Though it is not my intention to in any way to add to the pains and
insults already inflicted upon Massa Washington, neither do I take
pleasure re-posting (in parts or whole), lewd comments by irresponsible
men directed at womanhood. However, I sincerely feel it is necessary
that readers get a gist of what runs down in the heads of some of
Liberia’s so-called “educated” and “civilized people” now residing
abroad when they sit behind their keyboards. Secondly, by writing about
such rude behaviors and re-posting some, the “instigators” are exposed,
thereby enabling readers to draw their own independent conclusions as to
where the faults lie.
Please also note the following presentation is only a small fraction
out of total 109 pages of exchanges, covering nearly a month between
social critics on one hand, and loosed “loyalists” claiming to be
backing ex-warlord Alhaji Kromah on the other. As readers will see for
themselves, the below posts by both Jacob Kromah and Manyou Bility, from
a sociological standpoint show that the two men clearly lack
self-worth, and that they may have some sort of anger-management
problems of their own to be able to heap this level of insults upon
another’s mother.
“This u-ly, old ___satan, ___ Massa Washington is back again with
her____and….better take your ____self from here,” wrote Jacob Kromah
under the following screen email name: jacobkromah@gmail.com Monday,
Jan 13/14 3:39PM. As if those were not enough, Manyou Bility, another
Mandingoe and resident of Milwaukee, pushed this short sentence: “Massa,
do you want me to insult your mon?”, Friday Jan 17/14, 1:28 AM from
email: manyoubility@yahoo.com. Massa’s crime was only because she
exercised part of her rights as spelled out in the Liberian Constitution
under Chapter III-Fundamental Rights; Article 15: (a), (b), (c) and
(e). These rights among others states: “The right encompasses the right
to hold opinions without interference and the right to knowledge. It
includes freedom of speech and of the press, academic freedom to receive
and impart knowledge and information…,” rights that Massa was
exercising.
After dropping the bombs, Dolleh, Jacob, Manyou and other Kromah’s
followers apparently thought the obscenity would deter the former
war-correspondent from participating in the exchanges or exposing
ULIMO-K’s reported atrocities. They were altogether wrong as Massa
remained resolute, exhibiting a high degree of boldness in confronting
her aggressors who barely hold any regard for womanhood. “It is obvious
you [Jacob and Manyou] come from a background where women are treated as
non-entity and de-valued and therefore you want to try it to the rest
of Liberian woman,” she wrote in a Jan 15/14 post. “Again, I am not
perturb[ed] by the insults from these people because what it does is
that it validates my points calling for accountability and justice for
war victims. It also exposes the weaknesses and inhibitions of culprits
of these crimes and their supporters,” said, the former TRC official.
Massa Washington further re-directed the “Bility-Jacob” “medicines” to
their respective mothers and sisters as well. Massa action is fairly the
typical norm in much of Africa including Liberia whenever a buffoon
denigrates a female member of the community. All the affected female
individual needs to do is re-direct such lewd remarks to the
individual’s biological parents and that’s because, it won’t have much
impact by merely addressing such comments only to the male aggressor.
Now, here is the main point. As much as readers may empathize Massa’s
agonies for those unwarranted “verbal violence” against her person, it
is equally important readers recognize that the rude conducts by these
men are clearly embedded in the above message voiced out in the above
paragraph by Massa, which insinuates this sort of outrageous “verbal
aggression” by a bunch of older men with similar background toward a
peaceful woman seemingly has to be of cultural issues.
Massa’s response was greeted by an avalanche of comments from other
moderate discussants, appalled by the verbal violence. They all
expressed disgust over the misconducts of Manyou, Jacob and other
followers. It was then that certain Mandingoe elders who earlier stayed
out of the “fight” came in and reluctantly frowned on the unnecessary
use of lewd comments by Kromah’s supporters against womanhood. What is
more interesting about the elders’ “intervention” is that while they
extended “apology” to Massa Washington for the rude conducts of their
brothers, they at the same time accused and/or blamed her as being the
“instigator” for all that happened to her by reason of her “lifting” or
re-posting the Senji reported ULIMO-K massacre. Notice the elders’
expression of “regret” was prompted by strong condemnation from scores
of social media commentators mainly from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
Despite the seeming “lawlessness” and “senselessness” clearly exhibited
by men (supposedly with grandchildren) in this entire scenario, yet,
the so-called “elders” failed to strongly reprimand their brethren which
of course, culturally, somewhat sets them apart from other groupings in
the country. Meantime, while many of the posters decided to turn away
from the so-called “debate” that has sunk into such lawlessness as
described repeatedly, some Liberians refused to leave it all to a single
group of people. Among them was Mr. Isaac Settro and in his initial
post of Jan 14/14, this is how his reaction to those offensive comments
made by Jacob was: “But this guy [Jacob] doesn’t respect women. He
doesn’t need to be posting around here.”
“I am seriously speechless that our Liberian men are this hateful
towards us,” wrote Mrs. Roberta Williams in a Jan 15, 2014 post,
continuing, “and these are the same men that want to sleep with and
marry us? WOW!!!” But before exiting, Roberta had the following
questions for Mr. Bility: “Mr. Bility, is this what you learned in the
Quran about how to treat women in your Muslim faith? Or are you one of
those fake Muslims only for the names?!!” Moments later, she was joined
by Ajavon Kalay of Laurel, Maryland, USA, who, in a Jan 15, 2014 post
offered the followings: “Do you have a wife, girlfriend, daughter,
mother or aunts? If you did, than [then] you should be ashamed of
yourself and your family. If you can’t discuss issues on this lis-serve
civilly and intellectually without insult, than [then] you should not
participate into such discussion.”
Mrs. Welley A. Mulbah of Georgia, USA, is a Liberian as well whose
thoughtful perspectives on national issues from gender to politics carry
weight and are well respected by many of social media critics mainly
because, of the way she writes to the point. In a Jan 16, post, she
contributed the followings among others in an attempt to give some
consolation to her female professional counterpart: “You see, men who
begin with insults in any debate are those who are intellectually
deficient. This is the 21st Century where no amount of “dirty talks” can
scare women. Do not let any amount of insults deter you [Massa] from
exposing those rebels who killed and tortured our people.” “I encourage
you to be the tough lady you are. Now that you have successfully fought
fire with fire, let’s go back to the original story you were telling to
your audience before the distractions.”
Soon, the argument shifted away from Massa and took an uglier tribal
trend so much that majority participants became forced to retreat. It
had quickly turned into what appeared to be “Mandingoe vs. Gio/ Mano”
over the NPFL war. The discussion was now surrounding which side killed
who? And just as in the previous arguments, it became clear that the
provocation again was begun by Mohamed Sherif a Kromah’s fanatic. Sherif
was assisted by one Faliku Konneh (said to be completing his “Masters”
at Temple or Penn State) and just like Sherif, Konneh said some mean
things about the Gios in total disregard of his personal “cultural
values.” To the utmost surprise of every participant, Sherif carelessly
threw “words” at his opponent, one Emmanuel Monluo of Minnesota,
believed to be a Nimbaian. Sherif’s unwarranted profanities were not
only restricted to Monluo alone but took on a collective term against
the Dahn and Mahn ethnic groups of Nimba. Perhaps, the most hypocritical
and intriguing thing many find in Konneh-Sherif’s erratic commentaries,
just as those of Dolleh, Manyou Bility and others, is that tendency to
mention the name of “ALLAH” in their disturbing outbursts. How it is can
someone needlessly engage in deceptive acts (lies) and slanders against
another’s character and yet mixed it with GOD’s name when ALLAH abhors
these very things?
In retaliation, Monluo, who had tried to stay out of the “debate,”
fearing it could degenerate into a “tribal chaos” apparently based upon
past experiences, decided to respond in similar fashion to Sherif’s post
after his attempt to civilly engage the belligerent Sherif failed. I
could place the various comments here but for the decency of Liberian
Mandingoes, I’m obliged to keep Monluo’s responses secret, just as I
will withhold Sherif’s outbursts for the respect of the Dahn and Mahn
people of Nimba. The entire episode was sparked off when Monluo tried to
correct what he termed, “the misinformation embedded in Mohammed
Sherif’s insensitive script” concerning early fighting between the AFL
and NPFL forces in Sanniquellie and Karnplay in Nimba in 1990. OLM web
audience, though confused as to which story to believe, had deep leaning
to the side of Monluo’s version of the episode was buttressed by that
of Mr. Clarence Gono, also a Nimba citizen. Now instead try and prove
his opponent wrong like what an intelligent person would do in this
situation, Sherif chose to bask into what he does best by labeling
Monluo as “rebel,” “thug,” and “vagabond.”
By January 18, the exchanges had become disgustingly nastier, with the
rest of the participants staying away, leaving it with Sherif and
Monluo. However, as Monluo tried to disengage due to advices by other
moderate commentators, Sherif, on the other hand continued the use of
“ethnic slurs” none stop against Monluo and his ethnic group thus
forcing him Monluo to equally respond. It was at this point that Mr.
Isumel Kromah, a Mandingoe elder and present resident of Geneva,
Switzerland, sent a word of wisdom interjected with an instruction in
the Holy Quran, to Sherif and his group (Jan 18, 2014) and it read thus:
“I encouraged you guys to please observed and remember the command from
the Noble Qura’n when luqman adviced his children to be moderate, lower
their voices, and put their trust in Allah.” This was immediately
followed by another short post from an elderly Mandingoe woman who
similarly signaled the belligerent “fanatics” that it was “enough” as
she urged them to cease so that they could later hold a phone
conversation with her.
Mandingoes, just like the Lormas, have strong traditions whereby
obedience and honor for older folks are heavily regarded (something
already cited by me and will continue to reference same in subsequent
paragraphs). No matter what the situation may be, the culture dictates
that the young ones accord older folks courtesy and respect at all
times. This type of tradition automatically gives elders sway over the
young people in both Mandingo and Lorma societies; that a decision by an
elderly person may supersede that of his junior, meaning, if an older
person tells a young folk to halt, he or she must do so without any
objection. These are traditions that have survived hundreds of years
among these ethnic groups. Based upon this reason plus many more, one
would think that this humble “plead” by two respected elders would be
enough to get Sherif off Monluo’s back but no. It was Monluo who had to
swallow the bitter pills by ignoring his rants in order to end the
chaos. This behavior is certainly bizarre especially for someone from an
ethnic background where emphasis is place on cultural values. But
again, this experience should take us back to the cannibalistic war that
destroyed every fabric of our Liberian society as cited in part one
earlier.
Genesis of the Current Hostilities
The entire “debate” was sparked off in Jan 2014, moments after I
provided the OLM web audience with links to a two-part rejoinder
authored by me and published by The Perspective (Dec. 31, 2002 &
Feb. 10, 2003) as counterpoints to Mr. Varfley Dolleh’s fire-spitting
series titled: “Armed Resistant as Last Resort: Mandingoe Factor in the
Liberia Civil War.” My post was accompanied by a short introduction with
a couple of questions, among them these two: Why did the Alhaji and his
fighters failed to liberate their “people” and the entire country from
the hands of Taylor’s NPFL? And why unlike ULIMO, the LURD rebel forces
succeeded in removing the country’s main enemy, Charles Taylor? My post
came in wake of an announcement posted on the OLM listserv by
associates of Liberia Diaspora Forum Talk Show that “Alhaji G.V. Kromah,
former Liberia’s notorious war leader of the ULIMO-K Faction” was
expected speak on national issues. The links were to give readers
firsthand information ahead the speaking engagement which is normal.
Also, the moment presented a good chance for Mr. Dolleh, a former key
war actor of ULIMO-K, now in our midst on social media, to defend his
faction’s atrocities.
It is interesting altogether how the former warlord Aide has over the
years transformed his TOOLS OF WAR [the guns] into those of COMPUTER
KEYBOARDS. Discussing the war with the elusive Dolleh in order to know
why he acted the way he did during the conflicts was of paramount
interest to me as war victim. But soon after my post, a second emerged
of civilians’ massacre in Senji, Grand Cape Mount with the evidence
pointing toward Mr. Kromah’s men. This one came from TRC commissioner,
Massa Washington. And as stated earlier, her reason for posting the
massacred document on the OLM was for informational purposes just as
mine. The Senji massacre is among scores of genocides documented by the
TRC that have become part of the national archive in Liberia. Though
Massa was never the “author” or “source” of report, some of those who
accused me of “pitting heads” together similarly blamed her for
fermenting tension among the “tribes” by posting the materials. While
such excuse from adults (some of who may be nursing grandchildren at
home) holds no water, the least we both expected is that some could
abuse our courtesies and run amok with those informative materials like a
“Butt Naked” group.
Why the need to confront Dolleh
It must be noted that apart from the reported Lofa massacres, it was
discovered Kromah’s fighters also carried out civilian massacres mostly
of Krahns in the Klay-Bomi area in western Liberia during the ULIMO
inter-tribal wars of 1995-1996 that led to the front’s split. The
murders had come into full public view when Gen. Roosevelt Johnson’s
ULIMO-J Krahn fighters seized the Tubmanburg Highway town in a surprised
attack, confiscated items such as printed photographs that belonged to
ULIMO-K fighters. Annoyed by what they saw, Johnson’s ULIMO-J men
disembowel their captured “prisoners of war,” and placed the
chopped-heads of “POWs” next to their roadblocks. Liberia’s Ace
photojournalist Sando Moore was blessed to be on the scene. His ghastly
pictures plus those “fruit of the crime” (FOC) photographs recovered by
Gen. Johnson’s men were published by the independent Eye Newspaper and
other papers. One of the photographs showed ULIMO-K rebel Commander
Ousman Konneh, aka “Gen. Pepper & Salt” humiliating some men. In one
instance, he showed off the cut ear of a man as his fighters cheered
on. The faction was sharply condemned by the public and human rights
groups for such gross human rights violations. Read:
http://www.theperspective.org/lofatragedy.html.
In late 1996, in an attempt to make history, Mr. Kromah announced that
his ULIMO-K faction would unilaterally begin disarmament of its rebels
in the Lofa capital of Voinjama ahead of the official deadline given by
ECOWAS nations. Mr. Kromah, himself a seasoned journalist, had invited
the local and foreign media to witness the process as his men turn in
their weapons to ECOMOG peacekeeping forces in Voinjama. In response to
his call, close to ten journalists assembled at his Congo Town residence
from where a chartered bus awaited to convey them to Lofa for the
event. I had gone prepared with all my Associated Press gadgets. I had
never been fortunate to travel deeper into their territories since their
struggle began. And because of being rejected by Mr. Varfley Dolleh in
1994 to travel up Lofa in wake of the reported genocides by Kromah’s
rebel troops, making this trip now by road through my home region of
Zorzor, while their men were still armed could afford me the opportunity
to get a glimpse of the atmosphere there.
However, hours before takeoff, an official of the faction who at one
time worked as a government journalist came in to screen reporters
before departure. The man in question was at the time the most leading
ULIMO-K official in the parliament and he knew me personally, my ethnic
background, and the type of journalism that I practice. At one point
prior to the war he had contracted me to do some work for his news
magazine publication. So seeing me there made him somehow furious
apparently with fear I might see more. Not knowing what all that might
possibly lead to he decided he would do a list of only reporters
permitted to make the journey. After his roll-call, it became clear that
of about a dozen journalists that had assembled at Mr. Kromah’s palace,
it was only I that wasn’t qualified to make the trip. My colleagues
couldn’t understand why but inwardly I knew why and refused to make a
big deal of it.
With everyone seated and ready to go, I bided my colleagues goodbye as I
parked my equipment to leave for home but was stopped by an elderly
Mandingoe man. Behold he too had been watching the entire time. And
certainly just like my colleagues, he too couldn’t figure out why the
official denied me. He ordered that I get on the bus. Because, elders
hold sway over the young ones in Mandingo culture, as cited earlier, I
was allowed to make the journey. In our midst was a Kromah’s former
child soldier (who was now about 17 years old) and returning to Voinjama
after a short trip to Monrovia. Unaware of the nature of our work and
believing we were all part of the “Kromah-ULIMO-family” headed to
Voinjama for the celebrations; the boy turned excited and began to tell
us his heart. He was seated between another correspondent and me, and as
we drove past the Zorzor District town of Sukromu at nighttime he told
us how he and some adult ULIMO-K rebels “Kill so many Lorma people” in
Sukromu the time they seized that area from the Lofa Defense Force. He
explained he still had vividly memory of a Lorma woman pleading that
they kill her and spare her two little children, “but we killed all of
them,” he boasted. Again click link:
http://www.theperspective.org/kromah_dolleh.html
Kromah’s ULIMO-K war which paralyzed the entire Lofa County in terms of
human lives and properties was different in some ways from the fighting
in other parts of Liberia in that it was coalesced with cultural and
religious factors as pointed out somewhere in part one of this series
under subtitle: Brief history of Varfley Dolleh & his roles in the
war. Unlike the NPFL and LPC battles in Sinoe, or the NPFL vs.
government forces, the Lofa situation that led to the mass murders of
Lorma civilians, prompting the quick formation of the Lofa Defense Force
was interlocked particularly in the cultural practices of the Lorma
people which could be our next topic if the “adversaries” should respond
to this series. In order to be able to understand what led to such mass
murders in Lofa, it’s very important that the general public, together
with present and future historians understand the convoluted cultural
atmosphere that existed then and now in Lofa between the two groups, and
why rebels from Dolleh-Kromah ULIMO-K particularly singled out Lormas
in lower Lofa for such massacres.
On the other hand, it’s needless to blame those who viewed our postings
to be “pitting tribes” against one another, the reason being that the
country lost so many men and women of conscience during the years of
bloodbath; leaving behind the lucky ones supposedly academically
“balanced” but find themselves diminishing consciously in a society that
has become so corrupt and “polarized” to the extent some cannot any
longer “decipher” (to borrow two of Dolleh’s most overly used verbs)
wrong from right. Otherwise, why would some in their right minds not
press Varfley Dolleh to explain his reason for singling me out from
among a team of “handpicked journalists” headed for Lofa to probe the
massacres of civilians by their rebel forces? And why would they not
press further to hear from him regarding the numerous genocides
associated with his faction like the Zorzor- Sukromu incident where
innocent women and children were slaughtered all for simply being born
Lorma. Why would our “accusers” not focus on him when his vindictive
“posture” as we now see, gives some indications that he could have
possibly be one of the masterminds behind his group’s ruthless action
but now brag his rebels fought a “just war?”
I wonder where on this planet one can find a “just war” that didn’t
take innocent lives away especially one like the ULIMO-K war fought in a
brutal tribal fashion. Under this prevailing situation, shouldn’t
war-victims face their “Pharaohs” or possibly confront them in cases
where the “killers” proved to be unremorseful? That’s exactly what a
war-victim (whose relatives became unnecessary casualties) would do,
armed with this much information plus many more on the ULIMO-K-Lofa war
of the 1990s. Furthermore, based upon what is taking place in social
media circles, it’s about time that Liberian media entities treat
“social media” as a special “news beat” worldwide just as major U.S.
news agencies such as the AP, CNN, and MSNBC and so on, are doing. Doing
otherwise may cause the local media to miss out on a lot. Maybe,
through this way the media is able to once more stir the conscience of
society so that people are empowered to make rational decisions and act
accordingly by remaining focused on the real issues that should be
claiming our attention and avoid picking on the wrong people as some
posters tried to do.
Invasion of privacy rights, character defamation-the case of Kromah’s fanatics
On the web Home Page of ex-warlord Kromah, Dolleh is being portrayed as
someone who holds a degree in political science” from the University of
Liberia. See link:
http://www.alhajikromahpage.org/alhajimandfactor.htm. With such an
“impressive” credential, one would be misled into believing that Dolleh
is trustworthy or at least some type of “scholastic material” only to
be amazed that he is intellectually dishonest and takes deep pleasure in
defaming the good names of people who expose their war activities even
though they can be the first to throw stones. The excessive use of foul
languages and outright falsehood adopted by him and some of his
followers like Manyou Bility against someone like me who disagree with
them on almost everything are quite troubling for a man who once served
as a Liberian government official during the turbulent years of the
country. He along with his Mandingoe brother Manyou Bility go as far to
fabricate a bunch of lies not only about me but also highly respected
personalities like Dr. Lawrence Zumo of Maryland and Liberia’s TRC
commissioner, Massa Washington, and post same on the OLM social network
with intent to hurt our good reputations.
Confused and with nothing better to offer readers during our various
arguments, Dolleh and Bility threw lies here and there, lies that defy
common sense, with no slight thought that the public and readers would
be the ones to decide the trustworthiness of their junks. In one, both
Bility and Dolleh alleged former Lofa County superintendent Mr. Ernest
Sumo Jones “recruited” Dr. Zumo to work for the Lofa Defense Force and
“through such connection” Mr. Jones even “hosted” him (Zumo) at his
Jones’ residence when he first arrived to the US. Their
self-incriminating post further claimed in a Jan. 14/14 post, Dr. Zumo
is “a communist and doesn’t believe in democracy” and the only reason
for this accusation accordingly to them is that he Zumo, “graduated with
a degree in neurology in Debrecen, Hungary a communist region that was
initially part of the Soviet Union.” In the same campaign of falsehood
and character assassination, the two men also lied that Massa and myself
had “connection” with the Lofa Defense Force. Please read in parts, the
below waste in one of their post of Jan. 14/14:
”James Fasukoi- a native of Zorzor who is specifically from the Yeala
region was one of the liaison officers of the Lofa Defense Force who
ensured that messages from the LDF high commands in the United States
reached François Massaquoi who was Commander in Chief of the LDF and his
fighters. James Fasuekoi was later appointed as the Public Relations
officer of the Lofa Defense Force. So, what do we expect of James K.
Fasuekoi? To welcome Prof. Kromah and say the truth about the
Mandingoes?” “The message to Fasuekoi and Massa was to ask Mr. Taylor
through Jewel to support the Lormas with arms and ammunitions so as to
enable them defend Lofa from the Mandingoes fighters of ULIMO. Upon
receipt of the message, Charles The Criminal Taylor made an initial
contribution of $30,000 United States Dollars and some ammunitions which
were delivered to the LDF fighters through Bong County….”
How ungrateful is it that individuals believed to have participated in
the mayhem that devastated the people and the country but now blessed to
be granted asylums in the United States, would now be the ones abusing
FREE SPEECH when their countries of origins would never allowed them
such liberty. This is totally beyond my own understanding in that even
the Liberian Constitution (a replica of that of the US), clearly states
in Article 15 (a) “Every person shall have the right to freedom of
expression, being fully responsible for the abuse thereof.” These
malicious acts by both Dolleh and Bility are clearly in total violation
of the U.S. Constitution which I will get to later but thank God that
the US where Dolleh, Bility and others reside is a country of law. But
the two didn’t end there. Please read the below quotes from Mr. Dolleh
himself as he falsely accused me for [allegedly] having hand in the
death of my former fiancée and outstanding photojournalist, Musue N.
Haddad who passed away last November 25th after a sudden illness “family
sources” attributed to “breast cancer.”
“Faseukoi [Fasuekoi], lest I forget, could you please address you self
to the unceremonious death of my friend and former class mate, the late
Musu [Musue] Hardad [Haddad]. While I don’t intend to torment the soul
of our sister, but, it is disheartening to know that you killed her. We
are reliably told that because she had decided to abort the unethical
relationship with you and moved on with her husband in Monrovia, you
decided to bewitched [bewitch] her. It is an open secret that you went
after her to renew the relation in Monrovia and you were dejected
[rejected]
. Why would you kill a promising journalist? The public
deserve [deserves] an explanation.”
When things get out of hand as it is in this case then there is no
longer humor and should rather be taken seriously and treated as such.
This dreadful act by Mr. Dolleh, in my view goes beyond Defamation of
Character. It is plainly nothing less than blackmailing which has the
propensity to expose me to public ridicule. This is the type of act that
former National Police Inspector James Laysolee would call a typical
African wickedness. (Col. Laysolee conceived the term while in jail
after he noticed attempts by some higher-ups to “blackmail” him in the
murder of patrolman Melvin Pyne). Dolleh’s allegation is clearly
embedded in pure hatred against some of us who continue to “stand our
ground” on ULIMO-K war matters. Just months ago, the same Dolleh in his
shameless campaign of outright intellectual dishonesty falsely claimed
in another OLM post that former war-correspondent Massa Washington is a
Guinean from the town of Koryama, about an hour drive north from the
Liberia border town of Yeala. The truth is that Massa is actually Gola,
one of the country’s original settlers and by no means holds any blood
connection to Guinea nor any of the neighboring countries. Gola
“country,” which late Bai T. Moore wrote extensively on is located in
the heart of Liberia on the Atlantic coast and far from the borders of
Guinea.
Now, with this type of “flip-flop” all over the place, Dolleh’s
persistent defense of his troops’ ruthless actions particularly in
Zorzor District leaves more room for questioning. I am beginning to
question the authenticity of Dolleh’s statements made at news
conferences in Monrovia during the 90s that his ULIMO-K rebel forces
were not killing “civilians” but rather “our aggressors found to be
carrying weapons.” The whole issue gets me reflecting an observation
made by our prelate, Olushala Jubril recently concerning peoples’
“Refusal to Accept the Truth.” On factors that lead to indignation, he
asserted: “Truth attacks our character; we see truth sometimes as
judgment, disrespect and then we go in defense.” This is exactly the
attitude being exhibited by Dolleh and his associates now that the truth
came out as stressed by Massa Washington earlier in her post. As for
westerners, including U.S. officials, morality counts and that is why
they are quick to admit their “wrongdoings” and ask for forgiveness.
However, in Liberia, most officials prefer not only to stick to
deceptions even if they are proven otherwise, but they would find ways
to eliminate the truth-teller. This is an in-built behavior among our
officials and Dolleh inherited it and added those of his own when he
entered the system. Somalia-born Mohamed Duale’s pamphlet Bridging
Generations says: “Truth can frighten a man, but it does not harm him.”
Lest I forget, Massa and Dr. Zumo reacted sharply to the verbiage put
out by Dolleh and Bility.
“You do not even know people and you lie on them. I have absolutely no
connection to Lofa County, have never lived there, no connection to
Jewel Taylor yet you have posted rubbish linking us. You lied on Dr.
Zumo calling him a Communist…This is how your killed innocent people
during the war…you need serious therapy to address your anger, paranoid
and venom,” wrote Massa. Dr. Zumo reacted this way Jan. 14/14: “I love
democracy and will die for it. Communist I am not. I never saw inside
Mr. E. Sumo Jones’s house in Maryland in my life. I don’t even know how
and when the Lofa Defence Force was formed and has [have] never been
part of its organizational or military structure. Trust me on this
one.”
Read my reaction in the next edition.
To be continued:
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