Liberia: A Mind Over Body Giant Passes Away

The Legendary Bill Russell is a citizen of the United States of America. who passed away last week, was a Giant at the height of six feet ten inches, weighing nearly three hundred pounds, with an arm span of seven feet and four inches.

The Legendary Bill Russell led the Boston Celtics Basketball Team to eleven championships in the USA National Basketball Association (NBA). From his prowess on the basketball court, he became the NBA's Most Valuable Player (MVP) five times and was a member of the NBA All-Stars Team twelve times. Then in 1975, the Legendary Bill Russell became a USA Basketball Hall of Famer.

But the Giantness of the Legendary Bill Russell is seen in the workings of his Mind Over Body Posture. This Posture saw him sitting in the front row with the Legendary Civil Rights Leader, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King (MLK) during the 1963 March on Washington, D.C., USA, when Rev. Dr. King delivered his historic “I Have A Dream” Speech.

Fifteen years after that Speech, the Giant Bill Russell was back in Washington, D.C. on the fifteenth Anniversary of the Speech and said that "the fight for Justice has just begun", meaning that the MLK Speech had motivated millions of people locally and globally to heighten the Struggle for Justice.

Clearly, the Mind Over Body Posture of the Giant Bill Russell prevailed over his Body, pointing to the continuous usefulness of the Latin expression, Mens Sana en Corpus Sana, meaning a sound mind in a sound body. Certainly, a Body without a Mind is a Non-Starter! Essentially, it was this towering Mind Over Body Posture of the Giant Bill Russell that led the USA President Barack Hussein Obama to decorate him with the USA Highest Award.

The workings of the Legendary Bill Russell made him relevant locally and globally. The Legendary Bill Russell was at work with the Civil Rights Movement in the USA and was also at work in other countries, as seen in his Pan African work in Liberia. He went so far as to show his desire to become a part of the Land called Liberia. While in Liberia, he demonstrated to many Liberians, gathered at the Sports Commission on Broad Street, Monrovia, for a basketball game, that it is the working of the mind that makes the points in any game.

This Mind Over Body Posture also influenced me to earn a doctorate degree in economics at the age of 27 and becoming a record holder as the undefeated retired Tennis Champion of Liberia over thirty years (1964  to 1994). During my active tennis playing years, I played against two World Tennis Champions in the persons of Champion Arthur Ashe of the USA and Champion Fred Stolle of Australia. Most importantly, I became a Founder of Susukuu, the 51 years old Poverty Alleviation NGO, along with Prof. Dr. Amos Claudius Sawyer and Professor Dew Tuan-Wleh Mayson, and then I became the Founding Leader of the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA) in 1973.

It is mainly the Mind Over Body Posture that presents the solution to the prevailing problem of poverty in Liberia that has now become the pretext for violence, including coup d'etat and civil war. The use of the Mind Over Body Posture leads people who love Liberia to share their knowledge to raise awareness in ways that motivate people to work together through the Rule of Law to end injustice, introduce Justice, and prevent the recurrence of injustice. This prevention is seen in the words of the Legendary Bill Russell when he said that "the fight for Justice has just begun."