An American in Sweet Liberia
Editor Naleighna Kai interviews Susan D. Peters,
author of the award-winning memoir Sweet
Liberia, Lessons from the Coal Pot.
“Sweet Liberia, Lessons from the Coal Pot
is a delightful, painfully honest, memoir that
chronicles the thick slice of humanity sandwiched
between Liberia’s April 12, 1980 coup and the Civil
War, in 1989.”
Susan Peters lived, worked and owned businesses
in Liberia, and I’d like to get some insight on her
life in Liberia.
NK: Why would you and other African
Americans chose to relocate or immigrate to
Liberia?
SDP: People immigrate from one place to
another seeking opportunity. We were looking for
a better life and a way to reconnect to our African
roots. There was this idea of making ourselves
useful in a way that advanced African people. After
considering the Black Panther Party, following the
teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, we
finally embraced the Black Nationalist ideology
for a while and when we decided we really wanted
to live in Africa we joined the Original African
Hebrew Israelite Community because they had
settlements in both Liberia and Ghana. I was
captivated by the promise of living in a community
in Africa. So, in 1979, me, my eldest daughter
and my infant son departed Chicago, to join my
husband, who had traveled a few months earlier.
NK: Were you able to connect to your heritage?
SDP: Certainly, as soon as I deplaned at Roberts
Field I looked around and got the immediate
validation of looking at the people and seeing
your family characteristics mirrored in the faces
of people who never crossed the Atlantic in
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bondage. It’s a feeling of finally realizing you are a
leaf on a very big tree. Of course, there are cultural
differences but there is also cultural validation.
NK: What did you learn about being successful
in another culture?
SDP: The most important thing I learned is
that you can’t come from outside of a culture and
understand the people of that culture. And you
can’t impose your solutions. That painful lesson is
one that, while learned in West Africa, is the lesson
upon which I built my career in Communications
and Community Relations. Cultivating people
with different cultural beliefs takes time.
NK: What was your proudest moment in
Liberia?
SDP: Once I realized that I wasn’t in Liberia as
a savior, I began to observe and to learn from my
indigenous staff and Liberian friends and they
learned from me. There were some great personal
epiphanies but my proudest accomplishment in
Liberia was the foundational work my staff and I
did toward the establishment of a day care center
for market women! I was a director of the Liberian
Red Cross Day Care Center and Kindergarten
which served working-middle class Liberians.
Liberia is very class conscious and my middle-
class daycare center parents would never stand
for mixing their children with market women’s
children. My indigenous staff suggested that the
market women really had different childcare needs.
They suggested that I tailor a program to meet
their needs in their space. I listened. The project
was heavy lifting but eventually it was successful.
When the first market daycare center opened, I
was a keynote speaker and members of my staff
conducted the day long training workshops.