Ishmael Beah
Encyclopedia
Ishmael Beah is a former Sierra Leonean child soldier and the author of the published memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
.
overtook Sierra Leone
, the country in which he was living. At the age of 13, he was forced to become a child soldier
. According to Beah's account, he fought for almost three years before being rescued by UNICEF. Beah fought both during the war and after its conclusion. In 1997, he fled Freetown
due to the increasing violence and found his way to New York City
, where he lived with Laura Simms, his foster mother. In New York City, Beah attended the United Nations International School
. After high school, he enrolled at Oberlin College
and graduated in 2004 with a degree in Politics
.
During his time in the Sierra Leonean government army, Beah says he doesn't remember how many people he killed. He and other soldiers smoked marijuana
and sniffed amphetamine
s and "brown-brown
", a mix of cocaine
and gunpowder
. He blames the addictions and the brainwashing for his violence and cites them and the pressures of the army as reasons for his inability to escape on his own: "If you left, it was as good as being dead."
During a February 14, 2007 appearance on The Daily Show
with host John Stewart, Beah said that he believed that returning to civilized society was more difficult than the act of becoming a child soldier, saying that dehumanizing children is a relatively easy task. Rescued in 1996 by a coalition of UNICEF and NGOs
, he found the transition difficult. He and his fellow child soldiers fought frequently. He credits one volunteer, Nurse Esther, with having the patience and compassion required to bring him through the difficult period. She recognized his interest in American rap music
and reggae
since he was a kid, gave him a Walkman and a Bob Marley
cassette, and employed music as his bridge to his past, prior to the violence. Slowly, he accepted her assurances that "it's not your fault."
Living in Freetown
with an uncle, he went to school and was invited to speak in 1996 at the UN in New York. When Freetown was overrun by the joined forces of the rebels (RUF or Revolutionary United Front) and Army of Sierra Leone in 1997 (the Army of Sierra Leone was originally fighting against the RUF), he contacted Laura Simms, whom he had met the year before, and made his way to the United States.
"If I choose to feel guilty for what I have done, I will want to be dead myself," Beah said. "I live knowing that I have been given a second life, and I just try to have fun, and be happy and live it the best I can."
and Nelson Mandela
.
Beah currently works for the Human Rights Watch
Children’s Division Advisory Committee, lives in Brooklyn
, and is considering attending graduate school.
He has served as the keynote speaker for several events, including the Global Young Leaders Conference 2007 (July 15–26 session), Oberlin College's 175th convocation ceremony, and the 2008 College Conference in Montreat, North Carolina
.
The 29-year-old recently traveled home to Sierra Leone with an ABC News
camera, a return that he describes as bittersweet.
in the Best Debut Author category for 2007.
Time
magazine's Lev Grossman named it one of the Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2007, ranking it at #3, and praising it as "painfully sharp", and its ability to take "readers behind the dead eyes of the child-soldier in a way no other writer has." He was last seen at the Miami Book Fair International
presenting this book.
reported that aspects of Beah's account of his life story did not match other evidence. The report claimed that Beah's village was destroyed in 1995 rather than 1993, and that given the more compressed time frame, he could not have been a soldier for more than a couple of months, rather than the years that he describes in his book. He would also have been aged 15 when he became a soldier, rather than 13. Questions were also raised about Beah's description of a battle between child soldiers at a UNICEF camp, in which 6 people were said to have been killed. Witnesses interviewed by The Australian said that such an event in a UNICEF camp would have drawn significant attention in Sierre Leone, but no independent verification of such a battle could be obtained. Investigations by other publications also failed to discover other evidence of such a battle, and UNICEF, while supportive of Beah in general, also said that it had not been able to verify this aspect of his story.
The Australian's claims were subsequently denied in a statement issued by Beah, in which he called into question the reliability of the sources quoted. The statement also cited the fact that during the early stages of its research, the newspaper had investigated the possibility that Beah's father was still alive, a possibility that was based on mistaken identity by an Australian mining engineer. The Australian's published articles stated that they had established that the man in question was not Beah's father.
Beah's adoptive mother also reaffirmed her belief in the validity of the dates, quoting two Sierra Leonean sources who corroborated the chronology of events given in his book. However, the publisher amended this statement after The Australian objected that it seriously misrepresented the newspaper's report. The source cited by the publisher, Mr. Leslie Mboka, National Chairman of the Campaign for Just Mining, was in fact quoted by The Australian. The newspaper quoted him as saying that Beah "was a young child who had been through terrible things so he could easily have got things mixed up." Mr. Mboka, when subsequently contacted by the publisher, reported to them that he had vigorously supported Beah's chronology when interviewed by The Australian, and had challenged the paper for bias. However, Mr. Mboka had not met Beah until after the disputed events had taken place, and so was unable to provide firsthand verification of his account. The other correction involved the newspaper's publication, not of Beah's foster-mother's address but of her publicly listed website address; hate mail had indeed been received, but via the Internet. While the publisher made note of these, it stood by the accuracy of the book.
The dispute over Beah's credibility arose at a time when the exposure of some "fictional" memoirs, such as Margaret Seltzer
's account of growing up in a Los Angeles crime gang and James Frey's account of drug addiction had led to debate over the nature of the genre. The controversy was followed up in international publications including the British Sunday Times, Slate
, and the Village Voice. Beah had claimed to have a "photographic memory" which enabled him to have perfect recall of the events he described, leaving him "less room to maneuver" than if he allowed room for human error. However, some of his defenders as well as his critics allowed for the possibility that his account was not entirely accurate, stating that the main point was that he had drawn attention to an issue that was of vital importance. Possible explanations for any inaccuracies include the trauma of war as experienced by a young child, the drug use described in his account, and the possibility that Beah was tacitly encouraged by outsiders to compile stories from multiple sources into a singular autobiographical account.
Neil Boothby
, an academic who has undertaken extensive research into children and war, said that while all of the atrocities described by Beah have occurred at various points, it would be highly unusual for one child to have experienced them all. Boothby criticised the mentality that provided attention only to those with the most horrific stories to tell, thus encouraging exaggeration. "I've seen it over and over. Whether by psychologists or journalists, they are encouraged to tell the sensational stories...The system is set up to reward sensational stories. We all need to look at why does something have to be so horrific before we open our eyes and ears and hearts?"
Beah has made a vigorous response to the charges leveled against him in The Australian. A press statement refuting these allegations may be found at http://www.alongwaygone.com/Ishmael_Beah_statement.pdf
Criticism from Sierra Leone
In a critical investigative research by a local Sierra Leonean journalist, Muctaru Wurie; a lengthy report which was published by Sierra Leone leading magazine, SierraEye, Sierra Express Newspaper, Concord Times, All Africa.com, http://allafrica.com/stories/200907140962.html and Kalleone newspaper. Muctaru Wurie took a critical look at the book citing various instances in the book that he cited as false or events that never occurred http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/ishmael-beah%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98a-long-way-gone%E2%80%99-is-%E2%80%98a-long-way-from-the-truth-sierra-leonean-magazine-says-in-a-report-that-raises-%E2%80%98serious-doubts%E2%80%99-about-its-story/.
The Sierra Leonean book critic who has also reviewed works of other Sierra Leonean writers such as Aminatta Forna and Mariatu Kamara http://muctaruwurie.wordpress.com/tag/the-memory-of-love/ took a suspicious approach and interviewed several Sierra Leoneans and humanitarian workers including former Information Minister and head of the dissident radio station (FM 98.1), Dr Julius Spencer that was mentioned in Ishmael's book. Other prominent Sierra Leoneans interviewed are Isaac Massaqoi, Head of Mass Communications Department, Fourah Bay College, a long practising surgeon, Dr Kamara and many others. Some of the critical points Wurie raised in his article are Ishmael claims of being forcefully conscripted by the military. Some Sierra Leonean military personnel, local businessmen and Sierra Leonean Truth and Reconciliation Commission experts questioned the claims by Beah that he was captured and conscripted by the military at Yele. Ishmael's timing of when his village was actually attacked also came under a huge question mark. There are also other various events that Muctaru Wurie pointed out were totally wrong or never occurred, such as the announcement of a coup d'état, which witness tells Wurie was actually announced by Corporal Gborie, instead of Major Johnny Paul Koroma as Ishmael claimed. The slaughter of a whole family by rebels in the city was also an event which witnesses said never happened. Ishmael Beah says that when he left Sierra Leone for Guinea after being removed from the fighting: “The immigration officers were asking for three hundred Leones, almost two months’ pay, to put a departure stamp on passports.” Muctaru Wurie stated: “The fact is that the average monthly salary was far above that. Le 300 could only get you a pint of soft drink by the time. In fact, a US dollar is exchanged for around Le 800.” The journalist who spoke to many sources claimed he tried in vain to contact Ishmael through his publishers, and said if he had gotten that opportunity he would have asked serious questions. According to a report from a local Sierra Leone radio station, journalist Muctaru Wurie who alongside SierraEye Magazine has received threats since the article was published, reportedly told a local radio, Radio Democracy FM 98.1 in Freetown that he is now investigating Ishmael's actual root in Sierra Leone. He said his main intention was to look at the path of Ishmael from his alleged travels from his village from Mogbwemo to Freetown. Asked why he was doing this Muctaru said that instances Ishmael brought up in his book are very doubtful, including his inability to clearly mentioned in the book the exact address where he lived when he was in Freetown and also the mysterious rehab home that Ishmael mentioned in his book. Asked whether he was being biased, Muctaru said that Ishmael was to blame for the whole controversy and that had he been very clear and honest in the book, there wouldn’t have been all this need for enquiry.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is a memoir written by Ishmael Beah. Published in 2007, this book provides a firsthand account of the decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone and the ongoing plight of child soldiers in conflicts worldwide. Ishmael Beah was forced to run away from attacking...
.
Early years
In 1991 a vicious civil warSierra Leone Civil War
The Sierra Leone Civil War began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front , with support from the special forces of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia , intervened in Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government...
overtook Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
, the country in which he was living. At the age of 13, he was forced to become a child soldier
Military use of children
The military use of children takes three distinct forms: children can take direct part in hostilities , or they can be used in support roles such as porters, spies, messengers, look outs, and sexual slaves; or they can be used for political advantage either as human shields or in...
. According to Beah's account, he fought for almost three years before being rescued by UNICEF. Beah fought both during the war and after its conclusion. In 1997, he fled Freetown
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...
due to the increasing violence and found his way to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he lived with Laura Simms, his foster mother. In New York City, Beah attended the United Nations International School
United Nations International School
The United Nations International School is a private international school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 by families who worked for or were associated with the United Nations. The school was founded to provide an international education, while preserving its students' diverse cultural...
. After high school, he enrolled at Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
and graduated in 2004 with a degree in Politics
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
.
During his time in the Sierra Leonean government army, Beah says he doesn't remember how many people he killed. He and other soldiers smoked marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
and sniffed amphetamine
Amphetamine
Amphetamine or amfetamine is a psychostimulant drug of the phenethylamine class which produces increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite.Brand names of medications that contain, or metabolize into, amphetamine include Adderall, Dexedrine, Dextrostat,...
s and "brown-brown
Brown-brown
Brown-brown is a form of powdered cocaine mixed with smokeless gunpowder . Smokeless powder often contains nitroglycerine, a drug prescribed for heart conditions, which may help combat the negative cardiac side-effects of cocaine. Also it may refer to heroin...
", a mix of cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
and gunpowder
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...
. He blames the addictions and the brainwashing for his violence and cites them and the pressures of the army as reasons for his inability to escape on his own: "If you left, it was as good as being dead."
During a February 14, 2007 appearance on The Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
with host John Stewart, Beah said that he believed that returning to civilized society was more difficult than the act of becoming a child soldier, saying that dehumanizing children is a relatively easy task. Rescued in 1996 by a coalition of UNICEF and NGOs
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
, he found the transition difficult. He and his fellow child soldiers fought frequently. He credits one volunteer, Nurse Esther, with having the patience and compassion required to bring him through the difficult period. She recognized his interest in American rap music
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
and reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
since he was a kid, gave him a Walkman and a Bob Marley
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...
cassette, and employed music as his bridge to his past, prior to the violence. Slowly, he accepted her assurances that "it's not your fault."
Living in Freetown
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...
with an uncle, he went to school and was invited to speak in 1996 at the UN in New York. When Freetown was overrun by the joined forces of the rebels (RUF or Revolutionary United Front) and Army of Sierra Leone in 1997 (the Army of Sierra Leone was originally fighting against the RUF), he contacted Laura Simms, whom he had met the year before, and made his way to the United States.
"If I choose to feel guilty for what I have done, I will want to be dead myself," Beah said. "I live knowing that I have been given a second life, and I just try to have fun, and be happy and live it the best I can."
Life in the United States
While at college in Oberlin, Beah pursued advocacy work against the abuse of children during wartime. He spoke at the UN and met with leaders including Bill ClintonBill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
.
Beah currently works for the Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
Children’s Division Advisory Committee, lives in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, and is considering attending graduate school.
He has served as the keynote speaker for several events, including the Global Young Leaders Conference 2007 (July 15–26 session), Oberlin College's 175th convocation ceremony, and the 2008 College Conference in Montreat, North Carolina
Montreat, North Carolina
Montreat is a town in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 696 in 2008. It is part of the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area...
.
The 29-year-old recently traveled home to Sierra Leone with an ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
camera, a return that he describes as bittersweet.
Awards and recognition
A Long Way Gone was nominated for a Quill AwardQuill Awards
The Quill Award was an American literary award that ran for three years in 2005-07. It was a "consumer-driven award created to inspire reading while promoting literacy." The Quills Foundation, the organization behind the Quill Award, was supported by a number of notable media corporations,...
in the Best Debut Author category for 2007.
Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine's Lev Grossman named it one of the Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2007, ranking it at #3, and praising it as "painfully sharp", and its ability to take "readers behind the dead eyes of the child-soldier in a way no other writer has." He was last seen at the Miami Book Fair International
Miami Book Fair International
The Miami Book Fair International is an annual literary festival event realized in Miami by Miami Dade College.First called Books by the Bay in 1984, the two-day street fair take place since then at the Florida Center for the Literary Arts in Wolfson Campus...
presenting this book.
Credibility dispute
In 2008, The AustralianThe Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
reported that aspects of Beah's account of his life story did not match other evidence. The report claimed that Beah's village was destroyed in 1995 rather than 1993, and that given the more compressed time frame, he could not have been a soldier for more than a couple of months, rather than the years that he describes in his book. He would also have been aged 15 when he became a soldier, rather than 13. Questions were also raised about Beah's description of a battle between child soldiers at a UNICEF camp, in which 6 people were said to have been killed. Witnesses interviewed by The Australian said that such an event in a UNICEF camp would have drawn significant attention in Sierre Leone, but no independent verification of such a battle could be obtained. Investigations by other publications also failed to discover other evidence of such a battle, and UNICEF, while supportive of Beah in general, also said that it had not been able to verify this aspect of his story.
The Australian's claims were subsequently denied in a statement issued by Beah, in which he called into question the reliability of the sources quoted. The statement also cited the fact that during the early stages of its research, the newspaper had investigated the possibility that Beah's father was still alive, a possibility that was based on mistaken identity by an Australian mining engineer. The Australian's published articles stated that they had established that the man in question was not Beah's father.
Beah's adoptive mother also reaffirmed her belief in the validity of the dates, quoting two Sierra Leonean sources who corroborated the chronology of events given in his book. However, the publisher amended this statement after The Australian objected that it seriously misrepresented the newspaper's report. The source cited by the publisher, Mr. Leslie Mboka, National Chairman of the Campaign for Just Mining, was in fact quoted by The Australian. The newspaper quoted him as saying that Beah "was a young child who had been through terrible things so he could easily have got things mixed up." Mr. Mboka, when subsequently contacted by the publisher, reported to them that he had vigorously supported Beah's chronology when interviewed by The Australian, and had challenged the paper for bias. However, Mr. Mboka had not met Beah until after the disputed events had taken place, and so was unable to provide firsthand verification of his account. The other correction involved the newspaper's publication, not of Beah's foster-mother's address but of her publicly listed website address; hate mail had indeed been received, but via the Internet. While the publisher made note of these, it stood by the accuracy of the book.
The dispute over Beah's credibility arose at a time when the exposure of some "fictional" memoirs, such as Margaret Seltzer
Margaret Seltzer
Margaret Seltzer is an American writer. Her first book, Love and Consequences: A Memoir of Hope and Survival , about her alleged experiences growing up as a half white, half Native American foster child and Bloods gang member in South Central Los Angeles, was proven to be fictitious...
's account of growing up in a Los Angeles crime gang and James Frey's account of drug addiction had led to debate over the nature of the genre. The controversy was followed up in international publications including the British Sunday Times, Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
, and the Village Voice. Beah had claimed to have a "photographic memory" which enabled him to have perfect recall of the events he described, leaving him "less room to maneuver" than if he allowed room for human error. However, some of his defenders as well as his critics allowed for the possibility that his account was not entirely accurate, stating that the main point was that he had drawn attention to an issue that was of vital importance. Possible explanations for any inaccuracies include the trauma of war as experienced by a young child, the drug use described in his account, and the possibility that Beah was tacitly encouraged by outsiders to compile stories from multiple sources into a singular autobiographical account.
Neil Boothby
Neil Boothby
Neil Boothby is the Allan Rosenfield Professor of Forced Migration and Health at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health...
, an academic who has undertaken extensive research into children and war, said that while all of the atrocities described by Beah have occurred at various points, it would be highly unusual for one child to have experienced them all. Boothby criticised the mentality that provided attention only to those with the most horrific stories to tell, thus encouraging exaggeration. "I've seen it over and over. Whether by psychologists or journalists, they are encouraged to tell the sensational stories...The system is set up to reward sensational stories. We all need to look at why does something have to be so horrific before we open our eyes and ears and hearts?"
Beah has made a vigorous response to the charges leveled against him in The Australian. A press statement refuting these allegations may be found at http://www.alongwaygone.com/Ishmael_Beah_statement.pdf
Criticism from Sierra Leone
In a critical investigative research by a local Sierra Leonean journalist, Muctaru Wurie; a lengthy report which was published by Sierra Leone leading magazine, SierraEye, Sierra Express Newspaper, Concord Times, All Africa.com, http://allafrica.com/stories/200907140962.html and Kalleone newspaper. Muctaru Wurie took a critical look at the book citing various instances in the book that he cited as false or events that never occurred http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/ishmael-beah%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98a-long-way-gone%E2%80%99-is-%E2%80%98a-long-way-from-the-truth-sierra-leonean-magazine-says-in-a-report-that-raises-%E2%80%98serious-doubts%E2%80%99-about-its-story/.
The Sierra Leonean book critic who has also reviewed works of other Sierra Leonean writers such as Aminatta Forna and Mariatu Kamara http://muctaruwurie.wordpress.com/tag/the-memory-of-love/ took a suspicious approach and interviewed several Sierra Leoneans and humanitarian workers including former Information Minister and head of the dissident radio station (FM 98.1), Dr Julius Spencer that was mentioned in Ishmael's book. Other prominent Sierra Leoneans interviewed are Isaac Massaqoi, Head of Mass Communications Department, Fourah Bay College, a long practising surgeon, Dr Kamara and many others. Some of the critical points Wurie raised in his article are Ishmael claims of being forcefully conscripted by the military. Some Sierra Leonean military personnel, local businessmen and Sierra Leonean Truth and Reconciliation Commission experts questioned the claims by Beah that he was captured and conscripted by the military at Yele. Ishmael's timing of when his village was actually attacked also came under a huge question mark. There are also other various events that Muctaru Wurie pointed out were totally wrong or never occurred, such as the announcement of a coup d'état, which witness tells Wurie was actually announced by Corporal Gborie, instead of Major Johnny Paul Koroma as Ishmael claimed. The slaughter of a whole family by rebels in the city was also an event which witnesses said never happened. Ishmael Beah says that when he left Sierra Leone for Guinea after being removed from the fighting: “The immigration officers were asking for three hundred Leones, almost two months’ pay, to put a departure stamp on passports.” Muctaru Wurie stated: “The fact is that the average monthly salary was far above that. Le 300 could only get you a pint of soft drink by the time. In fact, a US dollar is exchanged for around Le 800.” The journalist who spoke to many sources claimed he tried in vain to contact Ishmael through his publishers, and said if he had gotten that opportunity he would have asked serious questions. According to a report from a local Sierra Leone radio station, journalist Muctaru Wurie who alongside SierraEye Magazine has received threats since the article was published, reportedly told a local radio, Radio Democracy FM 98.1 in Freetown that he is now investigating Ishmael's actual root in Sierra Leone. He said his main intention was to look at the path of Ishmael from his alleged travels from his village from Mogbwemo to Freetown. Asked why he was doing this Muctaru said that instances Ishmael brought up in his book are very doubtful, including his inability to clearly mentioned in the book the exact address where he lived when he was in Freetown and also the mysterious rehab home that Ishmael mentioned in his book. Asked whether he was being biased, Muctaru said that Ishmael was to blame for the whole controversy and that had he been very clear and honest in the book, there wouldn’t have been all this need for enquiry.
See also
- P. W. Singer investigator and author of "Children at War"
- Jimmie BriggsJimmie BriggsJimmie Briggs is a freelance journalist and teacher. He was awarded the John Battlow award from Northwestern University for a story about the Gulf War's impact on children, which became a finalist for a National Magazine Award. He has also investigated the impact of war on children in Afghanistan,...
investigator and author of "Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War"
Further reading
- Beah, Ishmael (2007). A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. Sarah Crichton Books. ISBN 978-0-374-10523-5.
- Beah, Ishmael (2000). When Good Comes From Bad, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
External links
- http://kalleonegroup.com/newspaper/dev_news_files/a_long_way_from_the_truth.html On July 3, 2009.
- http://sierraeyemagazine.com/book.htm On 1 July 2009.
- Ishmael Beah at Cody's Bookstore on FORA.tv on Feb. 23, 2007
- Video: Interview on The Daily Show, February 14, 2007.
- Interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, February 21, 2007.
- Online interview from CBC Words at Large
- Information on speaking appearances
- Interview on Enough Rope with Andrew Denton, July 2, 2007.
- Amenesty International keywords child soldiers
- Center for Defense Information
- The Children and Armed Conflict
- Child Rights Information Network
- Coalition to stop the use of Child Soldiers
- Human Rights Watch
- Reuters AlertNet
- UNICEF
- United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks
- War Child
- Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict