Celebrating Easter Sunday


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Summer hangout with Pede Hollist's So the Path Does Not Die

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Pede Hollist, a native of Sierra Leone, is an associate professor of English at The University of Tampa, Florida. His interests cover the literature of the African imagination—literary expressions in the African continent as well as in the African Diaspora. So the Path Does not Die is his first novel.  His short story "‘Foreign Aid" was on the shortlist for the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing. Vitabu : I found So the Path Does Not Die a remarkable book. The story travels from a graphic, mystical past to the present time, through almost impossible and sometimes hidden cultural, social and economic issues. How did you come up with the idea for the Musudugu chaper? Pede Hollist: Among the Kuranko, Musudugu refers to a woman’s dwelling, but it also describes a mythical place where only women lived, happily and in sisterhood.  The story of Kumba Kargbo’s confrontation with the elders of Musudugu suggests that the conflict between old and new ways and the tension betw
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Vitabu Reads | Transformation in Transition by George Coleridge-Taylor

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In this archive photo, Solomon A.J. Pratt (left), I. Taylor-Kamara, and George Coleridge-Taylor (right) look on as Pratt led the debate fighting for China at the United Nations in October 1971. In this photo, George H. Bush is arguing for China not to enter the UN but for Taiwan to stay. According to the official UN website archives, "America's George Bush failed because Sierra Leone defeated him on behalf of China in 1971." Fast forward forty-five years. When the Honorable Solomon Pratt paid homage to George Coleridge-Taylor at his funeral in late May 2016, Pratt spoke glowingly of Coleridge-Taylor's role in the United Nations debate that got China's rights restored at the UN. According to Awareness Times , a newspaper founded by Pratt's granddaughter, Sylvia Blyden, the old All People's Congress grandee paid tribute to Coleridge-Taylor for his help in what he called "one of the most famous debates" at the United Nations.
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Happy Birthday, Ama Ata Aidoo

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Happy birthday, Ama Ata Aidoo I'm one of your many fans across the world. The first time I came across your name was probably in 1969, reading an editorial in the now defunct Sierra Leone Daily Mail to my grandfather. I don't recall what it was all about, but I do remember stumbling over your name as I read and Grandpa righting me ever so gently as he often did. I must confess I promptly forgot all about you. Until I got to my 1974-75 school year, and there you were at the top of my Literature in English book list. Those days, the best place for used books was what we called the gron bukshop . I don't know if you've ever been to Freetown, but back then book hawkers were a block or two down from the old C.M.S. Diocesan Bookstore, opposite the famous City Hotel that once stood at the corner of Gloucester and Lightfoot-Boston Street. Inside the old split-level bookstore, price tags were a little steep, so friends pointed you a few blocks down market. There, dog-e
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