Monday, March 12, 2007

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

"The book points out human beings are capable of doing evil and capable to overcome the evils...I overcame the experiences by trying to do something positive"
Ishmael Beah

ABOUT ISHMAEL

Ishmael Beah was born in Sierra Leone in 1980. He moved to the United States in 1998 and finished his last two years of high school at the United Nations International School in New York.He graduated from Oberlin College in 2004 with a B.A. in political science. He is a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Division Advisory Committee and has spoken before the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities (CETO) at the Marine Corps War fighting Laboratory, and many other NGO
panels on children affected by the war. He currently lives in New York City.

Ishmael gives a rare and riveting account of his turbulent life at the age of 11-13 years old fleeing rebels in a land consumed by violence. This book gives us a glimpse of the true nature and effects of the African conflicts. Despite his daunting experiences as a teenager he is still able to rise out of it all sane and cheerful


"Its very easy to turn a human being to a killer but it is the returning back is the most difficult"


Ishmael endeavors to write in the book as he felt at 11 and 12 years old to exhibit how communities were disintegrated as a result of the conflict back then in Siera Leone.His village was consumed in absolute blood shed and chaos during the Sierra Leone war.


What was the war about?


"The war started because of a corrupt government and rampant abuse of power...The war started for a good reason but took a wrong turn."

"Originally the war was about survival the fighting for the limited necessities that were available. The armies take the kids and indoctrinate them giving them drugs and guns. The rebels was feeding propaganda to the kids telling them that the government was responsible for the chaos, the killing of their families... both the government and the rebels were feeding propaganda to the children so both sides were at fault."

Child Soilder in Africa

"I lost family and didn't know what to do and the rebels was the only group that seemed slightly organised."


http://www.alongwaygone.com/

2 comments:

  1. Chuki ni kitu kibaya sana,kuweza kutumia hela kuzalisha chuki ni unyama,kupigana wenyewe kwa wenyewe sio haki mbele ya Jah.

    Huwa najiuliza kwa nini bara la Afrika tunakesha kupigana kila siku?

    Kama Amerika imeweza kuingia Iraq na kumhukumu Sadam,mbona mauaji ya Rwada walikaa kimya na kuangalia tu.

    Amani ni nini?
    kazi za umoja wa mataifa ni zipi?
    Jah live

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  2. Hello,

    I am sorry to invade your blog but I loved your picture of a boy soldier and am currently doing an assessment on this theme for my university so I wondered if you'd mind if I used you photograph to represent a boy soldier. It would, of course, be fully attributed to you.
    If you need to contact me, my e-mail address is marianarizzolo@gmail.com

    Thank you very much in advance for yout time and attention.

    regards,

    Mariana Rizzolo

    ReplyDelete