A former child soldier and New York Times bestselling author will speak at Berry College on Nov. 14.
The lecture with Ishmael Beah will begin at 7 p.m. in the Cage Arena and is free and open to the public.
Beah, born in Sierra Leone, West Africa, was forced to flee his village from violent rebels when he was 12 years old. Beah was then picked up by the government army and became a child soldier. After fighting for three years, he was sent to a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) rehabilitation center and eventually found his way to New York City.
Beah’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, TIME, The International Herald Tribune, and The Guardian. “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier”, Beah’s #1 New York Times bestselling memoir, has sold 2.6 million copies and has been published in more than 40 different languages. His memoir details his time spent as a child soldier and his journey to achieving redemption as a young boy.
In 2007, Beah was named UNICEF’s first Advocate for Children Affected by War. When accepted the award, he said, “it’s just a way to give me more strength to continue doing what I’ve already embarked on, what I’ve dedicated my life to doing – which is to make sure that what happened to me doesn’t continue to happen to other children around the world.”
Later that year, he founded the Ishmael Beah Foundation which is devoted to inspiring children affected by war reintegrate and improving their lives. Since then, his foundation has provided aid for more than 150 children. Beah is also a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Advisory Committee.
Beau’s lecture is made possible through the Conson C. Wilson Lecture Series which brings speakers of national and international note to Berry’s campus. This lecture is the pinnacle of this year’s First-Year Reading Experience and Beah was selected for his authored publication, “Unusual Normality”, which is included in the novel, “The Moth: All These Wonders: Stories of the Unknown.”
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