Novel: Last Lorry to
Mbordo: Misadventures in Nation Building
 John
wrote Last Lorry based on his experiences as a teacher in
West Africa and graduate student at the University of Illinois.
He was a Peace Corps volunteer math teacher in a village in Ghana
for three years (1965-68), a secondary school teacher in the Washington
DC city school system (1968-70), a junior high school teacher in
Charlotte, NC (1970-71), and a teacher and administrator in the
Antilles Consolidated School System, Puerto Rico (1975-2000).
However,
his time at the University of Illinois as a graduate student studying
Comparative Education (1971-75) was the catalyst for creating Last
Lorry. His major interest was the effect of education on economic
development in English speaking West Africa.
Last Lorry is a different book for each reader. Reviewers and readers
provide the best descriptions of John’s novel:
"In Last Lorry to Mbordo John Kennedy takes us to West
Africa in a meeting of two cultures and two worlds. In an intense
and entertaining novel the author portrays the work done by dedicated
volunteers who try to bridge the gap between different cultures.
Full of details, this novel shows the best (and worst) of our people
across cultural, ethnic and political worlds. The reader feels transported
to the town of Mbordo in the West African nation of Sakra."
Dr.
Norman Maldonado, President Emeritus of the University of Puerto Rico
“The first half of the novel, rendered with knowledgeable and vivid
detail by the author, though inspired by events in Ghana almost
fifty years ago, fronts issues that the United States has experienced
recently in the Balkans and the Near East, where attempts at ‘nation-building’
have been threatened by tribal antagonisms of centuries-long standing.
The attempts of Westerners to introduce educational and agricultural
reforms, often in ignorance of (or with indifference to) cultural
and climatic conditions in Africa, hint at the futility of Peace
Corps aims, but the tribal rivalries and internecine wars present
an even more formidable obstacle to the ‘peace’ that the corps established
by President John F. Kennedy’s administration was designed to promote.
And the last half of the novel, recounting the tragic consequences
of warfare and the tragic struggle of the Peace Corps teachers and
their African colleagues to escape a horrible fate, brings home
to the reader the difficulties, even dangers, of introducing Western
systems into non-Western countries.
“That
Mr. Kennedy is a novice writer of fiction is obvious, but problems
of aesthetics and craftsmanship are far outweighed by the vividness
and acuteness of his vision. This is a book very hard to set aside
once the reader gets past the first chapter, for the events that
make up a many-stranded plot are fascinating to anyone unfamiliar
with the details of African life as it struggles to come to terms
with Western culture.”
Dr. John Seelye, Professor of English, University of Florida at Gainesville,
for the Friends of Ghana Newsletter
“John Kennedy uses the novel form effectively as a technique to
elaborate the joys and absurdities of the volunteer experience,
and to provide a ground level context to his reflections on the
nation building process. I found myself caught up in the stories
which support the working out of Kennedy’s conclusions.
“The novel’s deft elaboration of
the daily life of its characters will for returned volunteers spark
the recollection of events now thirty plus years past. Although
Kennedy claims that Sakra and the characters, situations, incidents
and institutions are fictional, they clearly draw on his experiences
as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana in the sixties. And while Sakra
could be Ghana, the war that envelops the volunteers during the
second half of the novel bears more than a passing resemblance to
the Biafran conflict.
“The
perils of Iraq nation building now focuses our collective mind,
and religious and cultural conflict still brews in Nigeria. Both
Nigeria’s and Iraq’s situations arise at least in part out of the
colonial decision to throw together disparate, antagonistic tribal
groups, without, when the colonies became independent countries,
effective pre-independence smoothing of tribal jealousies.”
David
Strain, Nigerian Peace Corp Volunteer (63–66)
in the Friends of Nigeria Newsletter – Winter 2004
“The coinciding of this book’s publishing with the Dayton Daily
News’ series on Peace Corps safety surely will bring the ultimate
security lapses of Mr. Kennedy’s PC/Sakra to many readers’ attention.
RPCVs, particularly from Africa, will find much familiar in the
customs and trials of daily life. Perhaps more interesting than
either of these themes, however, figures the emotional evolution
of some of the male Volunteers. Consciously models of cultural sensitivity,
they nevertheless run up against the unanticipated independent perspectives
of their respective lovers.”
Brian
D. Stettner, CORVA NEWS
“I work in many nursing homes in the surrounding Franklin County
area and encounter many people who work there who are from West
Africa. You have given me a new perspective in relating to them,
and their perhaps plight of divisions, prejudices and in being away
from the land, their tribe, their home.”
Tina
Thonnings Gratitude, Columbus, Ohio
“I completed your book and enjoyed it very much. I am not a qualified
literary critic (although I was an English major many years ago
at UNC), but I found it to be very well crafted. You lull the reader
into the peaceful routine setting and culture of the 1960s African
Peace Corp experience and gradually build the intensity into wartime
and personal drama. I couldn't put the book down for the last 100
pages or so.”
Tom
Cathey, Florida
"A gripping must read book for anyone contemplating life in
a different culture. A true eye-opener which helps us to examine
our own ideas. 'The Last Lorry' takes us for a non-stop ride through
another world."
Joanne
Marti, Information Technology Manager, Puerto Rico
"Engrossing. An engaging adventure and examination of culture,
history, and the complexity of personal motivation as seen through
the eyes of a fellow Mathematics teacher. A surprising look at where
our best intentions can lead us."
Marjorie
M. Barreto, Mathematics Instructor, Puerto Rico
“Thank you for your book, I enjoyed it immensely. I realized that
any novel with a title of ‘last’ followed by a form of transportation
to (or from) some destination will involve some grim scenes. So
I truly enjoyed the first three chapters which had me laughing right
out loud. Then there were parts which left me close to tears, and
few times I put it aside to delay reading about the violence I knew
was coming. Great job.”
Russ
Hodges, Cullowhee, NC
“This book is like being there.”
Old
Bill, Boonville, NC |
