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.