Former child soldier and human rights activist Ishmael Beah speaks in Nanaimo March 31

"Ishmael is a powerful storyteller, moving fluidly between past and present - Ishmael’s story shows both the horror and the possibility of redemption. This is an unbearable book that has to be borne. Read it." From Globe & Mail, March 3, 2007.

Malaspina University-College Bookstore is sponsoring the only Vancouver Island appearance of first-time author Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier of Sierra Leone.

Beah will speak at the Port Theatre in Nanaimo on Saturday, March 31, at 2 pm, about his newly released book, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.

“We’re thrilled that Ishmael Beah is coming to Nanaimo,” said Carol Tyre, Retail Operations Manager for Malaspina Bookstore. “This is one of five stops on his cross-Canada tour to promote his new book, which is getting rave reviews nationally and internationally. Beah tells his story with literary force and heartbreaking honesty, and what surfaces is a hopeful belief in humanity.”

At the age of 12, a rebel army moved through Beah’s village in Sierra Leone. After months of running for survival, he was coerced into battle and - pumped up on drugs and wielding an AK47 - he committed heinous acts of violence. Three years later, UNICEF pulled Beah from the killing fields. He was put through a difficult rehabilitation process and, after further political upheaval, he fled the country.

Beah is now 26-years-old and a writer living in New York. His first book, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, is pierced with a child’s honesty and innocence and gives startling insight into the realities of warfare. Ultimately, his memoir is a plea to stop the practice of using children to fight wars.

It is estimated that in the more than fifty violent conflicts taking place world-wide, there are some 300,000 child soldiers involved. Militia and government armies alike use horrifying, calculated methods to draw children into these conflicts. “In such circumstances, everyone is capable of going beyond their own humanity,” said Beah. “I wrote this book to shed light on how and why children are recruited into wars, how they are made into killers and how through rehabilitation they can take back their lives.Only through a deeper insight of the issue can we act to end the practice forever." 

Beah moved to the United States in 1998 and finished his last two years of high school at the United Nations International School, New York. In 2004, he graduated from Oberlin College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. He is a member of Human Rights Watch Children’s Division Advisory Committee, and has spoken before the United Nations, the Council of Foreign Relations, and the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities (CETO) at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, and many other NGO panels on children affected by war.

Tickets to hear Ishmael Beah speak at the Port Theatre are $10 for general admission, $7 for students. For reservations, call (250) 754-8550 or visit the Port Theatre website at www.porttheatre.com. 

Limited copies of  Beah’s book ($26.95) published by Douglas & McIntyre are available at the Malaspina Bookstore. Visit www.alongwaygone.com for more information and video clips.