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Synopsis

The First African Diplomat

Momolu Massaquoi (1870-1938)
(A completed manuscript of 95,000 words by Raymond J. Smyke)

Born of a warrior queen on a Liberian battlefield, Momolu Massaquoi was heir to two African royal families and served as the youngest-ever King of the Vai people. In the 1920s Massaquoi became Africa's first indigenous diplomat serving for a decade in Hamburg, Germany. Popular among Liberians, Massaquoi had the potential to become Liberia's first tribal African president. Betrayed by his closest friend, he was barred from holding public office and his name expunged from official Liberian history. This exclusion from politics and public memory was part of the suppression of the Liberian indigenous majority by the repatriate minority, and it ultimately led to the 1980 implosion of modern Liberia. Set against this backdrop, "The First African Diplomat" illustrates how Massaquoi bridged the wide gap between traditional African life and the Western-dominated industrialized world. This compelling work restores Momolu Massaquoi to his rightful place in African history.

Prince Momolu Massaquoi Source: Century Magazine 1905 Library of Congress

The Massaquoi story has never before been told. Based on research in three continents, the book also documents two hundred years of Massaquoi's family history from his great, great, grandfather Siaka, a slaver on the West Coast of Africa during the 18th century, to his great-grandson, a Harvard trained physician with a Ph.D. in biotechnology. Covering seven generations, this genealogical depth is unusual for anywhere in the world and has rarely been done in Africa.

At one level, the book is a testimony to a formidable African personality. At a deeper level, it examines the politics of exclusion -- a system in which a minority controlled government uses state power to subjugate the majority. The politics of exclusion is prevalent in many places today. In 1994 South Africa was fortunate in 1994 to peacefully make the transition to majority rule peacefully. Elsewhere around the globe, population pressure and the frustration of exclusion combine to generate violence of the kind witnessed on 11 September 2001 in the United States of America

To explore an alternative evolution of the state, had Massaquoi become president, and remained true to his life-long ideals, his leadership would have integrated the majority and minority cultures, gradually harmonized relations, while paving the way for measured change. His banning from national politics in the 1930s was arguably a harbinger of the violent birth of the Second Republic, when the majority seized power fifty years later.

Massaquoi's parents were traditional rulers of separate branches of the Vai ethnic group, conferring on their son a privileged status in society. Following a traditional upbringing and mission schooling in Liberia, Massaquoi studied in the United States during the closing years of the nineteenth century. Living in the segregated post-Civil War South, he was lionized in parts of the white man's world. An unusual young man, at the age of 19 he addressed an audience of 5,000 at the 1891 convention of the National Education Association of the United States. He went on to play an important part in the 1892-1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Later he traveled extensively in Europe and visited England during Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Returning home, Massaquoi worked as a teacher before being crowned King of the Vai people at age 35. Introducing change and modernization to his realm proved unpopular, and he was ignominiously dethroned. This crushing blow diminished his consummate pride.

The deposed king devoted himself to business, his many children, and to perfecting the Vai script. In 1912 Massaquoi was invited to join the national government of Liberia to improve the tense and often warlike relations between the indigenous and immigrant communities. Succeeding beyond expectation in his government post, he consolidated his social position through marriage into an elite family, thus fostering upward mobility in an otherwise closed society. Promotion to ministerial level and the inner circle of government in 1915 showed his considerable talent in both public service and national politics. Massaquoi became extremely popular among the disadvantaged majority, and for the first time, a tribal African had the potential to become president of the republic, but his popularity threatened the ruling elite.

Liberia enjoyed historic trading links with Germany until the of World War I (1914-1918). Postwar exports of forest products to Germany, however, were slow to recover. With Liberia on the brink of national bankruptcy, Massaquoi was appointed the first Minister Consul-General in Hamburg in an attempt to revive trade. From 1922 to 1929, an exciting period for both Germany and the extended Massaquoi family, he served as the first indigenous African diplomat in Europe, drawing a large number of visitors to him. These included W.E.B. DuBois, editor of the NAACP Crisis, and Marcus Garvey, founder of the erstwhile Back to Africa movement. The movement's Potentate was Massaquoi's father-in-law. Throughout the years in Germany, Massaquoi was an attentive father, mindful of his children's education, instilling in them racial pride as they were buffeted in a sea of whiteness.

He returned from diplomatic service in 1929, a critical time in the nation's history, when it was accused of condoning slavery. Urged on by the United States and Great Britain, the League of Nations was moving to suspend Liberian sovereignty and place it under an international control commission. In the upcoming 1931 election campaign, the voters wanted regime change, and this meant Massaquoi -- untainted by the slavery issue. As he publicly declared himself a presidential candidate, his closest friend Edwin Barclay, the only other candidate, felt threatened by Massaquoi's popularity and tried to have him imprisoned by manipulating Liberia's malleable judicial system. Although he failed to incarcerate him, he did succeed in preventing Massaquoi from contesting by bringing a series of lawsuits against him until his death in 1938. Barclay was elected president and remained in office until 1944. During his time in office, he had Massaquoi's name expunged from official records and from the nation's written history. For the masses who loved him, and for his family, Massaquoi's life and deeds became enshrined in living memory and oral tradition. Several months before his death, Massaquoi wrote to a college classmate summarizing his life and accomplishments. Preserved by his daughter Fatima, the letter forms part of the closing chapter of the manuscript.

The First African Diplomat is based principally on family oral history corroborated by archival records. Sixteen visits to Liberia were made by the author to interview, record, and inspect each location mentioned in the text. The book is multi-disciplinary, using aspects of oral tradition, cultural studies, sociology, history, and politics. It is a good example of how oral tradition can be used to compliment research. The manuscript has been peer reviewed, and an early version was short-listed for a National Endowment for the Humanities prize for original work. Some of the material has been published as journal articles.

Written to appeal to nonfiction readers who want to relate at some level of mind and spirit to a real life character, the story has a contemporary theme with its links to modern Africa. The book's appeal is its genealogical depth-covering seven generations of an African family -- and its geographical breadth -- focusing on one outstanding member who lived on three continents: Africa, America, and Europe. Yet at 95,000 words it moves quickly. There is no similar study in current African biography.

20 March 2003

1. Precolonial Manding Civilization
2. Massaquoi's Childhood
3. Cape Mount
4. The American Years
5. Queen Sandimanni's Death
6. Return to America
7. Massaquoi's Views on Alcohol
8. Massaquoi as Teacher

Endnotes

9. Ruler of the Sierra Leone Vai
10. Unseated from the Chieftainship
11. The Vai Script
12. Massaquoi's West Coast Contemporaries
13. The Massaquoi Children
14. The Harris Connection
15. In the Service of Liberia
16. Appointment as Consul General
17. The Years in Germany

Endnotes

18. Garvey, Massaquoi, and Liberia
19. The Last Years in Germany
20. Contesting the Presidency

Endnotes

1. Sources, Methodology, and Acknowledgements
2. Vai Culture and Customs in the 19th Century
3. The End of Slave Trading and Early Missionary Visits
4. Njagbacca and Kpasalo as Seen by Two Visitors in Two Centuries
5. The Massaquoi Crown and its History
6. The Vai Script
7. Text of 1891 Speech to the National Education Association

Endnotes