Voice of Liberia

GRAND KRU; A COUNTY WITHOUT A COUNTRY

      -a forgotten county in the national sports reconciliatory agenda

 

      BY MULBAH K. MORLU, JR. | December 16, 2006

 

 

The significance of the country Liberia is one that cannot be overemphasized especially when discussing geo-regional politics. Situated along the west coast, its political importance became paramount the more as 14 years of bloodletting awaited appearance just at about this time in 1989. The year was the beginning of unparallel madness which escalation became a shared-package walking into the life veins of several neighboring countries. Once the blood craze ensued, there was no turning back till the sons of perdition had havoc and ravished the land to disproportionate description. Everything laid waste and the prevailing system of deviltry availed a terrain of extreme deviltry. Nihilistic rebels were unleashed afresh to introduce new ways of terror on a helpless society and, the way the diabolic lessons were taught, the devil may have thought some frail mortals were about to steal his show of maximum mayhem. For a period, Liberia was reduced into a minefield of horrendous explosion. Every fabric and fiber of the landscape suffered unwarranted insurrectional shock; every man, woman and child living today bear some king of scar that points to a dark past. During this era, more than a million Liberians ran helter-scatter and lavished in Refugee camps in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, etc. As though a curse had been placed on our people, these refugee camps and the countries that hosted them were stormed with the spillover of the Liberian terror.

 

Oh yes, everything went wrong and nothing was left to restore smiles on the faces of a devastated people, not even a temporary source of smile could be derived. Neither could the much needed Western Union Transfers, pulling in on refugee camps, proved good enough for a smile. In Ghana, I saw a woman seated on top a cast stone holding in her hands a bag full of Cedes (the Ghana bank note) bearing the logo “Western Union”. The normal thing would have been to take the money home and fetch food for her starving household but instead, she risked a robbery and sat on top a stone just to watch children kick football around. And she was not alone; there were hundreds of others who had gotten glued to this roughed-ground football practice. On that day, at the end of the session, still wearing sweat-stained torn-to-pieces jerseys, the guys and a much greater refugee audience, hurried to the nearby video clubs awaiting a set match that featured Paris Saint Germaine or A.C Milan or Chelsea. These teams were amongst their favorite teams per time, depending on which one soccer legend George Weah played for then.

 

During a time of great recession and tragedy for Liberians scattered everywhere, the man George Weah, who rose from a shanty town to become the conqueror of conquerors in the arena, provided one of few corridors of happiness for his depressed country men. In the eyes of many, his maestro and great potentials in the soccer discipline created a famous reputation for Liberia while others projected an unusual posture in sending 250 thousand people to hell. As the killing field widened, no one thought of returning home. And instead of going back to the horrible memories, they eagerly went to their television sets and video clubs to see the unraveling skills and domination of King George Weah. The game would start and though for a short time, antagonistic tribesmen would sit side by side and would occasionally jump to their feet, falling on the other’s shoulder whenever there was a move of brilliance made by King George. Through this week by week entertainment, the Gios begun to accept their Krahn brothers as worthy of a friendship while Mandingoes discussed game results with Manos without hesitation. Before long, the fusion of sports made attractive by one of the universe’s greatest soccer stars, heavily buttressed the reconciliation process. Hence, sports, when properly utilized can be a great way to heal sociopolitical fractures that leave people divided along ethnic and tribal lines.

 

Keeping in mind this success record of the past, I believe it is out of this experience that the Youth and Sports Ministry organized the National County Meet which was initially slated for November 26, 2006 and later shifted to December 10. Whether the latter date stood the test is what I cannot confirm owing to the very minimal attention being rendered the game. The one privileged to witness any of the County leagues in the mid and late eighties, will agree that the current one, if at all held, is dwarfed a hundred times over! I hope none will argue that we are in a post war situation so “we should not expect too much.” We must come on here, if thinkers of the “County Meet” had an overview objective of reconciliation at the end and beginning of the agenda, they would invest some time, money and energy into it, more so in view of the reconciliation package embedded. Comparatively, Jesus was right when he said “where your money is, there your heart will be. The opposite is also true, “you invest your money in things you are passionate or convicted about.”

 

But let’s make some progress as we move on. As a matter of fact, the “County Meet” is being held anyway. Or has it been held already? What betrays me most is what I feasted on in the Analyst Newspaper that “With just days before the start of the 2006/07 national County Meet, Grand Kru County has withdrawn from the competition due financial and geographical constraints. The tournament kickoff on Sunday December 10 across the country.” The story published in the analyst Newspaper flowed on with revelations suggesting that a letter was sent to the office of the Youth and Sports Minister, declaring the inability of the County to form part of the Reconciliatory “County meet”.  Several excuses were given for the withdrawal: “inability to support a budget heavily inflated by four games both at home and away, bad road condition and, poor and inadequate preparations.” These were amongst grounds given by county Superintendent Rosaline Segbe Tonne Sneh and a few others. After her version of excuses, the County Representative, Hon. Gbenimah Slopadoe mounted the rostrum and added to the nervous listing; for him, most of his kinsmen did not see it fit to contribute to a US$15,000.00 budget proposed to fund activities of the kickball and football teams.

Henceforth, the withdrawal decision of leaders of our sisterly county of Grand Kru, what I gather in the saga is that it is not possible for the county to interweave in the county meet due to the inter-alia:

(a)  the insufficiency of funds

(b)  poor preparation on the part of the Youth and Sports Ministry

(c)   the single-handed handling of the competition by the Sports Ministry to the exclusion of the FA and,

(d)  bad roads condition

In regards to the foregone, whilst I cannot confirm the authenticity of the other grounds given for the revulsion of the county from the league, I certainly agree  that Grand Kru County’s bad roads condition has separated it from the rest of the country leaving it an isolated domain, a forgotten state! To support this fact, the June 2005 UN Integrated Regional Information Network had previously reported that the county roads had decayed and become overgrown by dense bush, rendering them impassable, except on foot, and that the Bridge across the Nu River at Barclayville had been destroyed.

That was over a year ago and I do not have any evidence to conclude that much has change about the dilapidated condition of these roads. Incomprehensibly, said conditions existed long before the 2005 general and Presidential elections that lined the echelon of the county’s powerhouse with men of their choice. I say   incomprehensibly because, I would have thought that a caring county leadership would do something about these identified hazardous challenges that has threatened to send the county back to colonial times. Hence, to use the impassability of the roads to stay away from shouldering “County meet” responsibilities should be a great embarrassment for the guys. Do they walk on foot to Grand kru, or have they returned yet after the campaigns that ascended them? Maybe their helicopter flights have unable them to see the decaying roads!

How could a county of so much great men of wealth, influence and power maintain a perpetual reluctance against the performance that is a national responsibility? Grand Kru, the 1984 combination of Sass town and Kru Coast Territories, giving birth to wealthy sons the likes of the Tugbeh Does; a conglomeration of Sasstown, Buah, Upper Kru Coast and Lower Kru Coast—4 great districts that still rejoice over the budding of men of  power the likes of Gbenimah Slopadoe and; a land of 71,000 residence that witnessed the babyhood arrival of personalities of influence the likes of Cleutous Wotorson, how come Barclayville is left out of the play that would have given them the opportunity to intermix with their colleague counties in the reconciliation mixture? Is anyone listening? If men of wealth and valor will not hasten to redeem their nativity from not-so-big-challenges, then what was the essence of the sacrifices made by “our pepper-selling mothers” when they denied themselves of everything just to educate us?

Very truly, the withdrawal of this invaluable  county from a process designed to add spice to the reconciliation agenda, is not only a departure from the Reconciliatory blue print, but a sad diametric to everything the people of Grand Kru ever stood  for in time past. And by this we are reminded by a people’s life-span replete with tales of heroic display and daring bravery most times leaving poor souls beheaded just so their dignity can be preserved.  The people of this great county have something of so much historical relevance that must be preserved. How many understand that the foundations of our sovereign freedom were made possible through the shed blood of true patriots from this southern-coastal county?

The history of Grand Kru is most colorful and quite interesting. Immemorial, the primary language spoken in the county was not Kru, but Grebo. However, Grebo is widely spoken in several significantly different dialects around the county. Some of these areas came up identifying their language as Kru thereby maximizing its spread. Today, though Grebo is still spoken there, the Kru tribe is the strongest and most dominant grouping.

Many years back, the Kru and Grebo tribes, having too many things in common, proved to be infamous with European slave traders. The infamous character of these principled tribes was an equal opinion of settlers attempting prey on their (natives) land. In 1856, for instance, when part of Liberia was still known as the independent state of Maryland, the Kru along with the Grebo resisted the settlers’ efforts to control their trade. In fact, the European slave traders considered them “especially resistant to capture.” These two tribes were a combination of brave and great men who would kill their captors or kill themselves rather than succumb to slavery. Such a noble manifest must not be betrayed by political idleness but must be cherished and preserved through the dignity of the actions of men from that region.  

      After more than a hundred years, what savoir faire can we render these men of unparallel virtues other than preserve the pride of a county birthed forth through the heroism of martyrs?  I will not imagine that a Tugbeh Doe or a Cleutos Wotorson or a Slopadoe would be possible had the forefathers not defended their great grand fathers from being smuggled away to propel the manual engines of Fernando Po farmlands. Of course, had the great grandfathers of the Does being hustled and tagged as slaves on plantations, their sons would not be Representatives, Senators and Government officials today. But how can we preach this truth knowing that these mighty Kru sons are all “Honorable men” and we fear the contempt charge. And lest we forget, history has a way of chastising and dealing harshly with “Honorable men” who fail in their national responsibilities; for how can we be unifying the country through sports and leave out the county that is a dominant political player in the Liberian conflict?  Have we forgotten that Grand Kru became the father of sports in Liberia when it gave us Ambassador George Manneh Weah, the icon of Liberian football? When he moved, almost the whole nation got dragged behind him during the erstwhile election; that is a classic demonstration of the power of sports and one’s goodwill to his people in the reconciliation drive. And I cannot think that the Liberian soccer Ambassador and indigenous politician, George Weah, is aware of these unfortunate developments in his county. For the good character he has proven to be, he would have acted fast enough to help re-bridge Grank Kru with the rest of the country. And unfortunately, with these destroyed bridges and bad roads, Grand Kru is certainly a county without a country.

The actor is Mulbah K. Morlu, Jr. and can be reached at 
godsprince2001@yahoo.com. Cell: 00231-77-268-265. He resides in Sinkor, Monrovia-Liberia and Teshie Nungua Estates, Accra-Ghana and is Chairman of the Forum for the Establishment of a war Crimes Court in Liberia.