A Long Way Gone Chapter 1
Chapter 1:
January of 1993, the war hits home for him when he and his friends visit the village of Mattru Jong to see some old friends and practice their rap group performance for an upcoming talent show. Beah’s home has been attacked by rebels. Beah and his friends go to the nearby wharf to await the incoming people and look for their families among the refugees. When no one they know arrives after several hours, the boys decide to head back to Mogbwemo to find their families. The boys stop at Kabati, the village of Beah’s grandmother, just as they had on their outbound trip. the deserted village offers nothing but ominous silence. When evening arrives, so do several people who had evacuated to the nearby mining area. Beah is struck by the sound of crying children looking for their parents and babies wailing for food. As the boys debate the wisdom of returning to the site of the rebel attack, they see a mother carrying her dead baby on her back. She stops to take the baby in her arms—bullets are visible in the infant’s body—and cradles it, too shocked to shed tears for her dead child. This incident forces the boys to resolve that Mogbwemo is no longer livable and so they decide to return to Mattru Jong. In Mattru Jong Beah is reunited with his grandmother. The boys all take up residence there and spend every morning at the wharf seeking news about their missing families and the
January of 1993, the war hits home for him when he and his friends visit the village of Mattru Jong to see some old friends and practice their rap group performance for an upcoming talent show. Beah’s home has been attacked by rebels. Beah and his friends go to the nearby wharf to await the incoming people and look for their families among the refugees. When no one they know arrives after several hours, the boys decide to head back to Mogbwemo to find their families. The boys stop at Kabati, the village of Beah’s grandmother, just as they had on their outbound trip. the deserted village offers nothing but ominous silence. When evening arrives, so do several people who had evacuated to the nearby mining area. Beah is struck by the sound of crying children looking for their parents and babies wailing for food. As the boys debate the wisdom of returning to the site of the rebel attack, they see a mother carrying her dead baby on her back. She stops to take the baby in her arms—bullets are visible in the infant’s body—and cradles it, too shocked to shed tears for her dead child. This incident forces the boys to resolve that Mogbwemo is no longer livable and so they decide to return to Mattru Jong. In Mattru Jong Beah is reunited with his grandmother. The boys all take up residence there and spend every morning at the wharf seeking news about their missing families and the