I read the book and did a lot of research on him and I;m so proud of him. He’s a great person. Do you know if there’s a way I can contact him and talk to him?? I really wanna see if I can help in any way!
thnx

1. There is no doubt whatsoever that Ishmael Beah’s account of events is a whole two years out of time.
2. As a result of this, he cannot have been a soldier for more than two months rather than the two years he claims.
3. Two months isn’t even enough time for basic training; Beah cannot possibly have experienced the combat he reports.
4. Beah’s chronology is not the only other falsehood in the book; the claimed year long odyssey of wandering from Mattru Jong to Yele he claims could have been completed in one day because the two towns are 6 kilometres apart, not 450 kilometres as Beah claims and as an admittedly (by the man responsible for making it) false map in the book shows.
5. The fight Beah claims happened in the UNICEF refugee camp in Sierra Leone which killed six ex-child soldiers never took place.
6. Beah’s school records prove he was in school in 1993 and 1994, when he says he was a child soldier.
Even without the evident Hollywood character of the book, complete with redeeming white American angels, the entire account is provably false.

Now: does it matter that it is false? Here’s why it does:
First, dishonesty is dishonesty, and it becomes more so when one makes a career out of it, and a lot of money besides. The Beah Camp is all complicit in this; they are frauds now, if they weren’t all along. When the evidence is presented them that Beah is lying, and they choose to ignore that evidence, they are frauds.

Then, by presenting himself as a de facto spokesman for child soldiers worldwide (and far more than Kabba Williams, it is Beah who’s a recognised figure), our Ishmael is in effect hijacking their tales, whether such tales are from Congo or Cambodia, Sri Lanka or Sudan. Once his own transparently false tale is exposed, everyone’s tale becomes doubtful by taint of association. Unfair, but that’s how these things go.

Thirdly, by reinforcing the notions of Hollywoodised salvation of poor victimised blacks, Beah is hiding the truth of the situation, where thousands of child soldiers (and child sex slaves, whom Beah doesn’t mention) can never re-integrate into society and live lives of drug abuse, poverty and crime. All this is a crime against people who have no voice, whose voices the Beah Camp has stolen.

Fourth, Beah’s account trivialises the very real sufferings of genuine child soldiers. Since Beah crammed his fictional experiences with cliches of child soldiering (except, notably, sex slavery) and stole the experiences of a large number of other ex-child soldiers, he appears to have suffered much more than they did. If you believe what he said he suffered, you can’t have that much sympathy for someone who was “only” made to cook and clean and carry weapons for rebels or sent into human wave attacks, and you wonder why those people can’t re-integrate into society while Beah did such a wonderful job of it.

It’s time Beah, and his apologists, were forced to confront and admit his sins.

There will be an event in 100 cities all over the world on April 25th, 2009 to help rescue the aubducted children of Uganda. I urge everyone to join this cause.. more information is available on http://www.invisiblechildren.com and on http://www.rescue.invisiblechildren.com

if anyone could please pass this on to Ishmeal Beah. I am trying to get in contact to invite him to the event in New York City. Please Join the Cause !