Young Liberian Educator Launches Second Book

A young Liberian educator, ‘Charles A. Gopee’, has launched a book that highlights traditional and cultural practices of Liberia that are harmful to the society.

The book, entitled “The Forbidden Love”, was published this year and launched on December 11, 2021 in Paynesville.

This is his second book launched by Charles Gopee.

In 2016 Gopee launched his maiden collection of advisory quotations, which he referred to as “A Book of Wisdom.”

Goopee is a classroom teacher at Vision Trust Leadership Academy in Paynesville and has been in the field of teaching for a little over ten years.

Attending Gopee’s second book launch were authors of books on different issues of life. They hailed the young author and assured him their unflinching support as he continues on the pathway of writing books on relevant issues affecting society.

In his role as chief launcher of “The Forbidden Love”, Dr. Trokon Rockefeller Jackson said it is rare for people to write, mainly in Liberia and by extension the whole of Africa

“Having young people like Charles Gopee’s writing is rewarding for the country and should be encouraged and supported not only in words but also through resources, including money.

“Writing a book is a great deal of help to our country. We have so many of our own stories but we are still teaching our children Songhai, Ghana and Mali Empires. We are still discussing Mansa Kankan Musa, the British, American and so many foreign things. What is there about us? What is there for our country that our children are learning? What is our own identity?” Dr. Jackson asked.

Quoting a research finding from Devon Delfina 2019, Jackson said only 0.3 percent of the world’s entire eight billion plus has written books and that the research also shows that 30 percent of the world’s population has not written a book.

“In addition to the findings shared, in 2019, Devon Delfina, a well-known and recognized research and education data providing center noted that 34.7 percent of people in Sub-Sahara Africa are illiterate and have not read a book,” he further noted.

According to Jackson, Africa’s literacy rate facts also show that 48 million youth between the ages 15 and 24 are illiterate. “Interestingly, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) 2015 shows that 75 percent of the world’s illiterate adults are found in South and West Asia and Sub-Sahara Africa.”

He thanked Gopee and encouraged him to keep on writing on issues of relevance.

“When I read ‘The Forbidden Love,’ I retrospect on the days when our traditions made so much sense to not only us but even strangers who visited. There were times when every child belonged to every parent and there were no court cases because someone disciplined another person’s child for disorderly conduct. I hope, as this book addresses the issue, we will reconsider those good sides of us and inculcate them in our children and their families,” Jackson concluded.

Also at the occasion was Moima Briggs Mensah, Representative for Bong County Electoral District #6.

 She expressed disappointment in the Legislature, a body she is a part of and the Executive for not doing much to ensure that the national curriculum is revised to meet the current realities of the country.

“We are selfish politicians who don’t want Liberian children to hold us accountable tomorrow. This is why we don’t care about having a robust curriculum that will inform them of lots of things we do as three, separate but coordinated branches of government. We are all guilty and responsible for the problems at hand today,” Rep. Mensah said.

She added that Liberian schools not teaching Liberian civics is detrimental to the development of the country.

Mensah thanked Gopee and encouraged him to keep his head up in the career of writing.

His book is arranged in eleven chapters touching on adoption of kids, evil manipulations, Yatta’s Strange Experience, brother and sister falling in love, among others.

According to Gopee, his book aims at highlighting sexual abuse and child molestation perpetrated by many people and the act of partners concealing sensitive and important information from each other.

He thanked his editors, Rev. George Allen Graham, a Christian Missionary who came to Liberia in 1974 and is still in the country impacting lives through teaching and editing books and other academic materials and Dr. Philip V. Saywrayne, an educator, too.He called on people interested in buying his book to contact him on his contact numbers: 0778719625/0886739484 or via his email address charlesgopee73@gmail.com.