also my father’s grave after spending seven years in New Zealand. In that short period of time I experienced something that was extremely tragic. My only intention for going back to my country was to spend some quality time with my family and enjoy the atmosphere but that was all changed overnight. This was due to my only brother who was still back in Afghanistan with his seven children and wife was shot by a group of inhumane people. They had somehow made their way inside the house where my brother was with his two young sons, and shot him dead for no particular reason. My two nephews witnessed this traumatizing scene and were crying helplessly unable to save their fathers life. To make matters worse this took place on the night of my daughter’s wedding ceremony. In that those short few hours, people’s lives were changed forever and would never be the same. Maybe this was part of my destiny and that happiness was not meant to be as I had planned. Therefore, I came to New Zealand with more sorrows and sadness than happiness and wonderful memories.     

A decade after arriving in New Zealand as a refugee, the 48-year-old still has nightmares and suffers from Fibromyalgia, Cardiac, stress-induced very poor health. As he opens the door to the west Auckland home where he lives with his five children, his face is smiling but his eyes are haunted. “I look healthy, but inside I’m broken,” he says.
Three years ago, during a prolonged spell of unemployment, the devout Muslim sat down and began painting. “That first day I had no brush but I had a small tube of coloured paint so I started painting anyway.”
Since then, the self-taught artist has amassed more than 400 drawings, watercolours, oil, acrylic and pastels. He also embroiders and makes his own frames and canvases. “Painting helps me heal… temporarily,” he says.
Inside his home, paintings cover every conceivable surface, leaning up against the wall or piled high on tables. Subjects vary from portraits of Western pop-culture figures and landscapes to abstracts and more; even an art deco style couple dancing cheek-to-cheek. Afghani subjects are prominent too; particularly lost cultural artifacts and destroyed landmarks. “Here is a portrait of a 500-year-old Buddha which was destroyed by the Taliban,” he says, gesturing towards a painting on the floor.
Pictures of Kabul are painted from memory or photographs. Disturbing Pakistani newspaper clippings that show mutilated bodies have inspired other paintings depicting violence at the hands of the Communists, Mujahideen and Taliban.
The horror’s Sadat has experienced has also compelled him to write. Refugee Stories, a new book published by AUT’s Centre for Refugee Education in November, includes two of his stories and selected paintings, alongside stories from other local refugees.
The manuscript for his first book, Way to Kabul, has also been accepted by an Australian publisher and is due out early next year, chronicling Sadat’s return to Afghanistan in 2007 during the American rules by putting Mr. Karzai who is still the president of Afghanistan.
Sadat is already halfway through two other manuscripts which he hopes to have published one day. “In life I have seen more than enough heartache,” he says. “This story I’ve witnessed, I need to tell it. I hid for years and didn’t want to share my story. Now I want the world to know why I came to New Zealand and why I live here. I have spent 32 years in exile.”
NATASHA FRANCOIS