A Long Way Gone

I just finished reading a book called "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah. It's the true story of a boy, my age, who survived a life as a child soldier and now lives in the States, educating others on the realities of war and its effects on children.

To give an overview, Ishmael grew up in Sierra Leone, and when rebels invaded his rural village, he lost his parents and he fled with his brother and friends through the jungle and other parts of the country. They walked miles each day, stole food in villages they came to or scrounged the bushes for edible plants and fruit. At one point, he was separated from his brother, whom he never saw again. When he and his remaining friends finally made their way to the coast, where they had heard they could find refuge from the war, they were met by the government's army and told they were needed in defeating the rebels. At the age of 13, Ishmael was given an AK-47, taught to load it and shoot it, then his commander led him and the other children into the jungle to fight the enemy. He watched other boys die in front of him, one only seven years old who couldn't even lift his rifle. He was horrified, but as time went on he grew accustomed to the violence, took enough cocaine to numb the pain, and joined his fellow soldiers in watching war movies, then mimicing what he'd seen when murdering people. Killing came easy to him as he tortured grown men, killed women and children, and watched his friends die around him. When UNICEF found him, he didn't want to be rescued since the army was now his life. At 15, he and some other boys were placed in a center in Freetown where on the first day they killed some of the other boys there, who had been part of the rebel cause. He went through painful withdrawals from the drugs, broke every rule he was given, and burned his school books. After months of attention given him by a nurse who took the time to listen to him and counsel him, he finally began to be the boy he once was. Eventually the war came to Freetown, and he escaped to Guinea, and much later re-settled in New York through a fortunate turn of events.

I was just so moved by his story. It's a relatively short book, written very simply and openly. I had known of child soldiers in Africa, but had always thought they were used by rebel forces and not by the government. I had never so fully visualized how brutal the killings were, how corrupt the government was, or just what heights of cruelty humans were capable of inflicting on each other. Some of the things they did were acts I couldn't have ever thought up on my own, even if I was trying to come up with the most heinous things I could imagine. To experience it first-hand, as a child, is hard to comprehend. And to hear him come out the other side as he has, and be given an opportunity for another life is nothing short of miraculous. I was reading this book in the afternoon, and in the background could hear the kids here outside laughing as they played basketball and chased each other. The juxtaposition of those kids with Ishmael really brought home to me how desperate his situation was, and how he should have been playing with his friends rather than participating in mass killings.

It's a touching and provoking story. I highly recommend it.