Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. 

And I’m Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  This is episode two in our three part series on Ishmael Beah’s national bestseller A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.  It is Ismael Beah’s first hand account of what he experienced as a child during Sierra Leone’s long armed conflict which completely ravaged the country and displaced a third of its inhabitants between 1991 until its official end in January of 2002. Last week we discussed the origins of the war and the fact that the violence endured for so long and was so bloody in large part because it was funded by what we call blood diamonds, those precious gems that were mined and sold by both sides of the conflict in order to buy weapons.    

 Beah’s account begins with an introduction dating in 1998 as a reflection.  From the beginning we know that Beah not only survives the war but somehow is writing his story from New York City, which is crazy to think about after reflecting on the chapters we discussed in the last episode, chapters 1-10.  We also can see by that introduction that he manages to escape the conflict before its official ending.  In these early chapters we meet an innocent group of boys living normal adolescent lives that are interrupted by murderous and senseless  killing sprees.  The boys run because that is the only thing they can do.  They run in a group so as to survive, but by the very nature of the war, they are not only threatened by all sorts of dangers, but they themselves are also perceived as threats.  They are the exact profile of the nation’s most deadly assassins.  They are on the run with no where to go and are totally disenfranchised for what is almost an entire year.  This week, we will discuss only five chapters, chapters 10-15.  These are the chapters that detail Beah’s relatively brief discussion of his two years spent as a soldier.  He is only 13 but he will serve as a soldier for two years in what is basically a terrorist squad victimizing in many cases innocent civilians.  Garry, before we read Beah’s individual story, let’s look at the concept of child soldiers in general.  It is obviously an inhumane practice.  What armies and terriorists do to the children to manipulate them into becoming killing machines is  immorale by any code of. Morality.  What these children do in the perceived service of freedom or liberation go far beyond international humanitarian law or acceptable standards of warfare conducted by  adult soldiers in armed conflicts, especially what they did to innocent civilians.  How could any leader on any side of any political concept justify this practice for any political or economical reason?   

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