Liberia: Sawyer Using Brain For Good

Prof. Dr. Amos Claudius Sawyer has passed away at the age of 76. He survived two brain surgeries but passed away due to a heart attack on the way to the hospital in the United States of America (USA). While he was ill in Monrovia, I told him that Ngala (the Kpelle language for Our Creator) remains Our All-time Prime Comforter and his Darling Wife Comfort remains at his side as his Earthly Comforter.

Also, I told him that the powers that be were still bent on stopping his activism and, so, they went into his brain to take out his activism portion. When they did not succeed the first time, they went into his brain for the second time. But again, they did not succeed. The evidence for their lack of success is seen in the 370-page draft book that Sawyer wrote and sent to some of us, including me, for critical review five months ago.

Prof. Dr. Sawyer has passed away but his brainwork shall not pass away. Let us remember his brainwork upon earning his doctorate degree in Political Science at an early age and returning to Liberia instead of being greed-driven to remain in the USA.The Sawyer brain is working better because the book should have been written over twenty years years ago, showing that he is not tired and that it is never late to do good. In fact, the Sawyer brain episode was an opportunity to show how Ngala works. When Ngala stops you on one side, Ngala lifts you upon another side when you keep your belief in Ngala. Let this experience serve as a lesson to the powers that be, showing them that their strategies and tactics of stopping activism in the interest of the people will never work well. 

Prof. Dr. Sawyer's brainwork encouraged students to study better and earn their doctorate degrees. While at the University of Liberia, serving as Chairperson of the Political Science Department in the early 1970s. Prof. Dr. Sawyer worked with Colleagues Dew Mayson and your Humble Servant to establish Susukuu, the Poverty Alleviation Liberian NGO, bearing in mind that it is far better to help the poor to help themselves in getting food before working on the problem of getting access to State management. The formation of Susukuu was made known for the first time publicly in 1976 after President William Tolbert declared War on Poverty, Ignorance, and Disease. ushering in the Not-for-Profit Corporation Act, making it possible for Susukuu to become a legal nonprofit organization. 

Then, it was on to the formation of the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA), bearing in mind that the problem of longstanding and widespread poverty was still existing, becoming the pretext for violence, including coup d'etat and civil war. Tactically, MOJA was formed giving the impression of being an anti-apartheid organization. If MOJA had given the impression of working to end poverty in Liberia, the ruling political True Whig Party (TWP) would have crushed MOJA immediately just like it did to other competitors. This is why President Tolbert applied for MOJA membership and became a member of MOJA. But after Comrade Sawyer led a MOJA protest at Spriggs Airfield upon the arrival of the Taiwanese Deputy Foreign Minister when Taiwan was a staunch supporter of apartheid and when MOJA exposed the importation of wine by the Tolbert family from Portugal, a staunch supporter of apartheid, President Tolbert resigned immediately from MOJA.

Comrade Sawyer again faced President Tolbert in the Sawyer for Mayor Race in Monrovia. When President Tolbert saw the huge support for Sawyer against the TWP candidate Mr. Francis "Chu-chu" Horton, he said that he had a vision to the effect that the Lord told him to postpone the mayoral election indefinitely. In his intervention, President Tolbert violated the Constitution of Liberia, which calls for the election of Mayors. President Tolbert proceeded to appoint his Cousin Edward David to serve as Mayor of Monrovia. As Ngala would have it, over a quarter century later, Sawyer agreed to work with "Chu-chu" to help rebuild the ENI Mission in Sinoe County that was established by the Horton family Baptist Church. Sawyer worked with ENI because the ENI rehabilitation remains good for Liberia, despite the fact Sawyer was an Episcopalian.

We must not forget that this was the same Prof. Dr. Sawyer who served as the Chairperson of the Constitutional Commission which established the 1986 Constitution of Liberia that governs Liberia today and the same person who served as Chairperson of the Governance Commission that became the Mother of the Land Commission that has evolved into the Land Authority. Ngala forbids: If sufficient attention were not to be paid to the Land Problem, it would become the next source of Civil War in Liberia!!!. This is Governance Commission Chairperson and Interim President of Liberia Sawyer speaking Truth To Power from the Beyond!!! This Truth To Power is also going to Africa through the role played by Prof. Dr. Sawyer as Chairperson of the Peering on African Decision-making.