Sundufu Finds Refuge at St. Mary’s

by Chad Peters, Sports Information Coordinator


When he closes his eyes at night, Moses Sundufu can still see the Sierra Leone streets he left behind so many years ago.

Burning buildings, dead bodies, blood being spilled — utter hopelessness, really. Even now, his memories of a war-torn nation are visions Sundufu hasn’t been able to shake since fleeing his homeland at the age of 6.

“We were very fortunate to get away,” said Sundufu, who is preparing to start his senior season on the St. Mary’s men’s basketball team. “Even staying there two or three more days than we did, we’d have been stuck. It would have been really, really bad.”

Sundufu was born in Sierra Leone in 1991, just as the nation’s civil war began. The 11-year conflict tore apart the country, leaving 50,000 people dead and others — like Sundufu and his family — looking for a way out.

His family fought for years to leave, with his mother, Linda, fleeing first to the United States in the late 1990s. She made the difficult decision to leave Moses and his big brother, Michael, in the care of their aunt in Africa so that Linda could pave the way for her family to have a chance elsewhere.

When he was 6, Sundufu, his brother and his aunt fled to Guinea, a neighboring West African country, and shortly thereafter moved on to Gambia. By the time Sundufu was 9, he and his brother had safely made it to the U.S. as refugees, joining their mom in Hopkins, Minn. The memories, challenges and uncertainties of his early life are still with him.

“It all lets me know where I come from,” said Sundufu, an Exercise and Sport Science major. “It reminds me to take advantage of the opportunities I have.”

A Different World

The land of opportunity proved a welcome sight for Sundufu after leaving his homeland, but it might as well have been a different world. Though he had never before spoken English, Sundufu’s native language of Krio was an English-based creole, easing his transition.

“I picked up English really quickly,” he recalled, “and was able to make friends.”

Almost by chance, Sundufu found the game of basketball. He grew up playing soccer, but his first memory of playing basketball isn’t until after he arrived in Minnesota when he went to the park to play a pickup game with a friend. By the sixth grade, he was playing competitively for his school.

“Ever since then,” Sundufu said, “I’ve been playing, playing, playing.”

And he rarely stops.

Before a game late this past season, St. Mary’s Head Coach Jim Zeleznak went into Bill Greehey Arena early one Saturday morning to go over some game film. He expected to be alone, but instead Zeleznak saw that someone had beaten him into the building.

“I walk into the gym at 6:45 a.m., and obviously all the lights were out except for a few security lights,” Zeleznak remembered. “But I heard a ball bouncing. I poked my nose in, and it happened to be Moses.”

Dripping with sweat, Sundufu had been shooting since 5:30 a.m.

“Sometimes I just like to do stuff on my own,” he explained. “I’ll shoot around and work on improving.”

Keeping His Mind on the Game

Basketball has proven an effective distraction for Sundufu. The only thing he thinks about when he’s on the court is what it’ll take to improve his game — a far cry from the worries he used to hold.

“When we first got to the U.S., we used to watch the news all the time,” he said. “We’d follow what was going on because we still had family in Sierra Leone.”

Most of Sundufu’s family made it out safely, but there were friends and neighbors who didn’t.

“Only a few people I knew lost their lives,” he said. His aunt, who helped him and his brother, stayed in Gambia until it was safe to return to Sierra Leone. She plans to join the rest of the family in Minnesota this December. But he still feels connected to his homeland.

“I’d like to go back to Sierra Leone someday,” Sundufu added. “There are still family members there.” Until then, he has basketball to occupy his time.

Standout on the Court

Sundufu averaged 9.3 points and shot a team-high 38.9 percent from 3-point range for the Rattlers last season, teaming up with Daryell Taylor to provide St. Mary’s with the kind of 3-point-shooting tandem it hasn’t had in years. He was also a lock-down, one-on-one defender, keying a defensive effort that had the Rattlers holding teams to 65.8 points per game en route to making their first NCAA Division II South Central Regional appearance since 2008.

“I’m happy I came here,” says Sundufu, who as a senior in high school led Hopkins High to a state championship. “The people here are so nice; I just fit in. You just want to feel at home, especially on a basketball team.”

And in life.

“It’s pretty crazy how things turn out,” he said. “A lot of people didn’t make it out of Sierra Leone. They didn’t have the opportunity I had.”

For all they’ve been through, Sundufu’s mom had never actually seen her son play the sport he loves. That changed this past season, when she watched him by viewing an online broadcast of a St. Mary’s game.

“She was happy,” Sundufu said. “This is what she was fighting for. I thank God and try to make the best out of what I have.”

Because all it takes is closing his eyes to see what could have been.