Ishmael Beah (born on November 23, 1980) is a renowned Sierra Leonean author and human rights activist, best known for his powerful memoir, A Long Way Gone. He has also written the novel Radiance of Tomorrow, which was published in January 2014, and his latest work, Little Family, released in April 2020.
In 1991, the Sierra Leone Civil War broke out, and rebels invaded Beah’s hometown of Mogbwemo, located in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone. This forced him to flee and, after being separated from his family, he spent months traveling south with a group of boys. At the age of 13, he was coerced into becoming a child soldier. As per Beah’s account, he fought for nearly three years before being rescued by UNICEF. During this period, he fought for the government army against the rebels. In 1997, due to escalating violence, he escaped Freetown with UNICEF’s assistance and eventually made his way to New York City, where he lived with his foster mother, Laura Simms. In New York, Beah attended the United Nations International School, and after high school, he enrolled at Oberlin College, graduating in 2004 with a degree in political science.
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Beah has mentioned that he does not remember how many people he killed while serving in the Sierra Leonean government army. He and other soldiers would smoke marijuana and inhale amphetamines and “brown-brown”—a mix of cocaine and gunpowder. He attributes his violent actions to these addictions and brainwashing, along with the pressures from the army, which he cites as reasons for his inability to escape on his own. Beah has said, “If you left, it was as good as being dead.”