Liberian Literary Magazine
reflection
and
selfexpression. My writing was
encouraged by several of my
teachers and by my father,
who liked poetry.
As much as I enjoyed writing,
a creative-writing career
seemed far-fetched. After all,
the Liberian writers I knew–
like Bai T. Moore and H. Carey
Thomas – wrote on the side
while holding down fulltime
government jobs. In order to
earn a living as a writer, I
decided
to
major
in
journalism
as
an
undergraduate.
I came to journalism purely
by accident. In 1971, when all
major
media
were
government-owned, including
broadcast and print, some
schoolmates at the University
of Liberia and I started an offcampus
mimeographed
magazine
called
the
Revelation. It was Liberia’s
first
mass-circulating
independent publication in
almost 20 years and routinely
published articles critical of
the government. The Tolbert
administration
eventual
banned the magazine, but by
then I had discovered two joys
of journalism: my writing had
an impact on society, and it
Promoting Liberian literature, Arts and Culture
generated
immediate
feedback from an audience.
To study journalism, I wound
my way to Howard University,
then the most dynamic and
prestigious black university in
the world. I was fortunate to
study
writing
and
investigative reporting under
luminaries like Samuel Yette,
who had covered the Civil
Rights Movement with his
camera and pen, and Wallace
Terry,
a
former
war
correspondent in Vietnam.
There were workshops and
interactions with leading
black thinkers, including poet
Leon Damas (a collaborator
with Léopold Senghor in the
Negritude Movement that
began in the 1930s) and
writer Haki Madhubuti (a
major contributor to the
Black Arts Movement of the
1960s). From them I learned
that life without myths and
music is dry rice without
“soup.”
My career as a journalist was
short but satisfying. Among
other media, I published in
West Africa, New African,
The New York Times, Essence,
the Long Island Newsday and
the Milwaukee Journal. But
that career was “derailed”
wh en I took a graduate
seminar with a passionate
historian, Cathy Covert, who
taught me the value of
“history from the bottom up.”
To be simplistic, writing
history
shares
with
investigative reporting a
focus on using multiple
sources
to
answer
big
questions of “why” and “how”
in a dispassionate way. But
where reporting draws upon
mainly live sources to address
current problems, history
11
uses the records of dead
people to investigate the
past.
While earning a master’s
degree, I worked with
Laubach
Literacy
International, where I was
reminded
daily
of
the
hardships faced by people
who cannot read or write. In
addition, my male-chauvinist
assumptions and behaviors
were being challenged by
several
female
friends;
through
them
I
was
introduced to history written
from women’s perspective.
Together, these experiences
deepened my commitment to
documenting the stories of
people who are traditionally
ignored, marginalized and
overlooked.
What books have most
influenced your life/career
most?
My list would literally be too
long to publish, so I will
mention a few influential
writers. I have always loved
the music and majesty of
Psalms, especially the King
James Version. In high school,
I liked the unadorned,
modern, journalistic style of
Ernest Hemingway, but I
idolized the works of Ayi Kwei
Armah, laced as they were
with symbolism, sarcasm and
social commentary.
Other writers influenced my
subject matter and approach,
more than my style. One
catalyst was a loosely-bound
mimeographed book that I
read in junior high school.
Titled Legends of Liberia, it
contained over 100 trickster
stories, historical accounts
and other folk tales. Although