Adaptable

One personal quality of bear is that of adaptability. When he was only 13, the civil war in Siera Leone, which had been going on for some years, reached their village. Insurgents and counter insurgent forces raided the villages, burning and killing people and forcing children to become soldiers. In this atmosphere he escaped into the forest where he spent the following three months where he wandered without inclination to where he has headed. This was as an attempt to find safety(Kinzer, 2008).

He had also lost his mother who was separated from his father during the war. He even lost his father and other members of his family on the attack. Beah’s adaptability enables him to survive the harsh conditions of the forest for three months. It also enable him to survive the breakup of his parents without remorse. This quality enables him to undergo the harsh physical training of the military, which considered that he was only thirteen is quite remarkable.

Resilient

Beah is also seen as resilient. He undergoes the military training without quitting. As a young soldier (child for that matter) he is not able to do some very physical trainings that other older soldiers can do but he continues until when he is saved.

His resilience is also seen when he is taken and is assisted by Sister Esther to heal. He recovers fully even though at the beginning he says that he was always full of regrets and self abasement over what he had done. He blamed himself more and more for what had happened to him, however he presses on until he is completely healed and returns to school in Freetown where he was rejoined with his uncle (Kinzer, 2008).

Rational

Ishmael Beah  can also be deduced to be rational in his way of thinking. He makes conscious decisions that are pegged on reason and logic. He for example sees that he cannot go on living in the forest and so enters a village where he joins the army. He argues that he had either to join the army or the rebels, and in both cases as a soldier. He however knew that were the rebels to get him they would probabably kill him thinking him to be a spy.

Other rational decisions he made include deciding to remain in the rehabilitation camp. He also quits using, “brown brown”, a toxic mix of cocaine and gun powder and other drugs like Amphetamines and Marijuana.

Though for most parts of his life while serving as a soldier he could not have been rational due to the drugs they were introduced to like marijuana and brown brown. This can be seen when he recounts how out sheer anger kills people. He says “I angrily pointed my gun into the swamp and hilled more people” (Beah, 2007)

Observant

In his biography titled ‘A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier’ published in Farrar by Straus and Giroux he recounts the various incidences and occurrences in his life with such detail that one is left wondering how observant he is. He remembers even slight details that would normally escape attention. For example he recalls that when they were not in war or under training, they would pas time watching such movies as Rambo,  Commando and other violent movies which helped beef their confidence and attitude. Consequently they could kill without mercy. Beah could also remember the rack of cassettes that he had when he was held by hostile villagers who wanted to kill him since he was a soldier. He mentions  L.L Cool J, Naughty by Nature among others.

Beah is also able to remember the logo on the sneakers he was given by the army.

While some of his descriptions are graphic, they are also chilling, for example when he gives an account of a messenger who was sent by the rebels with all his fingers amputated except his thumbs and refers to this form of mutilation as  “one lap” a mock imitation of the thumbs-up sign that was a common form of greeting during the more peaceful times in Sierra Leone.

Creative

In one incident, according to his own accounts, he was captured by members of another village who suspected him to be a soldier and was to be executed were it not for his ability to mime the songs and dance to them. He sang to the villagers Lil Cool J rap music and it was this that earned him freedom from these villagers.

It is also through his creativity in writing lyrics that he is healed from the trauma he had suffered. In one of his essays called ‘When Good Comes From Bad’ written in the year 2000 and posted on the online edition of Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, he says “ The only times that I found peace with myself was when I began writing song lyrics about the good times before the war. Through these writings, as well as the help of the staff in my psycho-social therapy home, I was able to successfully overcome my trauma. I once again rediscovered my childhood that was almost lost…. I realize that I had a great determination to survive. Also my songs gave me hope…” (Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, 2000).

Conclusion

The four major personal qualities of Beah have helped him in his survival. His adaptability enabled him to fend for himself even in the absence of both his parents. His resilience allows him to remain alive in the camp dominated by disgruntled older soldiers. He survives even the drug taking orgies and the hard physical work and exercises. Through all these he comes out as observant, recording in mental pictures the details of almost all that he observes. This observation breeds in him creativity which he uses to woo people to him and also aids in his recovery from the trauma of all that he went through.

All these personal qualities point towards a more independent upbringing with little supervision. It is this kind of upbringing that endears in him the culture of independence and survival.

Reference

Beah, I (2007). A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. Farrar: Straus and Giroux, 2007.

Bear, I (2000). When Good Comes from Bad. Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Available from < http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2000/08/00_beah_good-bad.htm> [28 October 2008]

Kinzer , S. (2008) A Thousand Hills: Rwanda’s Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It. New York: John Wiley ; Sons Inc.

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