Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone, spoke at Cushing on April 4, 2008. The links below will take you to a video of his talk that we have made available to the Cushing community. Beah's autobiographical account of his time as a soldier and his escape from the fighting, is chronicled in A Long Way Gone, his best-selling book. To fully appreciate his talk, we highly recommend his book.
View Ishmael Beah's speech at Cushing Academy:
Quicktime Video
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Life as a child soldier
Ishmael Beah was born in Sierra Leone on November 23, 1980. When he was eleven, his life, along with the lives of millions of other Sierra Leoneans, was derailed by the outbreak of a brutal civil war. After his parents and two brothers were killed, Mr. Beah was recruited at the age of thirteen to fight as a child soldier. He fought for over two years before he was rescued from the army by UNICEF.
A new life begins
Placed in a rehabilitation home in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, Mr. Beah was rehabilitated by late 1996. He won a competition to attend a conference at the United Nations to talk about the devastating effects of war on children in his country. It was there that he met his new mother, Laura Simms, a professional storyteller who lives in New York. Mr. Beah returned to Sierra Leone and continued speaking about his experiences to help bring international attention to the issue of child soldiering and war affected children.
Return to the United States
In 1998 he came to live with his American family in New York City. After completing high school at the United Nations International School attending Oberlin, Mr. Beah continued his advocacy work to bring attention to the plight of child soldiers and children affected by war around the world, speaking on numerous occasions on behalf of UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, United Nations Secretary General’s Office for Children and Armed Conflict, at the United Nations General Assembly, serving on a UN panel with Secretary General Kofi Annan and discussing the issue with dignitaries such as Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton. He is a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Division Committee.
His best-selling book
When he was 26 years old, Mr. Beah told the story of his harrowing experiences as a child soldier and his escape from the war that destroyed his family and friends and that nearly destroyed him. A Long Way Gone reveals that despite the terrible acts of violence that engulfed him, he was able to regain his humanity, redeem himself, and find new hope for his life.
“Perhaps all that need be said about Beah’s skill as a storyteller is that while we know how he made it out – the book in our hands is proof of that – we are glued to every page by the very real possibility that this story is not going to end happily... Read his memoir and you will be haunted... It’s a high price to pay, but it’s worth it.” — Newsweek
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