Africana Homestead Legacy Publishers

C. William Allen has penned a double drama of the lives of two teenage boys, Obadiah (OB) Dixon and Jeremiah (Jerry) Saye Gompa, who meet at a Christian boarding school in rural Liberia. The tale unfolds to show how friendship transcends the barriers of the country and kwi (city) dichotomy that sometimes polarizes Liberian society. As Allen addresses the familiar themes of rural versus urban values, he spices his work with teenage romance, traditional religion, politics, polygamy, and death. Like his first novel, An Obituary for Hawa Barchue (1983), its meticulous mix of facts and fiction also makes it a roman à clef novel. Great reading for older juveniles and adults.

ISBN-13:978-0-9653308-5-5
Binding: Softcover
Pages: 232 pp.
Publication date:July 2006
Price: US $20.00
Imprint: Africana Homestead Legacy Publishers
BISAC subjects:FICTION / General; JUVENILE FICTION / Social Situations / Adolescence; JUVENILE FICTION / Social Situations / Friendship

C. William Allen is director general of the Civil Service Agency of the Republic of Liberia and was also minister of Information, Culture and Tourism in the Transitional Government of the Republic of Liberia (October 2003 to January 2006). He completed his graduate studies in the United States and earned a Ph.D. in mass communications from the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University. As an associate professor at Virginia State University in Petersburg, Dr. Allen taught journalism and mass communications (2001-2003). He also taught at the University of South Carolina Spartanburg, Xavier University in New Orleans, and the University of Liberia. While working as a journalist and editor in Liberia, Dr. Allen served as president of the Press Union of Liberia, Inc., (1986-1987) and was founding Editor-in-Chief of the independent daily, Footprints Today. He was editor of the Liberian Studies Journal (1995-1998), a scholarly journal dedicated to publication of original research on social, political, economic, scientific, and other issues about Liberia or with implications for Liberia. In the United States he also held several journalist-in-residence fellowships at major newspapers, including the Times-Picayune (New Orleans), Star-Telegram (Fort Worth) and The Tennessean (Nashville).C. William Allen has four children—Chuke, Camelot, Chika' and Monja' Joy who is like a daughter to him.

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Xiongpao Lee, illustrator

Xiongpao Lee is a prominent writer-poet, visual and performance artist, and activist in the Hmong community of Minnesota. He is also the Upward Bound coordinator at University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Xiongpao graduated from the University of South Carolina Spartanburg (USCS, on June 30, 2004, USCS changed its name to the University of South Carolina Upstate). In 2001 when the Art 303 Illustration class at USCS took on a class project of illustrating The African Interior Mission, Xiongpao emerged as the illustrator of record for the book.

With his fabulous talent and hard work, Lee has vividly brought to life the unique characters of C. William Allen's charming novel.

Assuming the role of author as narrator, Allen exercises a great deal of freedom in shifting from his exterior fictional society to the inner selves of his characters, and he achieves this freedom of movement in both time and place rather skillfully. …The Hemingwayesque qualities of Allen’s prose are indeed commendable. …The African Interior Mission, is, therefore, a successful work of art. It is indeed a prize-winning novel.