Ben Asante, [email protected], Contributing Writer
Senator Geraldine Doe was sick for a long while. She sought medical help first at home in Liberia and then abroad. The longer she remained under medical care the stronger her fighting spirit became. She remained determined to return home and continue representing the people of Montserrado County. During this trying period family members kept in contact with her. Some friends throughout West Africa including in Nigeria set up a prayer chain with pastors throughout the region praying for her recovery.
Her spirit was undiminished as she often said she would get well and come back home. Often, she would converse over the phone for long periods talking about home, politics and the family. She picked up the phone on the first ring every time. Recently I called her but she didn’t answer. Hours later at 3am a colleague from Monrovia woke me up asking what happened to Sen. Geraldine. He said he saw a notice on Facebook in which someone wrote ‘Rest-In-Peace Senator’. I phoned her younger sister Muna and she said to me, “my sister is sleeping”. That was how I first got news of the passing of our favorite Senator just a few days before her 52nd birthday, which would have been on February 14th.
Formally known as Senator Geraldine Doe-Sheriff many people simply called her Senator Geraldine. Long before she exploded onto the political space she was popularly known as Auntie Geraldine to family members. She was not only popular but a pillar of strength to family and friends.
The near two decades of civil war remain embedded in most minds. The war affected many families: thousands died and remain buried in unmarked graves. Many who had lived all their lives in Liberia were forced by the war to become refugees in neighboring countries. They discovered and learned how to be West Africans and not just Liberians. Internally the country was divided with many families living the divide. Some lived in rebel-controlled areas, described as “behind the lines” and others lived under peacekeepers’ control in Monrovia and its environs.
When I first heard of her, Geraldine Doe was living behind the lines separated from her immediate close-knit family from Maryland County. I first met her elder sister Omega Doe married to Martin Browne. The Doe family as I discovered was not only closely bonded but each family member had special attributes. By this time during the war tragedy had already struck in the family. One son, Snoti, known to be adventurous and daring, had been killed behind the lines. With Snoti’s death the need to re-unite the family became urgent. Family members approached peacekeepers to help her (Geraldine) come across the lines. When she eventually crossed the line, she came not only with the clothes on her back but she was surprisingly endowed; living under war conditions hardly stopped her from being enterprising.
Back in Monrovia Geraldine Doe, barely in her twenties hit the ground running literally picking up pieces of her life she had left behind before the war. She revived the all- female football team she founded and played for. In the Doe family every sibling, irrespective of being a boy or girl, played football. Not surprisingly Geraldine’s elder bother eventually played for the National football team the Lone Stars and acquired the nickname Zico after the football legend from Brazil. So too was Geraldine called Lady Zico. She ran the LPRC female football team. She also busied herself with many activities including cooking for companies and doing take-away catering for many clients.
As the war subsided Geraldine, despite her many engagements, enrolled into the University of Liberia for a degree course. Geraldine, her elder sister and two other brothers had the exact character traits of their mother Beatrice Doe of blessed memory, the matriarch of the family. Without meaning to strike the wrong chord Geraldine and mother Beatrice were regarded as “men-women” for often being bold and fearless. Often, they showed the “can do anything” spirit and they had that towering presence and the strength to ward off challenges that most traditional societies would ascribe to men alone.
Having obtained a University degree and the advantage of having already become a household name through football Geraldine was ready. She joined politics taking up membership in the new opposition party, the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC). The party with its huge youthful appeal easily elbowed out most of the established parties in the election for a return to constitutional rule. Within the CDC there was no stopping Geraldine. Soon she emerged the Chair lady of the party.
Her meteoric rise as a new player in the country’s politics to be reckoned with was to continue when a Senate seat became vacant. Geraldine stood for the opposition CDC and easily beat the candidate of the ruling Party to be successfully elected as Senator of Montserrado in 2009. Having completed the remaining term of her late predecessor Senator Geraldine got elected in her own right in 2011. Known for her principled stance on issues Senator Geraldine resigned her position as Chairlady of the CDC and embarked on building consensus politics.
From the floor of the Liberian Senate, Senator Geraldine chaired the most important Committee of the Senate that maintained links with the Executive Presidency and led other important committees. She strode like a colossus on the floors of the Senate. She was as bold as she was self-confident. She was fearless and outspoken. She took firm stances on issues that she cared about. President Weah has described Senator Geraldine Doe as a champion of gender issues. She was more than that. Many of her peers refer to her as the “General” because of her keen engagement on most issues even going across Party lines to achieve consensus to benefit the majority of the people.. Not only was Senator Geraldine Doe self-confident, bold, fearless, outspoken and a fighter in her political actions, she was caring, family-oriented and kind to many. She also had the ambition to run for the highest office in Liberia. Death may have put a stop to those ambitions but nothing will ever erase the giant footprints she has already left behind.