When the Liberian government surrendered Liberia’s only cultural center Kendeja, which is also considered by many as a “sacred land” to Billionaire Bob Johnson to build a 4-star hotel on the land, most citizens opposed the move. They said the government’s deal was a gross disrespect for, if not desecration of, Liberia’s cultural heritage.

 

However, supporters of the government countered that it was essential to transform the village from its dilapidated state. For too long, they argued governments have abandoned the land and that artists were no longer using the facility, which had been threatened by sea erosion.

 

The cash value that comes with the modernization of the center, though no longer a culture center, carries with them virtues that culture or heritage can hardly match. Their argument succeeded not necessarily on the strength of logic but on the power of political authority. And in a spontaneous manner, the inhabitants of Kendeja, women and children, were sent packing out of the area, thanks to the mighty dollars, to which many proponents of the deal are seemingly obsessed.

 

 

Liberian arc photojournalist and cultural artist, James Kokulo Fasuekoi who still has found memories of Kendeja writes:

Some 60 years ago, the idea to erect a national cultural center was born with a dream to preserve Liberia’s rich cultural heritage. The center's objectives would be to coordinate the country’s cultural activities, preserve its treasures and folklores, foster unity among its people as well as promote and market Liberia’s cultural image abroad.

Kekura Kamara
Nimely Napla

 

This idea was what the late Bai Tamia Moore, a man whose name became a household word in Liberia had dreamed of. Best known in Liberia and abroad for his impressive literary works on Liberian folklores, the late Moore, who hailed from one of the country’s highly cultural profiled tribes, the Vai, reportedly pressed for the construction of the cultural center in Kenema.

 

His insistence, for the creation of the center in Kenema was apparently due to the historical significance of the area. It has been said that it was at first certain part of Kendeja in Kenema where the settlers first met the natives, negotiated and signed an initial agreement for their resettlement upon their arrival to the then Grain Coast in 1822. 
 
The Vais and Golas are the original inhabitants of Kenema, located few miles southeast of the capital, a town from which the name Kendeja is derived from. Both Vai, Gola along with the Bassa, are among the country’s coastal tribes and were the first group to meet the former American free slaves. The Mandingos, situated in the Bopolu Chiefdom which is less than about 60 miles north of Monrovia probably encountered the settlers much earlier than other tribes in the hinterland.

 

To the legendary Liberian folk writer, Bai Tamia Moore, the piece of land which became known as Kendeja, the home of the Liberia National Cultural Troupe for many years, was not only a symbol of peace and unity, but a sacred ground meant for peaceful assembly and celebration of our rich culture. And what other way could we, Liberians have kept this “sacred ground” memorable and alive other than building a strong cultural institution there where locals and foreigners could come and get a glimpse of our cultural heritage?

Nimba Burr

During my interview with scores of artists from the National Dance Troupe as well as various cultural dance troupes of Liberia, it became clear that the first group of boys and girls recruited to take on the task of building Kendeja and a dance company came from the Vai and Gola tribes of Western Liberia. This was followed by the Kpelle, Gio, Kru, Bassa, Krahn from central, north and southeastern Liberia. Other tribes including Kissi, Lorma, and Mandingo came in later.

 

The late Faith Healing Temple founder and pastor, Wilhemina Dukuley along with Mr. Tamia Moore were reported to have personally recruited and brought the first batch from Bomi County. Those also named to have personally contributed to its founding were the late Kekura Kpoto who headed the House twice; Peter “Flomo” Ballah, former National Cultural Troupe director and head of the Flomo Theater; Jallah K.K. Kamara, former executive director of the Liberian Cultural Ambassadors and one time stage director for the National Cultural Troupe; one Jangaba and Emmanuel Robert otherwise known as “Kona Kaizu” now Deputy Minister for research and planning, Ministry of Education.

 

And no doubt, the Kendeja National Cultural Center grew, and became one of Africa’s cultural havens. It became a true embodiment of Liberia’s enviable tradition with a full representation of each of the sixteenth tribes in the country, beginning from body arts to bush schools for boys and girls. Also on display were authentic traditional huts, styled after those typically erected and inhabited by each tribe in the interior. This was boosted by a modern high school; clinic and later, a theater that was near completion prior to the civil war.

By the late 70s, the national troupe had achieved much of its goals. It had traveled the African continent and beyond exhibiting authentic Liberian cultural values at festivals, won distinctions and numerous awards, thereby setting Liberia on the world’s cultural map. Countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco, Algeria, Ethiopia, Somalia and the former Zaire are among the nations where the group set impressive records, much of which artists attributed to former President William R. Tolbert.

 Although born to a settler Americo-Liberian family, a group known to shun anything resembling African culture, Tolbert’s deep admiration and love for his country’s culture and traditions encompassed mere rhetoric. His dream for a Settlers-Natives unity, led him to declaring himself a Kpelle, originating from Bong County. Most members of the Liberian National Cultural Troupe lauded the outspoken former Baptist Church preacher and described him as the “most supportive” of not only Kendeja, but Liberian culture as a whole among the country’s past leaders.

This assertion has to be true in that President Tolbert in 1978 invited the then Liberian Jungle Dance Troupe to play at his birthday party in his hometown of Bentol, outside Monrovia. At the end of the ceremony, and satisfied with the group’s splendid performance, he declared the troupe as the “true Ambassadors of Liberian culture,” thus giving birth to the name “Liberian Cultural Ambassadors.” In the same year, under his patronage, “Cultural Ambassadors” visited Gambia on a special Jetliner and performed for Gambia’s first family, Mr. and Mrs. Dawuda Jawara. This was immediately followed by the troupe’s second foreign travel, this time to California, USA where it performed at Disney Land and a couple of universities and took part in a street cultural festival in downtown Los Angeles.

When African leaders assembled in Liberia in 1979 for the Organization of African Unity, OAU Conference, the biggest since the 1963 Sanniquellie meeting of three African Heads of State, both the Liberian National Troupe and the Cultural Ambassadors spent days and nights at the Roberts International Airport and Unity Conference Center in Virginia, welcoming foreign guests attending the conference. Tolbert felt so proud that his support for the country’s cultural life was not a loss.

When President Tolbert died in a military coupe in 1980, the tide however turned down and support for Kendeja, the National Cultural Troupe as well as the second National Troupe, Beasau, based in Western Liberia was drastically reduced to almost nothing. The Liberian Ministry of Information, under which these three groups were operated, had difficulty in obtaining funds for their smooth running and as a result had less interest in boosting the culture and arts of the country. The foremost priority of the PRC’s young military leaders was about stepping up the salaries of soldiers to keep the army happy so as to eliminate any idea of a coup.

It didn’t take long when the government enlisted the help of Mr. Jallah K.K. Kamara, an expert in cultural performing arts, then executive director of the Liberian Cultural Ambassadors to head the newly established Cultural Bureau and Tourism as part of a strategy to accelerate the promotion of the nation’s cultural heritage as well as effectively manage the tourism sector that has lain dormant over many years. And that was after Mr. Kamara’s Cultural Ambassadors had staged one of its most acclaimed and publicized repertoires in the nation’s history, the “Redemption of the Liberian People” a masterpiece that chronicled the oppressive era of the True Whig Party rule for more than a century, a ballet dance drama which drew the young military leaders to the arts.

Having grown up in show business as a performing artist while studying in Europe, Mr. Jallah Kamara, also a renowned businessman, knew exactly what was needed to overhaul the cultural performing arts sector and within months, he moved swiftly and re-modified Kendeja, its school, clinic and dormitories thereby attracting more locals and foreign visitors to Kendeja. He also refurbished the historical Providence Island in Monrovia where the former free American slaves first landed and settled in 1822. Besides, he vigorously persuaded leaders of the new government to allocate needed funds in order to increase stipends and feeding of the 200 member national troupe. He then began marketing our cultural heritage through performing arts at home and abroad, bringing closer even those who had previously shunned our culture and traditions. As part of his cultural awareness program, Mr. Kamara introduced annual national cultural festivals in Monrovia in addition to county tours to give wider exposure to the National Troupe and several solo artists and actresses who demonstrated exceptional skills in the arts. Among this group were folk singers and dancers like the all popular Fatu Gayflor, Tarlorh Quiwonkpa, Burr Gonkatee, AKA “Nimba Burr;” Caesar Gartor and Zia Tete. Backed by the Kendeja All Stars Band, these artists from the National Troupe gradually pushed their way to stardom and soon became celebrity national icons.

This new face of Liberian culture soon turned Kendeja into a cozying resort for many escaping the hassle of busy city life and sure, there were more fun to be seen with the superb full blast of Kendeja All Stars Band backed by a full display of African ballets and acrobatic maneuvers every other weekend. This fertile cultural soil attracted two of the worlds most traveled and famous ballet troupes, Pan African Ballet of Sierra Leone and the highly celebrated Guinea’s Les Ballets Africains, (Ballets of Africa). The two groups at the invitation of the National Cultural Bureau visited Liberia at different times in the 80s but the forty or more performing actors, dancers, actresses and drummers of Pan African Ballet decided to remain in the country at the end of their tour of Liberia, in the spirit of African brotherhood.

With the help of the Cultural Bureau, Pan African Ballet established a base near Iron Factory and opened a cultural center where local artists received training in chorography, drumming, singing and various dances belonging to the Fula, Mende, Sousou and Mandingo of Sierra Leone while members of the visiting troupe were also thought Liberian drumming, folksongs and dances by local artists.

Despite such a promising future on the Liberian cultural scene, it didn’t take long when things regrettably began to turn downhill after a row between Former Information Minister, Momolu Gataweah and Jallah Kamara over a proposed re-incorporation of Cultural Bureau by MOI/MICAT reached a peak. In the end, Minister Gataweah got the upper hand with some backing from Capitol Hill; and the National Cultural Bureau and Tourism that had been established via a PRC decree and recognized as an autonomous entity was dragged back under the Ministry of Information. The Pan African Ballet, having fed up with red-tape bureaucratic procedures surrounding the hosting of public shows for its upkeep, finally took her exit sometime around 1986 as Liberia’s political climate got warmer and warmer.

However, Mr. Gataweah’s successful fight against Mr. Jallah Kamara did not yield the anticipated good. If anything, the change proved inimical to the interest of Liberia’s culture, Kendeja and the National Troupe. Some of the very things that had placed Liberian culture on the back burner and kept the arts from flourishing from previous years, such as inadequate government financial support especially for the country’s cultural hub fell right back in place. Mr. Kamara’s biggest fear had come true, but as it seemed, there were yet even bigger troubles ahead to come, troubles that could be capable of threatening the very survival of our cultural life.

With Mr. Jallah Kamara partly out of the national cultural scene, he returned to manage his Cultural Ambassadors Dance Troupe, and with no motivation on the part of cultural officials to continue Kamara’s legacy, the marketing of Liberian cultural performing arts came to its lowest ebb with practically no signs of recovery as the MOI/MICAT’s attention shifted heavily towards its lifeline, the news (LINA included), photo and television departments to keep propagating policies of the government of the day.

When the civil war reached the outskirts of Monrovia in 1990, rebels of Taylor’s National Patriotic Front stormed Kendeja in search of perceived enemies and murdered some of Liberia’s cultural icons, among them, Liberia’s only Yoga master and leader of the “Wonder Boys” of Kendeja who was not so lucky to escape on time, superstar, Jacob Dweh. He happened to belong to one of the “wrong tribes” at the time NPFL rebels were in pursuit of the Krahns. The killing sent many of the artists fleeing Kendeja, thus leaving valuable treasures vulnerable to the rampaging rebels and thieves.

By the time the first round of the war ended in 1996 with the disarming of the country’s 60,000 militias in preparation for the general presidential elections, only the frames of most of the structures were left to form part of the center’s relics. Kendeja’s once strategically beach-lined up coconut grove that added beauty to the center had been cut down and harvested by hungry residents and intruders. This ugly scene prompted interim head of the Transitional State Council, Madam Weade Koba Wreh, to rally support for refurbishing the center. Her project, “Rescue Kendeja” attracted the United States Embassy in Liberia which did not only provide material support but also sent in a team of volunteer workers headed by its former military attaché, retired Gen. Kathleen List to help with repair works of the village. It was a whole day affair amid the beating of drums, sasa and other instruments as Americans and Liberians danced and sang while giving a facelift to our mother cultural village.

The war era is long gone but life at the center has rarely picked up as residents-artists rely on self-initiatives and occasional handout from the MOI/MICAT or elsewhere to survive. And the past years have seen resident-entertainers reduced practically to only welcoming guests of the government as well as taking the arts to national functions such as inaugurations, Independence and Flag Day celebrations. The leaderships of MOI/MICAT in post war Liberia, starting with Amos Sawyer’s Administration to the present have never seen fit and obliged to venture into the national cultural awareness let alone try to negotiate an international cultural visit for National Troupe as a means of generating much needed fund to aid the country’s crippling economy.

Mountains of opportunities especially in the post-war era have come and gone without any attempt by the Ministry of Information or its cultural branch that has lain completely dormant for years to make an impact on the cultural scene. One such window of opportunity came in 1998 when the friendly government of Taiwan sent its national cultural dance troupe to Liberia to participate in that year’s July 26th Independence Day celebrations. Diplomatically, the Liberian Government should have reciprocated similarly at least by sending the LNCT or a combination of professional artists to Taiwan as part of strengthening bilateral ties between the two nations, but that didn’t happen.

Such a diplomatic blunder can be attributed to administrations placing of weak minded individuals lacking cultural orientation or connection to run the Ministry’s Culture and Tourism Bureau. There is evidence of complete failure of any culture undertaking by the ministry officials during the past decade; rather, they have been very often more concerned with fighting for foreign travel with local entertainment groups and grabbing fat allowances through the personal initiatives of others. Classic examples are the 1997 Liberia Cry for Peace visit to the United States and 1999-2000 West/North African tour secured by Ambassador Juli Endee during which some officials vowed they would stop any group from leaving Liberia unless their names were selected for the trips. This sort of behavior is a clear manifestation of how far some overzealous directors and subordinates can go to intimidate professional artists. Unless Liberian artists begin to stand up and challenge this sort of loose attitude by some top officials there is no way that progress can be made in this area.

There is no wonder why members of the LNCT have been praying that government could someday choose culture-oriented individuals to lead the ministry come a new Liberia, so as to hopefully give some attention to the plight of Kendeja, the troupes and our culture in general. But judging from recent cultural development as regard the sale of our mother cultural center, it has no doubt become apparent that any thought of the present government advocating, protecting and encouraging culture preservation in Liberia is in itself delusional. The sale recent sale of one of the country’s most valuable treasures, the Kendeja Cultural Center regarded as a “Sacred ground,” to American billionaire and BET founder, Robert Johnson is a proof. The deal described by an observer as an “affront with no less then a compromise of our cultural dignity,” was hastily struck between the “Johnson’s Group” and the Liberian Government which is choking on foreign debts and in total desperation for hard currency, much of which critics say is all about “licking fingers and feeding deep pockets.” The duration of the lease deal, local papers said, is 50 years at the cost of US$800,000 per year to be paid to the Liberian Government.

But as it is typical of most regimes in Africa, manufactured reasons are always there as justification whether government operatives are inflicting pains on those they rule and in the present case, there were plenty of reasons for the sale of Kendeja according to the government spokesman, Information Minister Laurence Bropleh. One of the reasons the minister claimed for the sale of the center was due to the government’s determination to create job opportunities for its citizens. Number two reason is the government contention that there was perennial encroachment upon Kendeja’s land throughout the interim period by prominent people and ordinary citizens thus making it to almost to lose its cultural relevance. But are these sufficient reasons for one to throw a sacred land into a bet? What then becomes the government’s responsibility to the nation and its people? Is this the new way out now of our many problems?

In a country already beset with division arising from long years of civil wars, does the government which claims to be working towards reconciliation and uniting the country knows the adverse effect of her action? That the “Johnson-Johnson” deal has begun causing friction among some members of the LNCT at home and abroad; that acquiesce and the tendency by local members to accept a $1,000.00 each from government and allow the project to go on without protest is seen by some as a conspiracy. The opposition is such that even if the BET founder and president ignore and continue his five-star hotel construction, it could seemingly come back and haunt him someday, for as this writer has discovered, it is a battle that may not end anytime soon.

In order to understand the depth of this issue, this writer, himself, a cultural artist and a former chief war dancer of the Liberian Cultural Ambassadors Dance Troupe, spoke to a cross section of Liberian artists, culture lovers, entertainers, and journalists at home and abroad during the week. Among them was Nimely Vinney Napla, National Cultural Troupe former stage director and chief war dancer who said he joined the group in 1974.

“I feel really hurt that this is happening to the center. Although I was born in New Kru Town, but I consider Kendeja as my home because I went there in my teen,” he said.