In traditional Liberian Bassa culture,
folklores and proverbs are used extensively
to teach and reinforce social, cultural,
religious, leadership, and other intrinsic
societal values to the Bassa youth. And one
such Bassa folklores, a creation legend,
holds that one day in the fullness of time,
Gedepohoh, the Bassa deity, summoned the
family of man (humans) and the colony of
creatures (plants, animals, and other living
organisms) into the higher heavens and
instructed them to go forth and live in
peace on todokpa (the land earth), which he
had created for their enjoyment. But instead
of Gedepohoh ordering the multiplication on
earth of farm crops and other seedlings for
food, shelter, vegetation, and healing for
the congregants, he decided that all plants
and seedlings should physically be planted
on earth.
However, among the first group of plants
that Gedepohoh decided to plant on earth was
“poisonous whey,” a dreadful green herb that
can break down the humane system of any
living organism in seconds and lead to
instant death. But Gedepohoh did not want to
personally plant poisonous whey on earth, so
he asked for volunteers from amongst the
family of man and the colony of creatures
assembled before his waiting feet. “Who will
volunteer to plant poisonous whey as the
first herb on earth?” Gedepohoh asked the
congregants, but the entire congregation
agonized in silence as everyone seemed
unwilling to plant poisonous whey. Then,
after a long silence, Chameleon (Hwo in
Bassa), that multi-colored, docile, unusual,
and charming animal with tail resembling
that of a monkey’s tail, and feet shaped
like a crab, stepped forward before
Gedepohoh and said, “Let me carry it..” At
first, Gedepohoh didn’t think Chameleon was
up to the task, but when Chameleon got
through beating its chest in re-assurance,
while rotating its globular eyes, changing
its color, flashing its tongue, and
capturing insects at amazing distances with
lightning speed, Gedepohoh was obliged to
give Chameleon the assignment.
Well, while Chameleon was on its way to
earth to plant poisonous whey, Gedepohoh had
second thoughts about planting poisonous
whey on earth, so Gedepohoh called to
Chameleon to abort the trip, but being the
stubborn creature it is, Chameleon refused
to abort the trip and continued with the
journey to earth to plant poisonous whey. At
this point, Gedepohoh created an antidote to
poisonous whey, and once more asked for
volunteers from among the family of man and
colony of creatures to run after Chameleon
and plant the antidote to poisonous whey, to
prevent the herb from germinating and
becoming bountiful on earth. Again, the
entire flock stood peeved in silence and
seemed reluctant to carry the antidote for
poisonous whey. Once more, like Chameleon,
Rooster (Sohn in Bassa) stepped forward to
plead with Gedepohoh to let it plant the
antidote to poisonous whey. “I have a strong
grip on things due to the muscles in my
wings and feet, which allow for an
effortless grasp of objects with both my
forefeet and beck. I have storage channels
for blood in my wings and feet, which enable
me to clinch to a position and remain there
for long periods of time without tiring. I
will fly quickly to earth and plant the
antidote! Let me be the one to do it
please,” Rooster pleaded with Gedepohoh.
After much pleadings, Gedepohoh gave
Rooster the antidote, and Rooster was well
on its way to earth when it came across a
thick vegetation of tropical rainforests and
found a colony of termites whose coloration
ranged from light brownish gray to deep
reddish brown. Rooster soon forgot the task
at hand and covetously began feeding on
termites, insects, worms, fruit, seeds,
acorns, grains, slugs, snails, and many
other foods in the vegetation. The Bassa
legend holds that after the failures by
Chameleon and Rooster, Gedephoh finally gave
the antidote to dog (Gbe in Bassa), which
succeeded in planting the antidote to
poisonous whey on earth, but then it was too
late, as poisonous whey had already
contaminated the earth.
Hence, as a mark of profound learning,
the Bassa elder would tell the Bassa youth
that the moral of the creation legend is
that anyone who frequently changes his or
her appearance (color) like Chameleon ought
not to be trusted, and that anyone who touts
his or her ability in self-glorification
like Rooster ought not to be evaluated only
by the person’s good intention alone, but by
the dignity, composure, and balance of the
person. For if we critically look at the
reasons behind the continuing political
infighting in Liberia, let alone the two
civil wars in Liberia in the last 14 years,
it might be easy to see the stubbornness of
Chameleon and the greediness of Rooster at
play in our political and social orders .
In other words, Liberia’s social,
economic, and political problems are borne
out of greed and selfishness. Gedepohoh
Veheneh (Almighty God) created a rich and
beautiful piece of land called Liberia, with
its own unique traditions, languages, mores,
cultures, and governance systems, and told
its sons and daughters to go forth and live
in peace and prosperity, but Chameleon and
Roosters infiltrated the status quo and
created hell for everyone. So, although a
lot of people are doing serious soul-
searching to find out how we got to where we
are today as Liberians, it is clear that if
water drops from a mountain are not
interrupted, the tiny water drops could turn
into a big river in which a lot of people
can get drown. In essence, Liberia is today
drowning from the very slow leaks in its
political and social orders because of greed
for power and the lack patriotism. Hence, if
the political, physical, and spiritual
powers of a nation and people are allowed to
be corrupted as in the case of Liberia
without any durable institutional checks and
balances, the end results are always
political infightings and chaos.
Of course, in these contexts, it is fair
to state that Liberia’s current social,
economic, and political upheavals mirror the
characters and circumstances of the Bassa
creation legend, which can be interpreted to
mean that unless Liberians are ready to
re-ignite the human bonds of friendship and
cooperation, infused by affection and the
warmth of love and brotherhood and
sisterhood, we will never be able to taste
the rich joys and pleasures of living
together as a single family or a unified
people. We need to redefine and promote the
virtues of justice, fair play, and
patriotism in Liberian society because our
very survival as a nation and people depends
to a large extent on how we test and obey
the laws of our land, how we respect and
treat each other, and how we fairly
distribute the nation’s wealth.
Individualism, selfness, and greed have
seriously undermined the unity, cooperation,
and national development of Liberia, and we
need to put our house in order to prevent
such slow leaks in the future.
We need to get away from this false
notion that two groups of citizens exist in
Liberia, including a superior group and an
inferior group, or that one set of Liberian
culture is better than the other. I think
these kinds of attitudes are unfounded and
tend more to divide rather than unite
Liberians. I think Messrs. Nat Galarea
Gbessagee and H. Bioma Fahnbulleh, Jr., in
their articles in the Perspective in 2002, “Liberia:
Who Are We?” and “Crisis
in the Soul” respectively, drove home
the point that Liberians are faced with
problems of identity, sincerity, and
inefficiency, as opposed to the complexities
of the existence of two cultures and two
social classes in Liberia. But if Messrs
Gbessagee and Fahnbulleh were mild in their
critique of Liberian society, United Nation
Security Panelists Chairman Martin Chungong
Ayafor was very blunt about the misdirected
priorities and inefficiencies of Liberians.
“Liberia today stood among the world's
poorest countries. Eighty per cent of the
population lived in abject poverty on less
than a dollar a day. Under-development, war
and the inability to re-establish political
and economic stability in the post-war
period had left Liberia at the bottom of the
human development index. In fact, it ranked
174th out of 175 countries.” For the most
part, Liberia should not be a deprived
nation as her capita income in 1970s was
comparable to or par with that of Japan
(Harold, Nelson D. Liberia: A country Study,
U.S. Government, 1974).
But Liberia is really suffering from a
“Crisis in the Soul” as Mr. Fahnbulleh
indicated, or from a lack of self-identity,
as Mr. Gbessagee indicated in “Liberia: Who
Are We? Maybe not; but Liberians seem to
lack any true sense of nationalism or
"Nation first," as individualism,
contaminated by ethnic and racial hatred, a
tactic which tyrants use to divide and rule,
remains the key pillars of our social,
economic, political, cultural, religious,
and educational institutions, thereby
contributing to an untreatable cancerous
crisis and political shortsightedness in the
Liberian society. We do not value of our
mother tongue (traditional languages) and
spiritual values, but value those of others.
We do not value our traditional religion,
and our educational system does not promote
the Liberian culture and social institutions
such as the Sande and Poro Universities. Our
newspapers take on the names of foreign
newspapers, and our best known sport heroes
and players name themselves after foreign
players. We tend to lend more credibility to
statements and proposals by foreign
administrators and scholars than listen to
our own public administrators and scholars
in finding common solutions to our mounting
and vexing socio-economic problems. And
these are some of the serious slow leaks in
Liberian society that we must strive to
repair beginning with the elections in 2005.
Like the characters in the Bassa creation
legend, Liberians need someone to plant the
antidote of unity, peace, and cooperation in
Liberia before the 2005 general elections.
It is very important that the outcome and
campaign tactics of the 2005 would seek to
unify Liberians in the rebuilding of
Liberia, rather than seek to polarize the
country through manipulation of the
elections results as was so common in
Liberian history, beginning with Liberian
chief executive and colonial master Jehudi
Ashmun in 1826. Mr. Ashmun justified
single-handedly nullifying the results of
the elections this way, “The Agent...has the
high satisfaction of finding himself
sustained by a body of assistants, in whose
good dispositions and capacity he has great
confidence" (Gurley, Ralph Randolph, Life of
Jehudi Ashmun (1794-1828), late colonial
agent in Liberia, Negro Universities Press,
New York, 1835). Similarly, another Liberian
chief executive, President Charles D. B.
King made name for himself in Guinness Book
Of World Records by winning the Liberian
presidential elections of 1927 with a
majority of 234,000 votes when the official
voters roll stood at only 15,000 registered
voters, or 151/2 time less than the winning.
This fraudulent practice continued
throughout our history, which eventually led
to a de facto one-party dictatorship, and
the current civil uprisings in Liberia.
But these “slow leaks” or bad precedents
in Liberian history were not only limited to
elections. For example, another Liberian
chief executive, President Arthur Barclay
blended native Liberians heathens, and
sought to use Christianity to pacify them.
In his inaugural address, the president
implored the Christian church to play an
active role in pacifying the heathen.”
Seated amid a heathen population of our
Race, with whom the work of amalgamation has
already commenced, the manner and the
direction in which the influence of the
church is exercised, and its modes of
procedure become, politically, of paramount
importance (Guannu, Joseph Saye, The
Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of
Liberia, New York: Exposition Press, 1980,
p. 204).
These slow leaks were also apparent in
the social context. The abuse of ordinary
citizens by the government security
apparatus was commonplace, and justice and
fair play in society were woefully lacking
as the courts not only became impotent but
toothless. For example, when a Liberian
youth was choked to death by a Lebanese
merchant for eating one candy bar in a
supermarket in Liberia, it is believed that
the Lebanese merchant fled Liberia overnight
with the assistance of some Liberian
government officials rather than face trial
for murder. Similarly, many prominent
Liberians supported various rebel causes to
ignite the civil war in Liberia out of
disagreement with some Liberian government
authorities. For example, in his article,
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Meets Liberians of
Metro Atlanta, Mr. George Nubo, Managing
Editor of The Perspective, provided vivid
insights into the political scandals and
struggles for leadership in Liberia when, he
wrote, “In a rather surprising candor, Mrs.
Sirleaf admitted that she supported Taylor
in the initial stages of the civil war. She
further indicated that she, Amos Sawyer, Tom
Woewiyu and others raised at least
$10,000.00 to assist Taylor in his quest to
seize power” (The Perspective, 1997).
Certainly, as the Bassa legend suggests,
Liberians anxiously need an antidote to
poisonous whey in Liberia before our
political infighting and greed for power
contaminate our souls. Liberia needs good
leaders and sound policymakers who have
genuine love and concern for peace,
stability, and national development in
Liberia. Liberian politicians must become
servants of the people and not their masters
by showing care and concern for their
plights in the same way Mahatma Gandhi once
told Indian policymakers, "Recall the face
of the poorest person you have seen, and ask
yourself if the step you contemplate is
going to be any use to them." But are
Liberian politicians paying attention to the
plights of ordinary Liberians enough?
Apparently not, as Liberian politicians and
national leaders have yet to come to grips
with breaking the old habits of selfishness,
which needlessly accord primacy to the
continuing gulf between the rulers and the
ruled in the 157 years of our history of
inter-relationship, to the point where
Liberians have become totally alienated from
the national leaders or predatory elites.
We must be careful so as not to continue
to breed our nation to death if we keep
sweeping things under the rug, which will
never bring recovery and peace to Liberia.
If we do not kindle within all Liberians the
principles of humanity, patriotism, and
social responsibly, we will only continue to
promote a culture of fear and deception,
which are finding their way to the fourth
Republic. We must make sure that those who
violate the trust of the Liberian people and
misuse the nation’s wealth and human
resources to promote their own interest are
never again put in positions of power to
repeat their crimes. Hence, the only way we
can walk in truth is to replace the lies and
ineptitude with true patriotism and equal
justice. For once we have been cleansed in
our hearts and souls, then the leadership in
Liberia will respond and the nation will
experience true healing. And, if we prosper
in our thinking and souls, then we will also
prosper in our national outlook. The only
safe place for any of us is in the will of
truth, which we are yet to live up to in
Liberia.
In the new Liberia, we must never allow
those who wish to oppress and exploit our
people to team up to use money (poisonous
whey) to have their way with political and
social developments in our society. We must
not allow the few to continue to dictate to
the majority. Otherwise, we will continue to
have ourselves to blame. After all, we can
only say collectively that we love Liberia
when we do not join revolutions that only
seek to replace one dictatorship with
another, without any real improvements in
the civil liberties and living standards of
the Liberian people. We cannot say we have
genuine love for Liberia until we remove all
concerted aggression against the common
people. And I do not believe that any love
that drives a nation of people to the edge
of self-destruction and nakedness before the
world is by divine Providence. Love and
patriotism speak otherwise. For if we truly
love Liberia and we want Liberia to rise as
a unified nation and people, then the masses
of our people must not be forgotten in the
fourth Republic. And those who appoint
themselves stalwarts and leaders of the
Liberian people must take responsibility not
to be self-indulgent in shady deals and
activities, but to devise programs that will
improve the socio-economic conditions of
Liberians.
Today, Liberia is at a critical junction
in its national history. Liberia has just
ended 14 years of two civil wars, and the
country is currently experimenting with a
tenuous transitional government, while in
about a year, Liberians will go to the polls
to elect new national leaders. But the
fundamental issues of constitutional law,
civil liberties, democracy, and good
governance still elude the nation. Hence, I
do not believe the upcoming 2005 general
elections, which are intended to usher in
the 4th Liberian Republic are about mere
elections. To me, the 2005 elections are
about deciding whether or not to entrust the
leadership of Liberia to a new group of
Liberian political elites, or the old group
of Liberian political elites. I also believe
the elections are about uniting the Liberian
nation and people around the principles of
mutual cooperation and final liberation,
thereby mentally freeing our nation from the
dictation of a mother country, regardless of
any special relationship, ideological, or
historical affinity. I believe the 2005
Liberian elections must be about nationhood
and sovereignty.
We need to get beyond the legacy of
failures and ineptitudes that have
characterized successive governments in
Liberia since 1822, which have in turn
conditioned Liberians to believe that if a
public official is honest and refuses to
participate in corruption, then that public
official is stupid. We need to get beyond
this kind of mindset about our public
officials if we must ever succeed in
rebuilding our nation. Therefore I believe
that post-conflict Liberia must become a new
beacon of hope where those who refuse to
steal from the nation must never be called
stupid again. The 2005 elections must be a
point at which we can all break with the
past acts of corruption and move on. It is
the very nature of the Liberian character is
that being decided from now to 2005, not
just the elections. The upcoming
presidential election featuring 18 or more
political parties and candidates will be a
referendum on all these issues. But
Liberians will have another opportunity to
decide whether they want a president that
exploits, kills, degrades, and destroys the
Liberian nation and people without
provocation, or they want a new president
who unites and builds strong and prosperous
nation all Liberians would be proud of!
In 2005 and beyond, Liberians will need a
new set of national leaders in Liberia that
will listen to the views, opinions, and wise
counsels of Liberians inside and outside
government service. In other words, the new
Liberia will need a group of national
leaders who will be open to and take
advantage of criticisms and suggestions from
a cross-section of Liberians without
branding persons uttering such criticisms
and suggestions as enemies of the state. The
views of every Liberian should be welcomed
and appreciated, regardless of the person’s
social status, education, or ethnic
background. In fact, we must not permit
ethnic hatred and political dictatorship to
foster in the 4th Liberian Republic, as in
the past. We must accord due respect to
every Liberian, and we must embrace good
governance and the rule of law in the 4th
Liberian Republic and beyond. Similarly,
regardless of education, affiliation, or
social status, the Liberian people must
never again recognize anyone who ascends to
power in Liberia outside the democratic
process. We need to repair all the slow
leaks in Liberian society before these leaks
turn into a great ocean that might consume
all of us in ways far worst than what we
have witnessed in the last 14 years. Hence,
we still have a chance to repair the slow
leaks in Liberian society, if only we could
start right now, especially during the 2005
Liberian general elections!
About the author: Syrulwa Somah, Ph.D.,
is a tenured professor of Occupational
Safety and Health at NC A&T State University
in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is the
author of several books, including, The
Historical Resettlement of Liberia and It
Environmental Impact, Christianity,
Colonization and State of African
Spirituality, and Nyanyan Gohn-Manan:
History, Migration & Government of the Bassa
(a book about traditional Bassa leadership
and cultural norms published in 2003). Dr.
Somah is also the Executive Director of the
Liberian History, Education & Development,
Inc. (LIHEDE), a nonprofit organization
based in Greensboro, North Carolina. He can
be reached at:
somah@ncat.edu or
lihede@att.net
