Comments on: Cartographical Errors in Long Way Gone? http://blog.booklistonline.com/2008/01/25/cartographical-errors-in-long-way-gone/ Behind the Book Reviews--The Official Blog of Booklist Online Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:22:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: sarah crichton http://blog.booklistonline.com/2008/01/25/cartographical-errors-in-long-way-gone/#comment-102210 sarah crichton Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:23:11 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2008/01/25/cartographical-errors-in-long-way-gone/#comment-102210 The following is a letter we sent the Australian regarding the issue of the map-- which you have blogged about. Thank you, Sarah Crichton February 14, 2008 To The Australian: A recent article by reporter Peter Wilson ( Feb. 11) challenges the accuracy of the map that appears in the front of Ishmael Beah’s memoir A LONG WAY GONE. As Wilson reported, the cartographer had accidentally provided an incorrect scale for the map, but that was noticed last fall and, as your paper reported, was corrected for later editions. Wilson then wrote: “The other mistake, which has not been corrected and is more difficult to understand, is that Yele [where Beah was recruited by soldiers] is incorrectly located on the map.” This is wrong. Further investigation will show that there are at least four Yeles (or “Yile” as they are sometimes spelled) in Sierra Leone. Less detailed maps usually show only the large town of Yele, located in central Sierra Leone (08° 25' 00” N 011° 50' 00” W). This is certainly not the town in question. Nor is another Yele, which is located on the Turtle Islands off the coast (07° 34' 54" N 012° 58' 48" W). On a website (the Sierra Leone Encyclopedia: www.daco-sl.org) used by librarians at the United Nations, one can find maps of Sierra Leone districts on a scale of 1:160,000. On this map of the Bonthe district, one finds another Yele (07° 34' 42" N 012° 13' 49" W), located in the Jong chiefdom, approximately 10 km south of the Bonthe district’s northern border. This is apparently the Yele that reporters from The Australian declared to be the same Yele in Ishmael Beah’s book. However, it is not. The most detailed existing maps of Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone, 1:50,00, were created by the Great Britain Directorate of Overseas Surveys. On the Second edition map (419, series G7 42), the aforementioned Yele is spelled Yile. As is yet a fourth Yele/Yile—which can be found on maps 108 and 114 ( printed together). Its coordinates are 7o16’50’’N 12o7’05’’W, a little more than a kilometer from the ocean, and 19 km south and 9 km west of Kamator (here spelled Kamato). This is the Yele that Mr. Beah writes about and which accurately appears on the map in A LONG WAY GONE. Mr. Wilson’s confusion is understandable. However, a correction is clearly in order. Sincerely, Sarah Crichton Farrar, Straus and Giroux The following is a letter we sent the Australian regarding the issue of the map– which you have blogged about.

Thank you, Sarah Crichton

February 14, 2008

To The Australian:

A recent article by reporter Peter Wilson ( Feb. 11) challenges the accuracy of the map that appears in the front of Ishmael Beah’s memoir A LONG WAY GONE. As Wilson reported, the cartographer had accidentally provided an incorrect scale for the map, but that was noticed last fall and, as your paper reported, was corrected for later editions. Wilson then wrote: “The other mistake, which has not been corrected and is more difficult to understand, is that Yele [where Beah was recruited by soldiers] is incorrectly located on the map.”

This is wrong. Further investigation will show that there are at least four Yeles (or “Yile” as they are sometimes spelled) in Sierra Leone.

Less detailed maps usually show only the large town of Yele, located in central Sierra Leone (08° 25′ 00” N 011° 50′ 00” W). This is certainly not the town in question. Nor is another Yele, which is located on the Turtle Islands off the coast (07° 34′ 54″ N 012° 58′ 48″ W).

On a website (the Sierra Leone Encyclopedia: http://www.daco-sl.org) used by librarians at the United Nations, one can find maps of Sierra Leone districts on a scale of 1:160,000. On this map of the Bonthe district, one finds another Yele (07° 34′ 42″ N 012° 13′ 49″ W), located in the Jong chiefdom, approximately 10 km south of the Bonthe district’s northern border. This is apparently the Yele that reporters from The Australian declared to be the same Yele in Ishmael Beah’s book. However, it is not.

The most detailed existing maps of Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone, 1:50,00, were created by the Great Britain Directorate of Overseas Surveys. On the Second edition map (419, series G7 42), the aforementioned Yele is spelled Yile. As is yet a fourth Yele/Yile—which can be found on maps 108 and 114 ( printed together). Its coordinates are 7o16’50’’N 12o7’05’’W, a little more than a kilometer from the ocean, and 19 km south and 9 km west of Kamator (here spelled Kamato). This is the Yele that Mr. Beah writes about and which accurately appears on the map in A LONG WAY GONE.

Mr. Wilson’s confusion is understandable. However, a correction is clearly in order.

Sincerely,

Sarah Crichton
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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