{"id":14192,"date":"2022-04-25T09:27:39","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T09:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/an-inspiring-life-of-hope-and-optimism"},"modified":"2022-04-25T09:45:42","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T09:45:42","slug":"an-inspiring-life-of-hope-and-optimism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/an-inspiring-life-of-hope-and-optimism","title":{"rendered":"An Inspiring Life of Hope and Optimism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. <\/strong><\/span>Review of \u201cA Liberian Life: Memoir of an Academic and Former Minister of State Presidential Affairs\u201d by D. Elwood Dunn, by Mohamedu F. Jones, Esq. In full disclosure, I believe that Dr. D. Elwood Dunn is at least primus inter pares among Liberian scholars, arguably he is primus, for his substantive contribution to academia (imagine if he had been able to spend 35 years teaching Liberian university students), and for his scholarly engagements and publications about Liberia. Dr. Dunn is probably the most widely published Liberian academician (I counted at least 38 on a list in Appendix 6). He is also a relative, and he does mention my name in passing in more than one place in his memoir.<\/p>\n

In his introduction, Dunn states: \u201cIt is my hope that my life\u2019s experience will serve to inspire and motivate young Liberians and others to prepare themselves for self-fulfillment through a life of service to others.\u201d This writer believes that he did and will you why. Please read on.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Liberian Life\u201d, to paraphrase Dunn, is recent history in the form of autobiography. It is his story from birth through its publication, and his country\u2019s story from the mid-1970s through the years of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf presidency. It contains thoughtful analyses, evidence-supported findings, and presents his views of the long-list of unfinished and unresolved Liberian subjects that are necessary to transform the country and create a sustained nation.<\/p>\n

Regarding his Liberian scholarship, Dunn states that his \u201cmotive for research and writing was a desire to better understand my country with a view to enhancing its development and hopefully contribute to the broader advancement of knowledge.\u201d Liberians today are still living through the windfalls and shortfalls from those long-ago events in the 1970s that are presented in historical details in the book and offered by someone who was present.<\/p>\n

The memoir is by an academician who methodically takes the reader down the highways, byways, detours and contours of his life, beginning with the very Liberian complications of the circumstances of his birth, through the idyllic years of growing up in a sleepy small town in the functional and nurturing \u201cwarm, loving, and caring home\u201d of his grandparents. His gratitude for the reciprocal love and devotion of his grandparents is palpable to the reader. These were the years when his lifelong devotion to the Episcopal Church of Liberia began as an acolyte in boyhood to publishing full length histories of his church.<\/p>\n

Dunn shares the apparent painful complexities of his interactions (there is no indication of any meaningful parent-child relationship) with his \u201cnever child focused\u201d father which among other things the author tells us caused him to lose his ability to speak the Bassa language. You feel his abiding loss as he tells that story. We journey with him through his marriage to his wife, the late Rev. Matilda Dunn, building their family together, while pursuing their careers, and bringing up their children.<\/p>\n

In the preface, Dr. Dunn summarizes his careers into three distinct parts: (1) teaching; (2) direct government service (relatively brief) and (3) participating in and leading some governance reform related projects. Interwoven in these careers Dr. Dunn is always plotting to permanently return home to Liberia, in some instances literally, to physically be there and always figuratively by devoting time and energy to uplifting Liberia for the well-being of its people. You live the lament of the exile with him when he writes \u201cWhile Liberia was still on my mind, my immediate task\u2026\u201d was providing a safe environment for his family and building his very distinguished academic career. A manifestation of Dunn\u2019s love for country is crystalized when after a meeting briefing President Tolbert, his boss, the Foreign Minister, expressed gratitude to the President for the opportunity to serve him while Dr. Dunn thanked the President for providing him the opportunity to serve Liberia. Throughout the pages of his memoir, it is plain to the reader that Liberia is always on his mind and he is constantly wanting (needing?) to serve his country.<\/p>\n

In his first government job at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Dunn, the \u201creluctant politician\u201d quickly assessed and experienced the dysfunctionality of the \u201cexisting governance arrangement\u201d at the Ministry and in the country. He lets the reader know that while he \u201cshared the strong pro-Africa and developing countries solidarity policies\u201d of President Tolbert, he \u201cwanted to see this tied to more inclusive governance at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like many other Liberian \u201cmoderate progressives\u201d of the 1970s, this reviewer was also \u201ctroubled by the disconnect between Liberia\u2019s progressive foreign policy and a somewhat regressive domestic reality.\u201d In any event, the author became unhappy, not feeling \u201cfree, respected, appreciated and rewarded\u201d for what he did, and eventually left Foreign Affairs without \u201cfanfare or words of thanks\u201d to go to work at the Executive Mansion.<\/p>\n

Dunn\u2019s next Liberian government job takes the reader into the executive office of the Liberian presidency, first as a Deputy Minister and then for six months as Minister of State for Presidential Affairs when there was a growing \u201cclash between the old Liberia and a projected new Liberia. There was tension \u201cbetween the old establishment figures in the government and the President.\u201d We learn that not only did the old establishment figure \u201cresist change, they were intolerant of public criticism of the status quo and unwilling to acknowledge the legitimacy of the popular demands for change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teacher that he is, the author outlines the factors that converged and \u201ceventuated in the [April 14, 1979] crisis.\u201d He underscores that it did not \u201chappen in isolation,\u201d pointing out the global economic crisis of the 1970s resulting in the drop in commodity prices, the resultant meaningful fall in Liberia\u2019s tax revenue, supply and rising price pressures. There were notable signs of political tensions as diverse Liberians challengingly engaged their leaders. In the face of all this, Dr. Dunn points out that \u201ca pattern persisted of governance by commission or committee rather than [a] more decisive\u201d approach.<\/p>\n

The author\u2019s assessment of the President is blunt: \u201cPresident Tolbert was not a political operative.\u201d Later we learn that he found Tolbert to be \u201ccongenial,\u201d \u201cversatile\u201d and possessed a \u201cgifted mind.\u201d Dr. Dunn offers an inside \u201cthe situation room\u201d view of the April 14 crisis when \u201cThe much vaunted Liberian political stability faced an existential threat.\u201d There was a tense cabinet meeting on April 14, 1979; President Tolbert was in a \u201cfighting mood.\u201d The cabinet, without dissent, was \u201cin favor of prompt and decisive action.\u201d The author tells us that he learned later \u201cthat security forces led by the police, opened fire on the protesters.\u201d At the end of the day, \u201ca significant number of Liberians lay dead or injured and property worth millions of dollars was destroyed.\u201d April 14, 1979 exposed the government\u2019s vulnerability and Dr. Dunn informs the reader that \u201csome have suggested that a coup d\u2019\u00e9tat could have happened that day.\u201d There would be a coup within a year, on April 14, 1980.<\/p>\n

In the immediate aftermath of April 14, the author tells us that President Tolbert dictated part of a speech to him in the hallway and observes that \u201cnothing much was going on\u201d in the Executive Mansion the day after the crisis. He makes the reader a witness to developments that led to troops from Guinea coming into Liberia. We learn that Tolbert for the first time, had surprisingly asked his views on policy. What is amazing to this reviewer is Dunn\u2019s response. How many persons would refrain from advising the President, particularly when asked a direct question? Elwood Dunn did! He explains that he did not have enough information to offer an informed opinion. How one wishes more Liberians would abide by that maxim and not offer uninformed opinions. Now that will be the day!<\/p>\n

The reader is able to follow the indecision and intrigues of the government after April 14 including cabinet changes, presidential speeches, taking opposition leaders into custody, and visits to the country by neighboring heads of state. We learn that in meetings with the armed forces after April 14, Tolbert heard \u201can earful of grievances\u201d and told the military that some of them were being addressed. Perhaps unintentionally, the author conveys a sense of skepticism that the grievances were being addressed, at least to this reviewer.<\/p>\n

Dr. Dunn spends considerable time discussing the Brownell Commission that President Tolbert \u201ccharged with leading a consultative investigation into the events that eventuated in the disturbances.\u201d We learn how the commission was formed, how its members were selected and appointed, and its deliberations. We read details about the leaking of the Commission\u2019s report before presentation to the President, suspicions surrounding Dunn regarding the leak and finally how \u201cthis important, even critical work\u201d avoided being aborted. As the reader follows the story, ultimately, it becomes clear that the Brownell Commission\u2019s report was indeed aborted and fell on the very large dustbin of Liberian history. One wonders if anyone other than Elwood Dunn even has a copy.<\/p>\n

As someone who was engaged in the reformation process, which is how I met the author in person for the first time, I concur with Dunn that the True Whig Party was one of the \u201cgreatest challenges\u201d to Tolbert\u2019s \u201cquest to reform Liberia.\u201d Dr. Dunn brings the reader into the labyrinth of how the effort to reform began at a meeting held on October 13, 1979 that this reviewer also attended. The result is that Dr. Dunn and I and others were appointed to a Task Force by Tolbert; the President appointed Emanuel L. Shaw II as chair and I subsequently volunteered to be secretary at the convening meeting. In my first appearance in Dr. Dunn\u2019s memoirs, he points out that many decades later I told him that some members of the Task Force were suspicious of him. I did tell him that. I also told him that I wish I had a copy of the Task Force report; Elwood Dunn matter-of-factly told me he had a copy and provided it to me.<\/p>\n

The work of the Task Force eventually led to events that resulted in Dr. Dunn\u2019s appointment as Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, albeit, as it turned out for only six months. Although we learn details of some of the activities that he was involved in as Minister, it becomes clear that his impact was very minimal. Dunn was not in Liberia at the time of the coup; he later arranged \u201csafe passage\u201d to return, noting his wife and small children were in Liberia. He returned home on April 22, 1980. On the same day 13 Liberian citizens were unlawfully and wrongfully murdered on the beach under the guise of judicially sanctioned \u201cexecutions.\u201d Could Dr, Dunn have been among those men had he been in Liberia on April 12, 1980?<\/p>\n

Personally, one of the most fascinating snippets in Dr. Dunn\u2019s book for this reviewer is that he reiterates something I have heard and been deeply skeptical of. I have heard from family and friends that on that day, \u201csuddenly darkness fell upon the land. It lasted for a good while and then dissipated as the sun returned.\u201d When I shared this with my wife, she asked if I believed her now. I did not answer.<\/p>\n

As part of the journey with him, the reader follows Dr. Dunn\u2019s return to the United States, this time seeking permanent residency. The flabbergasting and failed effort by the State Department to derail his asylum petition is maddening, and infuriating to one who also sought the protection of political asylum. Ever the scholar, Dunn states: \u201cWith no appreciation of the social nuances and the many crosscutting cleavages realities of Liberia, the ubiquitous \u2018us\u2019 versus \u2018them\u2019 was being peddled by official America.\u201d This makes you wonder as one reflects on the Tolbert years leading up to and after the coup, during the Doe years, and during the war years, how much division United States officials fueled. What was in those \u201ctop secret\u201d cables to and from Washington? Does this lend credence, which this reviewer believe is not sufficiently supported by the available evidence that the US government actively supported or even instigated the 1980 coup?<\/p>\n

Dunn\u2019s academic career, particularly at Sewanee was the longest of his three careers. By any and every measure, his is a remarkably successful career. He met the three requirements of the University of the South: (1) \u201cmeasurable effective teaching,\u201d (2) \u201csubstantial contribution to the academic community,\u201d and (3) \u201cscholarly engagement and publication.\u201d I wonder if all things academic are presented in sets of threes.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiberia remained part of his DNA\u201d as the author engaged in many Liberia-specific social and political activities including maintaining ties at home, in Diaspora Liberian communities and with American interested in Liberia. We learned of his transactional relationship with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: \u201cI gravitated toward Sirleaf perhaps the most because of her political contacts and apparent access to valuable information. We developed a good working relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a function of Dunn\u2019s \u201ckeen interest in Liberia\u2019s fate, both at the level of scholarship and political engagement\u201d that propelled his involvement in all things Liberian. He takes the reader with him through his multidimensional Liberian-focused activities. The wide range of these activities includes \u201cteachable moments designed to correct critical historical record,\u201d participating in Congressional hearings and corresponding with members of the US Congress, appearances on television programs and doing syndicated radio interviews throughout Canada. Dr. Dunn shares the beginning of his connections with the Liberian Studies Association (LSA) where he would go on to become Editor of its Liberian Studies Journal (LSJ), and with which he remains affiliated.<\/p>\n

As his story is his country\u2019s story, Dunn discusses his \u201cFocus on Rebuilding Post-Conflict Liberia\u201d with a clear agenda of research and service to Liberia and Liberians. It is with a sense of heightened accomplishment that the readers learns of his herculean effort to rescue and preserve Liberian records including the papers of President Tubman, Episcopal Bishop George Browne, Reginald Townsend, Evelyn Townsend, Romeo Horton and Bai T. Moore, one of Liberia\u2019s preeminent literati and a \u201ccultural icon.\u201d This reviewer has electronically examined some of the digitized Tubman papers at the University of Indiana, including Tubman\u2019s letter dismissing my father, M. Fahnbulleh Jones, as Superintendent of Grand Cape Mount County in 1959. Significantly, the families of these Liberians retain ownership of the papers and the ever Liberian-optimistic Dunn undertook the preservation with the goal of returning the original documents to Liberia, \u201conce professional cleaning and digitizing were completed.\u201d The inimitable value of this effort of Dunn and his collaborators to Liberia speaks for itself – res ipsa loquitur.<\/p>\n

Chief Detective Inspector Dunn! Dr. Dunn undertook the \u201cconcrete task\u201d of investigating allegations of corruption in Johnson Sirleaf\u2019s Executive Mansion. This reviewer was briefly part of that investigation, which give rise to another passing reference in Dunn\u2019s memoir. Following the conclusion of the task, the author and members of his committee publicly presented their report to President Sirleaf. Before Sirleaf could act, there was a bombshell! Internal reports submitted to the committee were published in the press. Dr. Dunn walked away from the \u201cpolitical intrigues\u201d associated with the publication, but he clearly recognized President Johnson Sirleaf\u2019s attempt \u201cto end the government\u2019s direct engagement with the matter.\u201d Like the Brownell Commission report all those many years before, this report too was effectively aborted.<\/p>\n

Notably, Dunn and his committee also presented a financial report detailing their expenditures and duly returning the balance funds to the government. This reminded me of a story told in our family. The story is our grandfather, then Senator J. A. H. Jones, undertook a government paid trip in the late 1950s or early 1960s. On his return, he submitted his receipts and the unspent per diem to the Department of Treasury and no one knew what to do with the money because it had not been done before. Hopefully, when Dunn returned the funds, officials knew that it should go back into the government treasury.<\/p>\n

In 2012, the beginning of Sirleaf\u2019s second term, Dr. Dunn delivered the National Oration at the National Independence Day Celebration under the topic \u201cRenewing our National Promise,\u201d addressing it in two parts: \u201ccontextualizing our national experience and highlighting the role of values in national development.\u201d I, for one, wish that Dunn would have explained what the history and purpose of the National Oration is. In the early 1980s, I was the County Orator in Grand Cape Mount County on Independence Day. As I left after the celebration, I had a distinct feeling that I had wasted my time. I had! Does anyone even remember Dunn\u2019s speech, much more concretely acted on anything in it? At least there was no indication that the President was \u201cvexed with him\u201d as has been conjectured in some cases regarding National Orators that I have heard.<\/p>\n

Dunn tells us that he declined the traditional award that he \u201cconsidered not nationally representative enough\u201d and opted to be gowned by the National Council of Chiefs and Elders. This leads one to wonder if the late Dr. Amos Sawyer and the late Ambassador H. Boima Fahnbulleh, two previous orators, had been offered and accepted any of these \u201cnot nationally representative enough\u201d awards.<\/p>\n

The next Liberian-focused activity that the author becomes engaged (entangled?) with was the Constitution Review Committee. The author classified the committee\u2019s process as \u201cinconclusive.\u201d He determined that the committee was \u201cdysfunctional,\u201d had an \u201cambiguous\u201d relationship with the Legislature and was plagued by the \u201cissue of intellectual integrity versus excessive politicking.\u201d Although not expressly stated by Dr. Dunn, is he suggesting he considered the committee and its work to be a failure?<\/p>\n

The next Liberian-focused project that Dunn turned his attention to was the National Symbols Review which originated in his National Oration. The idea to review the country\u2019s symbol stemmed from the author\u2019s view that there was a \u201cneed to Africanize a Liberia that remained steeped in its nineteenth-century symbolism.\u201d The lyrics of the National Anthem and the National Seal needed to be reviewed. As part of this review, the author believes that Liberian government awards or \u2018decorations\u2019 should also be \u201crevisited as a means of addressing national identity issues.\u201d This effort was interrupted by the Ebola pandemic in 2014. While Dr. Dunn undertook to re-initiate the review, nothing came of this effort.<\/p>\n

The next Liberian-focused project to engage the attention of Dr. Dunn was the Liberia National History Project. This project was an outgrowth of his National Oration where the author had suggested that Liberians \u201cshould encourage Liberian historians to hash out a national narrative that is truthful, inclusive, and does not shift blame from individual wrongdoing two groups, whether in the distant past or more recently.\u201d Here Dr. Dunn, Liberia-optimistic as ever, is looking to remove from his country\u2019s national narrative those elements of falsehoods, division, and blame gaming that were pervasive in Liberian history. This project \u201clanguished\u201d and \u201cremaining in abeyance as Sirleaf left office\u201d because funding that was promised, \u201ca demonstration of political will on the part of the government was not forthcoming.\u201d Another aborted effort! As you read this, you have to wonder: \u201cWhy hasn\u2019t this man given up on his country?\u201d<\/p>\n

The final Liberian-focused project that the author shares with the reader is \u201cGovernance Reform and Vision 2030.\u201d Dunn tells us that \u201cthe idea of governance reform had also be part of my episodic engagement with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and other Diaspora personalities and groups\u201d and describes in detail his interlocutions with her and others, notably, his contemporaries Dr. Amos Sawyer, Dr. Byron Tarr, and Dr. Togbah Nah Tipoteh and politicians like Jackson Doe and Edward Binyah Kesseley, among others. We learn that the \u201cmain purpose of the vision exercise was to provide a compass that would guide national development in the face of enormous post-war challenges.\u201d We learn that \u201csome of Liberia\u2019s brightest and best were not invited\u201d which was compounded when others declined to participate \u201cthinking the project was partisan.\u201d The second problem was an ineffective communication strategy and the third problem \u201cconcerned the responsible statutory bodies.\u201d (Another set of the academic threes!)<\/p>\n

In the end, this project did not achieve the key requirement for operationalization which was \u201cthat it should lead Liberians to think, speak, and act differently as regards transforming the country. This did not happen.\u201d The president did not impose her \u201cpersonal imprimatur.\u201d Dr. Dunn concludes that Sirleaf\u2019s legacy \u201cwould likely have been more enduring if these critical non-tangible measures had been implemented before she left office.\u201d Ever the astute political scientist, Dunn insightfully underscores that successor governments would not find the political capital to stay the course. Another aborted project!<\/p>\n

The scholarly insights regarding Liberian Presidents Tolbert and Johnson Sirleaf are spot on. He confirms some of what we heard in the 1970s and many of the notions we had about the leaders of the time such as the late Frank Tolbert, Richard Henries, Reginald Townsend, and James A. A. Pierre.<\/p>\n

Dunn learned discussion of others who have written about Liberia such as Holsoe (who \u201cprivately made derogatory comments about some elements of indigenous life\u201d), Liebenow (read by every American ambassador from the 1960s through the 1970s) and d\u2019Azevedo (\u201ca rare and compassionate Western scholar\u201d). He offers learned analyses of Liberian-centered scholarship. He systematically presents background analysis of Liberia in each decade that his book covers. He highlights the work of one of his successors, Carl Patrick Burrowes (Are there others?). The partial list of articles and other publications that the author presents as an appendix offers a great starting point for any research regarding Liberian history. All of this tells the reader why Professor Dunn was department chair and retired as a well-respected tenured professor.<\/p>\n

The memoir is wrapped in the author\u2019s belief, clearly deeply held, that Liberians must emphasize commonality, and stop focusing on the dichotomies of the nation, even as we recognize our differences. Dr. Dunn views commonalty and communality as central to writing true Liberian history and nation-building The author unequivocally accomplished his purpose:<\/p>\n

to personalize Liberian history has I lived it, hoping it might constitute one of the building blocks for a future history of the Liberian people. This is history as autobiography. I hope I made such strides toward the accomplishment of my purpose that readers would come to know me and acquire a glimpse into the Liberia of my time.<\/p>\n

As you read Dunn\u2019s inspiring memoir, the ever hopeful and optimistic theme (even in the face of disappointments and failures regarding Liberia) affects you and leaves an especial meaningful impression. This is definitively his country\u2019s story integrated into his story.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Liberia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. Review of \u201cA Liberian Life: Memoir of an Academic and Former Minister of State Presidential Affairs\u201d by D. Elwood Dunn, by Mohamedu F. Jones, Esq. In full disclosure, I believe that Dr. D. Elwood Dunn is at least primus inter pares among Liberian scholars, arguably he is primus, for his substantive contribution […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":14191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-14192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-liberia","tag-liberia"],"yoast_head":"\nAn Inspiring Life of Hope and Optimism - Liberia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Review of \u201cA Liberian Life: Memoir of an Academic and Former Minister of State Presidential Affairs\u201d by D. 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