A Long Way Gone

I read the book A Long Way Gone in the summer of grade 11. It is the memoir of a young boy caught up in the civil war of Sierra Leone who loses his family and humanity as he is forced to be a child solider. It is mixed with both the horrors he lived through and witnessed in his country as well as the horror he and his fellow soldiers inflicted on others.

Though the civil war was seen as political in nature much of the conflict was it was fuelled and prolonged because of the presence of gold, cash crops, and especially diamonds in Sierra Leone. Debeers was the company mining in Sierra Leone and when they pulled out of the country the government lost control of the mines causing chaos and many illegal processes. The government was not able to gain control again. Instead the rebels used the diamonds to fund their war.

The war killed 50000 people in Sierra Leone and stole the childhood of thousands more. All the while the market was flooded with cheap diamonds and western companies flourished. Flourished at the expense the politically unstable and now war torn nation.