Criticisms+of+Ishmael

= A Long Way Gone: Fact or Fiction? = By:Canela Church & Nichole Cooper  

Village Attack
Many have stated that Ishmael's time line is inconsistencies with other facts givin. The first in inconsistency was soon after Beah's book was published an Australian newspaper called //The Australian// began running several articles documenting all of the inconsistencies in the time stated in //A Long Way Gone//. The first inconsistence was when Beah’s village was attacked. In the book he states the //“The first time I was touched by war I was twelve. It was in January of// //1993.”// However in the articles by Peter Wilson, Wilson states that during his visit to Beah’s village the people there said their village was attacked in 1995 instead of 1993.

//"To go to this village and ask the locals, 'Are you sure you were attacked in 1995 and not 1993?' That's like going to// //Times Square// //and asking people if they're sure that 9/11 happened in 2001,"// //Wilson// //said. "Everyone looked at me like I was an idiot for raising the question."// However Wilson is not the only one to point out this same flaw in Beah’s timeline the man Bob Llyod was a general manager of a mine in Sierra Leone and soon realized that his mine was the same one that Beah’s father worked at. Llyod began researching Beah’s story and asking around the factory about Beah. Llyod’s employees told him that their mine was attacked in 1995 not 1993.  Beah has fought these accusations by stating://“The war in Sierra Leone began in 1991. My story, as I remember it and wrote it, began in 1993 when rebels “attacked the mining areas” (my words from the book) in my village while I was away with friends. I never saw my family again.// called //The Australian// //, presumably, is basing their defamation of me on reports that the Sierra Rutile Mine was closed down by rebels in 1995. But there were rebels in my region, my village, and my life in 1993. They attacked throughout 1993 and 1994 before closing down the mine. “//

Time Spent in Army
//The Australian// was also given school record from the school Beah attened before the attack on his village. The records state that Beah was in school in 1995, making it impossible for him to be in the army or on the run. The school records play an important role in deciding weather Beah was in the army as longs as he states he was. In his book he say he was in the army for two years, from 1994 to 1996. He started out in the army at 13 and stayed until he was 15. However the school records show that he may have not been in the army that long. In the articles written in //The Australian// a man by the name of [|Kabba Williams], a former child soldier states he remembers Beah but only in 1995, Williams doesn’t remember seeing him before then. Also a, a highly regarded researcher on children and war from [|Columbia University], [|Neil Boothby] , states

// “A red flag for Boothby is that Beah's account happens to include just about every possible trauma that can occur in the bleak life of a child soldier. It would be extraordinary for all of those horrible events to happen in the life of a single person. // // "Without question, these things happen," he said. "But it's very unlikely that all of that bad stuff would happen to one kid. Any story [with that kind of] blank-slate horror has to be called into question." // This creates a huge doubt in the readers mind. This book was meant to educate about child soldiers however if Beah did not really spend two years in the army, then believe and feeling sympathetic towards these children is harder.

However many officials with humanitarian organizations that have worked with the child soldiers have stated that Beah’s stories is not a rare one, that many children have committed all of the acts of violence that Beah did and it is quite common. Others have said that Beah’s PDST have played a major role in warping the time spent in the army. A former child solider that meat Beah in the rehabilitation center said // “"We all make mistakes, and for a little boy who was seen too much, it can happen," he told ABCNEWS.com.”One month is even too much. If you are talking about close to one year, that is extremely long. I am not a professional psychologist, but we all know that post-war trauma can cause a lot of pain and effects.” //

However, regardless of all the accusations, in a press release from Ishmael Beah himself, he explains his inconsistencies, pulling himself out of the hole that reporters had placed him in. Leslie Mboka, National Chairman of the Campaign for Just Mining in Freetown, was a counselor at Benin Home, the rehabilitation center in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He was interviewed by a reporter from //The Australian”//, and stated the following: //“A gentleman named Wilson was here investigating regarding Ishmael Beah’s book, and I told him emphatically−emphatically−that Ishmael’s accounts are accurate and correct. Wilson was going to Mogbwemo to find out if Ishmael Beah’s family was alive. When he came back to Freetown, he said he couldn’t find anyone alive, and the man who said he was Ishmael’s father was actually just a relative. But then he asked, what about confusion with the dates?// //And I said, there is no problem with the dates. The rebels made sporadic attacks on the mining communities between ’93 and ’94, leading up to and in preparation for the major assault in ’95. In fact, military personnel were deployed to the area because there were these sporadic raids. Ishmael was caught in one of the earlier attacks.// //I told all this to Peter Wilson. I told him everything that Ishmael wrote is accurate and completely factual, and I explained to him what was confusing him.// //I do not understand what his paper’s agenda is. I do not understand why they are trying to blackmail this brilliant and honest young man.”// However, Mboka’s words never made it into the article.

OUR RESPONSE:
Although we were asked to debate the topic of whether Ishmael Beah fabricated his story or not, we were not able to do so. In reading all of the information presented above, we both find that Beah’s story is accurate, although vague in parts. When a person recalls a story to another, there are always vague details that are left out that while telling the story, the teller finds unnecessary to repeat. And in many cases, there are also small details that are left out not because they are unnecessary, but because they were so minor they were forgotten. In Ishmael’s case, time may have been that small detail.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Video: Why I Wrote My Book for A Long Way Gone: memoirs of a boy soldier by Ishmael Beah **

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