“I concluded to myself that if I were the hunter, I would shoot the monkey so that it would no longer have the chance to put other hunters in the same predicament.”
– Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of A Boy Soldier
Isn’t it queer when it is always the concluding sentence of a book that makes the most impact on you? The one that holds the most meaning. When I read it last year, I must confess…that it was a prerequisite for the course I was taking. I wouldn’t even have glanced at it even if there was a superfluous supply of it in the local library. In fact, I didn’t even know exactly where Sierra Leone was. I assumed it was in Africa, and that was the extent of my knowledge on the subject. If I had not read this book…I would have left it at that.
Quite ignorant of me, right?
I knew that Sierra Leone is a small country located in Northwest Africa, just bordering the coast of the North Atlantic ocean. I knew that it has a population of maybe about 5 million people, in accordance to its size. I knew that after it was colonized by the British, it was ruled by a small elite group, I knew…nothing. Yes, these are facts that you might require if you were responding to a trivia question. But that’s the point. It’s trivial knowledge.
With the book and extensive research, I learned that Sierra Leone was a small country in Northwest Africa with lucrative profits of diamonds and other resources…but has caused mostly infamous devastation on its people. I learned that it has a population of five million people…which is abounding considering its size and state of economy. I learned that the small elite group that administrated the country…did not even let its people benefit from their profitable resources. I learned…almost everything.
This blog will be a journey of not only my learning, but also my experiences.
Marianne's Book Reviews 
Posted on September 27, 2010
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