OP-ED By Moses Blonkanjay Jackson (MsEd, EdM)
(Author, Education Reform Advocate, Preacher
August 7, 2023
Thinking Thoughts
In my thinking thoughts I considered recent events that unfolded on August 5, when the National Elections Commissions officially declared the 2023 elections campaign period officially open. In a bid to showcase their perceived “one-time victories”, supporters of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) and the Unity Party (UP) were unleashed.
While the UP serenaded with slogans of victory, the CDC sent their message via pallbearers and undertakers carrying a huge casket with the photo of Ambassador Boakai who is the UP Presidential candidate. The sight portrayed mixed messages as some people thought it was grotesque, outlandish and ridiculous and walked away as the casket floated by while CDCians jubilated, clapped, and cheered mockingly shouting ” the pappy already na die, the pappy already na die” I wonder if those casket totting politicians considered the implications of their action.
Casket and Death
Casket signifies death. You see Brabbie, each time a casket surfaces, it means death. Even when the casket is sitting in the carpenter shop, it is saying I am waiting for somebody to die or somebody has already died, and I am here to carry them down to the great beyond.
Casket means death. When the advocate for freedom Comrade Albert Port died, we carried his casket on our shoulders down the streets of Monrovia; past the UL, up Capital By-pass, up Crown Hill to the former Daily Observer Newspaper office and onwards to Broad Street. Although we had a dead man in that casket, we sang songs of victory to a fearless hero who was the conscience of the Liberian society. I wonder if that was what the CDC was portraying to a living Ambassador Joe Boakai by placing his photo on their casket?
Trend of Casket Politics
Brabbie, this is not the first time that caskets have been used to send political messages, albeit it grotesque and outlandish. During the Apartheid days in South Africa and current day Palestine, when a militant is killed, living militants parade with the casket bearing the remains of the departed, shout slogans and sing victory songs. Usually the message they send is “Old soldier never dies, and militants, though dead, their blood shall cleanse the land and their dreams and aspirations shall remain perpetual” I doubt if that was the message the CDC was sending regarding the venerated statesman of the person of Ambassador Joseph Nyumah Boakai.
During the events that led to the “move or be removed” University of Liberia invasion, placed temporarily placed a casket on top of the UL welcome sign facing the Capital building where President Doe was scheduled to speak. Prior to the day of the invasion, the student leaders gathered hundreds of students from all over Monrovia and its suburbs including Tubman High, D-Tweh, Central High, and other elementary and junior high schools. Scores of speeches regarding Decree 88A and the draconian military rule resonated all over the UL campus. We were young, vivacious, and thought we were brace until death moved on us and scattered us with live bullets and beating. I still remember that memorable day when I took a short cut down the steep Jallah town hill behind the girls’ dormitory to escape death.
Some of us were cognizant that placing the casket did not mean a living military leader should die because that would have been a reckless audacity. Our casket was a reminder that the people’s redemption Council (PRC) junta had spilled adequate blood and needed to reconcile the country more. It sent a message that President Doe should not execute the six student leaders he had in jail like he did the 13 TWP officials. I doubt if that was the message the CDC was sending. During the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf leadership, the CDC paraded with caskets as protest to her leadership. To this date, there is no indication of the message they were sending by parading with a casket.
Bane of Casket Pallbearers and Undertakers
Bane is the opposite of blessing; it is bad luck. Playing with casket or playing around caskets has bane so it is not for everybody. That is why six people are specifically selected to serve as pallbearers and the funeral organizers are as undertakers. If you are not selected and you play around the casket, you are asking for your own bad luck, Brabbie.
In my hometown in Neegbah, Rivercess, I witnessed a peculiar tradition regarding caskets, dead bodies, burials and bad luck. My uncle’s wife died, and we had already nominated the undertaker, and the pallbearers, and prepared her grave and casket. Unfortunately, her family arrived from Grand Bassa county and demanded to take the corpse with them on a chartered. A heated argument ensued that we did not win due to traditional missteps. According to tradition, once the casket was made for a dead person, it could not go into the earth empty; the empty grave also could not be covered without a corpse or an essential object; the pallbearers and undertakers could not be dismissed without cleansing rites.
The Chief Poro and Sande elders performed ceremonial rites to cleanse our tone of the bad luck related to the empty casket and grave. For the cleansing, all of us in the town were required to take cleansing baths in a tributary of the Cestos River. If you refused to take your cleansing bath and returned home, somebody from your family or the child who will be the first to greet you would either get seriously sick or die. Some young sympathizers from other towns who deliberately refused to go through the cleansing are not alive today. That is why people should wash their faces and hands when they return from funerals and wake keepings to avoid bad luck.
Cleansing the CDC of the Bane
In my fear and trepidation, I have been wondering “How did CDC dispose of the casket? Where are the pallbearers who touched the casket? Where are the or CDC strategic undertakers who organized the fake funeral and paid for the casket? Have they been cleansed? In fact, where is the casket that is supposed to be carrying the living Boakai’s corpse? Is it sitting in some CDCian’s home or at the party headquarters steaming with bad luck? Do members of the CDC believe in tradition or they will just brush it off? Alas! casket means death and you cannot have death to be hovering over your homes or party offices.
Farmington Accord, Why So Soon
Brabbie, in Liberia today when a young person dies, friends and relative usually say,” Why so soon” because the person died sooner than expected. Now when the public outcry about the casket surged, a UP partisan consoled himself that CDC’s casket only carried Uncle Joe’s photo but did not signify his death because Uncle Joe is still alive and would return soon to kick butts in the October elections.
The casket instead signified the pre-mature death of the new-born Farmington Accord which all parties signed and vowed to eschew activities that generate violence. But no sooner had the Farmington been signed, than CDC and UP took to the streets at the same time creating a volatile situation. As if to pour gasoline on fire, no sooner had Farmington been born than CDC placed a photo of the presidential candidate of another party on a casket and paraded the streets, an act that would have surely birthed violence had UP reacted as per Newton’s third law which states that:
“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So, if object A
acts a force upon object B, then object B will exert an opposite yet equal force upon object A”.
Before Newton’s Law can take effect, my questions are, “Where is the religious council and the police?” “Where is General Prince Charles Johnson and Defense Minister Daniel Ziahnkan who threatened to take action on people who carried out acts inimical to peace during these elections? Suppose UP partisans had attacked the casket to peel of the photo of their Presidential candidate? Suppose the UP goes to court for some breach of the law? Suppose Hon. Yekeh Yarkpawolo Korlubah in retaliation, prepares a casket for President Weah and VP Jewel Howard Taylor and parades the streets? Suppose CDCians chose to act against Yekeh? Where is the Secretary General of the CDC, Jefferson Koijee? Where is Chairman Morlue? Where is the CDC Campaign Chair, Eugene Nagbe? Do they support this act? When will they openly condemn it if they do not support it?
Suppose all of those CDCians who touched that empty hungry casket without a corpse start to catch some kind of bad disease and their children start to die because they did not traditionally cleanse themselves after serving as pallbearers and undertakers? To NEC, is such an act a violation? What is the penalty? Where is the Liberian National Bar Association (LNBA)? Why are we silent? God forbid, Liberia.
The Benediction
While I do not intend to overtly support any of the political actors nor covertly vilify any of them, I condemn without equivocation, the dastardly, shameful and reprehensible act of placing the photo of a living human being on a casket and parading with it in the streets. It is an offense and disrespect to any living soul, and a needless unnecessary call for death to come and take other people.
Albeit, as a well-meaning conscientious peaceful Liberian who has proffered to be the conscience of this society, I beseech the UP to take solace and reliance from the words of the Savior Jesus Christ who, when he was vilified, spat upon, beaten, bloodied and killed by zealots and fanatics, still exhibited maturity. As he hanged on the cross in pain and looked down at those who were giving him such an excruciating pain, He raise His voice and according to Luke 23:34 said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”
Now to Mr. Death, on behalf of those who came close to that empty hungry casket, I beg for them. They must not contract bad diseases; their children should not die; they must live to see October 10, 2023 unfold. They must not die.
“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Corinthians 15:55 (KJV).
O casket, where is thy bad luck? Chey Liberia!
Please join me as I reminisce the words of the 19th Century songwriter, Jeremiah E. Rankin who penned God be With You Till WE Meet again
. God be with you till we meet again;
By his counsels guide, uphold you;
With his sheep securely fold you.
God be with you till we meet again.
[Chorus]
Till we meet, till we meet,
Till we meet at Jesus’ feet,
Till we meet, till we meet,
God be with you till we meet again.
- 2. God be with you till we meet again;
When life’s perils thick confound you,
Put his arms unfailing round you.
God be with you till we meet again.
- God be with you till we meet again;
Keep love’s banner floating o’er you;
Smite death’s threat’ning wave before you.
God be with you till we meet again.
I am simply thinking thoughts oo.
About the Author
The CEO and founder of the Diversified Educators Empowerment Project (DEEP), Mwalimu-Koh Blonkanjay Jackson holds a Master of Education from Harvard University, and a Master of Science in Mathematics Education from St. Joseph’s University; he is a Yale University Teachers Initiative Math Fellow and UPENN Teacher Institute Physics Fellow. He is a former part-time lecturer at the UL Graduate School of Education and the Cuttington University Graduate School. Mr. Jackson served the government of Liberia diligently for four years and returned to private practice as Development Specialist and Education Engineer. The Mwalimu-Koh can be reached at 0886 681 315 / 0770 206 645.