Marriage of Musical & Cultural Destinies: A Book of Success Stories of Ex-Liberian Refugees

By Samuel Siafa Taylor and Emmanuel Blessed Lavelah

A biography of two success stories of ex-Liberian refugees: Samuel Siafa Taylor & Emmanuel Blessed Lavelah, the most famous marriage of musical & cultural destinies.

From the origins and development of these two individuals' energy, they have been extremely objective in engaging a positive and creative lifestyle regarding their difficulties as refugees, but they were still able to come together in their artistic ideology for readers of all stripes.

The commonality of their artistic and cultural ideology, as featured in this biographical work, and the length of their professional friendship are the bases of the shared decision to co-author this book. They connected during their respective refugee lives, first meeting at a cultural festival in Togo, and later migrating together to Ghana, where they lived together in the same room in Buduburam (Ghana's refugee camp) for a long time and did several collaborations with different professional callings.

While compiling records for this jointly written book, they were in different countries, Samuel Siafa Taylor in China, and Emmanuel Blessed Lavelah in Liberia. But they continued collaborating for self-development and for the artistic growth of their common denominator: Liberia. Each person's biography is on his side of the book.

This book begins with a background of Liberia's civil war, which pushed each of us to a foreign country where God connected us on through our shared artistic and cultural ideologies. This was followed by a historical sketch of Ghana's refugee community, inhabited first by Liberians, when each person's talent was nurtured and matured to a profession.

The active verbs in the main narratives of the book show that the authors were still in the refugee camp when the records were being compiled.

For this book, the authors found information about the plight of China-based Liberians and other Africans (during COVID-19) and popular pre-war Liberian musicians, cultural performers, and writers from Wikipedia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Dec 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9780228865322

Samuel Siafa Taylor

I am commonly known by my stage performance name, "S-Man." I am a Liberian, born unto the union of two native Liberian persons: Mr. Momo S. Taylor (late) and Mrs. Tennah Taylor, on June 1, 1978 at Capitol Bye-Pass in Monrovia. My paternal origin is Grand Cape Mount County, while my maternal origin is Bomi County.I had an irrevocable passion for music when entering my eleventh year of childhood. This extreme musical love kept bubbling in me throughout my constant search for food or hiding places during my country's civil war, and the passion followed me on my journey to my first foreign country of refuge: the Ivory Coast.While in the Ivory Coast, when I was now at the age of 12, I became a full member of Malawala International, a Liberian cultural group established in Yopugun Traru, an Ivorian town where Liberian refugees were being hosted.The group's leaders were popular pre-war Liberian musical and cultural icons: Fatu Gayflor and Kekura Kamara. Balawala International was sponsored by global football king George Manneh Weah, who is now the president of the Republic of Liberia.But I had a problem regarding my guardians: neither of my parents were with me, and I had no other biological relatives around me. I had only friends, themajority of who were my seniors in age. The notorious April 6 War in 1996 tore me from my parents and all my other biological relatives.There in Ivory Coast's refugee camp I developed great dexterity in music, art and culture. After spending a few years in Ivory Coast's refugee camp, I travelled to Ghana for a culturally advanced life, which I felt Ivory Coast wasn't offering me.In Ghana, I had a problem with my biological guardians again. The bandwagon of cultural friends (dancers) travelled to a town in Togo named Aferposo. Here, we performed for some tourists on the beach, but there was no economic attraction to life. We raced back to Ghana.Back in Ghana, I made up my mind to stay in a second asylum country in spite of any uncomfortable things that might happen to me. I got daily meals by doing different domestic jobs for people, especially washing clothes. I also got survival money from working at construction sites. For the latter, my Ghanaian friends took me along. I did these menials jobs until a Canadian child-protection organization, War Child Canada, came and started working with the Liberian dance troupe, a refugee camp-based group. The Canadian organization hired cultural dance groups to entertain during its programs. The organization also focused on the training of Liberian kids based on the refugee camp. This provided an opportunity for me, a child at the time, to showcase my cultural talent: dancing and drumming.Even though I was now deeply involved into cultural dance, I never forgot my dreams of becoming a musician. Apart from my musical education, I got classroom education at Calvary Chapel Mission High School in Paynesville, Monrovia, Liberia, West Africa.In spite of my struggles in each strange environment—Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo—and regardless of all the terrors and agonies of life, I remained uncompromising to the day-to-day challenges. I did not abandon my dream and aspirations for my innate passion. Months later, I started educating other children and Liberian youth to become great in my areas of passion.I worked with several institutions and organizations—local, national and international—on training children and youth to develop their potential. Below are some of my partner institutions and organizations:1. International Humanitarian Organization [War Child Canada], in Ghana.2. Alberta University (Canada), with an extension program in Accra, Ghana.

Book preview

Marriage of Musical & Cultural Destinies

A Book of Success Stories of Ex-Liberian Refugees

Samuel Siafa Taylor &

Emmanuel Blessed Lavelah

Edited by Dweh (2021)

(Liberian Writer, Author, Development Journalist, and president—Liberia Association of Writers, LAW)

Marriage of Musical & Cultural Destinies

Copyright © 2021 by Samuel Siafa Taylor & Emmanuel Blessed Lavelah

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Tellwell Talent

www.tellwell.ca

ISBN

978-0-2288-6531-5 (Hardcover)

978-0-2288-6530-8 (Paperback)

978-0-2288-6532-2 (eBook)

DEDICATION

This Book is dedicated to all Liberian musicians and cultural performers—living or dead—whose productions have contributed to the peace, unity and development of their Country.

INTRODUCTION

The commonality of artistic or cultural ideology by both persons (featured in this biographical work) and the length of their professional friendship are the bases of a reached decision of co-authorship of this Book.

We connected during our respective refugee life. We first met at a Cultural Festival in Togo, and later migrated together to Ghana, where we lived together in the same room in Buduburam (name of Ghana’s refugee camp) for a long time and did several collaborations on our different professional callings.

While compiling records for this jointly written Book, we were in different countries—Samuel Siafa Taylor in China, and Emmanuel Blessed Lavelah in Liberia. But we continue collaborating—for self-development and for the artistic growth of our Common Denominator: Liberia. Each person’s biography is on his side of the Book.

This Book begins with a background of Liberia’s civil war, which pushed each of us to a foreign Country where God connected us on our shared artistic or cultural ideology. This is followed by a historical sketch of Ghana’s refugee community, inhabited first by Liberians, when each person’s talent was nurtured and matured to a profession

The active verbs in the main narratives of the Book show that the authors were still on the refugee camp when the records were being compiled.

For this Book, the authors got some information about plight of China-based Liberians and other Africans (during COVID-19) and popular pre-war Liberian musicians, cultural performers, and writers from Wikipedia.

Contents

Brief Historical Backround of Liberia

Ghana’s Refugee Camp (Buduburam): A Sketch

Author’s Portion

Brief Historical Backround of Liberia

Liberia, Land of the Free, was colonized by freed black slaves from the United States under the direction of the American Colonization Society (ACS). The country declared independence in 1847.

However, the American minority never integrated into the ethnically diverse land, and became dominating the country, exploiting its native inhabitants.

After generations of marginalization, Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe, an ethnic Krahn, overthrew the Americo-Liberian elite in a coup d’tat in 1980. Now with presidential powers, he vowed to represent the indigenous people’s interests.

But, later, Doe quickly evolved from a liberator into a corrupt dictator, and by 1989 Liberia had suffered complete economic collapse and erupted into a civil war as rival rebel groups fought to seize power.

The arrowhead of rebel groups, the National Patriot Front of Liberia (NPFL), led by Charles Taylor, became infamous for its abuse of civilians and use of child soldiers. During the first period of conflict between 1989 and 1997, regional troops were deployed and attempts to implement peace agreements, brokered by ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States]) and hold elections, were continuously frustrated by outbreaks of violence. Following the Cotonou Peace Agreement in 1993, UNOMIL (United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia) was established, the first United Nations peacekeeping mission created to support an existing regional peacekeeping effort.

Though Taylor effectively took power from Doe in 1990, he was only legitimized later once a ceasefire was in place and the 1997 United Nations-monitored election took place, temporarily restoring peace.

Unfortunately, with anti-Taylor rebel groups operating in northern and southeastern counties and reconciliation between political parties hindered by ongoing hostilities and human rights abuses by the NPFL, full scale war soon resumed. By 2003 the Liberian conflicts had left between 150,000 and 200,000 Liberians (the majority of whom were civilians) dead, 800,000 internally displaced, and a further 850,000 fled for refuge across other West African countries, sometimes moving from camp to camp across borders as conflict flared in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast.

In 2003 Charles Taylor relinquished power and today stands trial after being accused of war crimes for his role in Sierra Leone’s brutal conflict. Peace accords were signed, a transitional government was put in place, and in 2005 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected President, becoming Africa’s first democratically elected female head of state. Today Liberia struggles to rebuild itself and to address the development challenges endemic in the region. With staggering unemployment rates and the majority of the population living below the poverty line, crime is an ongoing problem. United Nations peacekeepers remain engaged in training police and military personnel and in providing stability as the country rebuilds its governance infrastructure.

Hopeful for the nation’s future, Liberian refugees continue to return home, some after living in exile for as long as 18 years, with children who have never set foot in their native land

Source: Article by Eilis Pourbaix

Ghana’s Refugee Camp (Buduburam): A Sketch

In the vibrant Buduburam community, bright concrete houses with tin roofs are crammed together in an endless maze where dingy chickens, the occasional goat and forlorn looking dogs dart across haphazard paths. There is garbage strewn liberally over the dirt where water from the well or urine constantly trickle, weaving between the ditches. During the rainy season children run outside to bathe, grabbing every receptacle imaginable, digging holes they line with plastic bags to collect whatever water they can. Outside of the main strip, people squat over coals cooking corn or fish to sell, or washing laundry in buckets. The women are brightly clothed, children fastened to them snugly with multicoloured lapas. Around each corner you may hear heated discussion and hearty laughter, megaphone wielding street preachers, vendors pitching their wares or Tro-Tro drivers announcing destinations with competing insistence. And everywhere, at any time during the night or day, there is music: drumming, impromptu gospel, children singing clapping songs, or grainy highlife blaring from a radio as residents hum along.

Located on a small stretch of land 44 kilometres west of Ghana’s capital Accra, Buduburam was established in 1990 as a reception centre for Liberians fleeing the civil war. Constructed as an emergency humanitarian project to hold a maximum of 8,000 people, Buduburam evolved into a thriving, albeit struggling, community of 40,000 at its peak. The camp’s inhabitants represented over 16 ethnic groups, many of whom had fought against each other in the war.

Ghanaian churches were quick to respond with food and clothing, and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) organized ration distribution, medical services and shelter. As structures became more permanent, community leaders created an overarching governance body to address issues ranging from domestic disputes to HIV/AIDS. While the Ghanaian government maintained a small police force in the camp, the community fielded a neighbourhood watch program of 200 volunteers.

Although Buduburam had access to sporadic electricity, there was no running water or effective waste management system, and malaria and diarrhea became persistent health problems. Numerous community and non-governmental organizations constructed wells and latrines and residents organized regular trash cleanups. While qualified teachers and resources were scarce, scores of schools operated in Buduburam, often with a volunteer staff. Over 200 locally organized churches re-established social networks, partnered with aid organizations and provided important outlets for post-conflict healing.

For 18 years Buduburam saw waves of incoming and departing refugees as conflict simmered in Liberia, and in 2007 the UNHCR declared an end to United Nations assisted repatriation programs. As Buduburam’s residents return home with hopes of lasting peace and prosperity in their country, they carry with them the spirit of resilience, resourcefulness and cooperation that flourished in this community. In the words of one resident, A refugee camp is a training ground for teaching people to live together in unity.

The protracted refugee experience for many ends with bitter sweetness, as they return with memories of the unique community they forged in exile to the uncertain landscape of post-war Liberia.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

SAMUEL SIAFA TAYLOR:

First to God, who deposited the musical seed, called talent, into me.

My parents—Mr. Momo S. Taylor (Late) and Mrs. Tennah Taylor, are the next on the list of gratitude. There would have been Samuel Siafa Taylor (the musical artiste mentioned in this Book in your hand) if each of them had denied my entry into the world by abortion or ‘sacrifice’ to killer sickness.

Next is the half of my heart—my dearest wife, Mrs. Augusta H.T. Taylor, who has been guarding and guiding me on how to plan my musical life for positive results.

The next is a matrimonial pair: Rev James S Paye and his wife Rev. Mot. Hawa R. T. Paye (Engineer) of the Christ’s Vision Ministry International. Rev. Paye and his wife (a career agriculturist) took up