The Journey from the Village - Alfred Boymah Zinnah Kennedy

Alfred Boymah Zinnah Kennedy was born in a Gola village in Liberia in 1944. When he was ten his father died and he was fostered out to several settler families. With the help of two Peace Corps volunteers, he finally began regular schooling at 16 at Suehn Industrial Academy, graduating at the top of his class in 1968. He then earned a degree in agriculture at the University of Liberia and became an oil palm specialist, eventually heading the Butaw Oil Palm Corporation. In 1990 as the civil war began he left his government position and his own poultry and soap making enterprises to take his family to safety in Britain. He earned a master's in agricultural economics at the University of Kentucky in 1993 and has held various jobs in Britain and tried several ventures in Liberia, including presently the Mission for Life Ministries.
This memoir begins with a Gola village boy in Liberia describing everyday life, including fishing, hunting, and primary school, and change such as the railroad in the decade 1944 to 1954. He spends another eight troubled years mostly in foster settler families as a houseboy, not attending school regularly. His years at Suehn Industrial Academy, 1962-68, and then at the University of Liberia majoring in agriculture are special ones. The village boy becomes an oil palm specialist, marries and has two children, but his dreams are halted by civil war beginning in 1990 and an exile in the U.S. and Britain. From first-hand experience, Alfred Boymah Zinnah Kennedy writes eloquently about the oppression and hard work of ordinary indigenous Liberians and the tragedy of war. A description of a "crossing over ceremony" he organized for his clan in 2000 concludes the book.