Sylvester, (Sundiata) Modupe, Broderick was born in 1941 and raised in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he received his primary and secondary education. He completed his tertiary education at universities in the United States and Canada. He then undertook an academic career at universities in North Carolina, Wisconsin-Madison, Kano in Nigeria, Bahia in Brazil, and the US State Department's Foreign Service Institute in Rosslyn, Virginia. In March 1985, he switched career to manage the USAID Agency office in Benin. Following other assignments he became a Foreign Service Officer and served in nine African missions. He is married to Amelia with 2 children and 2 Grandchildren.

"Trodden Paths - A Journey from Brookfields" provides a narration of incidents that impacted the author's self-awareness through life. It highlights his social growth from innocence to maturity. The author has structured his memoir into three temporal/spatial categories namely: Roots, North América and Full Circle, his return to Africa. It's a plea for more social histories of Sierra Leonean or African families and personalities. Above all, the memoir is a source of invaluable family information, and a critique of corrosive behaviours that continue to plague humankind.