Ishmael Beah, A Long
Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (New York: Sarah Crichton Books; Farrar,
Straus and Giroux, 2007).
Ishmael Beah, A Long
Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (read by the author; Audio Renaissance,
2007).
Also available on Nook and Kindle.
(MEMOIR)
Recommended by Wilda Morris
American rap music saved the life of Ishmael Beah several
times. Ishmael was twelve years old when he, his older brother Junior and a friend
were going to a neighboring village to perform rap songs from a cassette tape
they had purchased. Rebel soldiers attacked Ishmael’s village, killing many
residents and scattering the rest. Had he been home, he probably would have
been killed or drafted into the rebel army. Later, as he and other youngsters
were wandering through Sierra Leone trying to find a safe place, it was the rap
music cassettes in his pocket that persuaded village elders that they were not
the child soldiers who were attacking and burning villages and shooting people.
Book cover blurbs are often meaningless, but I agree with
the words of Walter Isaacson: “A Long Way
Gone is a wrenching, beautiful, and mesmerizing tale.” Except for the brief
prologue, the story takes place from 1993-1998. For much of this time period, Ishmael
is on the run from the chaos of civil war, passing through forests, grasslands,
and abandoned villages.
Ishmael talks of times “we were so hungry it hurt to drink
water . . . . “ (p. 31). They saw dead bodies. They often traveled at night, to
decrease the chance of being captured. They lived in fear, always alert to
dangers.
Once, Ishmael and his friends were captured by rebel
soldiers. They would have been killed or forced into the rebel army, but
fighting broke out nearby and they escaped into the woods. Ishmael was
separated from the others (including his brother), and never saw any of them
again. He later hooked up with another group of young people. These boys tried,
together, to reach the coast, believing they would be out of the war zone,
The boys happened into a village where Junior had come a few
days earlier, looking for Ishmael. Shortly thereafter, Ishmael encountered
Gasemu —another refugee from Ishmael’s home village. He told Ishmael, “Your
parents and brothers will be happy to see you. . . . Your mother cries every
day, begging the gods and ancestors to return you to her.” He told Ishmael that
his family had taken refuge in a village just over the hill. Imagine his
excitement at the prospect of being reunited with his loved ones! But just
before Ishmael arrived in that village, it was attacked by rebel soldiers and
totally wiped out. Civilians were shot in the back. Homes were set on fire with
people locked inside. Ishmael’s first wish was that he had made it into the
village in time to die with his family.
Not long after this, Ishmael and his friends were captured
by government soldiers. They were taken to Yele, a village under government
control, and given space in an unfinished concrete building with other young
boys. There were about 30 of them altogether. It seemed that they had finally
found safety. That lasted until the rebels came close and the military
contingent in Yele got desperate. The boys were offered an option: they could
undergo military training and become part of the troop, or they could leave the
village. The soldiers repeatedly said that it was the responsibility of the
boys to punish the rebels for having killed their families. Between the
brain-washing and the obvious fact that they would be no safer wandering in the
war zone, there really wasn’t much choice. Ishmael became a child-soldier.
The child soldiers were given drugs to make them feel invulnerable
and were shown war movies such as Rambo:
First Blood, Rambo II, and Commando in the evenings. Ishmael says,
“When we ran out of food, drugs, ammunition, and gasoline to watch war films,
we raided rebel camps. . . . We also attacked civilian villages to capture
recruits and whatever else we could find” (pp. 121-122). Initially he was
forced to participate in atrocities, but they soon became second nature. Beah
showed leadership, and when he was critically injured, the troop leaders got
medical care for him.
One day a UNICEF truck with four men “dressed in clean blue
jeans and white T-shirts” (p. 128) came to the base where Ishmael was
stationed. The lieutenant picked 15 boys and told them to go on the truck. None
of the boys knew why he had been selected, but they were used to following
orders so they obeyed. They were taken to a fenced compound where they were
other young boys, all of whom were child soldiers. Those who designed the
project of reclaiming the young people from the war were so naïve that they put
rebel and government soldiers together, without any preparation. Violence
erupted in the compound and some of the boys were killed.
The UNICEF representatives, however, did not give up. The
violence was brought under control. The boys were bribed to attend classes by
promises that if they did so, they could take field trips into Freetown on
weekends. Since virtually all of these boys were from the countryside, they
were willing to go to school, though they didn’t take it seriously. They did
not know that the easy-going “teachers” were collecting information and feeding
it to the military personnel.
Ishmael resisted going to the hospital for check-ups or to
see the nurse, despite having migraine headaches and horrific nightmares.
However, he passed out several times and was taken to the hospital. In time,
Esther, a nurse working with the boys, got through his shell. She purchased rap
music and invited him to stop by her office to listen to it. Eventually she was
able to get him to tell her about his experiences and to share his dreams.
Staff members at the rehabilitation camp constantly told the boys, “It wasn’t
your fault.” Initially Ishmael found this annoying, but one day when he heard
it again from Esther’s lips, it became a comfort and part of his healing.
Because it discusses such horrific events, A Long Way Gone is a difficult book to
read. What makes it possible to get through is that Beal periodically includes
flashbacks to happier times, including tribal stories.
There is much more to the story, but I won’t tell it all.
Ishmael was more fortunate than thousands of other child soldiers from Sierra
Leone. The short biography in the book lets the reader know that Ishmael was
finally able to come to the United States to complete high school and college.
He has spoken before the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, and
the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities of the Marine Corps
Warfighting Laboratory. His rap music performances doubtless contributed to the
self-confidence that allowed him to be a strong public speaker, the ability
which opened the doors for him to escape Sierra Leone when the fighting arrived
in Freetown.
As I read this book, it spoke to me of possibilities. If
Ishmael Beah could be reclaimed from his role as a drug-addicted child soldier
participating in the burning of villages and the torture and murder of innocent
people—if he could be healed enough to return to school and to become an
upstanding citizen—surely we could reclaim youth who have witnessed and
participated in violence in our inner cities if we had the will to do so. Our
culture seems more intent on punishment and vengeance than healing.
Consequently we perpetuate the cycle of violence. When will we learn?
