Gee Gee found volleyball during Bosnian War

OTTAWA (CUP) – Aminata Diallo, member of the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s volleyball team, steadies herself by the net, follows the path of the ball with her eyes, and spikes it hard over the net. Celebrating the point with her teammates, she is all smiles. Diallo has come a long way from her adolescence in a war-torn country.
Diallo grew up in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1980s. Formerly part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina gained independence during the Yugoslav wars of the early 1990s.
The Bosnian War – a conflict involving aggression by Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro to redistribute Bosnia and Herzegovina between the two countries – began in March 1992 when Diallo was only 10-years-old. The Serbian army invaded and attacked Bosnian cities, including Diallo’s hometown of Travnik.
“We had no electricity, no running water, [and] we were living on all powder food,” she said.
“We used to make a joke that we hoped no wind would come because it would blow [all our food] away. We were really relying on humanitarian [aid].”
Everyday life changed dramatically with the start of the war, and Diallo and her siblings did not go to school or stray far from their backyard. Attacks occurred at all hours of the day, and because Diallo’s family lived near refugee hideout areas, their apartment building was often directly in the line of fire.
“Our apartment building got hit four times and was destroyed. We used to have sirens go off that meant there was an attack, so you were supposed to stay at home,” she said. “Most of the time, during the war, we’d stay in the basement, in a dark room.”
It wasn’t long before Diallo’s mother felt it was too dangerous to stay at home and moved her family to a refugee camp located at a former army base in Bosnia. While waiting for refugee status to be granted by Canada, Diallo first encountered volleyball in a unique way.
“We were living in an old army field, so they only had a soccer field,” she said. “They would put a rope in the middle and we’d hit a ball around with our hands and feet.”
Playing this loose variation of volleyball kept Diallo and her younger brother and sister busy during their time at the army base. Finally, after several months of waiting, the family’s refugee status in Canada was granted.
They settled in Hull, Quebec in 1994. Diallo’s father, who died when she was young, was originally from the Republic of Mali in West Africa, and Diallo’s mother wanted her children to remember him through his language: French. Diallo was enrolled in a year of French classes in order to be able to converse with other students, but she experienced difficulty adjusting to her new life.
“[In Hull,] I was in a class where I had to re-integrate myself within my new community and explain [my situation] with new people,” she said. “[I] always sort of felt left out.”
Volleyball kept Diallo busy during her first years in Canada. While she only played recreationally in secondary school, Diallo got her competitive start at CÉGEP de l’Outaouais in Quebec. Despite her lack of experience with a competitive team, she was picked up for her enthusiasm for the sport.
“[The team] saw potential in me because I’m tall and I work hard,” she said.
Diallo started her master’s in social work at the University of Ottawa this fall after completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Laval and, at 26, calls herself the oldest rookie on the Gee-Gees women’s volleyball team.
Gee-Gees head coach Lionel Woods invited her to pre-tryouts in August to see how she would fit with the team and started her in the power position.
“I’m usually a middle player and [Woods] already had four middles so he was wondering if I would mind playing another position,” she said. “I tried the power position and I was really happy he put me [there]. So far, [it has been] amazing.”
Despite the hard times, Diallo had to endure in her adolescence, she has embraced her extraordinary experiences.
“I take the good of Bosnia, but I also take the good of Canada,” she said.