POTUPO JU: An Autobiography of ''THE VILLAGE BOY'' I must finish 8th grade

About the Book

The story of my life in my tribal village of Butikon, Liberia, West Africa is an account of a cultural experience with my people in Potupo District, River Gee County, Liberia, and West Africa. Because of its secrecy, mystery, or concealment, I am not in the position to explain the detailed secrets of my traditional society, but only to explain that I left my tribe at a very early age to live with another tribe so as to attend school. Yes, I am an African, Liberian, Tribal, and a “village boy” who speak my tribal dialect.

About the Author

Perhaps the very first thing I need to do as a troubled young man in conflict with my tribal society and traditional way of life, and who was brutalized for not obeying the traditional laws, is to confront my past struggles and make it known to friends, my children, and grandchildren. It is a past that was filled with some of the ugliest possible examples of tribal brutality and degradation in my life. To the readers, this is not an attempt to expose my traditional tribal secret, nor do I dislike my tribal people, but I need to explain my past to my children and grandchildren. The story of my life in my tribal village of Butikon, Liberia, West Africa is an account of a cultural experience with my people in Potupo District, River Gee County, Liberia, and West Africa. Because of its secrecy, mystery, or concealment, I am not in the position to explain the detailed secrets of my traditional society, but only to explain that I left my tribe at a very early age to live with another tribe so as to attend school. Yes, I am an African, Liberian, Tribal, and a “village boy” who speak my tribal dialect. I will explain the rules and regulations of how my tribal society operated, and how it affected my early life as a young man growing up with my tribal people, and as a young man who wanted to be educated by finishing the 8th grade, which at that time was the highest educational standard in the interior part of my tribe. I was denied an education because the traditional way of life was our way of education. Struggle was the essence of life for me, yet the form of struggle makes a difference in the psychology of an individual. I have often wished that my struggle would somehow be less agonized, less emotionally complex, with more promise of a clear victory than I have seen after thirty-five years of sacrifice. I knew if I had shut myself away from so many good, creative, honest, deeply human things in life, I would not have been bound together with people with whom I may or may not have something in common, just because I grew up in the village.