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The Plot Against Minister
Amara Konneh: Another Season of Bigotry?
By :Nvasekie N. Konneh
27 January, 2012
 Sometime
we take comfort in the fact that based on our collective
experience of the war and the hardship it has brought upon
us as a people and nation and the fact that many Liberians,
more than ever before, have traveled widely and have become
much more enlightened about the issue of hate and bigotry
and therefore embracing of the values of tribal and
religious diversity. But whenever a Mandingo person is
appointed to a key position in Liberia, tribal hatred and
bigotry have always raised their ugly heads. We see this
with the publication of malicious and hateful propaganda
piece written Lee H. William of the African Standard
website.
According William, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf “named
Amara Konneh a Mandingo from the Kankan region of Guinea as
the new finance Minister of the Republic of Liberia.” Going
on further, the writer wrote: Minister Konneh’s family
is reported to have settled in the mineral rich region of
Bopolu after crossing from Guinea in the mid fifties.
Trading in precious stones is one of the major businesses of
members of the mandinka ethnic group. According to a source
that refused to be named, Minister Konneh family settled in
the diamond rich region of the country without any legal
paper to legitimize their stay in the country and started
mining from that part of the country. According to the
source Minister Konneh’s family did not seek any
naturalization papers from the Bureau of Immigration and
Naturalization of the Republic of Liberia until he became
surfacing in the political life of the country.”
Did Lee William really interview people who know Amara
Konneh? I doubt it. If he did he wouldn’t have written that
“Minister Konneh’s family did not seek any naturalization
papers from the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization of
the Republic of Liberia until he became surfacing in the
political life of the country.” Given the fact that Amara
Konneh became known within the political circle of Liberia
in 2004 when he became Chairman of LIFE (Liberians for
Ellen) in the US, can we say then that it was in 2004 or
2005 that his parents became Liberians through
naturalization? This is contrary to the fact about Amara
Konneh.
If Lee William had done his research properly, he would have
discovered that the parents of Amara Konneh were among the
hundreds of thousands of Liberians that were murdered in
cold blood by the rebels supported by the like of Lee
William. Both Amara Konneh’s father and mother were killed
by the rebels in Wasua simply because they were Mandingo. If
Lee William can prove that Amara’s parents resurrected from
their graves to “seek naturalization papers from the Bureau
of Immigration” in support of their son’s political
ambition, then we will give him credit for writing a well
researched document. Other than that we can conclude that
this effort of his is nothing but a malicious, hateful, and
bigoted piece of propaganda intended to derail’s Minister
Amara Konneh’s appointment as the next Finance Minister of
the Republic of Liberia. No doubt, Minister Amara Konneh
merits this position.
We thought we had dealt with the issue of tribal and
religious hatred in the past but what we are seeing or
hearing now from the like of Lee William regarding the
nomination of Minister Amara Konneh as Finance Minister has
reminded us once again that hatred and bigotry are still
alive and kicking when it comes to the Mandingoes in
Liberia. We dealt with it when Dr. Al Hassan Conteh was
nominated as the president of the University of Liberia. We
dealt with it when Cllr. Kabineh Janneh was nominated to the
Supreme Court Bench.
Minister Amara Konneh is now the latest Mandingo personality
to have been attacked on the account of his ethnicity. This
simply means we have lot more works to do to make Liberia a
discrimination free society. If it took a vigorous fight
even in enlightened societies like Europe and America to
defeat racial hate and bigotry, the fight has to be much
more vigorous in an under-developed third world country like
Liberia. This anti-Mandingo sentiment against the nomination
of Minister Amara Konneh should remind us that we should
continue the fight to make Liberia a better society where
there should be no place for hate and bigotry of any kind.
If Martin Lurther King, Malcolm X and others could defeat
racism in America to make America a better society, we must
continue to fight to make Liberia a better society to
reflect its pluralistic ethnic and religious values.
About the Author: Nvasekie N. Konneh is a poet and writer
and nine years veteran of the US Navy. Nvasekie Konneh is
the author of a book of poetry, "Going to War for America,"
about his experiences of surviving the Liberian civil war
and time served in the US military. He’s currently the
publisher of the Uptown Review Magazine in Monrovia, Liberia
which covers Liberian arts, culture and tourism. He can be
reached 267 407 5735 in the US or 011 231 657 0507 in
Liberia or you can email him @
KonnLove@aol.com or
Knvasekie@yahoo.com
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