Beah Ishmael's Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier

The experiences of Beah Ishmael was anything but normal compared to our average American life. He was from Mattru Jong, an undeveloped area in southern Sierra Leone. From 1993 all the way to 2001, an enormous civil war broke out in northwest Africa. The war displaced 4.5 million people and recruited over 300,000 child soldiers. Beah was one of the children recruited to fight in the civil war. Throughout the war, tens of thousands of people were massacred. The book Memoirs of a Boy Soldier exhibits how a war can drastically change and affect mass amounts of individuals, manipulating their fragile culture. Beah lived a fairly average life before his country was ravaged by war. He attended school, had friends, and was passionate about rap music and dance. His culture was comparable to many other typical cultures. Before Beah

After the program ended the kids were sent off to foster families or relatives if any remained. All of Beah’s family was killed in the war except for an uncle that lived in the city of the rehabilitation center. Beah had never met his uncle before but upon arrival they had an instant connection. Beah didn't have much trust in others but when he saw his uncle crying it indicated to him that his uncle was a genuine person. In their culture it was extremely uncommon for men to cry, so when they did it was a big deal. His uncle visited frequently while Beah was in rehabilitation and made an impact on Beah's mental health. Beah was selected by an organization to travel to New York and share his experiences with the world. Hearing about his experiences puts a culture like his into perspective for those who haven’t experienced anything like it. At the meeting Beah met people from all over the world coming from a huge variety of cultures. There were children from europe, other parts of Africa, etc. that went through war like he