KWEE Liberian Literary Magazine Jan. Iss. Vol. 0115 Mar Vol. 0315 | Seite 45

Liberian Literary Magazine

March Issue 0315

Celebrating Liberian Women from
times of Old to Now

Dr. Burrowes’ latest book Between the Kola
Forest & the Salty Sea
Waiting to be published is one book that could change
Liberian history for good. It reveals the long-hidden
story of those who lived in the region before Liberia
was created. That ground-breaking book is Between
the Kola Forest and the Salty Sea.
Here are a few of the inspiring revelations it contains:
• The different languages and ethnic groups of Liberia
share a common root.
• The barkless hunting dogs found in Northwestern
Liberian villages were the favorite pets of Ancient
Egyptian pharaohs.
• Kola – once used as an ingredient in soft drinks –
was discovered by the ancestors of Liberians.
• Early European explorers learned from early
Liberian seafarers how to navigate some dangerous
currents and winds of the Atlantic Ocean.
• Rice growers from West Africa’s “Grain Coast”
helped teach Americans how to grow rice. Today, the
United States exports rice to West Africa, including
Liberia.
Between the Kola Forest and the Salty Sea took 30
years of research and uses documents first published in
Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish and French. The book
also draws on oral traditions, archaeological digs,
historical linguistics, studies of cultural patterns
embedded in masks and other forms of material
culture, regional and continental histories, and even
biological anthropology.
For centuries, African cultures have been portrayed as
“strange,” “weird,” even “evil” through the use of
words like “fetish,” “witch,” and “country devil.”
Between the Kola Forest and the Salty Sea demolishes
those negative stereotypes, just as West African
farmers burn a field to remove weeds. Instead, the
book uses more neutral words to describe African
culture, such as ethnic group (not “tribe”) and energy
or power (not “spirit”).
Between the Kola Forest and the Salty Sea is part
of a campaign that will launch in early 2016 to address
negative portrayals of Liberian history and to
counteract their harmful effects on the Liberian
psyche. Entitled “Reclaim the Dream,” it is designed
to do for Liberian history what Carter G. Woodson and
other pioneering scholar achieved for black history in
America.
The campaign will highlight many commonalities
and bring to light significant accomplishments of
earlier Liberians. It aims to foster greater unity, a sense
of national dignity, and empathy among Liberians,
regardless of ethnicity. By supporting the publication
of Between the Kola Forest and the Salty Sea you will
be helping to “Reclaim the Dream.”

C. Patrick Burrowes Ph. D
Your post says women have "played as prominent a
role as men" since 1945. If one looks beyond
"prominence," however, it is evident that Liberian
women have always contributed to public life.
As early as 1843, the 190 farmers listed in the colonial
census included six women. Thanks to the 1847
Constitution, women could own property, a right
denied women in other societies, including some
considered "more advanced." That guarantee enabled
some women to accrue considerable economic clout.
Several men who originally stood at the margins of
Liberian society acquired wealth and standing by
marrying "upwards." Examples include presidents
Arthur Barclay and C. D. B. King.
Women also advanced in unintended ways that were
subtle but very important. For example, they first
gained admission to Liberia College in the early 1900s.
Fathers who attained success in trading or farming
often gave their daughters higher levels of education
compared to their sons, who stayed back from school
to work in the family's business. Many of those better
educated women went into education, often teaching
children in their home throughout their entire lives.
They were the backbone of the educational system,
both the few public school that existed and as
proprietors of their own small schools.
Even when women could not vote, they played key
roles in politics because they were viewed as
custodians of public morality. The activists who
organized Liberia's first opposition political party in
1840 included at least two women, Mary Benedict
and Harriet Brander.
In 1869, Lydia Anna Johnson was among the 15
persons who founded the True Whig Party. In 1930,
when the administration of C. D. B. King was
implicated in supplying forced labor to Firestone and
Fernando Po, the president resigned under pressure
from the Women's Citizens Mass Movement, led by
S.
C.
Brownell
and
Marion
Gibson.

[This information is from my book Power and
Press Freedom in Liberia, 1830-1970, especially
pp. 138-140.]

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