A Dirge Too Soon by Peggy Appiah

Ghana Publishing Corporation, 1976. Tema, Ghana. Light wear, no marks in text. Inscription inside cover indicates it was a Christmas gift in Nigeria 1978.

"Kwadwo Ofori, a prosperous middle-aged farmer suddenly disappears from his house at the village of Obimma. Apparently he had gone to the forbidden part of the forest, where the Little People are, in search of gold -- on the strength of a tip-off given him by Opanyin Kwame Abro on his death-bed. His disappearance throws OBimma into mournrful confusion as a search-party brings back his gun and cutlass: the spirits have taken their revenge! The story takes a dramatic turn when Kwadwo Ofori returns to Obimma, ostensibly a ghost from the Kingdom of the Dead. His disocvery of gold in a cvae and the avid interest shown in him by some mining companies and the 'Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources' and local chiefs and their elders are the very ingredients which make the atmosphere of the story natural and typically African. The greatest attraction of the story is in the personality of Fetish Kwadwo Fofie's priest, Kwasi Pobi, who exhibits a profound abundance of ingenuity and craftiness at the turn of each event. He is a good representative of a cuning but prosperous African fetish priest. Written in a simple and flowing language by an author who has carefully watched the Ghanaian in his traditional setting, A Dirge Too Soon depicts the informal qualities of the Akan society."