Reviewed by Lynley Capon
A disturbing true story about African civil war, A Long Way Gone (2007, HarperCollins, 229 pages) is told by Ishmael Beah, a young man living in New York. This former boy-soldier survived a tragic civil war in Sierra Leone.
A Long Way Gone reads like a modern equivalent to The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, a novel about 18th-century slavery recently reviewed here. Like Aminata Diallo, Hill's heroine, Ishmael witnessed his parents' murder and was dislocated by civil strife. Amid the slave trade of the 1700s, tribes fought to capture and sell fellow-Africans. Evidently, severe conflict never ends.
Ishmael's ordeal began when he was age 12. For months, he and his friends walked to reach the west coast, avoiding the warfare when possible. Finding no safety, they decided to walk back, only to encounter government troops and be forced to join as soldiers.
A lieutenant remarked about the rebels: “They have lost everything that makes them human. They do not deserve to live. That is why we must kill every single one of them. Think of it as destroying a great evil. It is the highest service you can perform for your country.”
In reaction, Ishmael felt: “All of us hated the rebels, and we were more than determined to stop them from capturing the village.”
The boys trained as soldiers, their fears and horrors eased by unlimited daily marijuana or cocaine. They became fanatical, drugged forces of retaliation. Ishmael tells of an attack: “As they got closer, we opened fire, dropping those who stood in front. The rest we chased into the swamp, where we lost them. There, crabs had already begun feasting on the eyes of the dead. Limbs and fragmented skulls lay on top of the bog, and the water in the swamp had been replaced by blood. We flipped the bodies over and took their ammunition and their guns. I was not afraid of these lifeless bodies. I despised them and kicked them to flip them.”
For nearly three years, Ishmael survived a life of fighting and drug addiction, becoming a junior lieutenant. Many of the “enemies” were equally young. “My nickname was ‘Green Snake’ because I could situate myself in the most advantageous and sneaky position and would take out a whole village from under the tiniest shrub without being noticed.”
In 1996, 15-year-old Ishmael was “rescued” by UNICEF and taken to a rehabilitation centre, starting a long, hard road to recovery. His readjustment to humanity, together with other young ex-soldiers, is more moving than the account of horrific war. Workers at the rehabilitation centre showed remarkable patience and care for the boys who arrived as such wrecks.
Ishmael's story of reaching Freetown, a city begun in 1800 as a refuge for freed slaves, and meeting his uncle is as gripping as the rest of the book. Chosen to travel to the United Nations in New York to discuss the plight of child soldiers, he finally was adopted by an American woman.
A Long Way Gone resonates as a truly remarkable account of human endurance and recovery.
Approval rating: 80 per cent.
For more information: www.alongwaygone.com
(January 16, 2009)
ARCHIVES
|
