Monrovia – In addition to his assertions that Mr. Benoni Urey, the political leader of the All Liberia Party(ALP) lacks the experience that would make it rather impossible for him to accept being Mr. Urey’s running mate, Senator Prince Y. Johnson (MLD, Nimba), political leader of the Movement for Democratic Reconstruction (MDR) also jabbed that because he is one of the key indigenous sons in Liberia and strong advocate for indigenous leadership, it would be difficult for him to accept bolstering a ticket headed by an Americo-Liberian or Congau person.
Report by Rodney D. Sieh, [email protected]
An aged-old recurring debate appears to be eclipsing issues of corruption, economy and post-war reconciliation in Liberia’s upcoming presidential elections. Many are beginning to wonder why?
“For one hundred and some years, we have always cooperated with them,” Senator Johnson opined.
“They are in leadership and they’re always taking country boys to be VP to them,” Johnson quipped when FrontPageAfrica contacted him at the weekend.
“But I think it is about time we compromise, we politically reconcile so that they can be seen under a country boy, then I would know that Liberia is moving on the right trajectory,” Senator Johnson asserted.
Senator Johnson’s comments come as key political players in the upcoming presidential elections tighten the bolts on their running mates who will stand by their side when voters head to the polls in October.
So far, Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine, whose roots trails to Grand Bassa County has tipped Mr. Harrison Karnwea, the former Managing Director of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) from Nimba, as his running mate; and when Alexander Cummings, who claims his roots from Maryland County has chosen Ambassador Jeremiah Sulunteh, a prominent Bong figure as his running mate.
George Weah, the former footballer and leader of the Coalition for Democratic Change has nailed Senator Jewel Howard Taylor as his running mate. Weah hails from the southeast and Jewel from Bong County. Vice President Joseph Boakai of the ruling Unity Party is yet to name a running mate.
Brumskine, Cummings Battle Identity Stigma
Although both Cummings and Brumskine have touted their Bassa and Maryland roots, they are viewed in the eyes of some, particularly their critics and opponents as belonging to the Americo-Liberian or Congau heritage.
Prior to making his break with the US corporate giant Coca Cola, Mr. Cummings proudly showcased his indigenous roots.
He has declared in several interviews that he was born at the Liberian government Hospital in Monrovia and that his family’s humble roots are from Maryland County.
His parents enrolled him in Monrovia Demonstration Elementary School and he attended high school at the College of West Africa, where he participated in various social and intellectual clubs and served yearly as a class officer including first as class senator, then treasurer and eventually senior class president.
After graduation from high school, he matriculated to Cuttington University College for two years before leaving for the United States to further his studies at the Northern Illinois University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Economics.
Dedicated to his roots, he returned to Liberia and worked at Liberian Bank for Development and Investment (LBDI) as an analyst.
He returned to the United States to further his studies and earned an MBA in Finance from Atlanta University (currently Clark-Atlanta University).
After his MBA, he joined The Pillsbury Company in the U.S. where he climbed through the ranks, eventually becoming Vice President of Finance for Pillsbury International.
There, he had financial responsibility for a growing $1.2 billion international branded food business with operating companies in 16 countries.
Like Cummings, Cllr. Brumskine is also fighting off the stigma regarding his indigenous heritage.
Although it is well-documented that he hails from southern Grand Bassa County, critics often put him in the bracket of the Americo-Liberians.
This was evident recently when the Liberty Party leader was forced to shoot down suggestions from political commentator Jerry Wion that he (Brumskine) was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
Brumskine reminded Liberians in the Diaspora that he is in fact deep-rooted in the county where he attended public school and endured poverty at times eating Bread Fruit.
A Liberian who happens to be Bassa
Cllr Brumskine’s father ancestors were among the freed slaves who settled in Bassa Cove, what is known today as Grand Bassa County during the early 19th Century.
As the result of inter-marriage, children bearing, and a deliberate resolve to assimilate into the Bassa culture, the freed slave identity was lost; and became the Bassa people.
They speak the dialect and the culture is engrained in them. On the other hand, his mother’s ancestry is of the Dey and Gola ethnic groups.
But Cllr. Brumskine considers himself a Liberian, who happens to be of the Bassa tribe.
The identity dilemma is one many politicians in Liberia continue to struggle with in a society where indigenous Liberians have struggled for identity and even those raised by so-called Americo Liberians have found it complicated adopting to.
GS Lloyd, commenting on FrontPageAfrica recently put it succinctly over Mr. Wion’s label of Brumskine: “It is always a good exercise to take these candidates to task.
But it was confusing to me that someone would attack the guy who went to a public school in Grand Bassa as having a silver spoon and then confuse us by describing folk like Tipoteh and Fahnbulleh as less fortunate.
“I did great research work on Liberian political history and I know much about these politicians.”
“If anyone really knows the background of Tipoteh, they would know that Tipoteh is in his mid-seventies, and no crowd to Brumskine or Fahnbulleh.
Also Tipoteh (the politician formerly known as Rudolph Roberts) is the son of Hon. Charles Roberts, a wealthy True Whig Party (TWP) stalwart.
He attended the most expensive private school in Monrovia, CWA, and then traveled to America on Liberian government scholarship because of his father’s TWP connections.
He returned to Liberia and was immediately given a big job by his father’s good friend and masonic society brother who was Pres. Tolbert.
As for Fahnbulleh, he was also born with silver spoon as the son of a TWP Ambassador and the grandson of Hon. Brownell another friend of Tubman and a big shot in the TWP.
Fahnbulleh himself will tell you he was born with silver spoon in his mouth. He does not hide it. In fact, he is now a big defender of Ellen.
His mother, Ms. Brownell was Ellen’s good friend. Even Baccus Mathhew’s father was a big TWP man. He was Executive Secretary of the TWP, and a godson to President Tolbert.
So-so silver spoon TWP children. How easily people are fooled. So, if it is true that the LP candidate went to public school in Bassa County, and then I can see no way that he can be more silver spoon then the other two. Try using better names like Boakai or even Jackson Doe, Sr. the adopted son of J. Rudolph Grimes.
EJS Struggled to Explain Lineages
The debate is not new. In fact, this was even more visible when President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on March 15, 2006 addressed the joint session of the United States Congress, dedicating a good portion of her speech to explaining her maternal and paternal lineage.
The backdrop of Sirleaf’s speech was that Washington had quietly expressed that it would have preferred an indigenous person elected as President.
So, Sirleaf on that day went to great lengths detailing how her family exemplified the economic and social divide that had torn Liberia.
Said Sirleaf: “Unlike many privileged Liberians, I can claim no American lineage.”
“Three of my grandparents were indigenous Liberians; the fourth was a German who married a rural market woman.”
“That Grandfather was forced to leave the country when Liberia in loyalty to the United States declared war on Germany in 1914.”
Pres. Sirleaf told the US Congress that both of her grandmothers were farmers and village traders who could not read or write any language as more than three-quarters of Liberians still cannot today, but they worked hard.
“They loved their country, they loved their families and they believed in education.”
“They inspired me then, and their memory motivates me now to serve my people, to sacrifice for the world and honestly serve humanity. I could not; I will not, I cannot betray their trust.”
Sirleaf explained that her parents were sent at a young age to Monrovia, where it was common for elite families to take in children from the countryside to perform domestic chores.
“They endured humiliations and indignities, but my mother was fortunate to be adopted by a kind woman, and both my parents were able through this system to go to school; a rarity at that time for poor people.”
“My father even became the first native Liberian in the Liberian National Legislature.”
Added Sirleaf in March 2006: “I was not born with the expectation of a University education from Harvard or being a World Bank officer or an Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations.
When I was a small girl in the countryside, swimming and fishing with twine made from palm trees, no one would have picked me out as the future President of our country.
“I graduated from the College of West Africa, a United Methodist high school.”
“I waited tables to support my studies in the United States–college in Wisconsin and graduate school in Massachusetts. I went on to enjoy the benefits and advantages of a world-class education.”
“So, my feet are in two worlds–the world of poor rural women with no respite from hardship, and the world of accomplished Liberian professionals, for whom the United States is a second and beloved home. I draw strength from both.”
But even amid the explanations, clarifications and efforts to draw a demarcation line, perceptions persist in a nation that thrives on controversies.
Issue Deeply Dividing Liberians
Liberians like Patrick Wesseh, a resident of Matadi, Sinkor says like Senator Johnson, he would like to see a shift in the dynamics.
“I read what Prince Johnson said the other day in FrontPageAfrica and he was right.
For so many years now, the Congau people have been taking the native people as VP and this is still going on. I mean, we need to try it the other way around this year.”
But Barsee Flomo, a resident of Old Road Community disagrees.
“Does it really matter whether it is Congau man or native man?
For me it doesn’t matter. What we need is a leader who takes the country at heart.
One who will unite Liberians from all walks of life. We need reconciliation in this country.
Are the Congau people not Liberians, too?” –
Christopher Wleh, petty trader, Broad Street says it is time for the indigenous to return to the helm of power. “
Over hundred years the Congau people have ruled us. The native people must stand up.
That’s why I like President Trump. It’s time to give Liberia back to Liberians.
This country has not benefitted anything from the Congau people.
They only care about themselves. It’s time that we support a native President.
For me, I will support a native president. And I’ll encourage everyone to support a native President.”
But on each and every side of the coin, the debate harbors believability on the interpretations of those looking within the prisms of their own imaginations.
For Matthew Jaleiba, a resident of Broad Street, the indigenous already have power, and a lot of it but are failing to deliver in the national legislature were they dominate the play of the body politics.
“Even the country people in the house haven’t made any difference in our country. They’ve not done anything to change the country.
Even if we put them first and put congau man under him, the situation would be the same.
In fact, the country people don’t like each other in this country.”
The divisive nature of the ongoing debate appears to be sidelining more pressing issues of corruption and the economy with some like Mattu Kamara, a resident of Sinkor actually believing that the indigenous have what it takes to turn things around.
“This election is for the country people. The country got to wake up this election. Look at how our country looking.”
“We need people who have love for this country, only the country people able to love and develop this country. My brother, as long as we these foreigners ruling us, we would be the same.”
PYJ Backing Talk With Numbers
More importantly, Senator Johnson, who is branding himself as the leading advocate for an indigenous presidency has some dark clouds hoovering over his head.
As head of the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia, a breakaway movement of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia, Johnson played a prominent role in the civil war and mostly remembered for capturing, torturing, mutilating and executing former President Samuel Doe, himself an indigenous who had himself overthrown and murdered the previous President, William R. Tolbert.
Senator Johnson’s critics say he is raising these issues now in a bid to throw off discussions about his role in the war especially in the wake of the release of yet another recording showing him in an abusive mood, slapping a woman believed to be the wife of former Defense Minister Gray D. Allison during an interrogation of allegations of abuse meted against student rioters at the University of Liberia.
His supporters disagree and point to his string of impressive results in the past two elections as proof of his political dominance in the vote-rich county.
Running as an independent for the first time in 2005, Johnson won a Senate seat to represent Nimba County.
He captured 81, 820 votes for 33.8 percent.
Six years later, he upped the ante in the presidential race, as the candidate of the newly-formed National Union for Democratic Progress party, finishing an impressive third, with 11.6% of the vote.
As Liberia limps toward this year’s elections, the resurrection of an age-old debate is obviously spurring concerns – even after years of intermarriages amongst the off-spring of congau and country have produced a new generation of mixed breeds.
The seeds of hatred in the absence of post-war reconciliation and a stinging circle of impunity appear to be complicating Liberia’s drive toward reconciling old ghosts.
But even amid some sign of forgiveness toward those who maimed, killed and destroyed; but still found their way into the legislature, political observers remain baffled at their somewhat unwillingness to return the favor for the sake of peace.