A LONG WAY GONE: MEMOIRS OF A BOY SOLDIER BY ISHMAEL BEAH

                                                         

Ishmael Beah was born in Mattru Jong, Bonthe district, Sierra Leone in 1980. In 1991, when he was eleven, a brutal civil war broke out in Sierra Leone. After his parents and two brothers were killed in the war, Beah was recruited to fight as a child soldier. As a child soldier, he fought for almost three years before he was rehabilitated by the UNICEF. In 1998, he was fortunate to get an opportunity to move to the U.S. where he completed his high school. In 2004, he completed his Bachelor of Arts in political Science, simultaneously working on Advocacy campaigns for the plight of child soldiers around, speaking at the UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, serving on a UN panel with secretary General Kofi Annan and discussing the issue with dignitaries such as Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton.

A LONG WAY GONE: MEMOIRS OF A BOY SOLDIER (2007),is a recollection of his own traumatised experiences as a child soldier and his subsequent struggles to revert to a normal and dignified life. He currently lives in New York and works for Human Rights Watch.

“I live knowing that I have been given a second life”, author Ishmael Beah, and one of the war victims of sierra Leone, told an interviewer, and I just try to have fun, and be happy and live it the best I can.” This shows that Ishmael Beah is a true optimist in every way.

                                         

This novel has about 21 chapters and they all revolve around the life and struggle of Ishmael Beah and how he overcame his difficulties and tough times of his childhood.

The sierra Leone civil war began in 1991, when a small band of men called the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), under the leadership of Foday Sankoh attempted to oust the corrupt APC party which was in power. Fighting continued in the ensuing months, with the RUF gaining control of the diamond mines in the Kono District and pushing the Sierra Leone army back towards Freetown.

When Ishmael Beah was thirteen, the civil war that had been going on in Sierra Leone since 1991, came to his town  Mogbwemo and changed the contours of his life.

Tens of thousands of people died and almost one-third of the country’s population displaced during 11 years conflict. Ishmael Beah lost his family in the war and wandered about alone but with the determination to find safety. Since he was in pursuit of food and protection, he felt that it was safe to be with Sierra Leone Military Forces who provided him with nourishment and a place to sleep. The military in dire need of people to increase their number forced all the boys in the village to join the army and Beah had no option but to join.

 The sight of blood and the crying of people in pain, trigged something inside him that he didn’t understand, and made him lose compassion for others. He lost his real being and his sense of self. After crossing that line, he was not a normal kid but traumatised one. At that point, he was unaware of the dangerous and crooked road that his life was taking.

He was taken out of the army and put into a psycho-social therapy home, three years later by UNICEF where he was rehabilitated. The process of rehabilitation was very difficult as former child soldiers began readjusting to normal life. Beah found his peace through music and song writing which eventually led him to rediscover his lost childhood. Unfortunately many others were not able to recover from the trauma of being child soldiers.

Ishmael Beah’s memoir is a moving story of a small boy, his slow recover from his trauma and beautifully flowering into a matured adult. This read will make us realise the conditions across Nations and to be happy in a simple way.