This is the story of Aminata Koroma, an extraordinary woman who made her way out of Africa to make a better life for her family and returned to make a better future for her people.
It also is the story of her remarkable son, Mohamed Sanu, a wide reciever and rising college football star at Rutgers who says he will return to Africa one day to follow in his mother’s footsteps.
These stories don’t come around very often.
“I just feel lucky to have such a mother who not only cares about her family,” Sanu told The Post, “but also cares about other people.”
Aminata Koroma left Sierra Leone for America in 1975, when her country was being torn apart by civil war. She gave birth to a daughter, Haja Jabbie, and Sanu, leaving her heart and two older sons in Africa.
“She came for the American dream,” Haja told The Post. “She came because this is the land of opportunity.”
After establishing herself as a successful businesswoman, Koroma took Jabbie and Sanu back to Africa in 1992, where they remained for three years. Sanu’s father, Samuel Sanu, was a member of the Sierra Leone national soccer team, and that was Mohamed’s first sport.
But when they returned to the States, Sanu’s friends always were playing football. He loved the physicality and camaraderie of the sport. At South Brunswick (N.J.) High School in 2007, he quarterbacked his team to its first playoff appearance in 30 years.
It was the next season, however, that first revealed Sanu’s character. Born on Aug. 22, 1989, Sanu turned 19 five days after the state cutoff to be eligible for his senior season. He couldn’t play.
“I don’t know how he handled it,” said his prep coach, Rick Mantz. “I don’t think I could have handled it. He said he wanted to help coach. You figure that will last a week. Not Mo. He was the first one at every practice and the last to leave.”
Sanu doesn’t find his actions remarkable. This sense of giving back is in his genes.
His mother couldn’t turn her back on Sierra Leone. Jabbie, 13 years older than Sanu, adopted her brother, and Koroma went back to Africa. Koroma opened a beauty supply company (she now runs a wedding supply company) and quickly became a respected elder in Calaba Town, located in the east end of Freetown.
That respect grew. Koroma runs an orphanage for 40 boys ages 12-18 who lost their parents in the wars that threatened to tear apart her country. She also oversees a college scholarship fund.
“Whatever little extra I have I feel I must share it with the people who need it,” Koroma said by phone from Sierra Leone.
Next year, at the request of local elders, she will run for a seat in Parliament.
“It rubs off on me,” Sanu said. “Even though I can’t fill her shoes or do the things she does, I try to help other people as much as she can.”
He succeeds in his own way. Sanu is a frequent speaker at community centers and Pop Warner League teams, extolling the importance of education and avoiding drugs. He volunteers at the Special Olympics.
“I think Mo gets this from me,” Koroma said. “Mo looks like me. He has the same heart.”
When Rutgers was in the midst of a six-game losing streak last season, coach Greg Schiano received a text message one night.
“It was Mo,” Schiano said. “He said, ‘Coach, don’t worry, we’ll get this thing turned around.’ Imagine that.”
Sanu was the first true freshman wide receiver to start at Rutgers in Schiano’s 10 seasons. In two seasons, he has 1,057 yards receiving and five touchdowns, and 655 yards rushing with nine scores.
Komora spends about seven months a year in African and returns to the States for football season. She missed the Knights’ home opener, in which her son caught seven passes for 68 yards and one touchdown in a 48-0 win over N.C. Central, but she will be at the rest of his games.
Sanu not only understands his mother splitting time between America and Africa, he has plans she didn’t know about until being informed by The Post.
“If I wasn’t fortunate enough to have my mother come over here and help me start a life here, I probably would be over there struggling,” Sanu said. “So I feel if there’s any way that I could help, I will definitely go back there and help.”
“Oh boy!” Komora exclaimed. “This is news to me! Oh my goodness! I would be so happy if Mo did this. I believe he will if he says he will. He is a good person. I am very blessed.”
lenn.robbins@nypost.com