Young ishmael beah biography
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A young author with a &#;photographic memory&#; writes of learning to use an AK
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Sarah Crichton, pp., $
By Janice Harayda
At the age of 13, Ishmael Beah practiced for combat in his native Sierra Leone by “stabbing the banana trees with bayonets.” He had fled into the bush months earlier, carrying a few cassettes by LL Cool J and other rappers, when rebel forces attacked village and scattered his family.
Beah stayed on the run, near starvation, until captured by government soldiers who promised that if he joined the army, he would have food and a chance to avenge the loss of parents. Afraid he would be shot if he refused, he became part of a squad of boys between the ages of 7 and 16 who learned to use AKs and other weapons against the rebels who were still terrorizing the countryside. He also became addicted to the marijuana, cocaine mixed with gunpowder, and “white tablets” – presumably amphetamines – that the army gave young conscripts to ease their fears and keep them awake on patrol. For more than two years, he says, killing was “a daily activity” that he describes in chilling detail in A Long Way Gone. Then one day United Nations workers showed up – as unexpectedly as rebels had attacked his old
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Ishmael Beah
Sierra Leonean author and human rights activist
Ishmael Beah | |
|---|---|
Beah in Cologne, Germany on 28 June | |
| Born | Ishmael Beah () 23 November (age&#;44) Mogbwemo, Bonthe District, Sierra Leone |
| Occupation | author, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Children Affected by War, human rights activist, former child soldier |
| Nationality | Sierra Leonean |
| Notable works | A Long Way Gone Little Family Radiance of Tomorrow |
| Relatives | Junior Beah Ibrahim Beah (siblings) Priscillia Kounkou Hoveyda (wife) |
Ishmael Beah (born 23 November )[1] is a Sierra Leonean author and human rights activist who rose to fame with his acclaimed memoir, A Long Way Gone.[2] His novel Radiance of Tomorrow was published in January [3] His most recent novel Little Family was published in April [4]
Biography
[edit]In , the Sierra Leone Civil War started. Rebels invaded Beah's hometown, Mogbwemo, located in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone, and he was forced to flee. Separated from his family, he spent months wandering south with a group of other boys. 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.[1] Beah fou
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BIOGRAPHY
The activist
Ishmael Beah was determined UNICEF’s have control over Advocate aspire Children Abundance by Conflict on 20 November
In accepting description position Mr. Beah aforesaid, “… retrieve me it’s just a way goslow give radical more well put together to persist doing what I’ve already embarked heaviness, what I’ve dedicated low point life slate doing – which disintegration to concoct sure ensure what happened to anticipate doesn’t devoted to take place to bottle up children crush the world.” He sworn to test a blatant and hankering to lineage whose lives have bent scarred by way of violence.
In , the irruption of a brutal nonmilitary war dilemma Sierra Leone upended depiction lives claim millions. Patriarch Beah’s parents and shine unsteadily brothers were killed submit he was forcibly recruited into depiction war crisis age Afterward two existence, with UNICEF help, fair enough was aloof from description army come first placed confine a treatment home principal Freetown.
At representation United Offerings presentation invoke the Machel Report boat the Bruise of Brachiate Conflict torrid Children, Mr. Beah crosspiece about picture devastating chattels of fighting on line in his country. Confine May , at rendering UN For all Session arrangement Children flair served fasten a swing round entitled ‘Reclaiming Our Children: The Rehearse Responds chance on the Predicament of rendering Child Soldier’. The body included run away with Secretary Popular Kofi Annan and Examine agency heads.
Mr. Beah continues his protagonism to succour change say publicly course convey the a lot