Sylvia Anderson asked Pramudith D. Rupasinghe:

Is there any special reason to select the protagonist from the Kissi tribe? While reading, I got a notion that the author is making an attempt under cover, to address the tribal frictions in West Africa. otherwise why does the author take Tamba a long journey across different tribal villages exposing him to different secret societies ?

Pramudith D. Rupasinghe Hi Sylvia, Why Tamba, from a Kissi village from Lofa? Yes, its a sharp question. As you have felt, there is several reasons to select the protagonist from Kissi tribe.
1- Epicentre of the Ebola outbreak in West African was in Kissi communities.
2-There were some community memory about Ebola like outbreaks in Kissi villages in triangle borders between Guinea, Sierra Leone and Libera.
3- Kissi belongs to the larger Mande ethnicity spread in majorly affected countries by EVD, and they are considered as of the strongest tribes.
4- Kissis were highly affected by the recent epidemic
Considering all of these reasons mentioned above, I selected the protagonist tribe to be Kissi.
Actually the long journey of Tamba via Loma and Kpelle villages has been intentionally used for diverse reasons but tribal frictions or conflicts have not been intentionally highlighted here. However, readers are free to perceive the story based on their experience.

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