Former boy soldier to share history

By: Katherine Salisbury

Posted: 9/23/08

If you go box
What: The Making, and Unmaking, of a Boy Soldier
Where: Hendricks Chapel
When: Tonight, 7:30 p.m.
How much: Free

He survived the life of a child soldier in Africa and told his story on the pages of a best-selling memoir. Tonight, he will share his story with Syracuse University.

Ishmael Beah will be speaking at Hendricks Chapel tonight at 7:30 p.m. His lecture, "The Making, and Unmaking, of a Boy Soldier," discusses his past experiences and his struggle to recover.

The Laura Hanhausen Milton First-Year Lecture in The College of Arts and Sciences and the Syracuse Symposium sponsors the event. Esther Gray, from the Office of Academic Affairs, said she hopes students will see the strength behind Beah's horrific descriptions of his past.

"This is not just a story about war, battles and killing," Gray said. "It's a story about surviving, friendships and healing."

At the age of 12, Beah was forced to be a child soldier in Sierra Leone. He was rescued by UNICEF when he was 16 and was brought to a rehabilitation center, where he began to regain his life. Beah moved to the U.S. in 1988 and received a degree in political science from Oberlin College in 2004.

Beah's book, "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier," was chosen as SU's required freshman reading.

One freshman was surprised by how recently Beah's story occurred.

"What stood out most for me was how the time frame was in my lifetime, and the years he was referring to was when I was alive," said Marissa Geiger, a freshman in The College of Arts and Sciences. "I could relate what he was doing at the time to what I was doing in my life and everything was just so different."

Beah has lived and survived unimaginable experiences, Gray said.

"But Ishmael made it out and has survived and now chooses to recount those horrible experiences over and over again, no matter how painful it is, in an effort to raise awareness."

kmsalisb@syr.edu