The rice riot of 1979 in Liberia
Excerpts of Chapter 13 of "Victory over difficulties: A true story."
By Dagbayonoh Kiah Nyanfore II
Published on an anniversay of the rice riot and the coup in Liberia
Introduction
In commemorating April 14, 1979, Rice Riot and the April 12, 1980, Coup in Liberia, I thought it wise to publish excerpts of my forthcoming book dealing with the two events. Often most views on the protest (Pictured above) focus on what happened in Liberia without also looking at Diaspora Liberians’ role in the advocacy. While the below narrative is autobiographical, it tells the story of a Liberian who was part of the progressive advocacy in the US.
CHAPTER 13, PROGRESSIVE ADVOCACY AND THE RICE RIOT
I officially graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, DC, in 1973, though I completed the coursework in 72. I started editing and publishing the Awina Drum with comrade Siahyonkron Nyanseor as assistant editor. The paper was the official organ of Awina, Incorporated, an organization of the Kru ethnic group in the Americas. Dr. Nyang and Professor Ted Roberts of Howard University gave me tremendous guidance. Nyang and Roberts headed the African Studies Program and the Communication Department, respectively. With Dr. Nyang’s help, I advertised news about the paper in scholarly journals and other publications. Professor Robert gave me pointers on how the paper should run. The Voice of America interviewed me in their Washington DC central station. The broadcast helped immensely as the paper’s news reached Liberia and other African countries.
Meanwhile, I continued having problems in my relationship with my daughter, Tanneh. Besides her attitude, her mother made things difficult since our divorce when Tanneh was a year old. Conditions improved a little. I visited Tanneh in North Carolina, and she came to DC for the summer. However, the Liberian socio-political issues were also dear to me.
Things later got hard on me. I became unemployed. I had just lost a security guard job, which had helped me finance the Drum. Moreover, I lost my Liberian government scholarship. I did housekeeping work for a gay couple residing in Georgetown. As a doctor and a young lawyer couple, they had a busy schedule and wanted someone to clean their house. I swept and mopped the floors, washed the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, the bathroom, and the bedroom, and dusted surfaces. The men were friendly. The doctor gave me my first pay, which was a check. I took it to the bank. The teller looked at it, turned it around, and looked at my ID.
She said. "Where did you get this check?"
I did not answer at first. I did not know what to say because I found the question strange. I answered the teller anyway.
"I worked for it, ma," I said.
"What work did you do?" She asked.
"That is not your got damned business," I said to myself.
She asked again. I answer this time.
"I did cleaning work." I said somewhat embarrassingly.
But she did not appear convinced and looked at me carefully. I wore a jean and a T-shirt. She picked up the phone and called the doctor.
"Doc, this is blak blak blak. I am from the bank. I have a black boy here with your check. He said that you gave it to him".
She did not go further. The doctor confirmed the check, complimenting me.
"OK, doc, I’m just making sure," she ended and cashed the check.
I felt dehumanized. It showed the negative view of Black people by some Whites. The teller looked at me and thought I might have stolen the check. It was not a big check, but the teller made it look that a criminal had stolen it. She would not have questioned me that way if I were a Non-White. The couple started paying me in cash after.
Like previous petty jobs, I got the job from the Georgetown University employment and placement center. Students went there for part-time work. After college, I found it challenging to gain regular work. I moved from one small job to another. I felt embarrassed whenever I went on campus to compete with students for small jobs. But the employment center gave me my work at Congressman Les Aspin’s office. I was thankful. In the office, I helped with the congressman’s constituent outreach effort. I sent communications regarding his legislative work to his district.
I moved from my apartment on Summit Place to Euclid Avenue in a basement unit owned by Samb, a Senegalian immigrant. I had difficulties paying the rent at the old place, though I had lived there as a student. With God’s help, I got a temporary job with a private firm with a contract with the Department of Interior. The position allowed me to pay down my new place and open a checking account.
One Saturday morning in 1975, I went to my old apartment to get my mail. I received a telegram from home saying that my mother had died and I should call home immediately. I did and received confirmation of the death. I felt sad and did not know what to do. I did not have the money to go to Liberia. After paying the apartment down payment, I did not have enough money to live on for the week. And here, my mother died, and I cannot go home to pay my last respects. She died without enjoying the fruit of her labor, all of which ran in my mind during my grief.
On Sunday, the next day, a miracle happened. I got a round-trip ticket to Liberia the following Monday from someone I did not know.
"This has to be God’s work and grace," I shouted.
"Thank you, Jesus!" I added.
I flew on Tuesday and was seated in a business class section of the plane. I could not believe it.
"Business class?" I thought surprisingly with a smile.
My seatmate, an older White man, looked at me, perhaps thinking I was rich. We did not talk to each other for about two hours. Then he introduced himself as an official of an international company in Liberia. I told him I was a Liberian student in the US and was going home for a brief stay. A family delegation greeted me when we landed at the Roberts International Airport in Liberia.
My family cried when I arrived home. The burial went well. I remained strong, despite the sadness. I resided in New Krutown, Bushrod Island, where my mother lived and died. It was my birthplace. New Krutown is the largest ghetto in Liberia. In 1945, the Liberian government established the town as a new home for the Kru people from Old Krutown, located in the area now called West Point in central Monrovia.
I stayed home most of the time, meeting visitors and writing. I spent time with my siblings and other family members. It had been many years since I last saw them. It was a sad but needed and rewarding reunion.
About two weeks after the burial, I conducted primary research on the late Didwho Welleh Twe, a progressive legend in Liberia in the 1920-1960s. I interviewed his daughter Talon and her husband, Mr. Patterson, who was Twe’s secretary. My interview threw more light on Twe’s political and personal life. Twe was the standard bearer of the Reformation Party that contested in the 1951 presidential election in Liberia. He was the first native Liberian to openly declare for the presidency under a registered political party. Since Liberia’s independence in 1847, settlers known as Americo-Liberians and Congos ruled the country until 1980, the year of the coup. But the True Whig Party government denied Twe to participate in that election. Hence, Tubman won re-election unopposed.
I also met Dr. Togba-Nah Tipoteh personally for the first time during my trip. I had heard about him while I was in the US. He is a progressive icon. His change of name from Rudolph Roberts to Togba-Nah Tipoteh was inspiring, showing the appreciation and value of African culture and identity. He lost his teaching job at the Liberia University (LU) because of his social advocacy. He gave me a document concerning the termination and conditions in Liberia. He wanted me to publish the materials and send a set to a journalist with the Boston Globe. I did all he asked upon my return to America. Indeed the Drum published a special edition on the information.
Unfortunately, went I returned to the US, some members of the Awina organization accused me of keeping what they called Tipoteh’s Document. They alleged that the materials were for the organization, and I held them for personal reasons. But Tipoteh did not help stop the confusion. He made the document to be secret and very important. Dew Tuan-Wleh Mayson, my college schoolmate, came to my rescue, confirming to the organization that the materials were communications between Tipoteh and LU President Dr. Hoff, and there was nothing much to the letters.
Dew had returned home and was in Liberia during my visit. He was also harassed and removed from his teaching post at Cuttington College for speaking out on critical issues.
While I was in Liberia, the government arrested key members of the Revelation Newspaper, a young social and politically conscious news organ. Students, including Jesus Weeks, Russell, and Patrick Burrowes, called then Kaddala, operated the Revelation. Its advocacy did not go well with the establishment. Though most of the members were children of the elite, their publication was critical of the established political behaviors. The government released them after their parents protested the arrest. Awina Drum’s Liberian correspondent, the late S. Tugbe Worjloh, covered the event. Assistant Editor Nyanseor did not publish the Drum during my visit to Liberia to protect me from possible harassment and action in Liberia.
A few years after, Tipoteh, Mayson, the late Amos Sawyer, and other progressives founded MOJA (Movement for Justice in Africa) about two years after organizing SUSUKU in 1976. The attention was on Africa, specifically South Africa. However, strategically the focus was on injustice and repression in Liberia. Indeed, the organization would have died at birth had the organizers called it Movement for Justice in Liberia. The True Whip Party regime would have arrested leaders of the movement. We in the Diasporas became the external and supporting arm of MOJA and other progressive organizations in Liberia. They relied on us because of our position and freedom to speak out and inform the world of the conditions in Liberia.
The Tolbert government was facing strong opposition from the progressive elements. Its military killed unarmed demonstrators during The Rice Riot in 1979. I will subsequently discuss the event in detail. According to information, Tolbert believed Russia influenced the group to protest. The killing did not sit well internationally. We, members of the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA), learned of the event during our conference on a Saturday in Washington, DC. We were shocked. About two weeks after, under ULAA’s umbrella, progressive Liberians in the United States protested in major US cities. We held our largest demonstration in Washington, DC. We marched with a casket from Malcolm Park to the Liberian ambassador’s residence and the White House. People looked on as we marched. They had not seen this kind of demonstration before. I gave the keynote speech, pointing out oppression and brutality in Liberia and the need to tell the world.
In October 1979 few months after our march in Washington, DC, we staged another demonstration in New York City at the United Nations. Famous American poet, writer, and activist Amiri Baraka and his family joined us in the protest. He spoke at the gathering. I also did. I talked about the essence of matter and that things move by actions. Without action, they will stand still. I told them that our demonstration in Washington, DC was an action bringing the Liberian problem to the attention of the American people. We continued that action by protesting at the UN to bring attention to our plight worldwide. Only by taking action our problems in Liberia will be solved. After my speech, Baraka complimented me, saying. "You gave a good speech."
In our demonstration, we interrupted Tolbert three times during his speech at the UN General Assembly. I was part of the group that entered the UN Assembly. The idea came to me while we were protesting outside the UN. I discussed it with Tambakai Jangaba, ULAA’s founding father. We divided the group into three sections. Nyudueh Morkonmana headed the first, the late Blamoh Seekie led the second, and I directed the third. We entered the assembly as guests. Each section interrupted the speech three minutes after the other. Tolbert stopped his address at each interruption. He was embarrassed, for he had never experienced this before. We were arrested after the disruption and released.
It should be noted that Tolbert released the leaders of PAL from jail upon receiving a letter from Matthews apologizing for the riot. The government permitted the registration of PAL’s political party, the Progressive People Party (PPP), in 1979. Tolbert also made this move to prepare for the OAU conference scheduled in Liberia. The president wanted to present a good image internationally. Further, despite the embarrassment at the UN, Tolbert willingly met with ULAA representatives in Washington at the Liberian embassy, the ambassador’s residence. There Charles Taylor, ULAA board chair, exercised fearlessness; he stood up, looked at Tolbert, and boldly said.
"We are not here to play games. We mean business"!
Tolbert was speechless; he just looked at Taylor. The president and ULAA came to an agreement. ULAA would send a delegation to Liberia at the government’s expense. The government would guarantee the delegation security, free movement, and freedom of speech. Tolbert kept the promise. Taylor headed the delegation. Unlike the other delegation members who returned immediately after the mission, Taylor did not return to America until after the coup.
At the same time, in Liberia, the government faced possible bankruptcy under the watch of then Finance Minister Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Before becoming minister, in the late 1970s, Ms. Sirleaf came to the US to work for the World Bank. She served previously as a special assistant to Steve Tolbert who was finance minister and younger brother of Tolbert. Sirleaf managed the Rally Time program, which was under Steve’s authority. The project was a fundraising effort, the pillar of the president’s Mat to Mattress policy. She had just completed her studies at Harvard. She was young and progressive. Her advocacy against corruption made her an enemy to government officials who saw the program as a means to personal wealth. Some corrupt officials complained to the president about her termination. But Steve supported and protected her. She received Steve’s blessing and support for the World Bank’s position.
In Liberia, a mutual friend told her about me. Upon arriving in America, she asked Calvin Cole, an employee at the Liberian Finance Office in DC, to contact me for a meeting. Calvin did. Sirleaf and I started on the wrong foot but later became good and close friends. I edited The Drum then and observed her as a no-nonsense woman. I remember I misspoke in a conversation with her; she felt offended at my remark and angrily told me. I immediately apologized. She freely spoke her mind and advised and encouraged me on The Drum. She was kind and caring and offered to assist me financially, but I politely refused.
Further, she trusted my ability and respected my integrity, view, and stance on issues. We telephoned each other daily and dined out regularly. There were no cell phones then, only lane line phones. But the relationship went sour after she returned to Liberia to become finance minister. I was disappointed in her because, in many of our conversations in the US, she consistently criticized the Tolbert administration as corrupt and nepotistic and yet took a job becoming a part of the system she had condemned. I was unhappy with her hypocrisy as a matter of principle.
Before coming home during our friendship, Sirleaf kept a connection with PAL in New York. She provided private information on the Tolbert government. PAL published the report in its paper, "The Revolution." She also extended a special friendship to PAL member Samuel Jackson, who provided chauffeurs services to her whenever she visited New York. But Jackson gave the impression that he and Sirleaf had a closer relationship. However, she encouraged him to return to Liberia and worked with her in the Ministry of Finance. Though, according to sources, he did not participate nor was involved in the rice protest, Jackson was a founding and active member of PAL in the US. He was intelligent, worked in the banking sector, and demonstrated commitment and principle in the progressive advocacy of Liberian affairs in America.
PAL was well organized, and The Revolution was professionally published with high circulation in Liberia. Sirleaf was behind the group. The paper promoted her political interest. Nevertheless, Tolbert appointed her to his government. He knew of her ability and influence and apparently thought that getting her on his side would help his administration minimize criticism from Diaspora Liberians. Additionally, she was loyal to Steve. He had died in a plane crash in Liberia while serving as finance minister.
It became clear that Sirleaf’s involvement with Liberian progressive groups and activities in the US was mainly for self-interest. She capitalized on events for personal and political gains. She acted opportunistically. Also, she kept a grudge against those she profoundly disagreed with and was hard to forgive. But Sirleaf was strong and made difficult decisions as an administrator. I recommended a Liberian to Sirleaf for employment. Though I first hesitated, I wrote her because I wanted to provide a competent Liberian an employment opportunity, despite my disappointment with her. Sirleaf responded positively. The man returned to Liberia and worked in the government.
THE RICE RIOT
Now, let me discuss The Rice Riot thoroughly. It started with the government’s intended increase in the price of rice, Liberian staple food, from $9.50 to $15.00 per 100 pound bag. Then Minister of Agriculture Florence Chenoweth propounded the price rise. PAL argued that the move would heighten hardship for the Liberian masses. For instance, some Liberians, including the soldiers, earned $22.00 monthly. However, the government viewed that rice importers and sellers needed to profit from their investments.
Further, the administration felt the increase would force Liberians to engage in rice production and stop rice importation dependency. But Matthews and his followers alleged that the Tolbert family and other officials were rice importers and the price rise was meant to benefit them. PAL also claimed that it could sell rice cheaper if allowed to bring in rice. The group vowed to stage a street demonstration in opposition to the increase.
Dialogues between PAL and the government failed. Consequently, on April 14, 1979, the group implemented the planned rally. The military and the police responded by shooting the protesters, killing hundreds. The government buried the deaths in a mass grave. It arrested and jailed the PAL leadership and some MOJA progressives for the riot. It is interesting to note that some non-commissioned soldiers sympathized with the demonstrators. The regime brought in soldiers from Guinea to help. Moreover, hours before the march, Amos Sawyer and Henry Fahbulleh attempted to dissuade PAL from protesting.
Know also that before the march, some influential persons and religious leaders, including Bishop George Brown and Albert Porte, unsuccessfully dialogued with PAL and the government for a peaceful resolution. PAL’s militant, D. Kahn Carlor, in an interview, expressed spearheading the demonstration to protect Matthews and Oscar Quiah and prolong the advocacy. Carlor said he rather died than the two leaders, for their deaths would have killed the struggle. PAL’s leaders hid when the government sought their capture following the riot. The Justice Minister, Oliver Bright, issued a wanted dead or alive bounty for the protest leaders. Many concerned Liberians, chiefly religious ones, voiced outrage at the minister’s action. The Vatican ambassador turned over Gabriel Matthews to the government following the issuance. Other progressives in hiding turned themselves in.
Unlike in William Tubman’s presidency, in the 1970s, Liberian students made progressive moves against the government. For example, in 1978, a year before The Rice Riot, the University of Liberia students protested Tolbert’s declaration of US President Jimmy Carter’s visit to Liberia as a national holiday. Carter had visited Nigeria for three days. From Nigeria, his plane stopped in Liberia for refueling. He did not plan to visit Liberia. But Tolbert asked him to come to the city for hours of reception. The students stated that the holiday was unnecessary and uneconomical. Many observers applauded the students’ advocacy.
The government faced financial and socio-political problems at home following The Rice Riot. Therefore, the administration hired a US consulting firm to find out what America was thinking regarding the government through its embassy in DC. In a confidential report, the firm said that the US was unhappy with the Tolbert regime’s human rights record, killing unarmed civilians, and the historical injustices on the Liberian natives by the ruling Congo elite. It disproved Tolbert’s view that Russia influenced PAL.
Know that the US uttered this view during the Carter administration. Further, Tolbert and Carter were vital members of the Baptist World Alliance, of which Tolbert was the president. Tolbert found himself in a dilemma: to him, he was doing his best for reforms; to the elite, the president was going too far and too lenient; to the progressives, he was not doing enough; and to the United States, his government was disappointing. There was a need for a change. Tolbert sided with the ruling True Whig Party establishment and jailed for the second time leaders of PAL. The group leadership included Samuel Jackson, Marcus Dahn, and the late Gabriel Mathews and Oscar Quiah.
In Tolbert’s last address to the Liberian Legislature, he vowed to be tough, rough, and mean. But what Tolbert did not know was that some of the progressives were intelligent agents, according to Niels Hahn’s investigation on US covert and overt operations in Liberia from the 1970s and 2003. It says the CIA supported PAL, "headed by Backus Matthews, who was in close contact with the CIA."
Note: Stay tuned for the next excerpts, The Coup. "Victory Over Difficulties” is an inspiring story of an African who overcame discrimination, prejudice, failures, and disappointments in the United States. The book will be published soon. If interested in getting a copy, please email dagbayonohnyanfore66@gmail.com or https://www.facebook.com/dagbayonoh.nyanfore
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