The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
December 25, 2020

Seward M Cooper

In 1970, the student body elected me president of the Student Government. And now fifty years later, you graciously grant me the honor of keynote speaker on this our Anniversary. I am sincerely grateful. Thank you, my friends.

Amidst pomp and pageantry fifty years ago, we were graduated from the College of West Africa. It was a grand, glorious gathering! The Centennial Pavilion, built for Liberia’s 100th independence anniversary, was packed with family and friends.  Methodist Bishop S. Trowen Nagbe and the Board of Trustees were present.

Alumnus Richelieu Morris, class of the 1940s, and an economics graduate of Tufts University, delivered the commencement address. He urged us to be ambitious. He recalled great, young musical composers, scientists, and leaders, who, while yet in their thirties, accomplished extraordinary feats that helped shape the world. He praised then President Tubman for his unification policy and other work done to transform Liberia, and he wished that we too would work towards Liberia’s development.

Velma Major, now Dr. Velma Major Troko, was valedictorian, and Eugene Sawyer, now Dr. Sawyer, was salutatorian. Velma spoke eloquently for the Class of ’70.  Our hearts bubbled with pride. Our families were excited. We were stepping confidently into our new world filled with lofty goals and high ambitions.

We had adopted Rudyard Kipling’s’ poem “IF” as our inspiration.  Each of us aspired to:

Keep our head when all about us would be losing theirs and blaming it on us;
Trust ourselves when all might doubt us but make allowance for their doubting too;
Wait but not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, but won’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, but won’t give way to hating,
And yet we won’t look too good, nor talk too wise.

We wanted to:

Talk with crowds and yet keep our virtue
Walk with kings and not lose the common touch, Let neither foes nor loving friends hurt us,
Have all persons count with us but none too much.

Yes, we believed we could:

Dream and not make dreams our masters, Think and not make thoughts our aim; Meet with Triumph and Disaster,
And treat them just the same.

We would be strong and:

Bear to hear the truth we spoke twisted to make traps for fools.

We were determined to be resilient enough to:

Watch the things we gave our lives to broken
And then stoop and build’em up with worn-out tools.

We had faith that we could:

Lose, and start again at our beginnings,
And never breathe a word about our losses;
And hold on when there would be nothing in us except the Will to ‘Hold On.’

Well, five decades later, we have learned a lot. We now know life with all its joyous moments has its rugged spots.  We know that like mountains, life’s pathways are not all smooth. And that that ruggedness enables us to pull forward and climb higher.

We have learned the jagged ways of adult life. We have learned compromise and compassion; experienced disappointments, divorces, and deaths; digressed and tampered our ambitions; and accepted that with all the knowledge we gained, yet we know so little.

Innovations during this Information Age have fundamentally changed the world. Each month brings us new revelations.In science class, we were taught that Pluto was the ninth and farthest planet from Earth. Now astronomers have downgraded Pluto - no longer is it classified as a planet but as just another star. Our Milky Way is now known as just one of several galaxies. New discoveries have brought different lessons. Man set foot on the moon the year before we finished high school and the fabled, mythical man on the moon vanished.Gadgets we never imagined or, which we perceived as fictional devices in James Bond movies, are now commonplace; cars self-drive; and technology keeps track of our every move - sometimes understanding more about us than we know about ourselves.

We live in an enlightening, fascinating yet sometimes frightening world – a world where our personal privacy is invaded by algorithms run through artificial intelligence.

But then we are comforted because we know “. . . behind the dim unknown, Standeth

God within the shadow, keeping watch upon God’s own.”

When we took aptitude tests during our senior year, results pointed me towards accountancy and history. That was disappointing because I wanted to follow my father’s footsteps into law.

Over the years, however, a passion for history – Liberia’s history – has excited my interest. That excitement sparked many questions.

What do we know about our country and our people? How did Liberia become a beacon of hope for the black race and a threat to colonialism and white racial domination? Why did we implode? Why do we still agitate in ways that could lead to further destruction? Why
are we yet not reconciled? What can we do to uplift ourselves?

Some see easy, quick answers. Lack of political will. Selfishness. Vestiges of long embedded discontents passed from generation to generation. Stubbornly skewed mindsets. Unforgiven hearts. Arrogance. Ignorance. Shortsightedness. A shaky national foundation.

No doubt, each of these answers has elements of truth.

On this anniversary occasion, being conscious of who we are as Senior Foxes, where we are as beneficiaries of long lives that gave us perspectives derived from our exposure, education, and decades of experience, I ask us to consider certain facets and facts of Liberia’s history that might help in Liberia’s way forward.

Prof. Peter J. George (Class of ‘44) taught us much in history. We studied European empires, Chinese dynasties, Genghis Khan’s conquests, Hannibal’s great army, territorial expansions, the rise and fall of nations.

Our horizons were broadened. But we could not connect the dots.  These were isolated stories about distant lands, dates, and foreign peoples, whom we studied mainly for academic purposes.

Those strange and ancient happenings seemed of no direct relevance to us.

Thankfully, however, years later we drew on Mr. Edward Sambolah’s theorems to help us understand the different angles at play, and Uncle Reide Dennis’ teachings in algebra to enable logical deductions of the connections.

The histories we read were presented by writers who favored or derided their subjects. European authors wrote kindly about Europe and colonialism, but disparagingly about Asians and Africans.

American writers cast the history of the United States in glowing terms, emphasizing gallant battles won against the British, and about the American revolution of 1776 that began a republican form of governance. But yet they omitted stories about the inhumane enslavement in America of the black race and the cruel annihilation of Native Americans.

Books about Liberia and Haiti by white authors had little positive to report.  They denounced systems their own people developed and were using whenever those systems were adapted by Africans or black people.
They quickly saw the motes in other nations and ignored the beams in their own eyes. They presented caricatures of our societies, and sadly many of our scholars (and pseudo-scholars) lazily regurgitated what those foreigners wrote as authoritative sources of genuine, objective research.

Haitians had defeated and driven out the French by 1804 and declared themselves independent. Liberia and Haiti stood as examples debunking the then widely spread lies that black people were inferior and could not govern themselves. Blatant misrepresentations of black people ignored the high civilizations of the Mali, the Songhai, and other empires as well as the existence of the great pre-colonial learning centers of Africa at Timbuctoo, Alexandria and elsewhere.

Stories by those foreign, often white, authors were damaging. The impact and bias of those stories on black people the world over are still felt today.
An old African proverb reminds us:

“Until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”

Sadly, several Liberian scholars join in repeating the hunter’s story. They fail to tell the lion’s side of the story.

Indulge me therefore as I flag a few historical tidbits about the lion - Liberia. Some of it might offend delicate sensibilities. But remember how Maya Angelou poetically wrote in her epic poem On the Pulse of Morning:

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”

Refreshingly, some Liberian authors have sought to situate Liberia’s story in the appropriate context.
Stanford University-trained historian alumnus Clarence E. Zamba Liberty, Class of ‘60, advised that:

“The historian must grapple with the past on its own terms; not as the present would have it to be . . .  or as his own predilections would wish it to be.”

Also, Dr. Dawn Cooper Barnes, wife of alumnus Nat Barnes Class of ’72, in commenting on my friend Professor Carl Patrick Burrowes’ seminal work ‘Between the Kola Forest & the Salty Sea’,  which covers pre-Liberia (being periods before the establishment of the Liberian State), counsels:

“In forging a national identity people should understand their ancient past and acknowledge the choices that their ancestors made in becoming part of a community within their homeland.”

And Dr. Thomas Jaye, a distinguished scholar at the University of Liberia, who sadly died recently, reminded us that:

“The history of Liberia is a history of African peoples migrating from different parts of the continent to settle where we are today. It is a mosaic or melting pot for African peoples arriving from different parts of the world to establish a single

whole called LIBERIA.”

It is with this sense of awareness that several scholars on Liberia have adopted a different trend and have begun writing our own history – the lion’s story, if you will.  Let us hope it will be a unifying story.

Let us hope it will be a narrative that does not bury truth but places facts in the context of the relevant periods, extracts positive things to be emulated, warns against exacerbating ethnic and geographic cleavages, and pulls us together as one people.

Yes, as one people with a common heritage and intertwined stories who must be committed to fulfilling the dream of “One peaceful Nation indivisible with Liberty and Justice for All.”

The lion reminds us that:

•    CWA was first called Monrovia Seminary.

•    Cox Memorial Building sits on Ashmun Street. Ashmun Street is named for Jehudi

Ashmun. Lincoln University in Pennsylvania was first named Ashmun Institute.

•    The Grain Coast, which included present-day Liberia, was occupied by different ethnic groups that migrated and settled there over many generations.
•    The Dei ethnic group was perhaps the first settlers to arrive.

•    Cestos, Mesurado, Cavalla are all names given by Portuguese explorers from the

1400s.

•    Liberia was founded not by ‘freed slaves’ as conventionally reported. Over a million free, unenslaved black people lived in the United States during the late
1700s and early 1800s. Their presence was seen as a threat to the evil business of enslavers.

•    That was the main reason Liberia was founded as a colony by prominent white American men - to rid the USA of the already free black people, who, though free, were denied citizenship rights granted to white people.
•    Only later were enslaved persons freed but on condition, they would leave the

USA.

•    Contrary to popular reports the names Liberia and Monrovia were not given by early Liberians. Those names were given by the American Colonization Society for the Free People of Color (ACS) in a resolution proposed in the early 1820s by American Sen. Robert Goodloe Harper.
•    Contrary to popular belief, restricting Liberian citizenship to people of Negro descent first came in 1821 from the all-white ACS in Letters of Instructions sent to its white agents.
•    Liberia was initially a few scattered settlements along the coast and extended from the Atlantic Ocean inland only forty miles. Decades later Liberia expanded north, east, and west to include people and areas then not yet controlled by the British and the French.
•    The Vai ethnic group has long had its own script – a script used as a code by the

Germans during World War II.

•    Relationships amongst various ethnic groups that were early settlers in pre- Liberia were at times harmonious, but were also at times marred by internecine wars.
•    Pre-Liberia was not a united, homogeneous, monolithic society. Various cultures and practices existed.

•    Slave trading existed in pre-Liberia. Some ethnic groups held and sold other ethnic groups as slaves.  For example, the proper name of the Dan ethnic group was not Gio -  a pejorative word meaning ‘slave’ - a description applied by another ethnic group.

•     After the formation of the Liberian state and sometimes by use of military force the practice of slave trading by some ethnic groups with Europeans was extinguished.

•    Involuntary servitude with the Spanish existed during the 1920s and that compelled the resignation of a Liberian president and vice president.

•    Simplistic propaganda has portrayed members of selected groups of Liberians as evil and other groups as good, but history bears witness that good and evil, virtues and vices, are universal human phenomena peculiar to no single group of people.

•    History shows intermarriages among all Liberian ethnic groups.

•    History shows wide economic disparities and lack of education are at the base of Liberia’s national malaise.  (Dr. T. Ebenezer Ward nearly seven decades ago warned that: “The greatest peril to the Liberian nation lies in the illiteracy of our youth.”)

•    History records that in the USA the first black psychiatrist, first black college professor, first black Episcopal Bishop, first black Methodist Bishop, first black medical school graduate, one of the first two black college graduates, the co-founder of the first black newspaper in the USA, all became or were Liberians.

•    Globally, even the first black chairperson of the World Health Organization, was a Liberian, Joseph N. Togba, Class of ’36, and, of course, the first woman elected president in Africa, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Class of ’55, and the first African to win the FIFA ballon d’or George Weah - Liberians.

•    Liberia initiated and sponsored the idea of the African Development Bank (Romeo Horton ‘43 and Clarence Parker ‘50); kickstarted the Organization of African Unity (now the African Union)( Momolu Dukuly ‘23, Rudolph Grimes ‘40, Ernest Eastman ‘47); and helped create the United Nations Organization (Clarence L. Simpson ’19, Richard Henries ’27).

•    Yes, collectively Liberians have met Triumph and Disaster; but dare not treat those just the same.

•    We have tried divisions and violence - which led to catastrophes.

•    We have seen stability and peace - which enabled opportunities for prosperity.

•    Yet, even in the face of historic and recent lessons, some people choose to propagate ancient divisions and push them on succeeding generations to perpetuate rifts rather than to unify. They seek to divide to conquer.  They fail or are unwilling for selfish, often political purposes, to accept that Liberia must move forward and leave the old poisons behind. They run from the fact that Liberians have more in common than that which divides us.  They ignore common realities faced in the process of nation-building by all nations and by all peoples of Africa. They play an endless blame game.  They manipulate and divide our people for no good purpose.

As the demographics of Liberia change, party politics are bringing common interests together. New breeds of Liberians are evolving. New challenges are arising. New interests are being manifested. New visions are surfacing.

Lessons from our history offer much to imbue us with the right spirit, heal our damaged nation, and propel us as one united nation pursuing prosperity.

My friends, we must not seek utopia. But let us work and pray for the advancement of our country. Let us pray that “God will move our peoples’ hearts, that barriers which divide us shall

crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatred cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace.”

Maya Angelou encourages us to:

“Lift up our hearts
Each new hour holds new chances
For new beginnings.

The horizon leans forward,
Offering us space to place new steps of change.”

Friends, I bring these tidings on this our 50th Anniversary for reflection, edification, and inspiration.  CWA instilled in us decent life-long values, discipline, self-confidence, and intellectual curiosity. CWA taught us patriotism and democratic practices. Above all, CWA taught us the Bible and about God’s love.
And though the past is gone, indeed; it is what lies within us and what lies ahead that must most concern us.  Therefore, even during these sunset years, we must recall and apply vital lessons from our past.   We must use those lessons to inform, chart fresh courses, develop wholesome visions with the younger and succeeding generations, and pray our labors will not be in vain.

This CWA Class of 1970 is dynamic and well-accomplished.

Here are administrators, artists, authors, accountants, bankers, entrepreneurs, engineers, executives, geologists, designers, diplomats, lawyers, scientists, physicians, professors, preachers and teachers – trained in some of the finest universities in the world.  We all are proud products of one institution.

From the foundations laid within us at the College of West Africa, and by God’s good grace, dreams have been fulfilled.  Lives have been changed.
And so, come we ‘thy grateful children all’, who, garbed in blue and white uniforms, paced the hallways of that historic Cox Memorial Building 50 years ago; who, assembled every school morning within its classic auditorium; and recall that clear command etched within our minds  – “ ‘Thou a thousand fall let not Africa (indeed Liberia) be given up.”

MAY THE GOD OF OUR MANY YEARS WHO HAS BROUGHT US THUS FAR BLESS US NOW AND ALWAYS. AMEN.