The former President of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), Mr. Abraham G. Massaley has cautioned that the Vai and Gola languages are faced with extinction in his home county, Cape Mount. Mr. Massaley is recommending the teaching of the Vai and Gola languages in every school throughout the county especially in elementary schools to counter the threat and said emphasis must be laid on teaching Vai because it is easy to learn and is widely spoken in the county.
Mr. Massaley has also cautioned against electing or appointing chiefs and other traditional leaders in the county, who cannot make farms to feed their own families and sustain themselves. He said such are beggars who will sell themselves and mortgage the county’s interests, for a penny. He also warned his people to stop buying Cassava leaf, bitter ball, and pepper in Monrovia to take to Cape Mount for consumption, saying this is “shameful and disgraceful and reinforces the false notion that we are lazy people. “
Mr. Massaley who is also former President of the National Association of Cape Mountainians in the Americas (NACA) made the statement recently in Darby near Philadelphia, United States in the keynote address at the Dinner Ball celebrating the 26th National Convention of the St. John’s Episcopal (EHS/EES) Alumni Association. He inducted the new corps of officers of the alumni association including Mr. Samuel A. Abdullai, Sr., President; Mr. Sylvanus Golakai, Vice President; Mrs. Sando J. K. Jones, Secretary; Mr. William Paasewe, Treasurer and Financial Secretary Jankoba Sambola.
Mr. Massaley said Cape Mount needs leaders to inspire a new mindset in our people. He said a new mindset of pride, dignity, integrity, honesty, hard work, value, and the drive to succeed. The former PUL President said there is a need for a mind-shift for our young people, many of whom have become crooks because crooked behavior is what they see in their parents and adults around them. He said farming and self-sustainability should be adopted by the county as basic criteria for electing/appointing town, clan, paramount and other chiefs as well as commissioners, and said rogue chiefs elected/appointed outside these criteria should not be recognized by the county.
Mr. Massaley said chiefs and leaders in Cape Mount who make farms and are self-sustaining will inspire our people to follow their lead. He said this will begin a “mental revolution” in Liberia to re-shape our people’s mindset towards the virtues of hard work, decent living, honesty, integrity, and self-pride, and inspire a renaissance that will begin a transformative period to propel our country to technological, infrastructural, and economic development, noting that this journey in Liberia can begin with the first step in Cape Mount.
He lamented that insatiable greed has consumed our country and said corruption has become the culture in Liberia. Mr. Massaley said corruption is no longer a crisis in government alone, but also a crisis among our people. He said impunity is endemic; trust and honor are values of the past and pride and dignity have eluded our chiefs and leaders in Liberia. Mr. Massaley said “our country has lost its way” and “Liberia is racing to the bottom”. He said “our country is sinking into despair while other countries in the sub-region are accelerating in development. For example, he said Ghana’s international airport is not different from Philadelphia International Airport and Ivory Coast is constructing a $1.7 billion Abidjan Metro/transit system, with cruise lines going to Ivory Coast, Gambia, and Senegal.
Mr. Massaley said nearly every African American wants to travel to Ghana and other countries, not Liberia which shares its roots with African Americans. He said many American companies have outsourced their customer services to countries like India, Jamaica and the Philippines. But he said Liberia which has so many in common with the United States, has vanished from American investors. He pointed out that Monrovia is just nine hours to New York by plane. The former PUL president said the “attitude that everyone must fail, including our country, so that I can succeed is destroying all of us” noting that when we lift our people up, we become even stronger, and we are only strong as our weakest citizens”.
He lamented that gold, diamond, iron ore and timber have become curses to our county and people. He said the stories of Mano River, Bomi Hills, Yekepa and Bong Mines are still being repeated in Kinjor and the Sime Darby area, pointing out that iron ore was extracted in the name of foreign investments, with billions of dollars siphoned out of the country but the companies left those communities in shambles.
He said prior to mining operations in Mano River, his grandparents hunted elephants on the Mano mines but when the company came, his people were driven away. He said although his clan (Sokpo) own the entire Mano River area including the mines, the local people were not only forced to stand at far distance as mere spectators to the looting of their God-given resources, but the company also inflicted misery on them, saying that our river (Mano River) which is the source of drinking water and fishing became yellow, from the iron ore processing. He said the company in Mano River did not even build concrete bridges on the unpaved road they used but culverts which eroded immediately after the company folded.
He said he was born in Liberia at the time of economic boom and enormous prosperity but in this abundance, he grew up in abject poverty. He said at the time, Liberia’s economy was the strongest in the African sub-region, on par with the Japanese economy.
Mr. Massaley said agriculture and tourism are the future for Cape Mount and said these two sectors will inspire economic boom and lift our people out of poverty, ignorance, and diseases. He said investment in these sectors will halt and even reverse the mass exodus of our young people to Monrovia in search of opportunities and is urging his county leaders to convene a conference of Cape Mount to discuss and evolve a county-wide blueprint/roadmap/template for sustainable development in Agriculture and Tourism.
