Arthur Abraham

The Autobiography of an African Princess

The Autobiography of an African Princess by Fatima Massaquoi is the third literary effort chronicling the Massaquoi family from Sierra Leone and Liberia. The two previous works described the lives of male family members. The first narrated the story of Hans J. Massaquoi (1926–2013), a mixed-race youth who came of age in Nazi Germany. The second book was a biography of Hans Massaquoi’s grandfather, Momulu Massaquoi (1870–1938), a Vai nobleman and high-ranking Liberian government official. Fatima Massaquoi (1904–1978) was the daughter ofMomoluMassaquoi. She was also dean of the Liberal Arts College at the University of Liberia and the founder of the University of Liberia’s Institute of African Studies. The Autobiography recounts her childhood in Liberia and subsequent academic career as a teenager and young woman in Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. Massaquoi’s personal experiences and observations as a young village girl in Liberia are an invaluable account of the Vai and otherWest African people’s methods of socializing and educating young people to take their place in society. The Sande society for young girls and the Poro society for youngmen are the traditional vehicles for passing on cultural and spiritual knowledge that prepare youngsters for the responsibilities of adult life. Fatima discusses how the Sande society teaches girls child rearing, cooking, fishing, dancing, knowledge of herbs, and how to care for her future home and husband. According to Fatima, a young girl would learn from Sande “everything she needs to become a well-bred and functional woman in the community.” One unfortunate aspect of traditional society, however, is that it could be rigorous. It has the tendency to mete out corporal punishment for relatively minor offenses. For example, Fatima’s stepmother punished her for taking food BOOK REVIEW

Goodbye Friends—You Shall Be Hearing from Me

“I have come that ye might have life and have it more abundantly.”1 This biblical quotation is inscribed on the main building of the Bethlehem Center, the settlement house in the slum area of Nashville, Tennessee. The verse tells you vividly the origin of the center; it was a gift of the “Methodist Mission Women as their Neighborly Service To their Negro Friends.” Mrs. Sawyer, a Negro woman of Nashville, felt the need for wholesome recreation for the children in the Negro community and sought the aid of her white friend, Miss Haskins, who assisted her in securing funds for her training school and recreational home for her own people. From their humble efforts, the center was born and has meant so much to the many children of the neighborhood.

Life and Customs in the Bali (Bari) Country of Sierra Leone

The use of terms such as “tribes,” “natives,” and the like that Westerners use to describe Africans is pejorative, and Africans dislike it. These are all expressions you have invented to undermine us and whatever authority we hold. If I use these terms then, it is only done so that you might understand me.

L’École Supérieure et Secondaire (Switzerland), and Rough Times on My Return to Germany

The branch of the institution I attended in Geneva was a large edifice located on the Rue Voltaire. My session was almost entirely for students with a foreign language background. My classroom was on the second floor and my class teacher, the “maitresse de classe,” was Mademoiselle Margret Long. This department of the school offered French in all forms. The regular courses for my section began at 9 a.m. and lasted until 12 noon. We studied diction, grammar, etcetera. We used Le Petit La Rousse Grammaire Superieure, and in later years I found this grammar very helpful. Two hours on Fridays were devoted to scientific expressions. The teacher lectured in French. Mademoiselle Long showed an excellent sense of justice and took great pains in teaching girls who had come from all over the world, including Italy, Armenia, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, United States, Switzerland, and many other places.

Life in Monrovia

Our trip was pleasant, exciting, and full of novelties. I would have enjoyed it much more had my thoughts not lingered constantly on Mama Jassa. I kept wondering what she was likely to be doing at such and such a time, and who would take my place with her reminding her of the various items she would have on the calendar for the day. Meanwhile, my brothers and I were slowly becoming acquainted.

I Arrive in Germany

Our last stop before Hamburg was Rotterdam, Holland. It was planned to visit Professor Johann Buttikofer and family— you will remember earlier that Buttikofer was a friend of my grandmother’s who wrote of her in his Reisebilder aus Liberia.1 Buttikofer knew father since the time father was an infant, and father and Ma Sedia had visited them before. This visit was also important to the family because Buttikofer was a friend of Ma Sedia’s grandfather, the late Hilary R. Johnson, under whose administration he had visited Liberia. It was very interesting to make this visit and hear of the days of all the actions and deeds of the fathers who lived in the generation before us.

Departure for America

Now that a career in medicine seemed out of question for me, I turned my attention to the possibility of a teaching career. But, while a person can practice medicine almost perfectly without great knowledge of the language of the country in which he intends to live, this is not the case with any other branch of knowledge. Hence, since my ultimate objective in all the training I had received was to work in Liberia, father and I had to turn our attention seriously to the matter of my knowing English as much as my own mother tongue. The first possibility was to study in England, but father ruled it out because of the growing menace of war in Europe. I didn’t feel that the war might include Great Britain, but father did. He felt that war in Europe—and in the whole world—was inevitable. After giving up England as a possibility, our only alternative remained America.

My Birthplace, Ethnicity, and Parents

It was in Gendema, then the capital city of the Gallinas, that I first saw the light of the world. The Gallinas is a territory inhabited by the Vai people, who occupy territories in southeastern Sierra Leone and western Liberia (see figure 1.1). The term Gallinas, which applies only to that portion of the Vai country that is situated in Sierra Leone today, is derived from the Portuguese word gallinha (hen), and the name was probably given to the territory because of the great number of guinea fowl found there by Portuguese sailors.1 The original inhabitants of the country themselves call this territory Massaquoi, and this name was chosen because a member of the Massaquoi family played the most important role in its founding, and a Massaquoi has sat on the throne of the country since its foundation. Another name by which it is known is Jayaloo (Jayaloh), a contraction of Jayalolo which means Jaya’s country, after one of the kings.

I Bid Farewell to Liberia

In 1920, C.D.B. King, runningon the WhigPartyticket, was elected president of the Republic of Liberia, defeating the People’s Party. A new era began in the history of Liberia with various political appointments. His cabinet and administration as a whole included many segments of the Liberian population who were now involved in shaping the destiny of the state. Father had been instrumental in acquiring native votes for the Whig Party, and as a result was given a responsible position in the new government as consul general to Germany.

The “Invincibles,” and My Departure for Switzerland

I have mentioned that my best friend and seatmate was Sonja Schonfeld, whose parents had migrated to Germany after wandering all over Europe while she had been just a baby. She claimed her family were descendants of the tribe of the Levites and were orthodox Jews, though I don’t believe that Sonja was.