Eulogy to Prof. Dr. Amos Claudius Sawyer:  A good man

The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
April 8, 2022

Where do I begin from in my effort to eulogize a man so good in many ways that one cannot enumerate in a few minutes? Do I begin with what I have read and heard about him or with just what I know? I will begin with what I know and my own feelings about the life that he lived. But, even as narrow as the scope of my eulogy appears, it still does not make it easy for me. Just talking about Prof. Amos C. Sawyer as a teacher, would take several volumes of books for a man who taught social science 201 from the early 1970s to 1984, a course that was required for all students of the University of Liberia. If I choose to speak about Prof. Sawyer as a thinker, who would not reject or accept any idea from anyone but would choose to explore every idea with its proponent until a conclusion acceptable to him and the proponent is reached, it would take a book of at least a thousand pages. If I decide to limit myself to Prof. Sawyer as a humanitarian, it would take the whole day to narrate how much he made other people’s problems his own and spent more time solving them, than his own. It would not make it any easier for me to limit myself to Prof. Sawyer as a friendly man, whose friendship had no border. His infectious smile on his first meeting with anyone was the beginning of a lifelong friendship.

I cannot even take asylum in speaking only about how deep a family man he was, because, I can say without any fear of contradiction that all members of his natural and adopted families will tell you that he devoted himself to each of them, including his wife, his siblings, children, nephews, nieces, and grandchildren, as though he had no other family member or no other obligation in his life. I cannot find a soft landing by limiting myself to his political career either because each of them began with choosing not to join the True Whig Party after returning from school with a Ph.D. at the age of 27,  and instead, deciding with Dr. Togba Nah Tipoteh and Dew Mayson to establish the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA), or a mayoral candidate for the 1979 mayoral election for the City of Monrovia, or his political activities in exile in the United States for Constitutional Democracy in Liberia, or his role as the first interim president in Liberian history or his political life after serving as interim president. Certainly, there is no shortcut to doing justice to the manner of man Prof. Dr. Amos Claudius was.

I can only say Sawyer was a good and wise man. Let me remind everyone about a few of the attributes of Prof. Sawyer. He was an excellent listener. When speaking to him, he would look you straight in the eye. Therefore, his responses were always straight to the point. Sawyer was a very respectful person who dealt with every Liberian equally, irrespective of their educational, social, religious, or economic status. I am sure Martha Nagbe from New Kru Town and Forkay Horace from Buchanan,  who are in the audience here can bear testimony to this. Working with him as his Executive Assistant, I saw him moving from behind his desk to hug and sit with his kindergarten teacher from Greenville, Sinoe County, and giving her Liberian ten thousand dollars, without her asking, when the rate was six Liberian dollars to one US dollar.  

He was very practical about the vital needs of people and was always prepared to help. At the University of Liberia, he paid the school fees of many students from the rural areas and from poor families in Monrovia by signing deferred payment forms for them, thereby allowing the University of Liberia to make deductions from his salary every semester, sometimes receiving less than hundred dollars for several months of the year. With Dr. Tipoteh and Dew Mayson dismissed by the Tolbert Government, the financial burden of the young progressives in MOJA and the Student Unification Party (SUP) fell on the shoulders of Dr. Sawyer alone until Dr. H. Boima Fahnbulleh, Jr. joined the faculty of the University of Liberia and began to assist and mentor young MOJA comrades along with Dr. Sawyer. This responsibility increased during the military government when most leaders of MOJA went into exile and he was the only leader on the ground. He took on the responsibilities of seeking the welfare of family members of exiled progressives, including paying their rents, helping them with food, school fees, hospital bills, and helping to bury their dead family members, thereby becoming the virtual head of so many families. Although the life of Prof. Sawyer was at risk, he helped others to escape from both the Doe and Taylor regimes. He was forced into exile under Doe when he was arbitrarily detained on the false charge that he planned to overthrow his regime, followed by the arson attack on his home in Caldwell. During the regime of Charles Taylor, he was again forced into exile when a group of armed men associated with the Taylor regime attacked the offices of the Center for Democratic Empowerment, and severely beat him, Senator Conmany Wesseh, and other staff members. His commitment to the building of a peaceful democratic Liberia prevented him from living out of Liberia when it was obvious that living in Liberia was dangerous for him.

Sawyer was not a Liberian politician who wanted power or to maintain it at all costs. Here is one example. While in Freetown, in mid-November, 1990 and planning to come to Liberia, General Joshua Dongoyaro, the second Force Commander of ECOMOG suggested to him at the Cape Sierra Hotel three ways through which he could come to Liberia. He said, “ Mr. President, I could take you to Liberia by flying you in a helicopter or by a boat or by  road by putting one battalion of ECOMOG soldiers on each side of the road from the Liberian border to Monrovia backed by war tanks and jet bombers”. Then he said to Dr. Sawyer, “Mr. President, I prefer to take you by road because it would show to Mr. Taylor the strength that you have.” Dr. Sawyer then asked, “General what would be the cost of going by road in human terms of human lives?” General Dongoyaro, then responded, “Mr. President in a military operation, it is the objective that matters.” Dr. Sawyer immediately told the general, “ I prefer to go to Monrovia by helicopter.” He did not want any Liberian to die just for him to be installed, as interim president. Dongoyaro died at the age of 80 in May 2021.  Another example of his preference for saving the life of others was shown during the Octopus war launched by Charles Taylor on October 15, 1992, with the help of General Prince Johnson. One morning, shortly after the attack,  General Adetunji Olurin, the Force Commander of ECOMOG came to him and suggested taking him to a safe home on an ECOMOG ship. He told the General, “I cannot leave the six hundred Liberians that live here because of the safety that my government provides them and go to another location for my survival. Mr. Taylor will kill me here along with them.” General Olurin saluted him and said, “Sir you have given me courage. It will not happen, Sir.” The general and his forces thereafter pushed NPFL out of Monrovia and beyond Weala. General Olurin, like Dr. Sawyer, died at age 76 on August 20, 2021.

Sawyer had a forgiving spirit and had no place in his mind for harboring malice against anyone. I will give one example. Although General Prince Johnson had maintained a very hostile attitude towards Dr. Sawyer and members of his interim government when he changed the Liberian currency from J.J. Roberts Banknotes to the Liberty Banknotes,  he saved Gen. Johnson during the Octopus. Here is how he did it. During the Octopus attack on Monrovia by Mr. Taylor, Gen. Johnson went to the Stockton Creek boundary between ECOMOG and the rebel forces with some children claimed by him to be orphans for rescue from Taylor, after some of his trusted fighters had been killed by friendly fire and his deputy General Samuel Varney had turned his back on him. To respond to his request, ECOMOG first called President Sawyer, through Brigadier Ada, Deputy Force Commander of ECOMOG. I was standing right by the President when the call came and he told ECOMOG to rescue Johnson along with the children. The Senator is alive today because of the good heart of my boss, Prof. Sawyer. If he had said no or that the Commander should use his discretion, the story could have been very different today. Sawyer was a good man with a golden heart.

Dr. Sawyer was not a greedy man. He agreed to the holding of another all Liberian conference of Liberian warring factions, political parties, and interest groups in Monrovia for the formation of a new interim government for the sake of peace and was ready to step down. When the National Patriotic Front of Liberia walked away from the meeting and it appeared to him that the conflict would not end soon without the cooperation of the biggest warring faction, he offered to resign and actually dictated the letter to me, but ECOWAS, through its representative the Late Joshua Iroha vehemently rejected the idea and he reluctantly remained interim president. Contrary to the false notion that Dr. Sawyer was forced from power as interim president, let it be known, today, that it was he who proposed the establishment of a national transitional government to replace the interim government with a different head. The proposal was contained in what he called the New Spirit Proposal made on  August 11, 1992. Having graciously stepped down from the position of interim government because of the warring factions’ failure to disarm and contest in a free and fair election, Sawyer could have contested in the election that was held in 1997 and all subsequent elections. But he did not because he was not greedy for power. Instead, he advised all political contenders in the 1997 presidential election who sought advice from him. For this some of his friends who did not want him to advise other candidates felt betrayed by him. Prof. Sawyer had over the years risen above partisan politics, lost interest in competing for political power, and had become an advisor to all who sought his wise counsel including, even politicians outside Liberia. He was committed to problem-solving for sustainable peace and good governance in Liberia, the ECOWAS sub-region, and the African continent. Prof. Sawyer introduced religious tolerance in Liberia, as President of the Interim Government of National Unity. He made it an official policy of the government that both Christian and Muslim clerics pray at national ceremonies, with one leading the invocation and the other, the benediction. Sawyer was a good man.

Before concluding this eulogy, I want the Liberian people and the world to know that most of what Prof. Sawyer achieved in his public life as a political philosopher, legendary scholar and leader, a big brother to many of his friends, a father to most of his students and young comrades and a grandfather to their children, could not have been possible without the unexplainable deep love and commitment shown by his dear wife, Mrs. Elethen, Thelma Comfort Duncan, who became the sister, mother, grandmother, and aunt to so many persons closely associated with Sawyer. According to Mrs. Sawyer, her husband expressed his deepest gratitude to her shortly before his transition for her deep love and care for him. On behalf of all his friends, students, and scholarly colleagues, I want to, in this public manner,  thank you, Mrs. Sawyer, for being there for Prof. Sawyer at all times and in every situation without once complaining. All of us who are closely associated with Prof. Sawyer felt your boundless love and kindness. It is, therefore, impossible to fully eulogize Prof. Sawyer without eulogizing you. Accept your flower, my dear sister while you are still alive.

May the soul of Dr. Amos Claudius Sawyer and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in perfect peace. Amen.

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