A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solider

Although traveling in a group of six makes them undesirably conspicuous, the boys decide that their chances of survival are increased by numbers. Sadly, terrorized villagers are afraid of young boys due to their history with the RUF, so the group bypasses settled areas.

One day, a group of individuals Ishmael describes as “huge, muscular men” (37) accosts the boys in the forest. The men bring the boys back to their village chief and tie their’ hands and feet. The chief accuses them of being rebels. The boys are saved when a young village boy, having heard Ishmael and Junior perform in the past, recognizes the name of a rap group on a cassette in Ishmael’s pocket. The villagers feed the young men who reject the offer of lodging because they know the rebels will soon arrive in the area.

Meanwhile, Junior displays symptoms of depression; he is unnaturally quiet and stares at the sky for hours. Ishmael recalls the protectiveness that Junior always displayed toward him and wishes that his brother could return to his caretaking role. Later, Ishmael regrets not having asked his brother more about how he felt in this moment. The boys later try to find Gibrilla’s aunt in the village of Kamator, where they are offered food and lodging in return for serving as watchmen. Later, the boys help the local farmers with the difficult tasks of clearing and planting the fields, but the harvest is lost when the rebels attack the village. During the same attack, Ishmael is separated from his group; it is the last time he sees his brother, Junior. 

The unexpected rebel attack on the village of Kamator occurs as the imam performs the final prayer service of the day. The imam, who is captured by the rebels, refuses to reveal the location in the forest where the villagers are hiding. As punishment, he is burned alive in the public square.

The boys scatter in the forest as they run from the attack. In the morning, only Ishmael and Kaloko reunite. The pair return to the eerily deserted village for days in a futile effort to find survivors. Ishmael describes feeling as if “I were out of my body wandering somewhere” (46).

Kaloko decides to remain in the swamp near the deserted village of Kamator, while Ishmael resumes his travels to “go somewhere where at least there was some peace” (46). Alone in the forest and overwhelmed by emotion, Ishmael weeps. He walks for five days without encountering another human. He sleeps in deserted villages and eats the raw cassava and coconuts that he finds. One day, Ishmael encounters a mother, father, and six children swimming in a river. When he tries to approach them in a friendly way, the man is clearly suspicious of the newcomer and discourages Ishmael from remaining in the area. The narrator is saddened by the fact that even himself, “a twelve year old” (48), could not be trusted by others anymore. 

Following his encounter with the family at the river, Ishmael walks nonstop for two days. He experiences a sense of being hunted and often runs for miles as a result. The images of murdered, desecrated bodies in abandoned villages haunt him. By the third day, though lost in the forest, Ishmael finally has a sense of temporary safety. Near the point of starvation, he eats an unusual fruit that he fears might be poisonous, but it proves to be edible. Ishmael remembers a water mixture called “Nessie” (51) that his grandfather blended for Junior and himself which was intended to help their ability to retain information learned in school.

Ishmael struggles with isolation and rumination in the forest as he tries to avoid painful memories. Frightened that these memories will manifest in dreams, he is afraid to sleep. On one occasion, while Ishmael looks for a tree in which to rest, a herd of huge wild pigs charges him. They attempt to fell the tree he climbs by chewing at the bottom. Ishmael recalls his grandmother’s legend about a hunter who ate a magic plant that allowed him to trick wild pigs by turning himself into a boar and then reverting to human form to hunt them. Consequently, wild pigs seek revenge upon the hunter by assaulting any human they encounter in the forest.

After a full month without human contact, Ishmael meets a group of six boys with whom he had attended the Centennial Secondary School in Mattru Jong. He joins them as they trek toward the village of Yele, which the Sierra Leone Armed Forces occupied and deemed to be safe. Kanei, the oldest member of the group at age 16, reassures Ishmael that they will experience a good outcome. When the group of seven reaches another village six days later, they find an old, crippled man alone in a deserted village. He tells them the other inhabitants fled upon hearing that a group of boys approached, assuming them to be rebels. The boys bake yams for the man and themselves, and he draws a map in the dirt directing them to Yele. He is philosophical about his fate and, despite his concern for the danger that awaits them, hopeful that the boys will find safety.

One morning, the boys hear a mysterious, thundering sound. Upon investigation, they realize that the sources of the sound are the huge, crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean, which they have never seen before. They play on the beach but are met by fishermen armed with machetes. Believing the boys are rebels, they bring the group to their chief. Although the chief realizes that they are not rebels, the fishermen confiscate the boys’ shoes and chase them away. All of them sustain serious burns on the soles of their feet from walking on the hot sand.

Ishmael and his companions take shelter in an empty hut. A kindly fisherman treats their burns with local botanical remedies, directs them to soak their burns in salt water, and feeds them. The boys stay in the hut for two weeks and learn that their host—who wishes to remain nameless—is a member of the Sherbro people who uses the shack for his fishing business. In this section, the narrator names and describes the members of his new group: Musa, Kanei, Alhaji, Juma, Saidu and Moriba. An older woman wakes the boys up early one morning and advises them that nearby villagers learned of their presence and now aim to capture them. Unable to escape, the villagers accost the group, remove their clothing, and bring them to their chief. Fascinated by Ishmael’s rap cassette, the chief has him dance to the music. Convinced that the boys are innocent, he instructs the men to return their clothes but directs the boys to leave immediately. When he asks Ishmael if anyone else in the village is aware of their presence in the fisherman’s hut, Ishmael responds that they “hadn’t been in contact with anyone until that morning” (68) to protect their kindly host.