Research in Sierra Leone Studies (RISLS): Weave Vol 3 No 1 (2015) Enduring Paths, Crossroads and Intersections: Path-breaking Knowledges in Pede Hollist’s So The Path Does Not Die. Samuel Kamara Illinois State University Introduction Published in 2012, So The Path Does Not Die is Pede Hollist’s first novel. Before this, Hollist had distinguished himself as a short story writer with four stories to his credit. His first story, “Going to America” (an excerpt of So The Path Does Not Die) appeared in Irinkerindo: A Journal of African Migration in 2002. The second, “BackHomeAbroad,” anthologized in The Price and Other Short Stories From Sierra Leone, came out in 2011. This was quickly followed by his third story, “Foreign Aid” in the Journal of Progressive Human Services in 2012. And his fourth story, “Resettlement” came out in 2013 in Matatu: Journal of African Culture and Society. It is very clear, from Hollist’s oeuvre, that his creative vision and output, so far, has been brisk, consistent, and enduring. It therefore comes as no surprise when in May of 2013, Hollist’s short story, “Foreign Aid”, was shortlisted for the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writers. 1 With such an emerging voice and creative vision, Hollist has arguably secured a place among African writers in general, and established himself as a formidable voice in Sierra Leone literary production in particular, putting him in the ranks of famous and accomplished Sierra Leonean writers like Syl Cheney Coker, Aminatta Forna, and Raymond Sarif Easmon. So The Path Does Not Die has many centers of focus. The legendary African critic, Eldred Durosimi Jones in a comment about the novel says, Hollist “does too much” and could have written four novels with the material contained in the book.” 2 This assessment of the novel is valid, but it is probably these different strands that make it a great piece of work because Hollist has commendably held all of these pieces together through his use of imagery and narrative structure. Among other things, the novel rekindles age-old themes—such as tradition versus change; the individual versus society; ethnicity, racism, sexism and marginal identities; individual and institutional corruption; Diaspora and home; love and sacrifice; civil war and rehabilitation—with fresh insights and focus. But it is the novel’s treatment of Talaba culture in particular—that is, the examination of this culture’s norms of knowledge production and the specific ideologies and realities they engender—that makes it outstanding. The novelist’s investigation also of how this culture is resisted in Talaba (a fictive town in the north of Sierra Leone) is quite admirable. African writers in the past such as Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart, Camara Laye in The African Child, and Ngugi wa Thiong’o in The River Between had written about cultural clashes between Africa and the West, celebrated the mystery of African cultures, and contemplated on female circumcision, respectively. However, it is Hollist’s