The Village Voice, following the lead of two Australian journalists, subjecting the memories of Ismael Beah, the former teenage child soldier, who was forcefully conscripted into a violent civil war in Sierra Leone and then wrote about (excerpted here), to the kind of scrutiny reserved for James Frey, war mongers and war criminals. I am still trying to figure out what the point of all that “investigation” was. Now the Village Voice, probably trying to make up for its rudeness, treats another former child soldier — this time the Sudanese rapper Emmanuel Jal — with some courtesy. See an interview by a reporter for the weekly with Jal, who has a new record, here.
Filed under: Books, Music, New York City, Not just about Africa, hip hop , Books, child soldiers, Emmanuel Jal, hip hop, Ismael Beah, Music, rap music, Village Voice
For those of you who are researching the topic of child soldiers, you might also be interested in taking a look at a lecture I recently presented (feedback would be most appreciated). You can find the lecture online at:
http://www.adamwozniak.com/blog/2008/06/20/child-soldiers-lecture-presented-by-adam-wozniak/