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Loading ...204 views - No Comments - October 3rd, 2007 by CB
It was 1993 in Mattru Jong, Sierra Leone when Beah was first touched by war at 12 years old. He fled attacking rebels and meandered through his homeland unrecognizable by violence. After the murder of his family and witnessing countless civilian executions he was picked up by the government army and was forced to fight for 3 years until UNICEF removed him and assisted in his rehabilitation.
In his book, A Long Way Gone, Beah shows you what war looks like through the eyes of a child soldier, how a child becomes a killer and how a child ends the cycle and returns to a civilized society. It is not common to find a first-person account from someone who has experienced this hell and has lived to tell his story.
In today’s news we read about Darfur and Mogadishu and remember Rwanda and Sierra Leone not long ago and Biafra and Congo further back. Ishmael Beah’s memoir may help us arrive at an understanding of how it is possible that children become killers on the front line.
Beah’s autobiography is unique in that he has given a literary voice to a child soldier. Not many of us could accurately remember our day-by-day lives as preteens, but his reflections are amazingly detailed as he leads you with him on his journey. Beah can remember the logo on the sneakers he is issued by the army and when he is captured by hostile villagers, he explains how he is let go because he has rap cassettes in his pocket (LL Cool J & Naughty by Nature) and can lip synch the lyrics and dance to them. These examples and many others exude the essence of precisely remembered truth.
After several months of counseling, care and attention Beah’s slow return to normality began. This was further augmented when he was sent to the United Nations with the task of explaining how one becomes a child soldier to a concerned international community. He moved to the United States, graduating from high school and Oberlin College in New York City. A Long Way Gone is his first, remarkable book.
For more information on Ishamel Beah and his book log on to: www.alongwaygone.com
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