twenty-three

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is the story of a child from Sierra Leone who is displaced from his family by war and who finds himself caught up in the fighting as a 15 year old. Ishmael’s memoir focuses on his life of violence and his rehabilitation from the psychological damage and drug dependencies pushed upon him as he falls into fighting for the Sierra Leone army against the RUF rebels in the mid-1990s. You may have seen this book selling at the local Starbucks recently, as they are doing a big push to sell the book and help promote Beah’s story. I would tell you this is not a Mitch Albom book and as trendy as it might seem to buy a book at Starbucks, I wholeheartedly recommend it because of the incredible story it includes and because of the immense implications it should have on our lives.

It is wild to think about holding an AK-47 as a 15 year old boy. It’s even crazier to imagine killing without remorse, without thinking, in response to a war that has displaced your family, most likely killed all the people you know and love, and has entirely ruined your world. But this is where Ishmael found himself. This book is full of heart-wrenching images of killing and pain, all things that no person should ever have to witness, let alone be taught to do. It is painful to hear Ishmael’s account, as he seems to lose all sense of identity and memory within the war and the killing. The deep emotional damage this creates is incredible.

Yet, this book is full of hope. I don’t want to ruin the story for anyone, but it is a story of redemption and he is eventually liberated from the army by UNICEF. It is hopeful as we see him fight through nightmares and drug withdrawals (substances which included marijuana, cocaine, and "brown-brown", a mixture of cocaine and gunpowder). To see him respond to the care of the UNICEF workers and people who actually cared about bringing him back to life is very emotional, as I felt invested in bringing him around and helping him see that what he did was not his fault.

I definetly recommend reading this book. Borrow my copy, please. Or, buy it from Starbucks, where they will donate $2 to UNICEF with your purchase (Make sure you buy Fair Trade coffee while you’re there though).

The issue of children soldiers around the world and specifically in Africa is horrifying. A book like this or a movie like Blood Diamond, which is also about Sierra Leone and I also recommend, help me see the real people who are impacted by these issue and help us all see the pain it causes. It is never right for a child to have to carry a gun and kill. Why should children fight wars that they have not started? Should they have to respond in violence to the violence inflicted upon them? It’s not really even a question about whether these wars are right, that’s beside the point in a lot of ways. It’s that this generation of children is missing their childhood and growing up only knowing war and death and suffering. Who will they be when/if they grow up? How will they help solve the problems if the adults who put guns in their hands take away their voice and take their hope away?

I feel like I kind of go all over the place with different causes, at least here on this blog. Whether it’s the climate with An Inconvenient Truth, or faith and politics, or now children soldiers, I feel like I get passionate about something for awhile and then drop it. Or I get cynical about it, knowing that it’s such a big issue and so few people actually give a rip. I would just say this in closing then: we need to find a way to do something. It can be giving money to UNICEF. It can be calling our senator about acting in environmentally conscious ways or doing something about the Darfur conflict. Whatever we do, it should be our response as people who care about our world, who want to see people loving each other, who want to see people standing up for those who struggle, and because we know God calls us to act on behalf of our world and on behalf of the "least of these." So, I don’t know what you’re going to do. I’m not sure what I’ll do. But let us all be aware and let us not turn our heads away.

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