Displaced by War, United by Music

March 29, 2007 — -- They are known as Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, a group of 12 musicians who came together under the most trying circumstances.

During the 1990s, the citizens of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, may have lived a sheltered existence, free from the civil war that was raging throughout the countryside of their West African nation.

It was not to last.

Thousands of lives changed in 1999, when rebels attacked the city and incited a mass exodus. Forced from their homes, the future band members came together like so many others. Most of them did not yet know each other when they were living in refugee camps in neighboring Guinea.

What drew them together? After watching the documentary film "Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars" directed by Zach Niles and Banker White, you might say it was love for God, love for their country and, above all, love for music.

On their way to tour Australia, four members of the band sat down with ABC News' Mike Lee in London. The band members told their tragic stories, which are sadly familiar to thousands of their countrymen.

A 19-year-old rapper and vocalist who goes by the name Black Nature lost his parents to murder. In contrast to the playful and childlike rapper featured in the film, a somber Black Nature said, "When the war broke out, I fled to a refugee camp in Guinea. My father was killed by the rebels and my mother was killed. I run away. I was at the age of 10 when the war broke out. Then I went through Guinea to the refugee camp."

In broken English, singer Efuah Grace said of her loss, "I love my family. In 1997 in the middle of the civil war. … They were killed."

Yet in the midst of the sorrow and loss, love, as it sometimes does, found a way to interrupt the misery.

Lead singer Reuben Koroma took a liking to Grace when he met her in a camp in Guinea. Grace, as she's known, insisted on a three-month courtship, after which she said she would help Koroma get through the trauma he'd sustained after losing his family. Now, as his wife and band mate, Grace appears to have made good on her promise to help, even if she may never be able to heal.