Ishmael Beah Spejaks at CCBC

To imagine life as a boy soldier is a terror in itself. The book, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, speaks of a boy's journey as firsthand witness--and participator--of the perils of war. Ishmael spoke of his of his experiences at the young age of 11. Mr. Beah's village was raided when he was a boy at this age, family killed, village burned. down. He was one of many young boys who experiences were similar, and later became raiders themselves, having become forcefully recruited to participate as instigators and soldiers at a tender age. Ishmael Beah's recollections of his rehabilitation by UNICEF was explicit: thousands of once-violent brainwashed youth like himself were precariously guided through the long road of rehabilitation and once again regained the invaluable re-connection with civilization on a humanistic level.

Mary Bogdan Hauf