The Sky Wept Stars: Thoughts on A Long Way Gone

Uganda provides one of the most glaring examples of the use of child soldiers in the world today. But it neither the first place to do so, nor will it be the last, unfortunately.

During the decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone, many children were abducted and brainwashed in much the same way as they are in Uganda. One survivor of this tragedy, Ishmael Beah, now lives in the United States and has published his story as A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.

Beah did not start out as a child soldier, but instead as a permanent version of a night commuter. He spent a long time in the wilderness, trying to avoid the rebels who destroyed his village, and hoping to find his family again.

In the Sierra Leone civil war, both the government's army and the rebel Revolutionary United Front militia utilized abducted children as soldiers. Beah was "protected" and later conscripted by the government as a child soldier. Through the use of drugs, violent movies, and training drills, the children were desensitized and indoctrinated, joining the war effort to defeat the RUF militiamen.

Beah was eventually rescued and put back in school. Through the help of the caring staff, and especially one counselor in particular, Beah was able to go to live with some extended family members. The war eventually found its way back to Beah, who fled to the United States, where he still lives today.

Beah, who now works for the liberation of child soldiers and slaves, working with Human Rights Watch and many US government agencies and NGOs.

Beah's story puts yet another human face to this tragedy. Like Invisible Children's documentaries, A Long Way Gone helps to turn statistics and numbers about child soldiers into children with faces and stories to tell. And so it is that we at UGA join with students across America and the world, and with Beah and others telling their stories, to put a human face on such violations of rights and crimes against humanity.

Join us. Do Something.

Shalom,
Drew

Post Script (added 3 Feb 2009): For more on the war in Sierra Leone and the use of child soldiers, the fictional account presented in Blood Diamond (Warner Brothers, 2006) is worth viewing.