Memoirs of a child soldier

The African internal conflicts that have scarred its recent history are seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old warrior. Sara Saleh in Sydney writes

A LONG WAY GONE
By Ishmael Beah

Perhaps one of the most distinguishable aspects of this book is the fact that it lends a voice to someone who has been through one of the most extraordinary and troubling phenomena of the past few decades.

Ishmael Beah's memoir follows the distressing life of a warrior, a killer... a child soldier who, disbelievingly, at the age of 12, was involved in a bloody civil war of military coups, corruption and mass murder in a small town in Sierra Leone.

For Beah, this meant being torn apart from his family and put in the line of immediate danger along with many other boys.

But this story of the rise of a child soldier and a hell he went through is not to be mistaken for a book of history, but rather an understanding of the unforgivable African internal conflicts that have scarred recent history unlike other usual wars.

This memoir comes from a once unwitting child who had his innocence stolen from him by a bloodbath of violence.

From an insider who has witnessed it all comes a stylistic yet disturbing novel that unravels atrocities that beg an unsurprising question how could Beah have possibly come out with any shred of sanity left in him?

Author of the week

Ishmael Beah

Ishmael Beah, 26, was born and raised in a small town in Sierra Leone. But with the outbreak of the civil war and the death of his parents and two brothers, Beah was recruited to fight as a child soldier at only 12.

After three horror-filled years of forced fighting, Beah was removed from the army by Unicef and put into a rehabilitation home.

In 1998, he moved to New York and was living with an American family while finishing high school. After being accepted into university, he decided to pursue important advocacy work to place the issue of child soldiers at the forefront of political agendas all over the world.

His dedication saw him speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, as well as serving on a UN panel with former Secretary General Kofi Annan, former US president Bill Clinton and veteran South African leader Nelson Mandela.

After completing his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 2004 and winning the acclaimed Overlin's Dainne Vruels Fiction Prize for his story At Noon, Beah went on to write his novel, A long Way Gone.

He also gave the 'Call to Action' speech at the Religions for Peace Youth Assembly, "Religious Youth for Peace: Confronting Violence and Advancing Shared Security" which took place August of last year in Japan.

The writer is an International Student Correspondent for NOTES, studying at the University of Sydney, Australia