Reviewed by Never Again International – Canada Chapter Coordinator in Florida, Ruth Gonzalez
Ishmael Beah was a young twelve-year-old boy living in a village in Sierra Leone doing the things any young boy would do. That was about to change when the notorious bloodthirsty rebels of the Revolutionary United Front attacked his village leaving horror and death in the aftermath. Trying to escape, he was eventually caught by rebel forces and was pumped with drugs, images from the movie Rambo, and brainwashed. It was then, Ishmael was forced to do the unthinkable: killing others.
It is estimated that over 300,000 child soldiers fighting in various conflicts worldwide – the majority of them in Africa. Children robbed of their homes, families, and of their very lives. There have been many resolutions and initiatives against the use of child soldiers, most notably the report by Graça Machel, the former first lady of Mozambique, in 1996. For a lot of people, there is a will among them to stop the use of child soldiers and that one day, it will be a thing of the past. Sadly, Ishmael’s story is not the first and will not be the last on the devastating experience of a child soldier.
As I read this book, many questions popped up: How could such a thoughtful and kind-hearted boy be capable of such monstrosity? Who in their right mind would force a child to pick up a rifle and kill without a second thought? I know the answers to these questions, but they rest very uneasily on my mind.
Ishmael is one of the lucky ones who managed to escape and become an advocate for the hundreds of thousands of children being used as weapons in wars created by adults. “A Long Way Gone” is a brutal but beautifully written memoir of survival, redemption and renewal. If anyone wants to understand the affects of war and the plight of child soldiers, then this is the book to read.
