PHOTO: Mourners at the cemetery where the fallen Journalist Seitua was interred (Photo courtesy: Pastor Suah S. Deddeh and Ms. Lisa Willie)
By Joe Bartuah
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, USA- Amid wailings, sobbings, streaming tears and somber demeanors, scores of mourners from far and near gathered last Saturday, November 5th at the Melrose Cemetery on 88 North Pearl Street in Brockton, Massachusetts to give veteran journalist James Karmo Seitua a befitting send-off.
That came following funeral rites at the nearby Russell and Pica Funeral Home on 165 Belmont Street.
Mr. Seitua, 67, former Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Observer newspaper in Monrovia had died on October 13, 2022 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton, Massachusetts following a period of an on-and-off ailment, barely a month after the September 14, 2022 passing of Mr. Philip N. Wesseh, his former co-worker at the Observer in pre-conflict Liberia.
In his tribute on behalf of Liberian journalists in the Diaspora and the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), the former president of the PUL, Pastor Suah S. Deddeh described the fallen Editor as a champion of fundamental human rights and democracy, who gallantly stood his ground when press freedom was being threatened in Liberia, not only under the Samuel Kanyon Doe regime in the 1980s, but also during Charles Taylor dictatorship in the 1990s.
Flanked by veteran journalists Isaac D.E. Bantu, Gregory Himie Stemn, Joe Bartuah and the Secretary-General of the New England chapter of the Association of Liberian Journalists in the Americas (ALJA), Ms. Lisa Willie at the podium, Pastor Deddeh told Mrs. Olivia Seitua, widow of the deceased and his children—Mrs. Marcia Seitua-Allen, James K. Seitua, Jr. and Ms. Jimmilyn Seitua—to be consoled by the fact that their late husband and dad left an exemplary legacy of being a great fighter for freedom, noting that because their departed loved one was a believer in Jesus Christ, they’ll see him again during the Resurrection. Mr. John F. Lloyd, another veteran journalist who had worked with Mr. Seitua at the Daily Observer, later flew in from Maryland to join mourners.
In her eulogy, the Founder and Senior Pastor of the Divine Deliverance and Healing Ministry in Brockton, Apostle Suzanne Kesselly reminded the family and other mourners that nothing can separate humankind from the love of Jesus Christ.
Speaking directly to the widow and children of Mr. Seitua, Apostle Kesselly said, “No matter how hard it hits, God will always put you through, because God brought your husband, your father from Liberia and now he’s sitting with Jesus.”
She said even though everyone was mourning, but the Devil was a big loser, because in the final hours, Mr. Seitua gave his life to Jesus. Apostle Kesselly then encouraged the widow and children to always lean on Christ, adding, “Sis. Olivia, no matter what it takes, stay with the Lord.”
A 36-year veteran of the Inky Fraternity, Mr. Seitua joined the Daily Observer in 1986 as a Senior Reporter, following an eight-year stint at the National Archives Center as a Research Officer. At the Observer under the editorial guidance of Mr. Kenneth Yarkparo Best as Managing Director and the late Stanton B. Peabody as Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Seitua eventually rose through the ranks, becoming Deputy News Editor in the late 1980s, until the eruption of the civil war.
A son of Grand Cape Mount County, Mr. Seitua was born on December 5, 1954 in Bendeja, Porkpa District. He attended Bendu Mission and graduated from the Lott Carey Mission High School in Brewerville, near Monrovia. He subsequently attended the University of Liberia for three years, in pursuit of a degree in journalism.
Mr. Seitua immigrated to the U.S. in 1997, having received a journalism fellowship facilitated by the United States embassy near Monrovia. He and his family resided in Brockton, Massachusetts for more than two decades prior to his demise.