ABSTRACT

Using Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone: The True Story of a Child Soldier as the primary source, this chapter examines the issue of war-related displacement and its corollaries; and also how memory, violence, the human psyche and writing as an activity are related to war, displacement and child soldiers. The analysis will be reinforced with material from Ahmadou Kourouma’s Allah n’est pas obligé and Quand on refuse on dit non. The chapter begins with an observation of the manner in which the primary text under study collapses several literary genres like the autobiography, the memoir, the diary, nature-writing and trauma rendition. It further examines the manner in which A Long Way Gone grapples with these various and interconnected elements. Some important details are also obtained from the talks and interviews that Ishmael Beah has granted from his position as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Children. Beah, an indefatigable soldier, shares his experience so that the ills of war, displacement and child soldier become extinct. The study draws insights from the theoretical premises of postcoloniality and trauma theory, to underscore the forms of violence and oppression affecting subordinate groups in postcolonial nations (Craps 47) and the way they grapple with obstacles that hinder their march towards development.