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Name: A Long Way Gone
Rating: 4.4 (24 reviews)
Author: Ishmael Beah

Ishmael Beah

Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

4.4 (24 ratings)

16 mins

What is A Long Way Gone about?

A Long Way Gone (2007) is a story of how, as a young boy in Sierra Leone, the author found himself caught in a civil war and recruited as a child soldier. You’ll travel alongside during his harrowing journey, eventual rescue and recovery guided through the kindness and grace of loving people.

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A Long Way Gone
summarized in 7 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Get the personal story of a boy deeply embroiled in Sierra Leone’s civil war.

In the early 1990s, a civil war in Liberia inspired rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone to take up arms and fight against their government. The war raged for more than ten years, and thousands of people across the country were killed.

As horrible as all civil wars are, the conflict in Sierra Leone was characterized by a particularly horrendous fact: young boys, some as young as seven and barely able to hold a gun, were recruited to fight.

The author was one of those boy soldiers. Early in the conflict he was separated from his family and had to fend for himself, and in the process, was recruited by the national army, drugged and forced to perpetrate atrocities and live through horrors no person should ever have to experience – let alone a child.

These blinks tell the author’s personal story of loss and redemption amid the horrors of civil war.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

how the national army used propaganda to keep boys bloodthirsty;
why peacetime was hardly peaceful for rescued boy soldiers; and
how love and kindness can heal even the deepest scars of war.

The civil war in Sierra Leone seemed to come out of nowhere, turning life upside-down.

From the perspective of the Western world, Africa may seem synonymous with civil strife and war. But this is just a generalization; African nations desire peace just as much as any other country. Even Sierra Leone enjoyed years of peace before civil war erupted in the 1990s.

As a child, the author recalls happy memories, such as watching his mother prepare meals, or joining friends to dance to hip-hop music at talent shows. All in all, his childhood was not unlike that of many other children across the world.

In fact, any talk of war usually came from movies and books, or the occasional BBC report on the ongoing war in Liberia, a neighboring country. So when war did break out, it came as a surprise.

One day in January 1993, the author, his older brother Junior and a friend named Talloi traveled to the town of Mattru Jong, a 16-mile journey from their hometown of Mogbwemo. The boys had come to Mattru Jong for a talent show, and planned to stay at a friend’s house.

When their friend met them, however, he brought bad news: the author’s home of Mogbwemo had just been attacked by a rebel group.

The author and his brother decided to return home to search for their parents and siblings, but on the way their minds were quickly changed. They saw hordes of people fleeing Mogbwemo, many wounded, every person carrying what they could with them.

And when they saw the first dead body, it became clear to the boys that their family must have also fled Mogbwemo. Frightened, they turned back toward safety and the village of Mattru Jong.

The change from living a peaceful life with family one day to having no idea where your parents are the next was a horror in and of itself, but the war brought horrors much worse.

Next, you’ll learn what war means for the most vulnerable population of any country – its children.

Children suffered the most during the civil war, having to fend for themselves alone or in groups.

The author’s experience was unfortunately not unique. While people all over Sierra Leone suffered, children were hit the hardest by the chaos and violence of the civil war.

Since the war began so suddenly, it was common for children to be separated from their families during attacks in towns and villages and left to fend for themselves. There were also few ways to reach separated family members, as cellphone networks weren’t yet available in the early 1990s.

Young boys in Sierra Leone had few safe places, hunted by rebel groups and attacked by civilians.

While the horrors of war were especially difficult for children, young boys had a particularly hard time of it. Not only did rebel groups target them, but also civilians saw them as a threat.

But how could village populations see harmless local boys as dangerous?

Even the Sierra Leone national army forced boys to fight in the country’s long civil war.

You can just imagine the terrible things that rebels forced child soldiers to do. Yet even the national army fighting the rebels engaged in cruel tactics. In fact, if the army demanded it of them, young boys had no choice but to fight.

After some time on the road, the author and his friends were captured by the army, which took them to a military base in Yele. The early days there were peaceful, as the boys enjoyed some of the comforts of a normal life, like regular food and rest.

Jacked up on drugs and army propaganda, boy soldiers were made into efficient killing machines.

It’s difficult to imagine a 13-year-old boy doing the work of a soldier. That is, until you hear how the army brainwashed young recruits into becoming efficient killing machines.

The first tactic was to distort a boy’s reality by pumping him full of drugs.

Boy soldiers who survived the war were deeply traumatized by what they did and lived through.

Any war veteran can tell you that returning home from war doesn’t mean the war is over. Whether combatant or civilian, the survivors of way carry the experience with them.

Even after hostilities ended, many child soldiers acted as though they were still at war. In 1996, when UNICEF aid workers arrived at the village in which the author was stationed, he had already spent years living the life of a hardened soldier.

The kindness of caregivers and family helped the author turn his trauma into something productive.

The future certainly seemed dark for the former boy soldiers who, while free from war, still acted like brutal monsters. But there was hope for them nonetheless.

In fact, the gentleness and kindness with which the author was treated helped him recover from the horrors he had perpetrated and lived through.

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About the Author

Former child soldier Ishmael Beah was born in Sierra Leone and is now an author and human rights activist living in New York.

Who should read A Long Way Gone?

Anyone interested in modern history of Sierra Leone
Students of history exploring civil wars and warfare
People curious about the ongoing plight of child soldiers in Africa

Categories with A Long Way Gone

Biography & Memoir

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