A Long Way Gone Chapter 6-11

CHAPTER 6-11

From where I last left off from chapter five Ishamel, Junior and Tallio were being chased by rebels, that was trying to kill them and make them join their group. During their travels, the boys meet a woman who tells them that Gabriella’s aunt is in a village called Kamator, and they decide to seek shelter there. They arrive in time to be part of the planting season and are given the job of clearing the land. They farm with the villagers for three months before the rebels arrive and they are forced to abandon the land without ever seeing the fruits of their labor. During the attack, the group is separated, and Ishmael never sees Junior again. From reading what I read, this chapter reveals a breakdown in trust among the villagers that had been a strong bond before the war. Ishmael, Junior, and their friends agree to stay together, but they realize that their grouping as six young men frightens the villagers that they encounter. There were rumors of bands of boys sent by the rebels to kill and terrorize the villages. Before the war, their group would have been taken in by any village, fed, and cared for, but due to the fear of attacks, Ishmael, Junior, and their friends are shunned.

As nights and nights went by Ishamel struggles to sleep because the thought of him losing his brother never left his mind. After multiple nights of starvations and hiding Ishamel finds Kalako in a nearby village that he was passing through and stayed for a little until it was time to embark on his own journey, because the silence and fear within the village was unbearable for him. The treatment of the imam, a highly religious and revered spiritual leader, shows the rebel's disregard for the village structure and morality. They burn his body publicly as a threatening symbol to the villagers and leave his remains to be eaten by dogs. This shows that they respect no authority but their own and will go to any length to terrorize the people. The lesson that I took from the behavior of the rebels was that you either get down with what they are doing or be put down in gruesome way so that they can earn their respect. 

A long way gone Chapter 1-5

CHAPTER 1-5

I just started reading Ishmael Beah’s unbelievable memoir of his life as a child soldier in Sierra Leone’s Civil War in A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier really open my eyes.  As I read chapter 1-5 of Ishmael talks of the talent show that he, his brother and friend leave their village to participate in.  Yet, it’s their passion for rap and hip hop that save their lives as the rebel attacked their village during their planned absence of only 24 hours.  Upon hearing of the attack, the boys decide to return.  However, upon seeing a man covered in blood carrying his son, a woman still carrying her fatally shot baby on her back, and an injured man stumbling out of his shot-up car that contained the bodies of his dead wife on the passenger side and this three dead children in the backseat, the boys realize that the words of a fleeing woman ring true — “Too much blood has been spilled where you are going” and they return to their friends’ village of Mattru Jong, where the talent show was to take place.

The village of Mattru Jong remains safe for a time while Ishmael, Junior and Talloi hang out listening to their rap cassettes trying to pass the time until they can return home.  They reason that it will only be a few months until “messengers” sent by the rebels start to appear.  A young man with the initials, RUF (for Revolutionary United Front) branded on him, and all his fingers but his thumbs cut off (called “one love” by the rebels) comes into the town to warn the villagers that the rebels are coming and that they should be welcomed.  A Catholic bishop is also sent to warn the villagers.  However, as the rebels are delayed in their arrival, the villagers become complacent and return from their hiding places, only to be caught by a sudden and violent arrival by rebels indiscriminately shooting fleeing villagers while forcibly recruiting young men to their cause.

Ishamel, Junior and Tallio managed to narrowly escape the rebels, though Ishmael paints a horrific scene of what they were forced to endure.  Knowing they had to cross a clearing before getting to the only escape route out of the village, Ishmael notes, “We knew we had no choice, we had to make it across the clearing because, as young boys, the risk of staying in town was greater for us than trying to escape.” Ishmael knew they would be made into soldiers.  I believe that Ishmael survived because he continued to think through his fear and did not become paralyzed by it.  Despite the horrors of crossing the clearing, even seeing a boy blown up by a grenade right behind them in the clearing “causing his remains and blood to sprinkle like rain on the nearby leaves and bushes,” Ishmael and the other boys continued to dodge, drop and run to avoid the RPGs and the bullets from AK47s and machine guns until they reached the exit to the village.  Ishmael and the other boys used their fear as power to propel them to run for more than an hour at top speed without stopping so they could escape the rebels.  Even Ishmael seemed surprised that they had found this super reserve of strength.