By Samuel G. Dweh, Freelance Development Journalist
This article contains the writer’s personal ‘homosexual experience’ and ends with recommendations.
Liberia, Africa’s first and oldest independent Republic, is abundantly blessed with natural resources—gold, diamond, timber, iron ore, etc. And the Country has been receiving millions of Dollars, since independence in 1847, from the United States Government for development in all sectors of the Country.
And the Country has abundant “academic brains” for economic and infrastructural transformation!
But this ‘most senior sister’ is lagging behind all her ‘junior sisters’ on intellectual or academic productions.
Two factors—based on my opinion—are responsible for this ‘backwardness’. The causes are: HOMOSEXUAL “CONDITION” & POLITICIZATION. I will now elucidate on each.
HOMOSEXUAL “CONDITION”
Let me begin with saying: I have no issue with another man’s ‘taste’ for his another man—as his ‘sexual mate’ (playing the ‘wife’ or the ‘husband’)—as long as the ‘desired person’ is not being ‘exploited’ (Human Rights violation) on economic reasons (poverty) or such ‘desire’ doesn’t create a “hindrance” to the growth of any sector of our Country of which I, observer of the ‘desire’, am an integral part to “move forward”. WHAT IS MY BUSINESS IN (YOUR) DECISION OF DISTORTING ‘GOD’S SEXUAL ORDER’ (MALE TO FEMALE)?
Homosexual “condition” is a situation where a financially advantaged person (gay or ‘butt brother’) says to another man seeking employment or help: “Surrender your butt (anus) to me first, before I give you what you need.” (Condition)
This is the case in most public and private employment sectors in Liberia. Such ‘condition’ was rampant in pre-civil war Liberia; “suppressed” during the civil with killing of ‘butt brothers’ by rebel soldiers (sometime the killers acted on mere suspicion or accusation); and rears its ugly head in post-war Liberia (beginning from 2006).
This issue pops up during every public discourse about the “difficulty” of getting a job in post-war Liberia, in spite of the job seeker’s possession of requisite academic papers and his “practical knowledge” at job interview in the employment area being ‘competed for’.
“I had this experience at NOCAL (National Oil Company of Liberia) in 2017. I saw a NOCAL’s Scholarship advertisement about study in Petroleum Engineering published in a newspaper. NOCAL was asking for 3 Grade Point Average from a Government-approved University as condition of qualification for the Scholarship. But I had 3.24 GPA. I applied for the Scholarship and passed in the Interview. A lady at NOCAL called me on a Friday, saying my name was on a list of Scholarship applicants who had passed in the Scholarship interview, but that I had to see her male boss who had told her I should see him at his office in the next day, Saturday, in NOCAL’s Head Office in Monrovia. I met her boss, a young man, who wasn’t more than five years older than me, at where he said I should meet him. But guess what?
After telling me I had passed in the NOCAL’s Scholarship Interview, and showing me my name on a list of applicants who passed in the interview, the guy told me I have to be initiated first before my name would be placed on the main list of successful applicants to travel abroad on the Scholarship. When I asked him, what kind of initiation he was talking about, he told me: ‘You are a mature person and that you should understand what I’m was driving at’. Later, his hand started moving toward my thigh. I threatened to call other people’s attention and beat him, if his hand touched my any part of my body.
He apologized, but marched me out of his office. My name wasn’t on the list of shortlisted students. All my inquiries to NOCAL’s hierarchy on the omission of my name on the list yielded no result. This was the end of my advanced University education on NOCAL’s Scholarship Scheme for all educationally passionate but poor Liberian students.”
The above comments are from a young Liberian guy during experience-sharing discourse on ‘educational opportunities for future employment’, held at a School under the Salvation Army in June, 2019.
During the time this guy applied for the NOCAL’s Scholarship, the son of the Head of State, Ellen Johnson Sireaf, was the head of this State-controlled Institution.
This young man, a personal academic colleague to me, is now working in the Finance Department of one of the Salvation Army’s educational institutions. Frustrated on missing the governmental opportunity, he’s looking forward to the appearance of another ‘Scholarship opportunity’ (from the Government of Liberia) on his passion educational area—Petroleum Engineering—which is not on the list of the Salvation Army School’s “Advanced Study Programs”
THE “THING” PROMOTED IN THE UNITED NATIONS SECTOR
I had a personal knowledge and encounter with sodomy (homosexuality) in Liberia.
In 2016, I was invited to a five-day (Monday-Friday) ‘Human Rights’ Meeting organized by another set of Liberia’s community of Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual and Transgener (LGBT) held at one of Liberia’s A-Class Hotel. The Meeting was sponsored by a Jewish Organization and a Western Nation’s Embassy in Monrovia.
The person who invited me was my highly respected intellectual colleague and my role model of “tolerance”—Kamara Abdullai Kamara (now deceased), President of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL). Before taking me to the venue, on Day One, Mr. Kamara said to me: “I’m not a part of any of the sexual sets whose program I’m taking you to, and I would never be a member of any.
However, as a leader, I’ve honored the group’s invitation to me, which is a proof of my being a respecter of another person’s human right to live any sexual life he or she finds happiness in, as I’m being mandated by the UN Human Rights Charter. And I’ve chosen you as my companion to this Workshop for two reasons. The first reason is on your passion for writing about various subjects including human rights issues. I want you write about what you will hear at the Workshop. The second reason I’m taking you there is to have your tolerance level built, which is a prominent attribute of a good leader. I’ve realized, in the three-four years of our friendship, that your tolerance level is low.”
He, however, warned me not to show my “abhorrence” (against any comment or action at the Meeting) by gazing at any member of the ‘community’ speaking or make “critical comment” during Questions/Comments segment of the Meeting.
Mr. Kamara’s next comments shocked me.
“The United Nations sector is promoting LGBT, as part of the UN’s Human Rights advocacy, by ordering leadership of each UN Organ to give priority, on employment, to a job applicant who has proudly revealed his LGBT status than another applicant who is not member of the LGBT community,” the PUL president explained to me before we set out for the LGBT’s Meeting.
What I saw and heard at the Meeting—on each of the five days—shocked me: participants narrating sexual relationship with same-sex mates (narrations were during Experience-Sharing segment) including relationships with some persons who were in heterosexual unions; participants cuddling and kissing each other (same-sex)—especially during lunch time and the Cocktail Night (Closing Ceremony); a gay proposing love to me (with a natural hideous facial expression)—on Day Three (Wednesday); hired veteran Human Rights Lawyers (invited) expressing their fears on “defense…due to the hostile Liberian society against LGBT and the Lawyer’s personal security” (one Lawyer’s expressed excuse); and presence of officials of Western Nations’ Embassies and leaders of popular International NGOs (during Closing Ceremony—Day Five)
Mr. Kamara’s tolerance-related ‘caution’ to me (before we went to the Meeting) restrained me from releasing my big fist onto the face of the male participant (gay) who was talking ‘femininely’ to me and convincing me to be his ‘sexual partner’ (after I told him I never had issue with his ‘sexual preference’ of any of those at the Meeting and didn’t have a ‘friend’ in the hall)
Few days after the Meeting, I did an article on the Meeting, titled “Liberia’s Community of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders: Fighting for Visibility in the Public Space”. The article was sent to local print news media institutions for publication, and picked by the search tool Google. The article focused much on the Experience-Sharing segment of the Meeting
Many UN Organs’ ‘preference’ of a project proposal from a not-governmental Liberian Organization to solve a particular ‘national problem’ appears to authenticate Mr. Kamara Abdullai Kamara’s assertion.
PUSHING THE HOMOSEXUAL “CONDITION” IN (ALL) PRIVATE AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS
This ‘push’ is being done much by citizens of (some) of economically superior Western Nations where sodomy (homosexuality) has been legalized, is a ‘culture’, and whose Governments are providing ‘lifeline’ (FREE food and pharmaceutical drugs) to the entire Liberian society through a Liberian Government that is ‘sick’ with ‘Begging Syndrome’ (can’t apply developmental knowledge acquired from higher institution of learning) The ‘push’ is also being done by the authority of an International Aid Organization whose head is a gay—and prioritizes project proposal from a private Liberian Organization headed by a ‘fellow’ (gay)
At the dawn of the second-term presidential tenure of Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, in 2017, a male applicant for a Government’s Scholarship program accused an official of the Ministry of Education (headed by Mr. George K. Werner) for omitting on omission of his name from the Scholarship students’ list due to ‘homosexual condition’. The Ministry of Education refuted Moses’s claim.
The homosexual-condition-‘push’ is sometime done through a Human Rights-centered ‘advocacy’, and championed through a ‘brave and loquacious’ Liberian from a group of ‘opportunists’ desperate to be taken to a homosexuality-promoting Western Nation on “political asylum” (economic reason in disguise). For example, in 2016, a Liberian guy (named Archie Ponpon) stormed the main campus of the State-owned higher learning institution, University of Liberia (UL), and began “defending” (preaching) homosexuality among student bodies gathered in various students’ intellectual exchange spots called “palava huts”.
Minutes later, Archie was whisked out of the campus when stones from some of the students started raining toward him.
“Homosexual connection, as a condition for promotion, is gradually being pushed into the National Police,” an Officer of the Community Service Division of the Liberia National Police (LNP) disclosed to me, two days after I did a Public Relations work (writing) for a section of the LNP in 2018.
Once upon a time, the Administration of Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf—who had lived most of her ‘refugee life’ in one of the Countries promoting homosexuality as a ‘culture’—was under extreme pressure to ‘legalize’ sodomy, being a “condition” from a particular Western Government, for huge financial support to her Government. Some local media institutions gave maximum publicity to this issue.
“Under pressure to get this big money, the President was about to sign onto a particular Document, but asked for my spiritual opinion on the matter. I declared to the President, ‘homosexuality is evil in the sight of God you and I serve’, and the Gay Right you are being pressured to sign into Law is strange to the culture of Liberia, built on a Christian principle,” a popular Liberian pastor, who had worked for President Sirleaf, said to me during our meeting in his office in Monrovia in June, 2019. The meeting was to discuss my editing of the manuscript of his on ‘Evangelism’
POLITICIZATION
In Liberia, everything is ‘politicized’—that is, (majority) of Liberians’ comments only condemn or demonize another person or his/her action; or they brazenly insult the person (an opponent) The ‘national platforms’ for politicization, in post-war Liberia, are: electronic news medium (radio station/Talk Shows) and ‘Intellectual Centers’ (public discourse points), which can be found in each neighborhood of Liberia in each of the Country’s 15 subdivisions (Counties) People enter studio or ‘Talking Point’ (Intellectual Center) and just ‘criticize’ other people—or praise-sing their ‘political benefactors’ (sponsors)
REASONS FOR ‘POLITICIZATION’
Some people do it to call attention for a job Government’s job from the President or head of a private Company.
President Ellen Sirleaf, for example, had appointed one of her ‘demonizers’ as Superintendent of Sinoe County (the person later became a Senator of the County), and appointed two others to the posts of ‘Minister of Information, Cultural Affairs & Tourism (MICAT)’ and the and Assistant Minister of Public Affairs (of MICAT) The former person was later reappointed as Liberia’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations; the latter was later sent to the International Migration Organization (IMO) as Liberia’s Representative here.
The last two persons had ‘insulted’ the President: One had referred to Madam Sirleaf’ ‘sexual life’ (before she became President); the other had walked around with a woman’s pant (stained with red chemical) when Madam Sirleaf President, claiming it the ‘red’ was the President’s ‘menses’.
The President’s offer of job to each of these ‘political opponents’ was her ‘political method’ of ‘silencing’ each person
EFFECTS OF HOMOSEXUAL “CONDITION” & POLITICIZATION
Any of these has caused the snail-pace movement of Africa’s oldest Independent Republic—and keeping her behind all other African Countries on the march of educational and economic advancement. Below is a short list of the results of Homosexual “Condition” and Politicization on national sectors.
Educational Sector: Qualified persons stay away (when the ‘condition’ is rooted), or they are quickly pulled out (when they start preaching ‘political sermon’) This ‘gap’ is later filled with ‘ignoramuses’.
Health Risks/Threat to life: The anus or rectum wasn’t ‘designed’ (by God) for ‘penetration’ by the penis. Inserting it there—that is not elastic like where God had designed for its ‘entry’—will cause ‘rectal tear’ (when the penis is too large), which will later result to ‘rectal infection’, or ‘surgical operation’ (to remove sperm at where it was not biologically made to be) And politicization engenders tragic blow (physical or spiritual) from the persons ‘politically punched’ (ridiculed or insulted)
Low professional output in a public or private sector: Sodomistic preference/partiality places promotes an employment condition where a less qualified employee (on academic credentials or job experience) is over the qualified one, whereby the less qualified person is paid huge salary but expects the low-salary employee to do his job. This situation causes low professional output by the qualified employee being given low salary. And it stifles the growth of the Institution—and later the entire Country. (Homosexual preference also prevents people from pursuing advanced education, on their thought that they would get the job with their anus instead of their brans)
Over-burdened and stressed-out (national) workforce: When the available ‘national tasks’ are too much for the number of physically and academically fit citizens working, the workers get tired soon and traumatized (stressed) The combination of these two engenders sickness—or dead.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Sodomy should not be made a “condition” for employment or support to a person’s nation-building project. People should make a choice for it based on volition. Liberia does not have plenty highly educated sons and daughters (like Western Nations pushing their ‘culture’ into Liberia’s throat), where there are hundreds of highly educated persons on the stand-by for a job being occupied by an equally academically qualified person.
Remuneration for work, or increase in pay, should not be based on “homosexual connection”
Politics should be addressed to national issues, not personality.
Liberians outside of the LGBT community should respect the ‘Human Rights’ of those inside, or should be tolerant ‘decision’ to enter. Only the Creator be the JUDGE.
Another ‘sexual factor’ that stifling Liberia’s growth is lesbianism—female employers demanding female job seekers to ‘suck’ before putting them on the ‘payroll’.
Can you help pull Liberia from this backwardness? Your ‘yes’ will be seen in your ‘action’—after reading this article.
About the Author:
Samuel G. Dweh is a member of the Wedabo ethnic group of Grand Kru County, in south-eastern Liberia; a member of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL); a member of the Liberia Association of Writers (LAW); and an Author of several books (fiction & non-fiction)