A Contemporary African Author: Ishmael Beah

In 2007, African writer Ishmael Beah published his first novel and it rapidly climbed best-seller lists.  A Long Way Gone is a memoir of his life as a child soldier in war-torn Sierra Leone.  Beah was only 12-years-old when his village was attacked by the rebel army.  He watched as his parents, brothers, friends, and neighbors were slaughtered.  He was able to run away, but with no where to run to for refuge, found himself homeless and on the move until being abducted, drugged, and brain washed into servitude as a frontline soldier. His early teen years were filled with violence, drugs, and the atrocities of war. He was eventually released from the army and rescued by a UNICEF rehabilitation facility. One of the lucky few to truly escape his violent past, Beah was reunited with family and given the opportunity for a future in the United States.  He completed his final years of high school in New York and went on to Oberlin College, graduating in 2004 with a BA in Political Science.  Beah is one of the lucky ones, however, and he has dedicated himself to a life of advocacy for the multitude of children in conflicts worldwide who are abducted and recruited as soldiers.  His memoir is in unequivocal in its depiction of the horror and violence of war.  In an NPR interview after the book was published he stated emphatically, “There is absolutely nothing romantic about war.”

His most recent book, Radiance of Tomorrow, is set in Sierra Leone and envelops themes of war, but it is a work of fiction.  It is the story of two friends who have returned to their village after the civil war. Having suffered tremendous losses already, they grapple with rebuilding their lives amidst a continuing barrage of dangers and obstacles.  Food is scarce, murder and theft is rampant, and the future is uncertain. The language Beah uses to tell his story is lyrical and beautiful, evoking strong images and emotions. Although you might never guess from reading Beah’s writing, English is not his first language and in multiple interviews he has talked about the challenges of translating stories, thoughts and emotions from the languages in his head into Engilsh.  His writing certainly does not suffer because of this, but rather seems to come out all the richer. After only two novels, Beah is being heralded as the most read contemporary African author and he has barely crossed the threshold of his 30s.  Imagine how much more we may hear from him in the years to come!

A Long Way Gone -- author website

http://www.alongwaygone.com/

Ishmael Beah talks about his experience with skeptical reporters after publishing his memoir, “A Long Way Gone,” and about his new novel, “Radiance of Tomorrow”

http://www.cleveland.com/books/index.ssf/2014/03/ishmael_beah_talks_about_his_e.html

The Making and Unmaking of a Child Soldier

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/magazine/14soldier.t.html?_r=1&ei=5089&en=18db63db3854257e&ex=1326430800&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss&adxnnlx=&pagewanted=all

The Growing Diversity of the Voice of Africa in Literature

“I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.”

Karen Blixen, from her memoir Out of Africa, first published in 1937

Karen Blixen was a wealthy Danish woman who lived and wrote in colonial Africa. Although she used multiple pen names, the best known is probably Isak Dinesen. Dinesen was her maiden name and many female authors, both historically and currently, have adopted male and gender neutral names in order to gain wider readership. Her most famous novel, Out of Africa is a memoir of her life on a family farm in Kenya and was adapted for film in 1985 starring Meryl Streep. Although Africa has a rich history of excellent literature, it is the writing of white, colonial-era author’s like Blixen who were best known by the general public internationally, thus building a fairly narrow world image of the continent.

Recent history, however, has ushered a surge of diverse and highly talented modern African authors. Popular author Chimamanda Adichie gave a TedTalk several years ago about the “dangers of a single story.” The limited and predominantly white colonialist story exemplified in past popular African literature is a perfect illustration of this danger. The new voices out of Africa that have become popular during the past decade or so paint a picture of Africa that is wide-ranging, vibrant and evolving, rich in language and culture and infinitely more comprehensive. These stories sometimes give voice to the desperate struggles of war and conflict but there are so many more voices including a core of African women writing about the struggle for rights and equality.

The myriad of voices has diversified even further with expanded Internet connectivity and access. In addition to the growth of formally published authors, semi-professional and novice writers have added their voices through self-published blogs and websites. While this new flood of writing from Africa certainly raises some new issues in regard to fact-checking and credibility of authors, those issues are counter-balanced by the far more detailed, interesting, and comprehensive images of this massive continent we are all afforded.

African Women Authors

http://aflit.arts.uwa.edu.au/FEMEChomeEN.html

African Literature List on Goodreads

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/african-literature

Welcome!

Welcome to the GVHS Africa Unit Blog!  This blog is designed to bring the students of GVHS together with real people living and working in Africa.  Over the next few weeks, several guests will be writing posts about their country and we encourage students to also submit blog posts about their questions and insight as you all learn and discover things about the African continent.  Students are encouraged to comment and interact with the authors of blog posts through the comment section following each post.  As you all learn, inquire, reflect, and interact with our guest bloggers, consider this a way to virtually travel through parts of Africa and an opportunity for deep learning.  Bon voyage!