The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
June 17, 2023
 |
Toe Blamo Gbi (Al Gbi Toe) |
Relaxing on Sunday morning, May 21, 2023, after reading the story in the New York Times Magazine called "The sugar that saturates the American diet has a barbaric history as the 'white gold' that fueled slavery in America," Mr. Benedict Nyankun Wisseh called me. He said I have bad news for you; Al Gbi Toe is dead!
Really, is Al Toe dead? That was my initial reaction. Yes, it was Alfred Toe, who, in 1979, called on the residents of New Kru Town to campaign and elect Dr. Amos C. Sawyer as Mayor of Monrovia, Liberia. The visit to New Kru Town was one of the scheduled rallies of the Campaign. In the 70s, advocates for the promotion of free and fair elections organized the Sawyer for Mayor campaign in order to encourage our Liberian lawmakers to change the provisions within the Liberian Constitution that disqualified voters who didn't own real estate property.
And yes, it was the Toe who worked during the 2nd Congress of the Movement For Justice in Africa held at City Hall, Monrovia, Liberia, a few days to April 12, 1980.
On April 12, 1980, military men changed politics in Liberia, and aborted the efforts on the part of the 70s progressives to institute democratic principles and the practices of the "Rule of Law."
Wow, and yes, the Al Gbi helped and reactivated the Union of Liberian Association in the Americas (ULAA). Yes, it was the AL Toe who was one of the advocates who instituted democratic electoral procedures within the Liberian communities, ethnic groups, students’ alumni associations, and other institutions, including religious organizations.
And, yes, it was the Toe Blamo Gbi along with Mr. Dusty Wolokolie and J Yanqui Zaza in 1986, who prepared ULAA’s famous and widely circulated ULAA RESOLUTION DEMANDING PRESIDENT SAMUEL K. DOE TO STEP DOWN. His Excellency and the late Gabriel Mathews, one of the 70s progressives, was the keynote speaker at that ULAA Convention.
Further, the Al Gbi Toe was instrumental in convincing Liberians within the Diaspora to view and consider former President Samuel K. Doe and warlord Charles Taylor as undemocratic leaders and dictators.
Al Toe, Wolokolie, and I, after our days at the University of Liberia, connected in 1983 when we shared residence with Mr. Dusty and Mrs. Jamamete Wolokolie in Brooklyn, New York. Fortunately, the three of us attended the New School For Social Research. Later, Emmanuel Cooper, the current commissioner of the Governance Commission of Liberia, the honorable D. Karn Carlor, and the late Benedict Pyne Wilson joined us at the New School For Social Research.
Beginning in 1983, the old leadership of the Union of Liberian Association in the Americas (ULAA) asked the Liberian-New School For Social Research students and bequeathed unto them, especially Brother Toe, the responsibility to reorganize ULAA.
The revitalization of ULAA became the responsibility of Brother Toe. Why? He was meticulous in detailing information and in keeping good records, one of the major problems of organizations, even profits-making institutions operating in poor communities.
Gbi, a former student-teaching assistant to Dr. Amos Sawyer, the then Director of Teachers College at the University of Liberia in the 1980s, was an excellent communicator.
His skills in writing petitions, resolutions, memorandum of understanding, minutes of meetings and constitutions and regulations, and correctly spelling difficult names from African countries, won him respect and admiration from his colleagues, even his detractors. Moreover, he documented the names and contact information of prominent individuals at home and abroad. If Gbi Toe wasn't in the know, it became a difficult task for anyone, during our days, to organize any meeting or a gathering of Liberians.
Besides organizational assistance, he assisted individuals in preparing resumes for employment and organizing documents for non-American Liberians to get a work permit, Green card, American citizenship, or refurbished personal records.
Al Toe participated in these outstanding activities, which have impacted the work of progressive groups in the United States of America:
1. ULAA sent its Special Envoy (Acting President) when stakeholders elected Dr. Amos C. Sawyer as the head of the Interim Government of National Unity (IGNU);
2. ULAA prepared a "Quick Response Team" to refute false reports circulated at the CHARLES TAYLOR PROGRAM in 1991 that Liberian and African leaders were against Charles Taylor as warlord because he (Charles Taylor) and his supporters were under the influence of anti-American leaders and governments. After researching, Al Toe, Benedict Pyne Wilson, Benedict Nyankun Wisseh, etc. found articles that reported that Charles Taylor and his assistants were involved in selling Liberia's natural resources. The researched documents persuaded the attendees to see Charles Taylor for what he was. The American invitees left, and the keynote speaker, his excellency, former Vice-President of Liberia, Honorable Bernie D. Warner secretly left without delivering his speech.
3. Al Toe, with the help of the late Al Haji Balozi, former immediate supervisor and chief executive, protected and promoted the IGNU-Leader, Dr. Amos C. Sawyer during his visit to the United States of America to attend the annual United National General Assembly in 1991. Dr. Sawyer didn't only benefit from the security services provided by the Muslim Brotherhood, an arrangement organized and financed by Gbi Toe's boss, the late Al Haji Balozi, but Dr. Sawyer also had interviews with TV and Radio institutions in America. Many prominent and reputable American TV and Radio Talk shows, including the Gil Nobel show "LIKE IT IS" interviewed Dr. Sawyer.
4. In 1984, Gbi Toe successfully arranged a meeting between Dr. Togba Nah- Tipoteh and prominent African Americans in order to get influential American politicians to help halt the killings of students at the University of Liberia under the order of former President Samuel K. Doe.
5. During his tenure as President of ULAA, Gbi Toe, invited prominent Liberians in the US and abroad including some
prominent officers of the warrant faction General Prince Y. Johnson, now current Senator of Nimba County and former Speaker of the House of Representatives of Liberia, his excellency, the late George Dweh. to initiate and promote reconciliation amongst Liberians,
I could go on listing many other contributions made by Brother Gbi Toe. Let me say to my brother, yes "it is well with my soul," to know that you are resting in Heaven. YES, REST IN PEACE BROTHER, AND EXTEND GREETINGS TO EVERYONE WHO WENT BEFORE YOU!
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