Wong 1
Lawrence Wong
Ms. Rae
Hon. Eng. 9
29 Jan 2016
A Different Perspective
From wars on diamonds in Sierra Leone to racism in the United States, conflict exists in
modern society. These conflicts, when viewed from one perspective, appear horrific, but when
viewed from another perspective seem justified. When one hears children may be forced to
commit atrocities against their own families (Globalization 101), one assumes that these
children were born this way and that it is in their nature to kill. Clearly, the children in Sierra
Leone are not born to kill their own family and innocent civilians, and therefore, they must have
done it for other reasons. From only one angle one is bound to see only part of the picture such
as the story of Sierra Leone; therefore, before making a judgement about a people or place, it is
important that one sees the story from different angles.
From the Blood Diamonds documentary, one learns about the war in Sierra Leone over
diamond mines. The film expresses that only the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was bad,
and rarely states anything about the atrocities that the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council
(ARFC), the good side, committed. Throughout the film we repeatedly learn about how the
RUF forced civilians to work in the mines, how they cut off civilians hands so they couldnt vote,
and how the RUF killed their former neighbors (Blood Diamonds). As a result, most viewers
would suffer from a single story as their only knowledge of the war in Sierra Leone is from this
Wong 2
documentary. They would believe that only the RUF committed crimes to this extent and that
the ARFC were the ones who held them at bay.
Though the documentary may be one-sided, one can get another perspective through
the book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. Ishmael is the victim of the danger of a single
story when he fails to view the story from all sides. Ishmael last saw his brother when they were
farming in Kamator until a RUF attack separated them (Beah 43). After this experience, Ishmael
associates the RUF negatively and whoever fights the RUF, the ARFC, in his case, is his savoir.
This is the danger of a single story: based on one experience, Ishmael creates his picture of
Sierra Leone and the civil war, which is not completely correct. Eventually, the ARFC easily pulls
Ishmael and other children into their army, and the child soldiers terrorize innocent civilians
and only sometimes approach the enemy, the RUF. When Ishmael is in the rehabilitation
center, he meets a RUF soldier who joined the RUF because the army killed [his] family and
destroyed [his] village, (Beah 134). This boy also suffered the single story except that it was the
ARFC who murdered his family instead of the RUF. If exposed to the other side of the story
beforehand, all child soldiers would have realized that both the ARFC and RUF are cruel as they
maim civilians and terrorize villages.
Due to Ishmaels history as a boy soldier, he has trouble maintaining a stable
relationship because his girlfriends also suffer from the danger of the single story. What
Ishmaels girlfriends know about child soldiers is that the soldiers shoot and kill innocent
civilians. Here again is the danger of a single story. With only one perspective the girls dont see
that the commanders would give children drugs prior to any attacks so that the children would
do anything they were ordered to do (The Levin Institute). Also the girls are not aware of
Wong 3
Ishmaels dependence on drugs nor of his suffering from the withdrawal. Consequently, this is
why Ishmael never explained his history with his girlfriends and why they eventually ended the
relationships. Later, Ishmael travels to the United Nations (UN) in New York City where he
meets people with similar experiences. There Ishmael is not afraid of sharing his story as
everyone there has seen all sides of the Sierra Leone conflict or an equivalent and can relate to
his experiences.
Through the story of Sierra Leone many suffer from the single story. If one bases his/her
perception of Sierra Leone on a single source he/she is bound to create a wrong picture of the
country. After watching the Blood Diamonds documentary, most would have believed that the
RUF was corrupt for its use of child soldiers, but what the viewers would not have known was
that the ARFC was also used child soldiers and killed innocent civilians. This also extends out of
Sierra Leone and includes the whole world; one should not base his/her thoughts and feelings
on one story, but on many different perspectives.
Wong 4
Works Cited
Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 2007. Print.
Blood Diamonds. By Bill Brummel and June Molgaard. Perf. Luc Berlin-Unkap, Hope Olaide
Wilson, Jeffrey Wright. Bill Brummel Productions Inc., 2006.
The Levin Institute. "Child Soldiers | Globalization101." Globalization101. Globalization 101.
Web. 21 Jan. 2016.
