From Dust To Prominence: A Story of Physically Challenged African

By Prof Mogana S. Flomo

This book is a memoir of Mogana S. Flomo, Sr. a professor and Human Resource Director of the Bong County Technical College in Gbarnga City, Liberia. The purpose of this memoir is to prove that in our African certain, one is able to fight his or her way through life from

• Language: English
• Publisher: Emmanuel Flomo
• Release date: Jul 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9798664447491

Book preview

From Dust To Prominence

A Story of Physically Challenged African

Prof. Mogana S. Flomo, Sr.

Prof. Mogana S. Flomo, Sr.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Acknowledgment

About The Author

Preface To The First Edition

I

t’s about 24 years since the idea of writing to express how life situations can change From Dust to Prominence came to my mind. In our Kpelle setting in Africa, it is not easy for anyone with disability to fight his or her way from dust to prominence (that is, from nowhere to somewhere). I have been hoping for a very long time to narrate a story that maybe, someone will take an interest in to be used as means of counseling all those who find themselves in such a situation or condition. Whatever the case, the force behind writing this book is to account for a situation in a remote Kpelle Land concerning me, who started life as an insignificant person in society, whose parents could not read or write. While it is true that life by itself is a game for everyone to play, I decided to remain resolute in playing this game and did not change my decision to write.  Though each time the idea appeared for me to write this book, fear came upon me that I may not get support to complete the book because of my poor background. Another problem that became an issue was the choice of words to be used in this book, trying to avoid using terms that people will find difficult to understand. Since my interest is to deliver a message, I don’t intend to make people, who will take interest in reading this book to have to bother with finding dictionaries to define words. Kpelle people in Bong County, Liberia, have a parable that says, If anybody wants his voice to be heard in society, he/she must speak in low and soft tone. This means, for people to listen to you in any matter, you must be polite and humble so that they will see in all sincerity that you mean business, and that you are serious of what you want them to know about the situation.

What makes matters worst is my physical disability. In our Kpelle society, people consider that someone can be disabled because his/her parents have committed an abomination against the gods, or it is one of the evil spirits that came into that family to prove them guilty of their secret deals against society. Or that particular person, who is physically challenged or disabled, is a witch and that he/she should not actually be allowed around other children before he/she infects them with his/her wicked power. In order to change such a belief in a traditional society, where not many people can read or write is a major problem and challenge if situations must change  positively.

Gorma Togbah Paye Szorkpor, as I was commonly called from my childhood, now using my real name (Mogana), which means tell them I’m here, in Kpelle, was given me by my paternal grandmother, Korto Yelerkuu, was believed to have been responsible for many of the bad things that happened among the boys in Bellemu Town, Bong County in the 1960s. People did not care to know if the child was innocent in their evil thinking. The fact that I became disabled by accident (injected in my vain by an untrained community sore dresser in Fokwele Town, Bong County in the early 1960s), proved their belief towards disabilities to be right that either my parents were being punished or I was punished by the ancestors’ spirits for something that might have happened unnoticed for a very long time..

A dramatic turn started to appear when all the boys from the Kpelle setting including the Mandingo children in Panta District, came to consider the disabled boy to be their best friend, and leader. The fact that I could not move faster like other boys to go anywhere caused them to prepare a ‘kpon’ (special designed hammock) beautifully made out of banana vines, which was tied on a stick.  Two pieces of the same stick were tied on both edges to make it easier to be carried by four individuals. I was put in the kpon on a daily basis to be carried to any place the boys were gathering for play. This happened because no one had any experience of what we call wheelchairs that are used in various hospitals and by disabled people around the world.

I was astonished when I saw an old man, who was also physically challenged from Gbarnga-Siaquelleh, called Nyelekeh Gbanjue, in a kpon (hammock) carried by four strong men, who came to pay a visit to the Paramount Chief, Corporal Gweimeni-Woah, my uncle. I managed to craw behind the men until we reached the wooden fence of the Paramount Chief in the Bellemu Headquarters, and interestingly I witnessed the disabled man giving some gifts to the Paramount Chief. When I drew near and sat on the ground in the corner of the small palaver hut, I saw beautifully prepared knives in animal skin cases that Kpelle people called ‘biligbangai’ (knives for the shoulders) that he had made in his blacksmith shop, slippers made of animal skins, and some palm wine in a ‘gonon’ (a special designed calabash to carry palm wine). Mr. Gbanjue was warmly received, and I saw some of his children, servants, and wives that came along. I then gained courage that I was not a witch and that one day, ‘perhaps my life would change in a positive way.’ When I informed the boys in Bellemu in the evening after everybody had come from the farm, they rushed to the fence of the Paramount Chief to see for themselves someone who does not walk on his feet but is able to bring gifts to the Paramount Chief.  In the first place, we had no understanding of other government officials above the rank of the Paramount Chief. All we understood was that the Paramount Chief was the last authority in government. After two days, when Old Man Nyelekeh Gbanjue had departed to his town with his wives, children, and servants, the boys of Bellemu decided to focus their attention on me, and some of them commented that one day I was going to be like that man they brought to the Paramount Chief.  Some of them said, ‘maybe Mogana will be the next Paramount Chief of Panta Chiefdom.’  The boys of Bellemu, both Kpelle and Mandingo decided to make me the Paramount Chief for the children. They then beautifully prepared the kpon for me to use for traveling to the various farms, especially Fola, Gootina-polu, Kponya-quelleh, Gborlaa, and Korya-quelleh, all located in the Bellemu bushes.

In December 1974, at the age of 19, I moved to Jorwah Town, Bong County, invited by my late friend, Paul G. Korkollie, son of the Clan Chief of Wrunah Clan, Korkollie Kotokpoe, where I was employed by President William R. Tolbert, Jr. to work as admitting clerk/typist in the Ahmed Sekou Tourè Health Center. Jorwah is located near the border with Guinea, and so, President Tolbert named the hospital in honor of President Ahmed Sekou Tourè of Guinea when it was opened in December 1974. Tolbert did this to strengthen the cordial relationship between Guinea and Liberia. Guineans used to come to this hospital in their hundreds daily to take treatments. The medicines dispensed in this hospital were practically free of charge. A physician (as medical director) was assigned to the hospital on a permanent basis, and there were administrative assistant, a director of nurses, several nurses & midwives, nursing aides, and other workers assigned in this hospital. The fact that people referred to Jorwah as the President’s farm, the hospital was well equipped and supplied with all the necessities to provide adequate and decent medical services to the citizens and those who visited.  Electricity was provided on a 24-hour basis and the hospital had a very good water supply system. But where are those facilities today, which our fathers suffered to build for our future and the future of our children?  All were looted and some damaged during the 14-year brutal and senseless civil war that destroyed thousands of lives and so many millions of dollars’ worth of Liberian properties.

In fact when President Tolbert was overthrown by Samuel Kanyon Doe and his soldiers on Saturday morning, April 12, 1980, the equipment, medical supplies, and other valuable items in the hospital were looted by the soldiers. Nobody could say anything at that time.

In 1986, I moved my family back to Bellemu from Jorwah and then to Gbarnga in order to afford me the opportunity to work to support my family. We moved to Chief Compound Community in Gbarnga to live in the house built by my cousin Isaac Yarkpawolo, when he was working with the Bong County Agriculture Development Project (BCADP). The inhabitants of Chief Compound in Gbarnga, referred to my family as the ‘Guinean family.’ This was because of ignorance. Many Liberians had the belief that Guineans were beggars, finding laborer jobs to feed their families in Liberia. Due to the fact that Guineans were treated with malice and prejudice, they did not ask us if we were Liberian citizens, since indeed they heard my children and my wife speaking Guinea-Kpelle. This meant that initially, we were not invited to any community meetings at all. Again making matters worse, they considered me as a disabled Guinean, who would be begging around the community. So the people of Chief Compound at that time, decided not to allow me, before I used the opportunity to get around them. In actual fact, people from Jorwah speak both Guinea and Liberian Kpelle because Jorwah is the headquarter town for Wrunah Clan, Panta Chiefdom, Panta District, Bong County, and is situated right near the border of Liberia and Guinea.

On December 28, 2008, my wife Angeline suggested to me that I should do everything possible to write the long awaited book about my life so that my children could improve upon it in the future. When I tried to inquire from her why she was optimistic, she said, you are now a professor at one of the most renowned universities in Liberia, Cuttington University, and I am convinced that you could make a positive impact in the lives of others, especially those who are physically challenged in Liberia and even outside Liberia. You could also impact those who are not disabled and don’t really understand the potentials that disabled people have to be able to contribute to the development of their communities. Angeline put it jokingly, with laughter, saying, I must not be the woman to be forced to sit all night keeping the company of a writer, oh! "I can remember when we were refugees in N’zerekore, Guinea, I used to hold a lantern up at night when you