Transformation and Healing in John Paul Lederach's Book When Blood and Bones Cry Out: Journeys through the Soundscape of Healing and Reconciliation

Violence consumes Sierra Leone during a civil war, as well as Ishmael Beah’s childhood. This theme of war highlights itself through the events of bloodshed, gunfights, and senseless murder in Ishmael’s A Long Way Gone, but can also be seen through the hidden details of literary devices throughout the book of memoirs. To express the violence involved in his traumatic experience in Sierra Leone, Ishmael uses imagery, personification, and quotes an individual’s diction. First off, Ishmael’s use of imagery paints a vivid image in the mind of the reader.

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

From the creation of harmonies to singing to instruments, music has been an abstract form of human expression. Although an auditory collection of pitches and volumes, musicians can manipulate the same notes and bring them alive for their audiences. The true emotion and energy that’s felt in music really comes from the player as feelings are transferred to and through the listener. This interaction between performer and the house is catharsis, the complete release of strong repressed emotions. Thanks to the musician, music has the ability to grasp people and cause them to sense emotions and feelings without lyrics or images even being necessary. Although it’s believed we can only hear with our ears, something about music makes it emotionally if not physically tangible. In James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues,” a narrator certainly unaware of the impact of music invites himself to experience jazz for the first time. Baldwin uses the final scene of his story to argue that music has an effect on those who are able to experience it. Baldwin does this in one single moment by letting the fixed, practical minded, “well-intentioned” narrator experience catharsis from jazz as his growing, free-spirited brother communicates with him through jazz.

In the memoir A Long Way Gone, author Ishmael Beah describes his survival journey as a lost child in his country, because of the civil war in Sierra Leone, then becoming a child soldier facing war daily, afterward the process that Beah went through during rehabilitation and finally in fear escaping the civil war. Ishmael Beah emotional journey has three stages of development in which Beah utilized music. In the first stage, Beah uses music as a survival mechanism to keep sane and safe. In the second stage, begins when he loses his brother and friends, Beah reaches the lowest point with the loss of his entire family again, some friends, music, and being forced to join the war. In the final stage, is the process of rehabilitation where Beah connects with music once again. Ishmael Beah exposure to music at a young age stayed with him throughout his life. (Beah, 2007, p. 5-218)

Music has always been regarded as an art of high importance. The word itself originates from the Greek word mousike meaning “of the muses”, the group of nine Greek Goddesses who regulate the arts and sciences. It has often been used as a way to heal mental and emotional pain; “music speaks directly to the body through intuitive channels that are accessed at entirely different levels of consciousness from those associated with cognition” (The Music Effect.24). In Jan Johnson’s Soul Wound, Johnson discusses the historical trauma of Native Americans and the rage that is associated with it. This rage, as she later states, “is generally turned inward and expressed through depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide, and manifested externally within families and communities through domestic and other forms of violence” (Johnson.226-227). In Wabanaki Blues by Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel we see this rage internalized and portrayed in the depression of both Mona and her mother and depicted in their family dynamic through the neglect of Mona’s mother towards Mona. Mona, as well as other characters in the book, utilize music as a form of therapy to heal the soul. The characters in Wabanaki Blues utilize music to heal in ways that parallels Bob Marley’s Redemption Song and the Rastafarian religion.

Music is known to leave its mark on people helping them to overcome challenges in their lives or to give them courage to defy the odds. In one’s daily life, music is normally taken for granted or is seen as nothing special. As ordinary as it may seem, music can convey emotion in times when the body is numb or all hope is lost. Similarly, in The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway, the cello’s music gave people hope and determination to live their lives in spite of the rampant siege around them. Therefore, music very much impacts the lives of the principal characters Dragan, Kenan, and Arrow.

Since the start of the Sierra Leonean war in March of 1991, innocent civilians have been the primary target of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)’s wrath. The people of Sierra Leone have faced significant problems due to the invasions and attacks by the Rebel Forces and are the main population that is being affected by this group’s disapproval of the government. One person who experienced profound changes in her life due to the start of this war is Mariatu Kamara, a victim of a Rebel attack that cost her both her childhood and her hands. Throughout her memoir, “The Bite of the Mango,” she is faced with numerous traumatic events and meets an abundance of people who were very significant in her life and some of whom helped her survive the war. Kamara also gives the reader a variety of themes to use as a foundation to understanding war life, which also serve to help readers learn more about life, grow as people, and rise above to help others in need. Mariatu Kamara has not only changed the lives of people all throughout Sierra Leone by giving them a voice and an outlet to share their experiences, but has also proved to be an inspiration for countless amputees around the world.

The majority of characters from war-time novels often resort to substance abuse as a way to cope with the horrors of war. In Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road, the young Cree soldier, Xavier, uses excessive amounts of morphine to forget the bloodshed he witnessed on the battlefield. Similarly, Mrs. Ross, the mother of the young Canadian soldier Robert from The Wars becomes an alcoholic as a way to deal with the departure of her son to war. However, in Steven Galloway's “The Cellist of Sarajevo,” the primary characters, although affected by war, employ a different strategy to come to terms with and survive the war, and to regain their moral values and identity. In this novel, music is employed as a tool of healing and rebirth. Specifically, Arrow, Kenan, and Dragan use the music of the anonymous cellist to reclaim their sense of humanity, compassion, and self-identity and move forward despite the ongoing war, much like the mythical Phoenix rises from the ashes in rebirth.

Ossie Davis once said, “Any form of art is a form of power; it has an impact, it can affect change, it can not only move us, it makes us move”. Similarly, The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway tells the story of how three individuals Arrow, Dragan and Kenan suffering from the unrelenting and ruthlessness of war are impacted by one musician’s art. All three characters suffer from the war in different ways, but the art in the form of music finds a way to connect them all. Galloway’s novel illustrates that art helps lessen the suffering of those facing the brutality of war as the cellist’s music provides healing of the spirit, mind, and body. The cellist’s music provides hope and inspiration to the people of Sarajevo that they will be able

Prompt #1 In A Long Way Gone, a book in which Ishmael Beah recounts the horrors he faced in his childhood in Sierra Leone, there are many examples of violence. There are many types of violence, including physical and psychological, but the violence leaves lasting effects on the both the community and on Ishmael. An example of physical violence in the book is when Ishmael’s young friend is killed while they are in their first fight. Ishmael experiences an internal change.

During the civil war in Sierra Leone great numbers of people died and if they survived, traumatic images keep them company for the rest of their lives. Ishmael Beah, who was a child at the time, had to face the horrors of war. Beah’s innocence was stolen and replaced with the mentality of a soldier. Fortunately, he survived long enough to be rescued by UNICEF agents. He is rehabilitated but those memories cannot be forgotten and it is impossible for him to have another childhood.

War is horrific no matter where it takes place. Mothers, fathers, elders, and children are all affected by war. In fact, there are many memoirs depicting life in war torn countries. Two such memoirs are A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah and The Bite of The Mango written by Mariatu Kamara. A Long Way Gone depicts Ishmael’s life running from the civil war in Sierra Leone and becoming a child soldier. The Bite of The Mango recounts Mariatu’s journey of losing her hands and escaping to different countries is written with the help of Susan McClellan. Both writers go through traumatic events due to Sierra Leone’s Civil War, but Ishmael’s will to live was more tenacious than Mariatu’s.

In the article, “Analyzing Rape Regimes at the Interface of War and Peace in Peru,” Jelke Boesten argues that the issues of rape that are addressed in war crime tribunals reinforce the idea of a rape script that survivors should appeal to. This limits the understanding of the gendered dimension of warfare, for it produces a narrow interpretation of rape victimization. This consequently leads to the recognition of a limited number of cases and excludes those who do not fit the script. Similarly, with the discourse produced by TRCs, the amalgamation and narrow interpretation of testifiers’ experiences post-conflict renders the state with a summarized story that they may or may not identify with. This diminishes the process of healing that should be sought for from judicial and non-judicial transitional justice measures.

Sierra Leone has seen a lot of human rights infringement for the past several decades. As a result of both the export of conflict diamonds and the ongoing civil war that they fund, women both young and old have been subject to terrible mistreatment as part of their daily life. Large social and economic costs have wreaked havoc on Sierra Leone and its citizens as a direct result of the diamond trade. Women in Sierra Leone, and young girls in particular, are born into the world already disadvantaged. They are routinely disrespected and mistreated, with little hope for positive change. Society prevents them from pursuing education, employment, opportunities for personal growth and even basic human rights.

Mukwege wants the men and women of his country to participate in ending the struggle of gender-based abused in his country, in every hour 48 women are then raped in Congo, Dr. Mukwege's home country. He is doing his best for his country’s safety; this is why Dr Mukwege wants the men and women of his country to contribute in his own community for this sexual violence to end. He is not just referring to his country but everywhere else in the world, he wants and we want this sexual violence act to end immediately for the country’s