My Trip to Liberia

I think that instead of just telling his accounts of the stories of the Civil War of Sierra Leone he

When I began reading Chapter 1 of “Mistaking Africa,” it reminded me of our first class meeting. Professor Crowley asked us to do the same exercise Curtis Keim talks about in the text. Professor Crowley asked us what comes to mind when we think about Africa. It is a great exercise and allow us to express our perceptions of Africa. Even in class, it took me time to think about what comes to mind when I hear the word Africa, because I have not really heard much about it besides the common misconceptions: “Africa is a primitive place, full of trouble and wild animals, and in need of our help” (5). I frequently see the UNICEF commercial with Alyssa Milano, who asks her viewers how it would feel to be able to save a child’s life for fifty cents a day. The commercial precedes to play really depressing music and shows a slideshow of undernourished children, who fend for themselves in

reality of the most brutal 20th century civil war in Sierra Leone. Mariatu tells a very

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier and the recent 2006 film Blood Diamond both depict how it was living in Sierra Leone, Africa during the Civil War in the ‘90’s. While A Long Way Gone focuses on child soldiers and what they had to live and go through for many years, Blood Diamond focuses mainly on how the country is torn apart by the struggle between government soldiers and rebel forces. The film portrays many of the atrocities of that war, including the rebels' amputation of people's hands to stop them from voting in upcoming elections. Both the movie and the book try to tackle major issues by asking the questions: how

Manipulation is a key factor in the outbreak of a war. Ishmael Beah discusses the several instances of manipulation that occur in Sierra Leone. In his memoir, A Long Way Gone, Beah discuses his life during the civil war outbreak in Sierra Leone. He explains how the affects of war affected in both a positive and negative connotation. Several publishers seek a better understanding of the struggle that Beat faces during the time of the civil war. Throughout the novel, Beah discusses the damage Sierra Leone goes through. He learns valuable lessons throughout his time in combat, which he seeks to share with others. Although Beah describes the importance of soldiers in a time of war, he believes in his memoir, “A Long Way Gone”, that awareness should

In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, a former boy soldier with the Sierra Leone army during its civil war(1991- 2002) with the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), provides an extraordinary and heartbreaking account of the war, his experience as a child soldier and his days at a rehabilitation center. At the age of twelve, when the RUF rebels attack his village named Mogbwemo in Sierro Leone, while he is away with his brother and some friends, his life takes a major twist. While seeking news of his family, Beah and his friends find themselves constantly running and hiding as they desperately strive to survive in a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. During this time, he loses his dear ones and left alone in the

In Ishmael Beah’s memoir “A Long Way Gone”, Beah’s imagery reflects both his decrepit emotional state and Sierra Leone’s disarray. When Beah explains how he and Kaloko went to Kamator to see if there were signs of anything living, he describes the scene as such, “The silence in the village was too scary. I was scared when the wind blew, shaking the thatched roofs, and I felt as if I were out of my body wandering somewhere” (46). Here, Beah’s distinguished use of imagery represents his worn emotional state and Sierra Leone’s disarray. How the war has not only turned villages into ghost towns, but also displays the emptiness and the fear that he has felt during this experience. This imagery represents the effects the war had on Sierra Leone

Battling disease and personal connection, the life of a soon to be doctor can come with many opportunities, as well as regretful decisions. The Lassa Ward, a memoir told by Ross I. Donaldson, tells the true story of a medical student who embarks on a journey to Western Africa to face one of the most fatal diseases in the world. Published by St. Martin's Press, in 2009, in the city of New York, this story takes place in the early 2000s across many villages and refugee camps in Sierra Leone. The struggle of disease, differing cultural beliefs, and heartbreak due to a loss from death are the main topics of the book, although Donaldson does not fail to intertwine the issue revolving around the Rebel United Front in Liberia. In this moving book,

In the book, A long way gone: Memoirs of a Child Soldier, the author recounts vividly a period in his life where he experienced the civil unrest in Sierra Leone in the 1990’s. Ishmael Beah utilizes powerful imagery to allow the reader to visualize how violent the civil war was. One of the quotes that stood out, was “IT WAS INFURIATING to be told what to do by civilians. Their voices … enraged me so much that I would punch the wall, my locker or anything that I was standing next to. A few days earlier, we could have decided whether they would live or die.”

For years the Coopers we’re “blissfully enjoying” the trappings of wealth and advantage. But then “Liberia was like an unwatched pot of water left boiling on the stove.” On April 12, 1980, a group of soldiers led by a twenty-eight year old man named Master Sgt. Samuel Kanyon Doe, stormed the Executive Mansion and assassinated President William Tolbert. “The soldiers bayoneted him in the hallway, gouged out his right eye and disemboweled him. They put Mrs. Tolbert and the children under house arrest. Then they went on the radio to announce that Liberia was

In the summer of 1985, I joined the Peace Corps and was assigned to the remote, landlocked country of Burkina Faso in West Africa. The stories contained in this work all have a basis in fact and are in general very much the way I remember things happening. That being said, “Agent 000” is completely fictitious, but even in this story, there is a dimension of reality, as it was commonplace for volunteers to be suspected of being CIA operatives.

The country was foreign, a first for me. Dilapidation and ruin scattered the horizon as far as one could see. Guatemala is a place where poverty has a strong grasp on its people. We traveled tirelessly for hours to reach the poorest of the poor. Upon arrival old, young, and natives of all shapes and sizes formed receiving lines, eager to welcome us with gifts of smiles and gratitude. It was an experience that forever changed me. This was the first time I had stepped outside the boundaries of the American culture into a world where nothing is taken for granted. Each day spent on my mission trip brought a fresh awareness of gratefulness. Any pre-trip reluctance quickly became a vague memory as my emotions welled within bring a fresh change to

Readers also learn a lot about Central Africa and the issues with which people from there often deal. Many people lost their lives because of the civil war without actually dying. While Deogratias grew up, he saw many people in need of medical attention, and few received help, “Infectious and parasitic illnesses were ubiquitous and there was no public health system” (36). Deogratias was a true savior for the people of southeastern Burundi when he established his medical clinic. Many of the rich people in Burundi were corrupt and did not care about the well-being of other people “In Burundi, as in much of Africa, foreign aid had long been a principal source of wealth for the wealthy” (96). The foreign aid did not go to the poor and sick people who needed it. Readers learn what it feels like immigrating to America and how immigrants are treated. Throughout the story, people were shocked to find out Deogratias attended Columbia University, especially students attending other schools in New York. Deogratias’ boss from his first job in America, Goss, made prejudiced assumptions about why things in Burundi were the way they

He trekked for days without food, helplessly watched rebel forces immolate villages, and spent two years killing enemy soldiers as a young teenager. He is Ishmael Beah and unlike much of his family and friends, he lived to tell his story. In 2007, Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone was published, an intense but honest account of the atrocities Beah faced as a child during Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war. As the story depicts the awful tragedies that civil war and abuses of human rights inflict upon people around the world, it embodies Sharon High School’s Preventing and Confronting Global Injustice course, which prioritizes studying these case studies in order to prevent injustice from occurring in the future. Not only does the memoir explain the deadly war, but it also enlightens readers, emphasizing the importance of healing and rediscovering one's humanity, another essential aspect of the class. Beah successful teaches through his life story that although civil war permanently shapes and frequently destroys countries, families, and children's loss of innocence, there are ways to combat the injustice and find love, peace, and humanity. Therefore, A Long Way Gone is an extremely eye-opening memoir that depicts the struggle of Sierra Leone’s Lost Boys through Beah’s immensely heart wrenching experiences.

I trust she is well in America?’ He always asks about our daughter. He often drove my wife and me to visit her at the College of Medicine in Enugu. I remember that when Ebere died, he came with his relatives for mgbalu and gave a touching, if rather long, speech about how well Ebere had treated him when he was our driver, how she gave him our daughter’s old clothes for his children” (Adichie