“On Wednesday, Sept. 17, The University of Akron welcomed Ishmael Beah, best-selling author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Child Soldier, to E.J. Thomas for the ninth annual First Year Lecture. Born in Sierra Leone, Beah grew up having a normal childhood filled with hip-hop music and campfire stories.”
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On Wednesday, Sept. 17, The University of Akron welcomed Ishmael Beah, best-selling author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Child Soldier, to E.J. Thomas for the ninth annual First Year Lecture. Born in Sierra Leone, Beah grew up having a normal childhood filled with hip-hop music and campfire stories.

Unfortunately, when Beah was 11, his life took a turn for the worse when a civil war broke out in Sierra Leone. Beah, along with other Sierra Leonians, was separated from his family and forced to flee the village he called home.

Beah entered the life of a child soldier when he turned 13. For two years he was forced to kill and became addicted to what he referred to as brown brown (a mix of cocaine and gunpowder). Beah’s life became surrounded by the motto kill or be killed. Fortunately he was rescued by a UNICEF relief group and in 1998 came to New York where he remained with his adopted family.

It was apparent on Wednesday that Beah overcame his childhood nightmare.

Throughout the lecture, Beah stressed that his reasoning for writing A Long Way Gone was to educate the world on the child soldier epidemic. Also to enlighten and convey that Sierra Leone, Africa and other war plagued countries have not always been stricken with war. Sierra Leone had not always been infested with fear, panic and child soldiers. It was once a tranquil, breath-taking country.

In closing, Beah left the audience with a few words to reflect upon. There is nowhere in the world where people wake up and decide to kill each other; there are links leading up to it.

As Beah exited, E.J. Thomas honored him with enthusiastic praise and applause. Ishmael Beah was phenomenal, and many awaited his arrival at the book signing to have their copies of A Long Way Gone autographed.

If you haven’t had the chance to read A Long Way Gone, it is available at bookstores everywhere.

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