‘A Long Way Gone' is the memoir of Ishmael Beah who was recruited by the Sierra Leone government at the age of 13 to fight in the civil war. Ishmael's career as a soldier began at the age of 13 after finding his parents and two brothers murdered by the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
Driven by drugs and not having any means of escape, he spent two years fighting in the war-torn country. When he was 16, Ishmael was put into rehabilitation by UNISEF and eventually ‘repatriated’ into civilian life in the capital, Freetown. When the capital, too, was overtaken by war, he managed to escape to America where he has since graduated from Oberlin College and is now working for Human Rights Watch in New York. Despite its horrific subject matter, ‘A Long Way Gone’ is a story of optimism. Beah donates the second half of the memoir to his rescue, his revival and his eventual escape into safety. Although there are an estimated 300,000 child soldiers worldwide, it is rare to have a first person account of this phenomenon. If they do survive, most are in no position to recount their terrifying experiences. The malleability of the young makes them easy targets for rebel groups in war struck countries, especially orphans, like Ishmael, who often have nothing left to loose and are enraged by the murder of their families. In the memoir, Ishmail describes how he fought and killed, with increasing pride in his proficiency. The forced recruitment of children is a global problem which the world is often powerless to prevent. Sierra Leone is currently the second least developed country in the world, with an average life expectancy of 40 and an illiteracy rate of two thirds. The 11 year long civil war ended in 2002 and the country is slowly regaining stability.
Buy at Amazon.com or Amazon.de
- 2
