The Mandingo Story

Author Nvasekie: ‘No one will tell the Mandingo story better than the Mandingo man or woman.’

A Liberian poet, essayist has authored a second book, focusing specifically on telling the tales of his kinsmen. “The Land of My Father’s Birth” is considered by many as Nvasekie Konneh’s magnum opus because of the author’s ability to descriptively narrate his story in a fashion that does not let go of its grip on the reader; it seizes her attention, keeps her glued to the book and renders her powerless when it is time to take a breather at the end of a chapter. And on one goes, one chapter after the other!

The book is centered on the Mandingo experience in Liberia, told from a firsthand perspective. He told me in an interview on Saturday that the story of the Mandingoes in Liberia, as told by third parties, has remained twisted because those authors have not lived the Mandingo experience; and so, the minimum duty of faithfulness in description has been simply abandoned. This is what forces Nvasekie to be blunt in his defense of the Mandingoes---the embodiment of his humanity and his culture.

“There is a widespread misconception that Mandingoes are foreigners. In Liberia, for most people it sounds strange to some when a Mandingo man refers to Liberia as “the land of my father.” That is because---whether we like it or not---the deeply-entrenched notion has been that the Mandingo man is only recently arrived on Liberian soil,” said Nvasekie, about the theme of his book.

But flipping through the pages of history, Nvasekie noted that this notion is nothing more than a myth. “The Mandingos were here and helped to build the Liberian nation,” he said. He referenced King Soa Boso Kamara whom, he said, as a Mandingo king, played a lead role in helping the pioneers take on the-then native kings who resisted the expansion of the Liberian nation. But Nvasekie believes that “this key role played by a Mandingo,” is being either consciously or unconsciously ignored or deeply buried under the social carpet---allowing an untruth to trump the truth; but Nvasekie knows that truth will not forever remain kept in darkness. And therein lies his challenge: to help to unearth the truth. His task? To put pen to paper.

Nvasekie was born and raised in Saclepea, Nimba County, northern Liberia, where his grandfather served as chief in 1922. Saclepea, like Bahn, both of Nimba, was heavily settled by the Mandingoes. It is because of this strong sense of ‘roots,’---no matter how often rejected---this author makes no apologies for what he considers one of the major challenges of his life.   Having lived what he feels driven to narrate, he cares little that his revelation goes against what many have always believed regarding his people, and continue to believe. 

Nvasekie feels as a people, Liberians know little or nothing about each other, though they all share a common space, Liberia. “We, Liberians, are lazy when it comes to writing. We don’t like to write books; we don’t want to write about history. As a result, most of us don’t know where we came from, where we are now and where we are headed. We need books on the Mano story, the Krahn story, the Gio story. That way, we will read and better understand each other. That way, we will appreciate the beauty in diversity and better co-exist. So, for me, I felt obliged to document and tell the Mandingo story,” he told his listeners.

His goal is to contribute to the effort of redirecting the thinking of “our people towards appreciating and embracing the beauty in diversity and step outside of their comfort zones to see the world through the lens of their brothers and sisters of other ethnic or even religious backgrounds.”

With some 500 copies of “The Land of My Father’s Birth” readily available in Liberia, Nvasekie is poised to launch his book on July 6, 2013. The event will be held in the auditorium of the University of Liberia, beginning at 2 p.m. A copy of the 243-page book costs $19.75.

He began working on this book in 1994 and finally got it published in January 2013. The book was first launched in Philadelphia, USA, in February 2013. It is a memoir of war, survival, and adventure. It is a personal story of surviving ethnic and religious persecution during the Liberian Civil War. It is a story of courage, a story of reinvention. “The Land of My Father’s Birth” is a celebration of ethnic and religious diversity, a call to embrace differences in times of war and peace from a social activist who has been writing for social cultural enlightenment since the early 1990s.
  

The Inspiration

Mr. Konneh traces his inspiration to becoming a writer to Bai T. Moore’s novel, “Murder in the Cassava Patch.” The narrative in that novel was enough to capture his attention and draw him closer to his calling: a storyteller. He also credits Prof. Wilton Sankawolo’s “Why Nobody Knows When He Will Die” as being part of his earlier inspiration in becoming a writer. But besides these, Nvasekie grew up as a lover of story-telling (folktales). The descriptive and narrative nature of his stories began to attract even adults into becoming members of his audience.

Gradually, he weaned himself off the need to go around the neighborhood, calling friends to his porch for story-telling; they would begin gathering there as soon as the sun went down. Growing up, he realized that telling his stories and sometimes those of others, was creating an enriched process of listening among his audience. He could see in their eyes that they were learning not only about him, but about themselves as well as. “In this way, my passion for story-telling soon began to grow beyond expectation. I found myself firmly grounded in the belief that becoming a writer would accord me a chance to take my childhood hobby to a broader audience.”

This book is regarded by many, a contribution to Liberian scholarship. In America, when one chooses to study about African-Americans---for example---it is simple because someone has written about those people, and so there is something to be read about them. This book is about documenting the Mandingo experience and sharing with the rest of world. That, from the author.

Author Konneh is married with three children.