Summary Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

Ishmael Beah was born in the village of Mogbwemo in Sierra Leone in 1980. The Civil War in Sierra Leone displaced Ishmael and resulted in him becoming a child soldier for the Sierra Leonean Armed Forces. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier chronicles the physical and psychological horrors of war and Ishmael’s subsequent return to society.

While visiting a neighboring village with his brother and a group of friends, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) pillaged Mogbwemo. The attack separates the boys from their families. The group travels through the countryside, between villages, looking for food and shelter. They stay in the village of Kamator for a time until it too is assaulted by the rebels, separating Ishmael from his brother. Ishmael travels alone for a period until he encounters a group of boys also from Mogbwemo. After several weeks of traveling the boys locate the village where their families are, only to arrive as the village is being torched by the RUF. Following this they travel toward the coast until arriving in the government controlled safe zone in Yele.

Yele’s impending siege by the rebels, forces Ishmael’s and the other boy’s conscription into the government army. The child soldiers are fueled by their hatred toward the RUF for the deaths of their

For Ishmael, rehabilitation was a long process where his hatred and rage slowly became replaced with the realization of his actions and the horrors he endured. After being rehabilitated Ishmael moved in with the only surviving family he had, his uncle. Ishmael’s unique experience and his success in rehabilitation was causation for him to be selected to represent Sierra Leone in the United Nations Economic and Social Council’s conference on children affected by war. During the conference in New York City Ishmael met Laura Simms, one of the facilitators for the